Historical footage and the documentary

[dreadnought88]

I am starting down the road of producing my own documentary. I have been reading the posts and picking up lots of good advice. Lucky for me, everyone wants to make movies so there is plenty of advice! rogar-Happy(DBG): However, there seems to be a couple of specific things I have yet to find in the forums yet and need some pointers on. I want to make a movie that could be shown on a local PBS station in their local documentary program. I would want it to fit in an hour time slot and of course look as good as possible. I have had some editing experience but little experience using a camcorder. I do have an experienced sound man, though. This documentary will use lots of historical footage from the 1960s. A History Channel feel where talking heads are used to put the historical footage in context with a narrator would be my template to work and (hopefully) improve on.

There are several issues that I can think of that I have no answers for at the moment. The historical event was mainly covered by local television in the 1960s. Is it common for a local TV news department to have an archives and how accessible is it? Are there any typical fees (or other issues) for using such footage? Who would I contact to access those archives? Is footage from that era still on film stock or has it been transfered to tape? Is converting it to a more modern format cheap/easy? What issues will I have with older footage and modern HD techniques? I don't plan on being too "artsy" with talking head segments or establishing shots, so would I be compromising quality by using a HMC40? The price is nice but is it good enough for broadcast work? Of course, since I am so inexperienced there is the distinct possibility that any camera in my hands will result in poor quality and user error for a bit.

Any other advice is welcome too. I don't even know all the questions to ask yet, so it would be very useful to me. Thanks in advance!

 

[adamr316]

Depending on the station they may still have the film in their archives. You need to contact them and they'll direct you to the person who would know.

Whether it's been transferred to tape is again dependent on the station.

Film to video conversions can be cheap and it can be expensive. Depending on whether you are going to pay to have the footage cleaned up physically and digitally or if you're just going to leave the dust/scratches on there.

Film, especially black and white, looks really good in HD. But again this depends on your conversion methods/budget.

You need to ask the local PBS station what their HD standards are in regards to your HMC40 question.

You say you're inexperienced? I would recommend watching a lot of History Channel documentaries with your sound OFF. Pay attention to lighting and composition. This will help immensely. Then shoot a short documentary about, I dunno, your house/family. A quick 5 minute job. Even a 5 minute video requires structure and this will help with an hour long video.