Collections Information Database (CID)

Gabriele PoppBFI Head of Information

&Stephen McConnachie

Collections Information Data Manager

BFI collections

National Archive of Film and Television• 60,000 fiction films• 120,000 non-fiction film• 750,000 television titles

Special Collections• 30,000 unpublished scripts• 15,000 film posters• 600 named paper collections • 1 million still images • 3,000 production & costume designs

Library• 53,000 books• 5,000 journal titles• Almost 1 million indexed journal articles• Over 1 million digitised press cuttings

“What am I? Where did I come from? Where am I going? How long have I got?”

The past

The future

El Cid – data in safe hands

CID phase one

Combine moving image collection datasets into one single database, incl.

• TecRec: archive holdings (ca. 1.4m items)• BID: filmographic records (800k works / variants)• SIDX: subject index / thesaurus (50k entries)• DDE: direct data entry project data (50k)• Barcoding: standalone item tracking data (ca. 120k)

And build a workflow management system…

BFI collections management

• High volume of access provision to film and video collections – direct access to viewing materials or online

• Four sites in different geographical locations from Central London to Hertfordshire and Warwickshire

• Conservation programmes on a large scale – from nitrate film to obsolete video

What we do with our collectionsRestoration Preparation for projection

Film printing Film processing

Audio encoding Video copying

… and more

What we wanted Workflow to deliver

• Standard approach regardless of activity or combination of activities

• Multiple activities grouped under jobs• Defined activities with the ability to repeat as

required • Automated pick and return lists for retrieval from

vaults• Assignment of staff resources • Working to deadlines for individual activities and

the job overall• Tracking items as they move through workflow• Status for activities, items and jobs:

In Progress, Finished, Cancelled or On hold

Vaults Operations

Dry Lab Operations

Digital Operations

Dubbing

Wet Lab Operations

Film Image Quality

Quality Control

Pick items; Return items; Transport out; Transport in; Loan in; Loan out

Inspection; Technical selection; Preparation for printing; Preparation for scanning; Preparation for projection; Other preparation; Service on return

SD scanning; HD scanning; 2K/4K scanning; Audio encoding; Video encoding; Transcoding; Ingest data; Data migration

Video copy; Audio copy

Film cleaning; Film printing; Film processing

Analogue image grading; Digital image grading; Digital image restoration/manipulation; Silent inter-title restoration; New title creation

Technical acceptance – Theatre; Video quality control; Audio quality control; Digital quality control

Defined workflow activities

Who and How?

Supplier: Adlib

Off-the shelf• Archival data standard ISAD(G) for hierarchy• Museum standard Spectrum for collections

management

New development of• CEN compliant hierarchical data structure and• Workflow

Timeline

• Project initiation (Nov 2008)• Tender process starts (Oct 2009)• Appointment of supplier (March 2010)• Contract signed (May 2010)• Development starts (Aug 2010)• System goes live on 14 September 2011

Remaining collections (library, posters, stills and designs) added by end of 2012

Lessons learnt

Opportunities• Being the first• In-house vs. external supplier

Legacy data – a problem that lasts forever?

Change management• New department, new roles & responsibilities,

e.g. Information Specialists• Turning a project into business as usual

A new BFI policy

BFI consults widely on new Collection Policy http://www.bfi.org.uk/about-bfi/policy-strategy/bfi-national-archive-collections-policy (publ. 16 Nov 2011)

Includes documentation principles• Fitness for purpose, Efficiency and Quality

Commitment to standards• Cataloguing, Format, Information architecture and

Vocabularies

Roles and responsibilities • Overall ownership, data quality, training

The future in action – BFI vocabularies

Film and Television genre terms• Revision project began October 2010 on a flat list of 365 genres• Final list of 95 preferred and 66 non-preferred terms in a hierarchical

structure• Data cleaning and enrichment on-going: so far over 200,000 records

cleaned

Old genres: Compilations, Outtakes, Trailers, N-Lit, Film Noir, Adult films…

New genre term: Artists’ Moving Image SN Works which use experimentation to subvert mainstream cinema and television practicesUF Abstract film

Avant-gardeExperimentalStructural filmsUnderground films

Vocabularies – continued

Subject indexing terms and headings• 61,000 terms/headings in one database• Consolidation of vocabularies now technically feasible• Work begun on methodology and strategy

UDC-based thesaurus (47,000 terms) for film and television programmeso Pubs

UF Public house BT Public refreshment buildings NT Fox Inn RT Bars

In-house thesaurus (1,000 terms) for film stills o Accessory

BT           Clothing NT          Hat

UDC classification scheme (4,000 terms) for bookso Lantern slides - 778.251

Subject heading list (9,000 headings) for journal articleso Cinemas. Latin America

Meanwhile, in Europe …

A new European metadata standard on cataloguing and indexing of cinematographic works emerges…

