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Last week, UCLA Film & Television Archive staged its annual Boot Camp for incoming graduate students to UCLA’s Moving Image Archive Studies program (MIAS).
Founded in 2002, the MIAS graduate degree program was the first of its kind in North America. The intensive, specialized two-year course of study is offered jointly by UCLA's Department of Film, Television and Digital Media and Department of Information Studies, in collaboration with the UCLA Film & Television Archive.
During Boot Camp, grad students got their first look at the inner workings of UCLA Film & Television Archive. Students toured the Archive’s photochemical facilities at the Stanford Theatre Film Laboratory, and the digital restoration suites in our new digital media laboratory. Archive staff and other professionals discussed workflows, protocols, challenges, and current issues confronting the field––answering student questions along the way.
There were plenty of demonstrations too––the arts of timing, film cleaning, printing and tinting––followed by screenings of some of the Archive’s own restoration work. The screenings included selections from the Hearst Metrotone News Collection, Becky Sharp (1935), The Big Sleep (1946), and The Times of Harvey Milk (1984)––not only the finished product, but also examples that illustrated the various problems encountered and problem-solving techniques employed during the process.
"And yes, the students were even able to take home their own commemorative splices!"
In addition to hearing from field experts directly, students also had the opportunity to participate in “hands on” activities, working with both film and digital materials. Students were able to try their hand at film rewinding and repairs, flatbed operation, digital image stabilization, dust and scratch removal, and color correction.
And yes, the students were even able to take home their own commemorative splices!
Welcoming new practitioners to the field is always inspiring and we look forward to working with these MIAS students as valued colleagues in the future.
For more photos from Boot Camp, visit our gallery.
For more information on the MIAS program, visit the Archive's website.
—Meg Weichman, UCLA Film & Television Archive.
