Glossary of Collection forms

Advertising or promotional

Works which promote a product, service, philosophy, candidate or company. Includes company promotions, commercials, infomercials, political spots, televangelism, television promos, theatrical promos, trailers (previews), public service announcements, and public relations materials which are designed to cause the public and/or customers or clients to take a particular view towards an institution or business. For home shopping shows aired on television, select instead Television entertainment.

Amateur

Works created for private, not commercial use, such as home movies, designed to be shown primarily to family and friends, placed on personal Web sites, and usually made by people not professionally connected with the film/video industry.

Animation

Works created by recording a series of still images, such as drawings, objects, or posed people. When played back, the static images combine to simulate motion, creating the impression of movement. Includes cartoons, clay animation (Claymation), computer animation, puppet animation (including Puppetoons), cameraless animation (images drawn directly onto film stock), and time-lapse animation..

Corporate or organizational record

Moving image documentation of, or information about, a company or formally structured group of people, usually retained for internal use. For materials intended to advertise or promote the organization to viewers outside the organization, select instead Advertising or promotional. For non-fiction works designed to be used in an industrial setting to illustrate and explain industrial and manufacturing processes or issues, select instead Industrial. For industrial training films used by industry, the military, or trades to teach skills necessary in the performance of particular duties or jobs, select instead both Industrial and Educational or instructional.

Documentary or factual work

Works depicting actual persons and/or events, not primarily intended for viewing in the classroom, in industry, or for television entertainment. Includes documentaries (factual works usually in narrative form, and usually produced without actors), early silent-era actualities, anthropological films, nature films and programs, biographies, travelogues, scenics, and cinéma vérité. For specific types of factual footage, also select any other appropriate category, e.g., Amateur; Interview; Live event coverage; Performance; Research documentation; Television news or public affairs, Theatrical newsreel; Unedited footage. For other factual works designed largely to entertain or enrich (televised how-to programs, frank historical re-creations, and sports, also select Television entertainment (if intended for television) or Feature or short (if not). For works primarily intended as coursework or for classroom use, select Educational or instructional. For works intended for use in an industrial setting, select Industrial. For factual records of or about a company which are intended for internal use, select Corporate or organizational record.

Educational or instructional

Non-theatrical works intended as coursework or for classroom or distance learning use. Includes classroom films and videos, historical recreations and dramatizations primarily intended to educate rather than entertain, digital video included in e-learning modules, and video or television broadcasting courses. For educational or instructional programming intended in part for entertainment and airing on television, also select Television entertainment. For training films designed to be used in an industrial setting, also select Industrial.

Experimental

Works that seek to expand traditional moving image form, structure, and content; usually subjective in approach, largely non-commercial, and often made by a single filmmaker or a small group. Includes video art and so-called "underground" films. Also known as avant-garde works. For real-time networked media, select Videoconference or webcast.

Feature or short

Works intended for release in theaters or "direct to video," which are primarily fictional and designed to entertain. Includes genres such as action-adventure, adaptations, comedies, dramas, disaster films, erotica and pornography, exploitation films, film noir, horror films, martial arts films, music shorts, musicals, theatrical serials, thrillers, early trick films, westerns, and films produced primarily for viewing by a particular ethnic group.

Industrial

Nonfiction works designed to be used in an industrial setting to illustrate and explain industrial and manufacturing processes or issues. For industrial training films used by industry, the military, or trades to teach skills necessary in the performance of particular duties or jobs, also select Educational or instructional.

Interview

Nonfiction works which record a meeting between a reporter, panel of reporters or other interviewer, and another person or persons: the interviewee. Often the interviewee is a public figure, whose views, activities, etc., are elicited by means of questions asked and answered. Includes oral histories, panel discussions, debates, and legal testimony. For televised interviews specific to news or public affairs, select both this category and Television news or public affairs. For eyewitness or on-the-scene interviews, select both this category and Live event coverage.

Live event coverage

Nonfiction works recording live, on-the-scene coverage of special events outside the confines of a regular news film or program. Examples include extensive coverage of political conventions, elections, moonshots, assassinations, etc. For eyewitness or on-the-scene interviews select both this category and Interview. For recordings of live performances such as music, dance, drama, recitation, etc., select instead Performance.

Performance

Nonfiction work documenting a performance, event, or concert of dance, music, opera, operetta, theatrical stage production, recitation, magic act, circus, stand-up comedy, burlesque, or other vaudeville or variety stage act. Although the work being performed may be fictional, as with a stage play, the purpose of the recording is to document the performance rather than to serve as a fictional narrative. For recordings of live performances intended to be aired on television, select this category and not Television entertainment, which is intended for fictional narrative and for entertainment events, such as awards shows and beauty contests.

Research documentation

Factual recordings created to document research, i.e., investigations or experiments aimed at the discovery and interpretation of facts.

Silent era film

Films released prior to the advent of synchronous motion picture sound technology (usually 1929 and earlier), or video/digital reproductions of those films.

Television entertainment

Programming intended for airing on television, exclusive of commercials, documentaries and docudramas, interviews, live event coverage, performance documentation, and news. Includes television series, mini-series, specials, pilots, made-for-TV movies, anthologies, televised awards shows and beauty contests, comedies, dramas, erotica and pornography, game shows, gossip shows, home shopping programs, music videos, reality programs, variety and talent shows, soap operas, and talk shows. For recordings of live performances, select instead Performance.

Television news or public affairs

Nonfiction programming, aired on television, reporting and commenting on recent events, usually organized into reports from various correspondents. Includes special reports on breaking stories, as well as public affairs programming (discussions, debates, speeches, and editorials and press conferences on politics, government, and public policy). For news or public affairs programming in the form of interviews, also select Interview. For documentaries aired on television, select instead Documentary or factual work. For on-the-scene coverage of special events outside the confines of a regular news film or program, often involving extensive coverage beyond the confines of standard weekly television schedules, select instead Live event coverage.

Theatrical newsreel

Nonfiction films released in theaters in periodic issues, each issue consisting of a number of stories reporting and commenting on recent events. Includes video/digital reproductions of those films. Includes newsreel special editions and symposium newsreels (year-end highlight reels).

Unedited footage

Raw footage, usually untitled, which has not been edited or assembled into a finished work. Includes dailies, rushes, clips, excerpts, outtakes, trims, unedited screen tests, unedited ethnographic field footage, video surveillance, and combat footage. For unedited footage recording live events such as Congressional hearings or funerals, select both this category and Live Event Coverage. For unedited footage recording scientific experiments or observations, select instead Research documentation.

Videoconference or webcast

Recordings of conversations or meetings of multiple participants at remote locations, transmitted over networks and conducted in real time, as well as other real-time transmissions (webcast or point-to-point) of sound and images via the Web. Includes both real-time and archived copies of real-time videoconferences, webcasts, and point-to-point real-time video and audio transmissions over the Web. For real time networked media performances, select both this category and Performance. For videoconference interviews, select both this category and Interview. For videoconferences of a company retained for internal use, select both this category and Corporate or organizational record.