Advertising documents in film archives: importance, present situation and difficulties of analysis

Abstract

Many important filmmakers have perfected their cinematographic technique by filming advertisements. For this reason, it is not surprising that advertising materials are often included when filmmakers donate their work to a film archive. However, these materials are not always properly catalogued and their dissemination and use is quite limited. This paper describes the quantity and variety of advertising documents preserved in the Spanish film archives, emphasizes their importance as primary information sources for understanding the history of advertising in particular and of cinematography in general, and explains some of the difficulties and challenges of analysing them as documents. The challenge of documentary control of these materials lies not only in the amount of work, but 1) the lack of a methodology that encompasses all documentary procedures and 2) the lack of qualified personnel.