In this Spring of 2019, we here at ‘Ulu‘ulu are graced with the presence of not only one, but two interns from the Academy for Creative Media Program. With a few months under each of their belts, they have gotten into the swing of things and have become familiar faces in the archive. During their time at ‘Ulu‘ulu, some of their duties include digital migration of tapes from various collections, setting up the archive exhibits, and verifying collection inventory and item counts. While we can go on and on about the work our interns are doing, we wanted to hear directly from Zach and Lauren about themselves and their experiences.
Could you introduce yourself and tell us what it’s like being a student in the Academy for Creative Media Program?
Zach in front of the digital video rack
Zach: Hi everyone, my name is Zachary Carlos, and I’m a senior at West Oahu’s Academy for Creative Media Program.
Being a student in the CM program is a great experience to be part of. With the classes offered in the program, I am able to further develop more towards my creative side with commercial designing and video gaming designing.
Lauren at the entrance to the archive area
Lauren: Hi, my name is Lauren Kato, I am in my final semester of the Academy for Creative Media Program at UH Manoa. The Creative Media Program is a fun and enjoyable program for people interested in creative media.
Zach scanning news log sheets from the KITV Collection
What brought you to your internship at ‘Ulu‘ulu?
Zach: I wanted to obtain some experience in an archival workplace and to understand the process of how things/materials are recorded and stored for safe keeping and future use. I would use some of the knowledge learned during my internship to be put on my resume, which would help companies I would like to apply for know that I have some knowledge in archiving important documents and such.
Lauren: As this is my last semester from the Academy for Creative Media Program, I was thinking it would be a good idea to do an internship and my family agreed with me. My family and I were looking at different options, but my father was the one to suggest ‘Ulu‘ulu as a possible internship. With his help, we inquired with ‘Ulu‘ulu and in the end, it worked out and I was able to get an internship at ‘Ulu‘ulu.
Before you began interning at ‘Ulu‘ulu, what kind of image did the word ‘archive’ convey to you?
Zach: The image I envisioned for the word “archive” was like a vast building/collection of old materials: film, pictures, audio records, etc.
Lauren sitting at the digitizing station
Lauren: Like most people would think, the word archive makes me think of old books, old paper documents, and even old maps.
Has that image changed by starting this internship?
Zach: The image somewhat changed, but not entirely.
Lauren: Yes, it has, the word archive does have many interpretations depending on what it is being preserved for future generations.
Please tell us about a project that you’re currently working on.
Zach digitizing footage from tapes
Zach: The project I’m currently working on is the KGMB Transcodes process. The process is basically re-coding ripped video files to a different source file by using a re-coding program. For the re-coding process, I have a batch of 10 videos to be re-coded, which takes about 20 minutes. After the 10 videos are done, I go to a spreadsheet to check how “damaged” the videos are by conducting quality control checks and damage ratings on the files.
Lauren: At ‘Ulu‘ulu, one of the projects I am helping out with is scanning old catalog index cards from the KITV News station. As for a Creative Media Project, I’m currently doing an interview assignment where I interviewed Janel Quirante about the ‘Ulu‘ulu archive.
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Thank you to Lauren and Zach for sharing those thoughts with us. We sincerely appreciate your contribution to the archive and how much it helps the work that we do. Be proud that you were a part of preserving Hawai‘i’s moving image history!
ʻUluʻulu: The Henry Kuʻualoha Giugni Moving Image Archive of Hawaiʻi 