Acquiring Video

Introduction

Acquisition refers to the process of receiving video and metadata from a source and adding it to your collection. Your aim at this stage is to acquire your materials in a complete and intact form. Actions you take at this stage are critical to the later usability and preservation of your video.

A Scenario: Inundated with Videos

The Elections Monitoring Center wants to collect reliable videos that document the aftermath of recent elections in its country in order to report to the international community, and to retain for the historical record. Fortunately, the days following the election were widely documented on video by news outlets, ordinary citizens, and the Center’s own staff. There are so many videos, in fact, that the Center is overwhelmed by the quantity.

Rather than try to collect every single video about the election, the Center decides to prioritize videos that best meet its purposes. It decides to acquire only videos whose source they can confirm; that they have the rights to re-use; and that emerged from electoral districts in which news media were not present.

Some of the most important video documentation was shot by ordinary citizens. In order to ensure the authenticity and reliability of these videos, the Center asks citizens to submit their original files if they can, and to fill out a metadata form with their names, district, and other information.

CAUTION!

Check for viruses

Malware like viruses and Trojans can spread through the Internet or on portable devices. Protect yourself from inadvertently acquiring malware by using virus detection software, and only downloading or opening attachments from known and trusted sources.

Try This: BASIC

There are many commercially available virus scanners. Some free virus scanners include ClamXAV, Immunet, and ClamWin.

Try This: ADVANCED

ClamAV is an open source anti-virus engine for detecting Trojans, malware, viruses, and other malicious threats.

Protect sensitive information

Find out from your sources if there is any sensitive information in your video and metadata that needs to be kept confidential (e.g. names, locations). You should acquire and retain this information but restrict access and store securely as needed.

What’s Next

Deciding What to Keep
Setting criteria for what to keep.

Acquiring Raw Video and Metadata
Best practices for getting raw materials complete and intact.

Acquiring Edited Video and Elements
What to keep from your edits.

Metadata

Any information about a video: from technical information embedded in the file that allows the video to function, such as format and duration, to descriptive information about the content to help you understand or find it–such as keywords, security restrictions, geographic locations, and so on. Metadata is critical to any future use, and is important throughout the archiving process.

Despite what is sometimes said, images almost never speak for themselves. They require context and description to make sense, to corroborate their factuality, and to be accessible beyond one person’s memory or desktop.

Metadata can be automatically generated and embedded in the file, such as with technical metadata, or it can be manually recorded on an external medium, such as with descriptions, security flags, and keywords in a database. Metadata capture sometimes needs to be manually enabled on your device, such as with GPS or location services.

Completeness

The quality of having all of the information a record contained when it was created, and that its original context is maintained. Incomplete records are not as reliable as complete ones, since one might not know what information is missing and why. Transcoding a video to another format can reduce the image quality and discard metadata, making the video less complete and therefore less reliable. Keeping original video files, documenting context, and organizing videos in a way that maintains the original order of video files contributes to the completeness of the video records.

Authenticity

The quality of being genuine, not fake or counterfeit, and free from tampering. Authenticity means that an object was actually created by the person represented as its creator, and that it was actually created at the time and place that is represented as its time and place of creation. Video footage that has been manipulated or altered but is represented as if it had not been, for example, is not authentic.

To authenticate a video means to verify the relationship between it and its creator and point of creation. Documentation about who created something, when and where it was created, and the chain of custody can provide a starting point for this authentication process.

Original Files

In the digital realm, the “original file” is any copy of a file that is exactly the same (i.e. bit-for-bit) as the file in question when it was created. This means that there are no accidental or deliberate alterations to any aspect of the file, including its format and technical specifications.

Malware

A term derived from “malicious software,” and that refers to all computer viruses, worms, Trojans, and spyware.

Selection

The process of identifying materials to be acquired, or to be preserved, because of their enduring value. Having selection criteria, or a selection policy, helps ensure you acquire and save only what is most important.

Chain of Custody

Chronological documentation that shows who has held or controlled a video file from the moment it was created. The ability to show an unbroken chain of custody is one important indicator of the authenticity of a video, and therefore a factor in using video as evidence.

Download

To receive data from a remote computer system and save it in a local computer system. The inverse of download is “upload.”

Master

The earliest generation or highest-quality output of a video from which duplicates are made.

Original Order

The archival principle of maintaining files in the same order they were created. Original order is important to preserve context and the relationship between individual files, so that you can make sense of each file and of the whole. Keeping files in their original context makes them more complete and reliable.

Integrity

The quality of being whole, unaltered, and uncorrupted. A file that is not intact may not be usable or may have decreased informational and evidential value. Videos files can lose their integrity if they are accidentally mishandled, deliberately tampered with, or if data corruption occurs in transfer or storage due to hardware or software malfunction. The best way to ensure integrity is to establish a system to check file fixity regularly (e.g. by computing hashes and checking them against a registry of previously computed hashes) and to restore any corrupted files from an intact copy.

In This Section

Takeaways

Decide what you will—and will not—collect and save; create a selection policy based on your goals and needs.
Acquire unaltered original files whenever possible.
Acquire all available metadata and related documentation about your videos.
Check your acquired files to make sure you have copied or downloaded them completely and correctly.
Do not rename video files if they have their original camera-given filenames.
Maintain the chain of custody by documenting the source, time, date, and location of your acquisition.
For edited videos, acquire a high-quality master whenever possible.
For edited videos, acquire production elements like project files and graphics.

Key Concept: Selection Policy

A selection policy provides clarity on what you will acquire and what you will not.
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Key Concept: Authenticity

Maintain the authenticity of a video when you acquire it by collecting the intact original file(s) and the metadata that comes with it.
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Key Concept: Chain of Custody

Your acquisition forms a part of a video’s chain of custody.

Document your acquisition, so that an unbroken chain can be traced all the way back to the source.
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Key Concept: Completeness

Be sure that you acquire all of the files needed to create a complete record, as defined by the purpose or requirements of your collection.
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Key Concept: Original Order

You may or may not receive video files in the order in which they were originally created, but you should restore the original order after you acquire them.
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Key Concept: Integrity

Ensure that no loss, tampering, or file corruption occurs during the process of acquisition.
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Key Concept: Original File

Always acquire an exact copy of the file created by the camera with no alterations to content or technical specifications, unless doing so is impossible.
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Key Concept: Metadata

Metadata may be embedded within a video file, or it may be a separate document. It is as important to acquire a video’s metadata as it is to acquire the video itself.
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