Editor's Note: It is my pleasure to welcome Christopher Scott of IMF&S Hollywood to the Staff of Iron Mountain Film & Sound Bytes as Associate Editor. He is a 3 year Iron Mountain employee who brings to his new position a thorough knowledge of media asset preservation and the operating systems of IMF&S.

EDITORIAL - Edwin Outwater
A View from the Mountain

The tragic fire on a major studio lot in Los Angeles last June 1st was certainly one of the biggest archive-related disasters to befall the entertainment industry in recent memory. What seemed to have been a secure environment for priceless entertainment assets in fact turned out not to be. What happened? Were the assets protected (at a minimum) as per Archiving 101? Could anything more have been done to prevent the event itself and, just as importantly, its repercussions?

There are a myriad of questions relating to this event, and only few people who are qualified to give meaningful answers. One of them is Paul West, Senior VP of Studio and Archive Services for Universal Music Group. Although most of UMG's assets had been moved out of the vault and the rest were scheduled to be moved, some masters were still being stored in the building that burned that day on the back lot. I asked Paul if he would go over with me the events of that Sunday, June 1, 2008 and share his observations and conclusions for the benefit of the IMF&S Bytes readership.

"My own personal opinion is that entertainment executives in general are beginning the get their heads around the idea of an archive as a profit center and not a cost center."

EO: UMG is and has been on the cutting edge of digital asset management and distribution of music and video for many years. How did the company's pre-existing business policy decision serve the company in this case?

PW: The most obvious answer is that preparing assets for the digital marketplace necessitates generating additional copies. And of course our policy is to geographically separate multiple versions of the same asset. In fact the larger part of the collection that had been housed on the lot was moved to Iron Mountain PA some time ago and we have been accessing it since then via Iron Mountain / Xepa Digital Studios. So, yes, starting early with digital archiving and distribution did help us in a very real way.

EO: This fire seemed to be "The Perfect Storm" in its own genre. Could you go over your experiences that day? What in your estimation were the contributing factors that made this disaster what it was?

PW: Let's begin with the time it started, which was 3 am. According to the LA Times, it began on a set where asphalt roof shingles were being replaced. Standard operating procedure is to heat them with a blowtorch during application so they adhere firmly and then wait for one hour to make sure no combustion occurs. This is exactly what the supervisor and two assistants did. The fire was then reported by a security guard at 4:43 am. It was on the back lot. If it had been elsewhere it might have been spotted sooner. By the time it spread to the vault building it had engulfed an area about the size of a city block, and it was HOT. Of course there were fire retardant systems in place, but remember these assets are comprised of petroleum derived products and paper products. So it didn't take long for the Archive building to become engulfed, reach "critical mass" and overwhelm the automatic systems in place and the firefighters, who reported dealing with inadequate water-pressure. No official conclusions have been released on this water issue. Sadly, the rest is history.

EO: Geographical separation, as referred to in my Archiving 101 comment, is key. What percentage and where for UMG?

PW: Yes, it is. As I mentioned before we do have our assets separated geographically in four locations. They are Los Angeles, the New York area, Nashville and in "the underground" in Pennsylvania. In addition, there are, as a by-product of the way we do business, international distribution copies at our licensees and affiliates all over the world.

EO: As in any business, money enters into the archiving equation for all the entertainment companies. What's your assessment of "where the heads" of entertainment execs are now on this one? I'm hinting at the age-old conflict, costs VS potential returns. And have things changed in the last few years…particularly post June 1.

PW: My own personal opinion is that entertainment executives in general are beginning the get their heads around the idea of an archive as a profit center and not a cost center. As you mentioned earlier, UMG has been there for a long time. Clearly an archive cannot be a profit center if it no longer exists in a usable form, or at all. The fire was a wakeup call for a lot of people. I just hope it's not like high fuel prices, where everyone complains vigorously and demands changes when the prices are high, but when they drop down again all is forgotten and it's back to business as usual.

EO: Any words to the wise resulting from this event? You experienced the real thing, something that's always very different from a hypothetical. What are the lessons to be learned?

PW: Don't ever think, "it can't happen here." It can. It is our job, as custodians of these priceless assets to do everything in our power to prevent it from happening, and as a corollary, to have a plan detailing what steps to take and exactly how to take them if it does happen.

EO: Thanks Paul for your insights. I hope all of us in the business of preserving entertainment assets can learn from the events of that incredible Sunday last June, and remember the old adage: "those who ignore history's lessons are doomed to repeat them".

Your thoughts and comments are always welcome. edwin.outwater@ironmountain.com