NASA Apollo 11 Moon Landing Video Restoration (2009)

Still Images

master

restored from video

master

restored from video

PROBLEMS IN ARCHIVING

Archiving is a surprisingly difficult subject.  Long-term preservation has become a blindspot for entire world.  This is due, in part, to the pace of technology in capitalism– The same market forces that help us make our work, also take it away.

Backing-Up

Protects work in-progress

Archiving is different than backing-up!

Archiving

Protects completed work

  • 1/4" Analog tape (2- and 4-track)
  • SampleCell sampler
  • 3.5" and 5 1/4" floppy disk
  • Iomega Zip and Jaz disk
  • DTRS and ADAT tape
  • USB Flash drive
  • Cloud-based storage
  • Hard drives from 3 different filesystems, using 6 different connectors
  • DAT
  • VHS and S-VHS
  • Cassette (2- and 4-track)
  • 3/4" Video
  • MiniDV video
  • LP Record
  • 5 Optical formats
    (CD/DVD, +/-, R/RW, S/DL)
  • Paper

This is just the physical media– It doesn't even get to what file formats are on it!

My Own Work:

This Happened... ...Because This Didn't
They didn't keep track of the master & documentation They didn't have a plan for the master
Only 1 machine exists that can read the tape They didn't migrate the source to newer formats

Strategies for Future-Proofing

Migrate the Data

  • Keep updating files to current formats
  • On a schedule, or on major software changes

 

Archive an Entire System

  • Freeze an complete setup in time
  • Access the data regularly (6-12 months) because the drives can fail

Your choices are the same as NASA's:

  • Archive with the best technical quality available
  • Consider older formats. Ironically, recall and preservation are sometimes less problematic with non-digital formats.

The Voyager Gold Record ("The Sounds of Earth"), 1977

Preparing Your Project

  • What elements does your project rely on and where are they saved?
  • Anything you may not be able to access in the future needs to be dealt with now or consider it gone!
  • What plug-ins/hardware should be printed as audio?
  • Render edits/fades/automation.
    (PT Consolidate Selection) 
  • Study data export details closely.
    (PT Save Copy In)

How much do you really want to save?  
What do you want to be able to do with it in one year?  5 Years?  50 Years?