Film Archivist

Job Description

Are you passionate about film preservation and looking for your next challenge? Here is an opportunity to make your mark in the emerging video streaming space. We are the largest independent film & television distribution company in the country. Cinedigm owns and operates a portfolio of over 25 enthusiast streaming channels spanning a variety of key genres. Cinedigm also distributes video content across all major retail, online and video streaming distribution outlets. In addition, Cinedigm owns an extensive collection of over 20,000 films and tapes of old Hollywood movies spanning the Pre-Code era up through the 1960s as well as many public domain films and news reels.

We are looking for an experienced archivist with a passion for film restoration and preservation with broad experience and knowledge in film-to-digital transfers up through the video mastering stage. We seek a dedicated person with exceptional knowledge surrounding the nuances of film negatives and highly sensitive nature related to the storage of celluloid film. This position will work closely with our Content Operations as well as our Video QC team to identify film restoration partners and vendors to create newly restored and master digital transfers with the goal of releasing the newly restored title as DVD/Blu-ray discs to our retail outlets, as well as a digital film across our transactional and streaming platforms. This person will also identify and recommend partners for film preservation for titles that should be preserved for historical purposes.

Liaise with various departments, as directed, across the organization such as Video QC, Creative and Product Development departments to oversee the process of tagging/inventorying assets, ensuring requirements and specifications are met, and resulting assets can be effectively marketed and released.

Responsibilities/Duties
• This role will require researching and identifying which films are best candidates for preservation/restoration; determine the methods and techniques for restoration on a project-by-project basis; and delegate or complete the necessary work.
• This role requires travels as necessary to various offsite vaults, storage facilities or studios and film labs as needed.
• Required experience in operating equipment used for preservation activities including 35mm projectors, 16mm projectors, VCRs and video monitors.
• Experience with inspecting, repairing, splicing, and leading archival film prints and original negatives.
• This position will work closely with the Content Operations and Video QC team to ensure internal digitization projects meet the Company's access needs.
• Serve as primary liaison with external labs to ensure all raw source assets and required ancillary materials are delivered to Company and created per internal content specifications.
• Ensure key art deliverables and delivery milestones are set and met by all parties; coordinate key art creation and approvals with Creative department to ensure efficient graphic design workflow is followed.

Required Skills
• Excellent knowledge of traditional film and other media formats
• Detailed knowledge of archival standards for the preservation, restoration, storage, and maintenance of film materials, including safety and nitrate negatives, master positives
• Must possess a solid understanding of digital video formats, audio codecs, encoding & transcoding codecs, and other technical specifications related to audio/video mastering
• Knowledge of accepted techniques for handling, inspecting, and repairing of archival material, including safety precautions required when working with nitrate film
• Advanced knowledge of Adobe Premiere Pro, Final Cut Pro or any other established, professional grade video editing and restoration software
• Solid experience in digital video editing; proficiency with graphic editing required
• Must have excellent technical skills and a portfolio and/or reel that demonstrates proven expertise film restoration
• Solid understanding of transferring analog (tape) and celluloid film to digital media formats
• Background in archiving, history, library science or moving image studies
• Must be self-directed and the ability to work independently
• Highly organized and detail-oriented with the experience and ability to accurately maintain an asset database
• Must be technology and computer savvy

Essential Qualifications
• A good understanding of digital video and related internet technologies, especially as they relate to video streaming and video streaming services
• Experience with film-to-digital transfers, encoding/digitizing, archiving, and creating archival materials
• Experience with cleaning, repairing and archiving 16mm and 35mm film elements
• Background in archiving, history, library science or moving image studies
• Experienced multi-tasker with proven ability to juggle diverse array of media-related tasks
• Ability to thrive in a demanding, constantly changing work environment
• Excellent written and verbal communications skills
• Self-starter that is highly motivated and passionate about film preservation and restoration
• Must be reliable and dependable
• A bachelor's degree required
• 3+ years work experience with film digitization focusing on film preservation and/or archiving
• 5+ years of experience working with film archives including the acquisition, organization, cataloging, and processing of film assets
• Knowledge of digital preservation methods and best practices for long-term information retrieval
• Proven leadership skills demonstrating the ability to deliver projects on-time and according to specifications

Jobcode: Reference SBJ-gqz5em-3-145-173-112-42 in your application.