Historic Films Inc was founded by Jim Michaels, a retired journalist whose television career included 14 years at WRC/NBC in Washington, D.C., and over a decade with the Network News Division. He contributed to programs like Today, Meet the Press, and Nightly News.
He had the privilege of witnessing history firsthand, covering world leaders and Presidents from Carter to George HW Bush, and even got shot at in Nicaragua for trying to shoot B roll footage while covering the fall of the Somoza regime and the Sandinista takeover.
His love for journalism and his commitment to it are the inspiration and the guiding force behind the creation of The Museum of Motion Picture Journalism.
We take watching the news for granted now, but for hundreds of years journalism’s only tools were the written word and still images. Then the motion picture camera was invented and journalism was lifted off the page and onto the screen.
But before the internet put the news in the palm of our hand, before TV brought the news into our homes, you could only watch the news at the movie theater.
Historic Films Inc’s mission is a free digital public museum for motion picture journalism.
That means more than placing films online. It means presenting them with historical care, journalistic respect, and public purpose.
Museums invite the public to experience and to understand.
These films are not just primary source material for the study of history.
They are acts of journalism, works of cinema, and records of public memory.
Your contributions directly help Historic Films Inc. expand The Museum of Motion Picture Journalism’s collection by supporting:
- Digitization of more Universal Newsreels episodes
- Public online access to motion picture journalism
- Museum-style curation
- Educational resources for students and teachers
- Long-term stewardship of journalism history
The Universal Newsreels Project
Historic Films Inc chose the Universal Newsreels series as the flagship project for The Museum Of Motion Picture Journalism because they are historically important, visually compelling, and directly connected to the evolution of motion picture journalism.
The National Archives has preserved thousands of the surviving Universal Newsreel episodes, but less than 1% are available online for people to see.
Our digitization project will make this material freely accessible to researchers, educators, students, journalists and the general public.
This is a planning estimate for the costs of this 35mm archival film digitization project for the remaining analog only Universal Newsreels episodes.
Our Goal
Create digital copies of the Universal Newsreels film copies as economically as possible.
Key Assumptions
| Undigitized Newsreel episodes | 3,657 |
| Average runtime | 7.5 minutes |
| Est. Total runtime | 27,427.5 minutes |
| HD Scanning cost | $8.64 per minute |
| Est. Total scanning cost | $236,973.60 |
| National Archive pull fee | $17.25/title |
| Est. Total pull fees | $63,083.25 |
| Courier fees to and from lab | $60.00/order |
| Max 12 Titles per Order | 305 orders |
| Est. Total Courier fees | $18,300.00 |
| Onsite Data Storage (1 48TB RAID, 2 Backup 48TB RAIDs) | $10,500 |
| Online Backup Data Storage (50TB) | $4170.00/year |
| Est. Project Total | $333026.85 |
| 3,657 episodes | |
| Average Cost Per Episode | $91.07 |
*These are broad planning assumptions for the scope of the project, not a contractual vendor quote.
*Actual final costs would depend on each individual episode’s specific condition (varying lengths, some newsreels lack the original soundtrack, scanning rate discounts are available for volume orders, etc).
Historic Films Inc is a 501(c)(3) registered nonprofit public charity, EIN#33-2717199 and all contributions are tax deductible. To make the most efficient use of your donations we have partnered with Zeffy and GiveButter.
Both are nonprofit payment processors that send Historic Films Inc 100% of your donation and ask for an optional tip donation to help them with their mission to cover the transaction fees for donations to other nonprofits.
To donate through givebutter
https://givebutter.com/help-expand-the-museum-8hxiyq