Paramount Pictures is a leader in digital preservation and AVP was honored to support a project that tested the robustness of implemented policies and infrastructure.
THE CHALLENGE
The Archive at Paramount Pictures is responsible for preserving the organization’s most valuable assets: their film and television legacy. One major assumption the archive has made is that software and hardware will change but the digital assets and metadata that represent the library will not. Two questions were essential:
- How can we prove the robustness of Paramount’s current digital archive?
- How can we demonstrate that we will be able to migrate Paramount’s digital assets, without loss, to a future digital archive system?
THE SOLUTION
To begin answering these questions AVP performed a digital preservation assessment consisting of in-depth analysis of Paramount’s current digital archive against stringent ISO standards. The resulting detailed documentation offered evidence on the state of the digital archive as well as a snapshot to use for continued planning and implementation. Next, we established a proof-of- concept project working with a subset of assets in the digital archive. Using these assets we documented detailed protocols, specifications, and validation tests that could be followed to: a) export the assets and critical metadata out of the current system, and b) package the assets for ingest into a future digital archive system, ensuring the persistence of all critical data.
THE IMPACT
By measuring Paramount’s compliance against digital archiving and preservation standards the archive staff got a comprehensive and thorough snapshot of their current digital archive system, a measurement that confirmed their approach was quantifiably robust. Secondly, the work to plan and document a way for assets and metadata to easily move between infrastructures means Paramount is further future-proofing the films and television programs for future business needs and to ensure the preservation of art and culture made on behalf of the studio.
