7. Considering archival research

Maybe you want to enrich your film with archival footage, institutional or privately owned by tradition bearers?

This is something that can be done, especially when some elements of a practice or craftership can no longer be practised today (e.g. change of location, lost knowledge or skills, ...). In such a case, archival material is sometimes the only useful thing to illustrate these aspects.

• It is advisable to do research on available materials during the ‘preproduction’ phase in order to plan the production accordingly.
• Check in advance if there are any rights to be cleared or fees to be paid for the use of the footage and what the conditions are (for example: only online use for 5 years).
• Be sure to mention your sources as prescribed and keep in mind that requesting quality footage from archival institutions takes time. In most cases you will only get what is needed for the edit. This means short takes and not the whole of the footage or the program file.
• Request your desired material in good time. Often, waiting times are very long!