Preserving Curious Alice

We discussed Curious Alice in a previous blog post and explained why, although it’s beautifully animated and contains some fantastic imagery, it fails at communicating an anti-drug message. Read on to find out how we preserved this title! In the Motion Picture Preservation lab, we’re enthralled by the film preservation stories that make headlines just … Continue reading Preserving Curious Alice

Film Preservation 101: What’s the Difference Between a Film and a Video?

What's the difference between these objects? A reel of 16mm film.An object of similar size and shape that is actually a 1″ video. If you’re one of the people who can immediately identify the objects in the images seen here, the answer to this question is easy.  But with the way the language has evolved … Continue reading Film Preservation 101: What’s the Difference Between a Film and a Video?

The Women’s Army Corps Requests “The Pleasure of Your Company”

The Navy film How to Succeed with Brunettes teaches male officers how to behave like gentlemen, but what were the military’s expectations for the many female recruits? Once again, staff in NARA’s Motion Picture Preservation Lab and Special Media’s Motion Picture, Sound, and Video Branch were able to find the answer in the large accession … Continue reading The Women’s Army Corps Requests “The Pleasure of Your Company”

The Challenge of the Push-Pull Track

There are many sound systems that have been used for motion picture films over the years.   Some of the earliest relied on sound recorded to a disc or cylinder that had to be played back in sync with the film. Even after optical soundtracks became the industry standard,  there were multiple optical systems available. … Continue reading The Challenge of the Push-Pull Track