Triage, not preservation in the traditional sense.

The Work

I scan every filmstrip frame by frame on a flatbed scanner at 6,800 DPI. The filmstrips have to be cut into strips to fit the scanner bed.

This outrages institutional archivists – you know, the ones who had 40 years to save them and chose not to. But their neglect means this isn't preservation in the traditional sense, it's triage.

Filmstrips that still have their soundtrack record or cassette can be fully restored into a video simulating what they would have looked like when viewed in their original context. This is a significant undertaking including scan deskewing, scan cropping, color correction, audio digitization and sync, and metadata research. A typical 60-frame filmstrip takes many hours, start to finish.

As a side project of personal interest, I also preserve VHS tapes: consumer recordings, local broadcasts, industrial material that isn't available elsewhere in better formats. Every week I host a live show on Twitch going through donated tapes to see if there's anything worth saving.