Video Archaeology Project
As part of MidAmeriCon II, Geri Sullivan created the Video Archaeology Project to digitize and thus preserve the tapes in the Scott Imes Video Archive from the original MidAmeriCon, the 1976 Worldcon which he and his team recorded as KMAC.
The tapes were in a variety of formats -- U-matic, reel-to-reel, and VHS, and many of them were copies of earlier-generation tapes. Sometimes the same item exists in all three formats. Geri raised the money to have the archaic formats digitized professionally, since the equipment needed is rare, the tapes were up to forty years old, and some of them have not been unwound in over thirty years. Matt Jacobson, a fan and University of Kansas film studies professor creating videos for MidAmeriCon II volunteered to digitize the VHS tapes.
The initial donation came from Fanac.org with additional money coming from past Worldcons and other organizations:
- Fanac.org -- $500 seed money
- Cansmof -- $3,000 CDN
- BWAWA -- $2,500
- ALAMO -- $3,100
- International Costumer's Guild -- direct payment to vendor to digitize Masquerade and Costume footage
David Dyer-Bennet edited the raw digitized files, correcting color to the degree possible, improving sound, and assembling completed videos that were recorded over several tapes. David also worked on the Minneapolis team that shot the original videos in 1956.
The digitized videos were shown at MidAmeriCon II and many videos are available online at the FANAC YouTube channel fanac.org.
Videos from ConFrancisco, ConAdian, and L.A.con III were also digitized in 2015.
In 2019, the Video Archeology Project started working with the Midwest fandom tapes from the Scott Imes Video Archive. FANAC funded the initial test to digitize these aged tapes in 2021. The test tapes included the 1977 performance of Midwest Side Story, which was then shown at Minicon 56 in 2023. The project is seeking additional funding in the hope of finishing the Midwest fandom tapes in 2024.
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