Gregory Helmstetter, Summer 2017

Gregory Helmstetter, UNC-Chapel Hill, Southern Folklife Collection, Summer 2017, HFPA

I spent the summer working with the Southern Folklife Collection at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, where I processed the Florentine Films Collection. The collection consists of 12 documentaries by filmmaker Ken Burns, including Baseball, The Civil War, Lewis & Clark, and many more. I focused primarily on rehousing the film and audio elements for the film Baseball, and I provided item-level description of the footage which was used in creating the finding aid for collection. In addition, I became familiar with the SFC's preservation workflow, giving me an introduction to a number of preservation software and tools, and I was given various other tasks like cleaning video equipment and moldy film and 1/4" open reel.