MacDirectory magazine is the premiere creative lifestyle magazine for Apple enthusiasts featuring interviews, in-depth tech reviews, Apple news, insights, latest Apple patents, apps, market analysis, entertainment and more.
Issue link: https://digital.macdirectory.com/i/1505412
A fire inspector was once checking out a movie house’s early projection booth with a cigarette in his hand. Yep … he died in the fire. MGM had their share of studio fires over the years which destroyed facilities thay could be rebuilt. Unfortunately, there was also the loss of irreplaceable finished projects. It’s almost impossible to put a price on the 1937 Fox vault fire that destroyed silent films and early talkies because of spontaneous ignition. Even with greater focus on fire safety, the 1965 MGM and 1978 National Archives vault fires were a significant loss of American film heritage. No one has an accurate account of how much creative work was lost. A lot of films simply deteriorated in the cans or were simply recycled to recover the silver used in the production of nitrate film. In addition, the video tape used in early TV show productions were often recycled/overwritten with new projects. But the industry finally saw the value of all of this lost/irreplaceable work and organizations like the Library of Congress, National Archives, The Film Foundation founded by Martin Scorsese, International Federation of Film Archives and every studio/project owner now go to considerable lengths to preserve films/shows for tomorrow. The work is important, and it isn’t cheap. Years ago, we visited Turner Broadcast’s facilities in Atlanta and saw endless racks of video tapes and automated systems which would continually rewind/retension tapes of their past shows and sporting events. It looked terribly expensive but the person we were visiting said the system actually paid for itself very quickly because it used to require a team of technicians to mount, rewind and return the tapes to the right rack location. The mind-numbing, mundane work was also susceptible to error if the show was placed in the wrong rack. Definitely not a job we’d want! But preserving/archiving films and shows today is viewed as an important asset, which is probably why most studios and streamers store the content in safe, secure temperature-controlled vaults. It’s a smart investment because now content owners have figured out how to make money again and again from the content. Pre-pandemic, we had an illuminating conversation at HPA (Hollywood Professional Association) with a member of Netflix who was in charge of the company’s LA library facility where they preserve their original work once it leaves the air. We know, Wall Street folks constantly berate Netflix (and the other streaming services) to focus on making new shows/films to attract/sign-up more subscribers. They simply don’t understand that the industry needs to continuously invest in new content but also save