HOW TO TACKLE ARCHIVAL RESEARCH
At Archive Valley, we see a lot of film and tv professionals struggling with archival research. For this reason, we decided to reveal in detail our efficient research strategy to uncover amazing footage for all your film projects.
Start As Early As Possible
Choosing to use archival material in a project has significant impact, because apart from some exceptions, you can't use archival material without permission in a commercial project.
Working with archival content is not a trivial matter, nonetheless a lot of media makers underestimate this aspect of the production - They are not well informed about the implications of working with archival content, and as a result, they start thinking about it a bit too late in the course of their project - sometimes even at the post-production stage.
And there are a number of reasons for that:
First, the route to finding, licensing and acquiring masters of third-party material is very challenging and it can be long, complicated and costly. Time is your ally in this journey.
The more time you allow to work on the archival part of a project, the more likely it is... you will overcome obstacles and find suitable, lower cost, or even rights-free alternatives when necessary.
For instance, you might figure out that you can't use the material you've found because the right-holders don't want to grant you a license, or because the price is unaffordable. This is challenging and you need to have some time in front of you to find a solution.
Keep also in mind that you will probably have to deal with several content libraries and archive vendors, meaning external entities with their own processes, constraints, and schedules - and you can't control that. Transfer processes, Payment processes can be slow. So you'd rather take that parameters into account and start as early as you can. It will avoid the last-minute panic and a lot of stress.
Apart from these considerations, another reason should motivate you to start thinking about the archival work at an early stage:
Archival material can truly inspire new or different ways to think about a subject. It can also change the storyline radically. You might make amazing discoveries during the process of archival research and powerful aspects of the stories can be brought to light. This can lead you to pivot from your initial idea or story.
Ideally, and this is especially true if you're a producer or a filmmaker, you need to think about third-party material at the very beginning stage of the project. Even before submitting the idea to a broadcaster / or a media partner. Even before your project gets funded.
It's not unusual for a production to involve an archive researcher even before figuring out what exact story they are going to tell.
For example, a filmmaker knows if he's interested in Japan during WWII but this is so vast and the angle is not here yet = he needs an archive researcher.
Sometimes also the filmmaker knows precisely what he wants to tell and needs to be reassured that [there will be]{.underline} enough existing material out there to tell a visual story of 1 hour or 2.
So starting at the early stage of development makes total sense.
And on A Good Basis
Please, don't rush to Youtube yet. It wouldn't be a good idea !
Instead, do things gradually and prepare the basis of your research.
The keys to a successful archival production are Anticipation, Organization and Knowledge.
First, do not hesitate to ask questions, the director is one of your privileged interlocutors in this journey.
Read the project's brief carefully if there's one, and take notes.
Assess all the information you have about the project. Identify the priorities in terms of research : What is the entry point of the subject?
Only then, will you be able to identify interesting avenues for research, define your research strategy, and start the preliminary research phase.
Communicate with the Creative Team
A film always starts with an idea or a concept.
Before immersing yourself into the research, there are many questions that you should raise and discuss with the creative team.
Exchange about the project, the vision, the expectations... Ask the right questions. It will help you grab the director's vision for the project and it will smooth the misunderstanding.
Being on the same page will help you better structure the first phase of the research and tackle it efficiently, in the right direction. As a matter of fact, you won't approach the research in the same way if archives are intended to be used for illustrative purposes as opposed to evidence.
Always remember that you are in charge of the archival production so you need to be considered as a real creative partner.
It's important to state that archival content shouldn't only be used to fill gaps, so do some pedagogy if needed - you can do it with tact. Don't forget that you are here to contribute in making the project unique, and bringing to the table fresh, rare, and why not, never-before-seen archives, can be something really significant for the success of a production.
Working with a Brief
When you start working on a project, always ask if there's a project's brief.
Simply put, the project's brief is the project overview written by the director to convince a broadcaster / distributor to join the project and finance it.
It's the starting point of the project but it's also the basis of the storyline - and for you who will be in charge of the archival research, it's a precious document that will help you better assess the project's requirements and that will guide your decisions.
For archive researchers, the perfect brief is the one that leaves room to creativity.
In the brief, you will find the main idea of the project but not only. You will find dates, names of people, locations, events as well as illustrative details.
