A Film Scholar’s Guide to Writing Silent Film Restoration Reports

David Emery

doi:10.32920/ryerson.14657262

Abstract

Authoritative film archival texts demand documentation of film restoration projects. Film archives often produce overly technical internal documentation, and although researchers occasionally publish film restoration reports, the ratio of reports to restoration projects is skewed in favour of films that stir academic debate. Film scholars can be recruited to engage with archives to write reports for lesser-known films, thereby increasing and improving film restoration documentation. However, the relationship between film scholars and film archivists must be improved, as these groups tend not to interact during the film restoration process. Based on a survey of 30 silent film restoration reports, a guide is provided to help film scholars approach archives and archivists to attain information for those reports. The guide is applied to Gräfin Küchenfee (1918), a silent film restored by EYE Filmmuseum for Il Cinema Ritrovato, to showcase usage of the guide and produce a report on the film’s restoration.

Highlights

This thesis is motivated by a research residency in the Film Conservation and Digital Access Department of the EYE Collections Centre in Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Most of the reports are written by archivists or those directly involved in the restoration projects they address, I believe that film scholars who lack archival knowledge can engage with archives to obtain the kinds of information the reports include and reduce the number of undocumented projects, my proposed guide instructs film scholars on how to engage with archives to obtain important information about how restorations are conducted, and thereby produce thorough documentation of those restorations. (For a comparison of the common aspects of the silent film restoration reports surveyed, see Table 1.) Common Aspects of Silent Film Restoration Reports
The guide presented in this thesis is meant to help film scholars engage with film archivists to write detailed and accurate reports on silent film restoration projects

Summary

A Film Scholar’s Guide to Writing Silent Film Restoration Reports by

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Bibliography vi

Introduction

Chapter 3 Literature Survey

Conclusion

Reconstruction Methodology

Methodology