The publication that I created, “NITRATE SEIZURE: The ephemeral history of cinema”, informs on the issue of film preservation. It was discovered that films disappear as the decades pass because of their fragile nature. Therefore, archivists are struggling to prevent cinema heritage from turning into dust. The film stock used until about 1950's proved to be combustible and perishable. Even though technology changed enormously, the “safety” acetate film stock used nowadays has a life-span of only 400 years and was discovered to suffer from the “vinegar syndrome”-a chemical degradation.
“NITRATE SEIZURE: The ephemeral history of cinema” provides the audience with different documentation and details on the subject, in order to raise awareness of this issues that affects our culture, an issue that seems to be irremediable. As a film enthusiast, I’ve always been interested in noir, black and white films. I started researching film preservation after watching Detour (1945 film). What captured my curiosity was the appearance of the film (it was full of scratches, burned frames and lens flares). I understood then that it was deteriorated because of the nitrate film base. In particular, the process of preservation intrigues me the most because its importance doesn’t achieve enough public recognition. I wanted to create a publication that gives film preservation a voice. Therefore, I decided to structure my publication in the format of a printed archive, a collection of structured data.
Dilemmas regarding film loss and preservation are organized into chapters, in order to guide the reader step by step and provide explanations and a clear understanding. However, I also added materials like film stills, film type experimentations, and transparency film in order to allude to the texture of the film base material (nitrate and acetate). In this way, people can touch and interact with the publication. In addition, the materials used mean to reflect the qualities of the film.
“NITRATE SEIZURE: The ephemeral history of cinema” provides the audience with different documentation and details on the subject, in order to raise awareness of this issues that affects our culture, an issue that seems to be irremediable. As a film enthusiast, I’ve always been interested in noir, black and white films. I started researching film preservation after watching Detour (1945 film). What captured my curiosity was the appearance of the film (it was full of scratches, burned frames and lens flares). I understood then that it was deteriorated because of the nitrate film base. In particular, the process of preservation intrigues me the most because its importance doesn’t achieve enough public recognition. I wanted to create a publication that gives film preservation a voice. Therefore, I decided to structure my publication in the format of a printed archive, a collection of structured data.
Dilemmas regarding film loss and preservation are organized into chapters, in order to guide the reader step by step and provide explanations and a clear understanding. However, I also added materials like film stills, film type experimentations, and transparency film in order to allude to the texture of the film base material (nitrate and acetate). In this way, people can touch and interact with the publication. In addition, the materials used mean to reflect the qualities of the film.
