Milton R. Shefter is a

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the wor ...

-based film and media-asset

archivist An archivist is an information professional who assesses, collects, organizes, preserves, maintains control over, and provides access to records and archives determined to have long-term value. The records maintained by an archivist can consis ...

and

preservationist Preservationist is generally understood to mean ''historic preservationist'': one who advocates to preserve architecturally or historically significant buildings, structures, objects, or sites from demolition or degradation. Historic preservation us ...

. He is best known for the creation, design, and management of the extensive

Paramount Pictures Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film and television production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the main namesake division of Paramount Global (formerly ViacomCBS). It is the fifth-oldes ...

Asset Protection Program, and for co-authoring the 2007 report from the Science and Technology Council of the

Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS, often pronounced ; also known as simply the Academy or the Motion Picture Academy) is a professional honorary organization with the stated goal of advancing the arts and sciences of motion ...

, ''The Digital Dilemma'', as well as its 2012 followup, ''The Digital Dilemma 2''.

Early life and career

Shefter was born in

Reading, Pennsylvania Reading ( ; Pennsylvania Dutch: ''Reddin'') is a city in and the county seat of Berks County, Pennsylvania, United States. The city had a population of 95,112 as of the 2020 census and is the fourth-largest city in Pennsylvania after Phila ...

. He graduated from

Syracuse University Syracuse University (informally 'Cuse or SU) is a Private university, private research university in Syracuse, New York. Established in 1870 with roots in the Methodist Episcopal Church, the university has been nonsectarian since 1920. Locate ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

. He moved to

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the ...

to work for

Consolidated Film Industries Consolidated Film Industries was a film laboratory and film processing company and was one of the leading film laboratories in the Los Angeles area for many decades. CFI processed negatives and made prints for motion pictures and television. The ...

, eventually becoming Vice President of CFI's Video Division. He then worked at Bonded Services, an international media storage and distribution company, where he created a computerized tracking system that enabled studios and other content owners to inventory and track their films, television programs, and other moving image assets.

Paramount Pictures

In 1987,

retained Shefter as Director of Library Resources to build an archive to preserve Paramount's extensive library of motion picture and television programs. Paramount recognized that it needed “asset protection” when it realized that "all its holdings were in Los Angeles, and if a big earthquake came along, it could lose everything." Shefter created a plan and supervised the design and construction of a new four-story 40,000 square foot archive building on Paramount's Hollywood studio lot, featuring environmentally-controlled vaults. Several hundred thousand cans of film and tape, some dating back to Paramount's inception, were located worldwide, identified, bar-coded, and consolidated in this one central location. Shefter also implemented a “protection-by-separation” strategy for archiving Paramount's valuable and irreplaceable film and video assets. Mirror-image archival vaults were built at an underground facility in

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; (Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, Ma ...

and in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

. This was the very first motion picture studio worldwide with a total Asset Protection Program. Shefter has performed similar services for other major studios and other organizations with large libraries of moving images and recorded sound content in the United States and Europe.

Subsequent preservation work

In 1994, Shefter headed the Task Force on Public Awareness for the

National Film Preservation Board The United States National Film Preservation Board (NFPB) is the board selecting films for preservation in the Library of Congress' National Film Registry. It was established by the National Film Preservation Act of 1988. The National Film Regi ...

, which led to the formulation of the NFPB's National Film Preservation Plan. Shefter was also on the original design team for the

National Audio-Visual Conservation Center The National Audiovisual Conservation Center, also known as the Packard Campus for Audio-Visual Conservation, is the Library of Congress's audiovisual archive located inside Mount Pony in Culpeper, Virginia. Establishment From 1969 to 1988, th ...

of the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The librar ...

, located in Culpeper, Virginia. Shefter testified before the

National Fire Protection Association The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) is an international nonprofit organization devoted to eliminating death, injury, property and economic loss due to fire, electrical and related hazards. As of 2018, the NFPA claims to have 50,000 mem ...

for revisions in their storage standards on

nitrate film Nitrocellulose (also known as cellulose nitrate, flash paper, flash cotton, guncotton, pyroxylin and flash string, depending on form) is a highly flammable compound formed by nitrating cellulose through exposure to a mixture of nitric acid and ...

. According to his company website, he has also testified as an expert witness on nitrate film for the

United States Department of Justice The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a United States federal executive departments, federal executive department of the United States government tasked with the enforcement of federal law and a ...

before the

United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (in case citations, Fed. Cir. or C.A.F.C.) is a United States court of appeals that has special appellate jurisdiction over certain types of specialized cases in the U.S. federal court ...

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

''The Digital Dilemma''

In 2006, the

asked its Science and Technology Council to study the state of digital preservation worldwide. The Council created a Digital Motion Picture Archival Project, and appointed Shefter as its Lead. Together with Andy Maltz, Director of the Council, Shefter co-authored and co-edited ''The Digital Dilemma'', the very first "white paper" from the Academy. Published in November 2007, ''The Digital Dilemma'' addressed the effects of digital technology on the motion picture industry. ''The Digital Dilemma'' won the 2008 Outstanding Preservation Publication Award from the

Society of American Archivists The Society of American Archivists is the oldest and largest archivist association in North America, serving the educational and informational needs of more than 5,000 individual archivist and institutional members. Established in 1936, the orga ...

, the oldest and largest archivist association in North America. As a result of ''The Digital Dilemma'', the Academy partnered with the

on the Digital Motion Picture Archive Framework Project. In 2012, Shefter and Maltz co-authored a follow-up report, ''The Digital Dilemma 2'', produced in partnership with the Academy and the Library of Congress, and focusing more on independent filmmakers and small archives.

Other achievements and awards

Shefter is a former Governor of the

Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) (, rarely ), founded in 1916 as the Society of Motion Picture Engineers or SMPE, is a global professional association of engineers, technologists, and executives working in the m ...

. SMPTE has elevated him to Fellow membership status, "awarded to individuals who have, by proficiency and contributions, attained an outstanding rank among engineers or executives in the motion-picture, television or related industries." In 1992, Shefter received SMPTE’s Citation for Outstanding Service to the Society. In 2013, he received The Archival Technology Medal from SMPTE "in recognition of his long-standing and continued leadership contributions to the motion picture and television industry in defining practices for the storage and archive of the industry’s film legacy and digital media content." Shefter is a past President of the

Association of Moving Image Archivists The Association of Moving Image Archivists (AMIA) is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization established to advance the field of moving image archiving by fostering cooperation among individuals and organizations concerned with the acquisition, ...

, and served as Chair of the International

Coordinating Council of Audiovisual Archives Associations The Coordinating Council of Audiovisual Archives Associations (CCAAA) is an umbrella group of international private organizations working on audiovisual archiving. These professional organizations have a common goal of promoting and encouraging the ...

. He served on the

. He is an associate member of the

American Society of Cinematographers The American Society of Cinematographers (ASC), founded in Hollywood in 1919, is a cultural, educational, and professional organization that is neither a labor union nor a guild. The society was organized to advance the science and art of cine ...

, and directs and narrates their annual awards show. He is also a member of the

Writers Guild of America The Writers Guild of America is the joint efforts of two different US labor unions representing TV and film writers: * The Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE), headquartered in New York City and affiliated with the AFL–CIO * The Writers G ...

and of the

References

External links

Miljoy Enterprises

The Digital Dilemma

The Digital Dilemma 2

Digital Motion Picture Archive Framework Project
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shefter, Milt American archivists Historical preservationists Conservator-restorers Syracuse University alumni Living people Year of birth missing (living people)