rsmithjr
Screenwriter
Having been in the software industry for 40 years, I have seen so many cases where digital data was somehow lost. There are multiple reasons, including: data corruption, no hardware to play it back, formats and specifications long forgotten.
There are many recorded cases where some digital data was preserved only because someone had printed it out onto paper. Then, the laborious process of scanning/inputting/correcting could bring it back to its digital existence if desired.
Personal example: my Stanford PhD thesis was written in a text-formatting system that I created myself since nothing suitable existed. I no longer have the files, the computer is long since gone, the formatting software is gone, the printer it was printed on no longer exists, and it would be infinite hassle to get it all working again even if I had the files. I do however have a bound copy. Thankfully for posterity, it is not worth restoring. I also have a copy of my mother's MA thesis from 1931, which she typed on an Underwood.
I certainly hope that the studios are preserving everything including all original elements in multiple formats. It seems inevitable that the OCN's of movies will in the future be called back into service for rescanning when the digital versions have somehow been lost or can no longer be read.
This reminds me of the films that were preserved because the copyright office required bound paper books with pictures of the frames. The film is gone, the books remain.
It is all very fragile.
I would appreciate RAH's thoughts on this.
There are many recorded cases where some digital data was preserved only because someone had printed it out onto paper. Then, the laborious process of scanning/inputting/correcting could bring it back to its digital existence if desired.
Personal example: my Stanford PhD thesis was written in a text-formatting system that I created myself since nothing suitable existed. I no longer have the files, the computer is long since gone, the formatting software is gone, the printer it was printed on no longer exists, and it would be infinite hassle to get it all working again even if I had the files. I do however have a bound copy. Thankfully for posterity, it is not worth restoring. I also have a copy of my mother's MA thesis from 1931, which she typed on an Underwood.
I certainly hope that the studios are preserving everything including all original elements in multiple formats. It seems inevitable that the OCN's of movies will in the future be called back into service for rescanning when the digital versions have somehow been lost or can no longer be read.
This reminds me of the films that were preserved because the copyright office required bound paper books with pictures of the frames. The film is gone, the books remain.
It is all very fragile.
I would appreciate RAH's thoughts on this.