This particular set of notes deals with some of the issues applicants should consider when aiming to create a digital recording of rehearsals, performances or other time-based event in the practice-based arts. As with other significant digital material created under the AHRC's funding schemes, this requires a technical appendix to be completed. This appendix allows the applicant to demonstrate to the AHRC that any planned digital resource will be technically viable, completed on schedule and created in such a way to allow for its long-term use by the research and artistic communities.

For general information on completing the AHRC technical appendix and developing a digital resource, readers are pointed to the main AHDS documents providing help to AHRC applicants, which should be consulted along with these notes. If you are unsure as to whether you should be filling out the technical appendix, please contact the AHDS. Given sufficient notice the AHDS will also be help to advise on the content of technical applications prior to submission to the AHRC.

Much of the detail of actually capturing a performance in digital form will be familiar to those in the performing arts. The project management section of the technical appendix allows applicants to consider the process by which this will be organised. The level to which this is articulated depends on the quantity of digital material to be created: creating, editing and disseminating a digitised recording of a one-off performance does not require heavy project management, but the situation requires more thought when a number of performances are being recorded. The required quality of the digital output also affects project management. The greater the need for a quality output developed by experienced professionals, the greater the need to consider the management of the project.

The make-up of a project team allows the applicant to articulate who will be involved in the development of the digital material, and indicate the various levels of responsibility within the team's hierarchy. A timetable, broken down at, say, three monthly stages should indicate points of progress as the digital material takes shape. It is also very useful to given an indication of the amount of digital material to be developed and disseminated - technical appendices often suffer because of woolliness in this area. Is one performance being recorded? Ten rehearsals? How long does each one last? And how long will the final edited files last for - five segments of ten minutes each? One complete two-hour performance? A series of short clips? The figures do not need to be precise and neither will they confine the applicant to producing exactly that quantity of digital outcomes during the project itself. But rough guidance on this information will allow the assessor to make a much more informed, and hopefully positive, assessment.

Monitoring issues also need to be addressed - how does one assure that the digital video being created is of the expected quality? Again this is more of an issue for larger projects, where numerous performances may be recorded and the work may be outsourced to external parties.

Those approaching the creation of digital video are faced with a broad range of possibilities for file formats, often related to the type of video recording device chosen, and particular types of software. There are two key issues to consider in deciding upon an initial format for recording. One is to avoid formats that cannot be exported to other formats - being locked into one format dramatically reduces the possibility of that file being accessible in the future. The other issue concerns the creation of uncompressed files. Master digital files are better created using formats which avoid compression techniques. Compressed files are smaller in size, but often sacrifice information (such as sound or picture quality) on creation. Rather it is better to create master files and then derive smaller files from these to, for example, deliver on the Internet.

The ideal format for capturing high-resolution video is MJPEG2000. However, its large file sizes and lack of take-up within software and hardware means it remains, at the time of writing, an unpractical choice. More practical formats include MPEG2 and MJPEG . In some contexts other formats may well be feasible and the AHDS will be happy to discuss with individual applicants. Formats such as wmv, mov and avi, or encoding methods such as divx can be used for Internet delivery, but as means for streaming and downloading digital video improve over time, differing compressed versions can be derived and distributed from the uncompressed master files.

There are no fixed standards for the quality to which one should be recording. For many purposes, one should be thinking of recording high-quality files (e.g. a rate of 25 frames per second is recommended for high-quality video; 10-15 is more appropriate for video streamed over the web), but the final quality will depend on the planned usage of the resource. Is the recording simply a rough recording for immediate use? Are there background music or sound effects that are intrinsic to its performance, and need to be recorded? Will there need to be close-ups? Will the performance be projected onto a larger screen? Questions such as these should have a direct effect on the quality at which the recording is made.

Editing can also be a time consuming process. If one produces several hours of video, it is a skilled and difficult job to edit the material (and, if necessary, improve its picture quality) down to a final product of, say, ten minutes long. Computers with good processing power and the appropriate software are also required for this task.

The content of a video will be immediately obvious to its creator, but to other users (now and in the future) it requires other information to to understand it properly. Why was the this film made? Who is it for? Who made it? Who appeared in it? Has it been edited? Is this an artwork in its own right? Or is this just a documentary record? Who owns the rights? A mixture of structured information and prose text can usually satisfy this documentary need.

See the AHDS Information Paper on Metadata for more on this topic.

Required or pre-existing support (both in terms of staff time, and software and hardware) should be recorded in this part of the appendix. This might include digital cameras, sound equipment, laptops, editing software etc. If requesting particular software or hardware, this should overlap with the equipment requested under costs within the main part of the application.

Attention should also be paid to the mechanisms for backing-up any digital data to ensure against any loss or corruption of data during the lifetime of the project. Particular institutions often have procedures in place for this, and applicants should refer to these.

What are the project plans for disseminating the material? If it is to disseminate via a DVD-Rom then this will require DVD burning and authoring tools to create the final product. Authoring a DVD is another task takes which requires specialist skill, and should be costed into the project. Further decisions should be made when considering internet distribution. Streaming video may be encoded to deliver a near-instant response to a viewing request. The bit-rate, frame rate may be reduced to balance quality with transfer speed. Alternatively, video clips may be offered as downloadable files that the user can view offline. This, when placed alongside building a website to house the material, can take time and effort to do.

Putting performances on the Internet for others to download also raises the legal stakes. If performers have requested particular restrictions to the material (i.e. for particular communities) you will have to consider establishing an authentication system (or using an existing one), such as passwords, to allow this to happen.

Digital resources created with AHRC funds must be offered to the AHDS for deposit. The AHDS acts as a long-term archive for digital material, ensuring that the material is available for future generations of scholars, artists and other relevant communities.

At the end of the funding period, the project should deposit their digital materials and the relevant documentation. The long-term management of data stored on authored DVD videos is problematic. These disc formats are intended for distribution purposes and stored in a manner that makes it difficult to preserve in the long-term. Files should be deposited in a processed state, prior to their reorganisation into a DVD file structure. This will preserve filenames, organisation structure, metadata and other information that will be useful for managing the content.

If there are copyright problems or particular issues, the AHDS is more than happy to discuss them. There are various ways the AHDS can disseminate the deposited resource, ranging from open access on the Internet to a preservation-only version where the archive is only accessible to the depositor. However, the depositor should be approaching the project with the aim of making the material publicly available.

Have you got the necessary permissions to record disseminate and deposit with the AHDS the rehearsals or performances? It may well be necessary to get written agreements not just from performers but others involved - playwrights? Lighting Directors? Musicians? If permission is not obtained then it will not be legally possible to disseminate the output, whether that be as a DVD, CD or on the Internet.

The general AHDS pages on copyright can provide more information on this.

Page last modified: 1st June 2006 by
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