The Reel Thing

Los Angeles, 21-23 August 2013

The Reel Thing is naturally the real thing, when it comes to symposiums on technical issues relating to moving-image archiving.

The next edition – the 31^st – takes place August 21-23 at the Linwood Dunn Theater in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Pickford Center for Motion Picture Study, in Hollywood, Los Angeles. Registration for the popular event is now available online.

The ongoing series has a two-day Los Angeles edition each year, and another at each annual conference of the Association of Moving Image Archivists.

The symposium presents a wide range of critical issues facing archivists, technicians, asset managers, and curators of image and sound. Those are changing with the advent of new media and digital tools. So, sessions focus on such topics as solutions for digital creation workflows; data storage, access, and recovery; image scanning and recording; image resolution metrics, traditional video and audio preservation; and restoration issues.

The 2012 Los Angeles program, for example, included a Tribute to the Nicholas Brothers, sessions on tapes used for archiving digital content, 35mm desktop printers, and the restoration of Heaven’s Gate, Yellow Submarine, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, and An Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion. Programs and abstracts from previous events are online (use the “previous events” tab at http://www.the-reel-thing.org/).

This year, organizers hope to offer sessions on preservation and archiving issues relating to technical, theoretical, and practical aspects of new storage tools and techniques for motion-picture production.

The objective of Reel Thing gatherings, say its organizers, is to explain current thinking and practices in preservation, restoration, and media conservation, and to encourage discussion and evaluation of methods.

Proposals can be lodged at info@the-reel-thing.org.