• EN 15907:2010 Film identification – Enhancing interoperability of metadata – Element sets and structures

• Based on FRBR• More info at www.filmstandards.org

BFI becomes first implementer of new standard

Objectives for the collection

• Manage: enable search using descriptive and filmographic data (names/country/subject/genre/synopsis) and technical data

• Link: enable linking of film / TV collection to other BFI collections: stills, posters, designs, scripts, pressbooks, BFI Library books and periodicals

• Digitise: enable linking of collection records to digitised video / images / documents (eg low-res proxy files, animation cels, correspondence)

• Deliver: XML to enable delivery of records and linked digital assets through API, for web platforms (eg BFI website, wireless barcode scanners)

The data model: EN 15907*

CONTENT

AGENT

EVENT

WORK

VARIANT

MANIFESTATION

ITEM

* Film identification - Enhancing interoperability of metadata - Element sets and structures

Mapping BFI data to CEN

minor minorcontent content

differences differences productionfull cast andcredits

FINAL CUTcreditsonly

donor production

donor

censor donorEvents could also include:Awards (on Events tab)Festivals (on Events tab)NFT screenings (on NFT Tab)Slot (Publication Event)

WORK

VARIANT

MANIFESTATION

ITEM

CONTENT(synopses, subject

terms, genre)

AGENT-RELATIONSHIP

(cast, credits, donor, lab)

EVENT(publication, censorship,

decision, restoration)

BLADE RUNNERmain record contains info on original version,

director's cut and final cut

SYNOPSESGENRES

SUBJECTS

FINAL CUTDIRECTOR'S CUT

TV TX(country, date,

duration, channel)

RELEASE(country, date,

duration, length, format, censorship

info)

RELEASEformerly AVAILABILITY(country, date, duration, format, distirbutor/rights

holder)

ARCHIVEformerly VERSION

Tecrec

COPYDigiBetaTecrec

DECISION(in Release tab - Censorship)

PUBLICATION(in Release / Availability /TV TX tabs)

PRODUCTION(in Production tab)

CAST, CREDITS, DONOR

ARCHIVEformerly VERSION

Tecrec

COPY35mm Col Pos

Tecrec

COPY16mm Col Pos

Tecrec

COPY35mm Neg

Tecrec

COPY16mm Col Pos

Tecrec

RELATED NON-CINEMATOGRAPHIC

WORKSMusic Works / Recordings, Written Works,

Periodicals, Stills

CEN STRUCTURE CID STRUCTURE

COPYVHS

Tecrec

Legacy data only, locked for new records

CARRIERREEL 1 REEL 2 REEL 3TAPE 1 TAPE 1

CONTAINER

FILM CAN1

FILM CAN2

Exist at Work level in legacy data: horizontally related, not hierarchically related

Work

• Top level of the ladder: describes the general / abstract qualities of a moving image creation

• Provides a single access point to all Manifestations / Items

• Enables collection search using descriptive filmographic as well as technical data – eg country of production / director)

• Can be standalone, collection, series or component part of larger work

Work

• Can define any moving image creation:

• film

• television

• web

• medical

• surveillance

• training video

• recorded sporting events

• etc

Work

• Includes content descriptions:

• Descriptive text:

• synopsis

• shotlist

• Descriptive terms:

• subject indexing

• genre

Manifestation

• An embodiment of a Work – includes information

about specific release / distribution context, or the

place in the life-cycle of the Work:

• theatrical release

• non-theatrical (community, training, prison, etc)

• home viewing (blu-ray, laserdisc, etc)

• pre-release (assembly edit, censorship submission, etc)

• web exhibition / distribution

• television transmission etc.

Manifestation

• Includes information about:

• format (eg DCP, 35mm Film, Umatic)

• language / usage (eg French dialogue, English subtitles)

• sound / silent

• colour / black and white

• running time / duration / footage

• distributing / exhibiting person or institution

• date (of release, submission, publication, or other relevant

contextualising date)

• place (of release, submission, publication, etc)

Item

• The object-level record for an archive holding, a

single example of a Manifestation.

• Includes analogue objects (film, video cassettes

and discs, etc) and digital files

• Encompasses fragments or otherwise incomplete

or defective objects (eg single reel of multi-reeler,

mute print of sound film)

Item

• Includes all object-level technical data:

• format / description (eg Camera Negative, Separation,

Internegative, Digital Betacam, Umatic)

• gauge / width (eg 35mm, 8mm, 1inch)

• sound detail (eg combined as sound, mute)

• colour detail (eg 2 Strip Technicolor, Ektachrome)

• running time / duration / footage

• condition / preservation requirements and priorities

• acquisition history / status / access conditions

• completeness / number of carriers / components etc

Web browser view (online by early 2013)