Q. Where did you get these videos?
A. The archive has been accumulated over the 40-year career of videomaker Tom Weinberg, who has produced many TV shows featuring the work of independent producers, such as Image Union and The 90's. The tapes came from these shows, from work by friends, or from people who donated them to the archive. We have received large donations of videos from Bill Veeck and Studs Terkel.
Q. What kind of videos do you have?
A.The works in the Media Burn Archive cover all sorts of topics, but they share important qualities: all were produced by independent videomakers outside of corporate contexts; they engage with the issues and concerns of ordinary people, both locally and nationally; they teach us about the world around us and the unifying characteristics of humanity; and they demonstrate artistry, skill, and creativity in the art of videomaking. They encompass many types of works, from documentary to animation to narrative, but they all share a spirit of innovation and creativity that sets them apart from the crowd.
The collection features hundreds of disparate and fascinating subjects, among them musicians, mayors, sports legends, radio personalities, community leaders, and neighborhood festivals. In addition to hundreds of award-winning documentaries, much of the collection is composed of camera original footage—uncut audiovisual primary sources capturing people, places, and events of cultural and historical significance. In 2008, our Chicago Collection was recognized as a part of "America's documentary heritage essential to understanding our democracy, history, and culture" by the National Archives with a preservation grant. In 2011, we were again recognized by federal agencies with a “Save America’s Treasures” grant, administered by the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Q. Is this stuff public domain?
A. No. All these videos were made by talented independent videomakers, and these people retain the copyright to their work.
Q. Can I use footage for free in my documentary?
A. Nope. You need to license this footage for any use, just like you would anywhere else. We only have permission to license some of the footage in our archive; hopefully we can give you a lead on how to find the rights holder if we can't license it ourselves. Because the work in the archive was made by so many different people, rates and permissions are going to vary based on which pieces you pick. If you are interested in purchasing stock footage, please email us and we'll talk. We're reasonable about working with independents on limited budgets.
Q. Can I download these videos?
A. Not at this point.
Q. Are you making any money off this site?
A. No way. mediaburn.org is a project of the Fund for Innovative TV, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization. We manage to keep it all together through the generous contributions of individuals, government sources, and foundations. Please consider donating in order to allow us to keep this up.(See our About Us page for more info on our funding.)
Q. Why would you need donations to have a website?
A. Media Burn is much more than a website. All of the videos on our collection reside on fragile analog formats that are already, or are quickly becoming, obsolete. It is literally a race against time to digitize them before they are lost forever to physical deterioration or lack of equipment to play them. Have you ever noticed that some of your old VHS tapes are very staticky? This process of deterioration happens to videotapes very quickly, and depending on format, they can become unplayable in as little as 10 years. For other formats, the issue is that it is very hard to find equipment to play them back--just like how you might have trouble finding ways to play your 8-tracks or laser discs. Because 90% of the tapes in our collection are the only copy in existence, this means it is crucial that we work fast to transfer them so they will continue to be watched and appreciated by future generations.
Q. Where did you get my video?
A. If you're wondering about this, you must be one of a tiny number of people who we couldn't find. Before we went online, we made a concerted effort to find all the producers whose work is on the site, but some couldn’t be found…they moved, were unlisted, or one thing or another. Or maybe we just messed up. As mentioned above, we aren't making any money off of your video, but if you don't like it streaming here, please contact us and we'll take it down. Please understand that FITV is a non-profit and we do not have enough money for what we want/need to do, much less pay big bucks for lawyers. So, accept our apology, let us know, and we’ll remove it. We don't want to upset anyone, we just want people to get to see good video.
Q. How did you make this happen?
A. It hasn't been easy! We started working on the database, digitizing, fundraising, and systems in 2001. It took five years to get to the Beta release. We accomplished it with the extraordinary creative vision, advice, help and dedication of dozens of people. We were vastly undercapitalized, so even though we were among the first to start on streaming video, we couldn't afford to move nearly as quickly as YouTube, Google Video, and others with tens of millions of dollars for their start-up. We were able to raise a small amount of start-up money from family, friends, small foundations, and the Illinois Arts Council. We weren't anywhere near the scale of the commercial world. But, we have unique content - some 6,000 independently produced videos - most of which is not found anywhere else. Since that early period, we have seen support from many generous sources, but the most significant has been the Gaylord and Dorothy Donnnelley Foundation. Without their support, none of this would have been possible.
Q. I know something about one of your videos!
A. Great! If you were in a video, or recognize a location, or you were the one that made the video, or you know a lot about a certain topic, or you see that we misspelled someone's name, etc please email us and let us know what you know. Enhancing the historical information in our records is very important to us.
Q. What is the "Documents tab" that I see next to the video player for?
A. We are in the process of encoding historically significant documents that give historical context to the videos. They include press, newsletters, correspondence, flyers, or just doodles. Check for them anytime you want to learn more about a video. We're adding more all the time!
Q. Is mediaburn.org strictly an archive of old video?
A. No. Our current focus is on preserving the endangered old videos in our archive, but as funding allows, we do plan to expand to new works. We want to be the online place to go for "our kind of video."
Q. Can I send you a video?
A. Yes. On a limited basis, we will put a few “new” videos in the collection and on the website. Here’s how it works:
1. Email us at info@mediaburn.org. with your name; a bio; description and running time of the video and any other info you want to include.
2. We will email you back to tell you if we’re interested. If we are, we will request that you send your video to us in Chicago, or send a link where we can preview it online.
3. As quickly as we can, we’ll screen it and let you know if we will put it in the collection. Most likely, the easiest thing will be for you to send us a tape of your work, so that we can digitize to our unique Clipstream format and put the video on the site.
4. You will agree to allow mediaburn to stream your work over the internet. If someone were to buy a dvd of your work, you would share in the revenue. We would contact you before proceeding with stock footage negotiations.
Please understand that our capability for expansion is limited and at the moment we will not be able to accommodate everyone with good stuff, and we probably won't do it in a timely manner.
Q. Why should I register?
A. It only takes a few seconds to register for a free account, and then you will be able to save videos to a playlist, comment, and recommend videos for "viewers choice." Check it out!
Q. How did you choose your links?
A. We picked sites that we find interesting and useful, and we hope you do, too! We have no formal connection to the organizations listed.