This year Sunny Side is embracing the world of archive during two sessions on Wednesday June 21. Both are moderated by archive producer & copyright clearance specialist Elizabeth Klinck (Elizabeth Klinck Research).
The first session (noon, Conference Room) highlights the intrinsic importance of archive producers and will feature archive experts from three new European associations looking after the interests of the sector in their respective countries: Morgane Barrier (PIAF Images, France), Monika Preischl (GRAP, Germany), and Lisa Berger (ADAE, Spain).
“Archive producers are the hidden gems in the [doc production] process,” Klinck comments. “They not only help you find the archival imagery, but they also help you in the process of acquiring it, negotiating very good rates, working with the team and post-production. They’re really the people that put it all together in a beautiful way. Most of them have great expertise, and with the new demand for archive documentaries we’ve been seeing over the last five years, I think partly in response to the number of new streamers that have come on board, there’s a real need for archive producers who understand the process artistically, financially and logistically.”
“That’s what a good archive producer does. So we’re going to talk about that, how to get the most out of an archive producer when you work with them,” Klinck adds.
The second session (14.30, Conference Room) will address the use of archive in animation and VR, the latest briefs on archive colorisation and how AI impacts the field of film archive. Fellow panelists comprise a quartet of French experts: Victor Agulhon, CEO & producer at Targo; Quentin Auger, Director Innovation at Dada ! Animation; Samuel Francois-Steininger, producer at Composite Films, and Henri Magalon, producer at Maybe Movies.
“France is probably the world leaders for colorisation and archives, looking at how they’re using new techniques with archives to create animation,” says Klinck. “What are some of the new groundbreaking ways that innovation archives are being used in documentary production? So there are four representatives from the French television industry who are here to talk to us about that. It will be far ranging and there will be lots of time for a Q&A. I think people will walk away with some good information from this session as well.”
Klinck further underlines the necessity for getting an archive producer on board early in the process, as much to overcome timing and budgetary issues as for creative reasons. “If you start very early in the development period of production, you can overcome a lot of those issues. A lots of times archives are kind of helicoptered in during the last third of a production schedule. But starting with early planning, mapping out realistic delivery time schedules, mapping out realistic budgets, it just makes everybody’s life easier. And that’s what a good archive producer can help you with. They can really plan your film so that you’re not dealing with outrageous license fees. You’re not dealing with a really tight turnaround and you can also look, sometimes, for public domain, low-cost alternatives if you have enough time.”
Yes, the sector saw substantial growth during the years of the pandemic when individual archives were able to “pivot” quickly to facilitate ongoing production.
“But what I think is the really big change I’ve seen in the last four or five years, people are looking for things that are truthful and have a certain veracity,” Klinck stresses. “And I think archives represent that. We had a great love affair with CGI and dramatic recreation and ‘based on a true story,’ but now I think people actually want to see the actual material. And that is where archive comes in. Of course, it can be manipulated and we’re going to be seeing more and more of that. That’s probably one of the things that we’re facing…how AI is going to impact the archival. But for now, I think there’s a great hunger, especially among under 30 somethings – that demographic that everybody wants to have watching – who really love archival material and archival docs.”
“They’re discovering new stories. They’re discovering periods of history. They’re discovering musicians, they’re discovering artists. And I think it’s quite a lovely adjunct to their formal education,” Klinck signs off.
