[KineJapan] VHS Preservation in Japan

[Tom Mes]

This is an issue I still need to look into further as part of the research on V-cinema I'm currently doing. However, the possible disappearance of certain V-cinema titles is more an issue of rights than of preservation. VHS was only a release format, since most V-cinema productions were shot on film (16mm in most cases). So there are negatives and master tapes, and in the case of films that received a token big screen release (mostly from the mid-90s onward), there should be 35mm prints as well.

Most of the major companies involved in V-cinema production seem to have their affairs relatively well in order, even in cases where films only received a VHS release and never came out on DVD. However, many of the smaller production outfits appear to have been fly-by-night operations that no longer exist, which makes the issue of who now owns the rights to the films (and where the masters and negatives are) unclear at best.

Best,
Tom

Midnight Eye - Visions of Japanese cinema
http://www.midnighteye.com

Op 23 nov 2013, om 18:18 heeft Oliver Dew het volgende geschreven:

> Hello Joseph
> 
> Thank you for your interesting question. Regarding the second part of your query, I suppose it depends on what you mean by VHS preservation. I'm not familiar with the Video at Risk program, but just from briefly looking at their website, they discuss ascertaining IP, scope, prioritisation, and reformatting. These are all archival functions, aren't they? You seem to discount archives, but why not include them in your research question? I don't know which archives you've been in touch with. I understand that the National Film Center has been acquiring works on various video formats. Also, not V-Cinema, but the Video Art Center Tokyo has a library of historically significant video works:
> http://www.vctokyo.org/jp/
> 
> I'd be really interested to hear what the V-Cinema experts on the list have to say about the first part of your question...
> 
> Oliver Dew
> 
> 
> On 19 Nov 2013, at 04:41, Joseph Larsen <larse635 at umn.edu> wrote:
> 
>> Hello,
>> 
>> I am doing research on VHS preservation in the U.S. and Japan and was wondering if there are any known statistics regarding V-Cinema. I am mostly curious if there are V-Cinema titles in danger of disappearing once the VHS medium fades away, so are there a number of titles that were released on VHS that never made it to any other formats?
>> 
>> Also, are there any groups or institutions in Japan currently doing VHS preservation work like the Video at Risk program at NYU?  So far, I have only been able to locate archives for the medium but no active preservation programs.
>> 
>> Thanks,
>> Joseph Larsen
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> 
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