Overview of Data and Output
The project Timeline of Historical Film Colors collected three types of data
- Physical film
- Scanned version of the film
- Analysis by film experts on different color processes used and the way it changed how viewers watched the film.
The project holds this data into a database where users can browse the different technicolors process by searching for a color process, an object in the film, or even in a person. The project also created a timeline that organizes the films into the type of color processes they used and the years in which the films were released.
Sources of Input
When creating the Timeline Entries the project team collected information of the film on the name, year it was used, the aesthetic principle it shows based on researchers perspective, and who invented the principle. The project collected photographic documentation and analyses of dyes and color compound by people who understand color theory of film.
Flueckinger and other researchers analyzed a large group of films. The physical data they acquired are Film reels from the older movies and films from Blu-rays and DVDs. Many of these filmstrips were sourced from different archives. When loading the digitized images into the gallery section of the project they included the name, gave credit from what archive the strips were sourced from and who photographed them.
Another type of data inputed into the database is information of different scanning techniques/tools used by film restores. Here the project not only added a description on the tool, but also the different scholarship written on the tool, if there were any current patents on the the tool, and a list of films in the project of where the tool was used.
Evaluation of Data
While Flueckinger makes the database accessible and easy to use, but the site does not allow you to download the images or provided a detailed method on how she retrieved each image. This fails to meet the DH practice of being open. The project also only provided a general description of how each of the metadata/experts description are modeled and can only be found through lots of site hopping. This also fails the best practice of when using Metadata according to The Renaissance Society of America.
