Tuesday, August 20, 2013

Case Study No. 0932: Staff of the Westminster Law Library

Archive Madness
4:47
A short film produced for a Visual Media course at the University of Denver for an MLIS degree.
Tags: short film archives libraries MLIS DU silent
Added: 5 years ago
From: childofsnow
Views: 16,374

Left Arm Productions presents
"Archive Madness"
by AZB & AMD

[scene opens with black and white footage of a young woman sitting in a chair and reading a book]
FEMALE PATRON: Where will I find this information? I just don't know where to turn!
[she gets up and smiles]
FEMALE PATRON: Aha! The library is a perfect place to start my search!
[cut to inside the Westminster Law Library (with the camera focusing on a "No talking! This means you!" sign on the wall), as the woman walks up to the young female librarian (hair in a bun, glasses slid down to the tip of her nose) at the front desk and tries to ask for help, but she simply shakes her head]
LIBRARIAN: We don't have that sort of information. You're in the wrong place.
[the woman sighs and walks away with a sad look on her face, then cut to her sitting back in her chair, when a young man walks up to her]
MALE PATRON: Are you looking for information?
[he sits down in front of her, as the woman gestures wildly]
MALE PATRON: All that you need may be found at an archive!
[the woman shakes her head]
FEMALE PATRON: But an archive is such a terrible place!
[cut to a "flashback" of the woman staring in horror at a disheveled archive room (roaches crawling over the books, a wild-haired female archivist staring menacingly at the camera, a box marked "No Pens Allowed", etc.) and nearly fainting from fright]
[cut back to the woman and the man, as he smiles and extends a hand to her]
[cut to the two of them walking towards the stairwell, as he waves goodbye]
[cut to the woman climbing the stairs and entering the archives room, where a much friendlier-looking female archivist (long hair, black sweater, white pants) shakes her hand]
ARCHIVIST: How can I help you today?
[the woman gestures towards her notes, as the archivist smiles and reaches into a nearby box and pulls out some files]
FEMALE PATRON: Thank you so much! The archive is full of wonderful information ... I never knew how great a tool it could be!
[the woman waves goodbye, and exits the archives room]

Special thanks to the Westminster Law Library, Stacey Bowers, and staff for graciously allowing filming.

Director & Camera Crew:
Antonia Dauster

Beautiful Heroine:
Adrienne Breznau

Angry Librarian/Helpful Archivist:
Amanda Samland

Handsome Hero:
Peter Samland

Roach Wrangler:
Penny Dauster

Created in partial fulfillment of the requirements of LIS 4700: Visions of the Library
Dr. R. Gazan, Winter 2007
The University of Denver

---

From archivists.org:

We came up with a descriptive title reflecting the essence of our movie (generic names, like "tour of archives" or "new archival collection" will not help users find videos, while "treasures from UCSF archival vault" will facilitate search and capture their attention). "Archive Madness," produced by the University of Denver attracted almost thirty-five hundred visitors in a year, while other similar films with undistinguished titles had less than two hundred viewers for the same period.

No comments:

Post a Comment