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78 Film Preservation 1993
aegis. That includes the 1,750 MGM features, 700 cartoons, every picture made by Warner Bros, prior to January 1, 1950, and all the pictures of RKO.
There are a few things we haven't completed, such as some short subjects from the Warner Bros. library. But our policy is we will simply protect them one way or another in their entirety without any exceptions. I think that really is the most important thing we bring to this. And that is, if you have a dedication toward film preservation and you can get the backing of your top management to back up your dedication, it will get done.
I certainly approve of the technological committees. I certainly approve of each company integrating their needs because of where they are in the film preservation process. But the most important thing is an overall dedication to the fact that it needs to be done.
As far as priorities are concerned, I can best state my feeling about them by describing a few incidents that have occurred over the years. Mostly what has happened is every time a committee sits down to figure out priorities there isn't anybody on the committee can agree what their priorities should be. So that's one problem.
And why is that? Because each member of the committee has a different reason for being there; somebody wants something for videocassette release, somebody wants it for theatrical, somebody wants to beam it on cable, somebody loves shorts, and somebody else likes cartoons.
The things that get lost at our end of it is from time to time you have things that no one's interested in. Those are probably the things you should give priority to because in many cases two years later it's found that there is a market for those things, and there is an interesting concept of how to distribute them, and they do have some commercial value. And therefore, you just move on. And I would suggest that that is probably the best preservation policy for a company that has a job to be done.
However, when you're talking about the amount of film the United States and the world has to preserve, there certainly is a requirement for priorities. I will not try to state for you how we do things, the way we do them. Mr. May is our expert, and he will answer those questions if any members of the panel want to ask him those questions. But there are a few more things I'd like to touch on from a policy point of view.
The proper goals that are attainable in the private -sector are so much easier than the goals in any other sector that they should be looked at separately. I would certainly recommend that you urge everyone that has an ownership interest in film that probably there are at least two priorities, if not number one, is to preserve it for their own purposes and for posterity. And I think it's that simple. And I think what you're going to do by public statements, by pointing out to people how important it really is, that this