Now two pieces of advices:
Take notes of everything because all these elements are clues
Read beyond the brief
Here's an example:
One of the projects I was involved in was a two hours documentary about the history of bombing. I must say that I felt a bit lost and didn't know how and where to start.
I was drowning in too many details before even starting the research : names of people, dates, countries, bombs, events... And it felt chaotic.
At some point, I stopped everything, I took a pen and paper, and started creating a list of all the big bombings in History, events after events.
This strategy was the right one.
It's like having a panorama, and it helped me outline the scope of the story and the scope of my research. Now that I could see the big picture, I also felt more in control and ready for the next phase.
So everytime you work on a project that has some historical components, I really recommend that you build a chronological chart, a timeline.
Don't limit yourself to your story, but instead inscribe it into the great history. Bring context. Include references to other major historical events and to popular culture, like movies, hit songs, etc.
Set the Priorities
Now that you have a better idea of the project, that you've discussed with the director / and the producer and dissected the brief, it's time for you to define and set the priorities.
Finding, using, negotiating archival material can be very tricky especially without any experience, this is why you need to be as informed as possible.
Here are some elements that you need to consider before diving into the research :
How much time do you have in front of you ?
What is the quantity of archival needed ?
Where to look ?
What time period are we talking about ?
What is the budget ?
Let's take some time to analyze each of this information.
Time
How much time do you have in front of you ? Time is a decisive element. Knowing how much time you have in front of you will help you shape your strategy.
Usually, the time factor varies according to the budget, the type of project and the length of the program you're involved in.
An archive researcher hired on a TV program (such as current affairs) or on a commercial will only have a couple of days to get the job done. Short schedule means looking for accessible sources and quick turnaround. You will limit the archives and will go directly to online databases that enable you to easily download material and pay online by credit card.
By contrast, an archive researcher working on a documentary project may have several months to achieve the mission.
This is another state of mind. When you have more time, you are able to dig more, to contact small and confidential sources, private collectors, or even visit individuals with some incredible treasures forgotten in their garage.
Have an idea of the quantity of archival needed
The research will not be the same if it is 100% archives or only 10%.
Also, with this element in mind, try to convert that into minutes so you can already get a rough estimation of the budget that will be necessary.
where to look ?
You need to ask yourself : What is the scale of the research? Is it a project or a topic that will require local research, with a specific attention to local tv channels and local archives, or international research?
Is there a unique point of view or will a multiplicity of perspectives be involved ?
When? What is the time period, what are the years to be covered by your research ?
Is it going to be more recent years? In this case you will target Broadcasters / Agencies / Stock Footage Companies.
Maybe your research will cover a large time period or will go deep into the past ? Then, rather focus on historical archives - but be ready to deal with potential technical difficulties such as digitization and film transfers...
Anyway, be careful when you start targeting content libraries and check what time period their collections cover, in the about section of their website for instance. These indications are precious and prevent you from losing time.
Budget
Yes, money is key and it's really useful to have a rough idea of the budget /the producer thought about. This will help you decide which sources to prioritize and which sources to avoid based on their rates. It will definitely determine your process.
Of course if you feel that the producer is completely mistaken and that the archival budget has been underestimated, it's your duty to explain that archival material has a cost and that the project needs to be funded accordingly.
Once we saw a project about a sport athlete and it was a lot about the Olympic Games. Surprisingly, the total archival budget was almost nonexistent : no one really took time to check the price of 1 minute of Olympic Games footage. Too bad... This type of footage costs like 15 000 dollars per minute - and the story couldn't be told without it.
Conclusion
Now that we've been through the different elements that will help you prioritize your work, I'd like to highlight the fact that a producer might ask [you]{.underline} to estimate how much time the archival research will take to complete - and this can be quite tricky.
At this stage of the project it's very hard to know that, since a lot of parameters are involved as you saw. While it depends on the complexity of the research and the part the archive will play in the project, the previous elements should make things a little clearer for you. You now have a lot of information in hands to be able to evaluate time, but here some additional advices :
Don't neglect the preliminary research (even if you don't have a lot of time)
Don't start researching audiovisual material blindly or you will get lost in the ocean of material and loose a lot of time
Proceed gradually and consult your producer and director on a daily basis to make sure you're on in the right path
Consult professionals to benefit from useful tips and potential shortcuts.