Trainee film conservator

Sign up for our Learn More webinar at 5pm on Tuesday 15th April.

Closing date for applications: Monday 28th April at 11.59pm

Salary: £29,526 per annum

Working hours: 41 hours per week (inclusive of a 1 hour lunch break per day)

Location: John Paul Getty Jr. Conservation Centre, Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire

Duration: 18 months

Start date: Monday 2nd June 2025

Learn about the conservation and preservation of archive film objects, through this paid 18 month entry level trainee role at the British Film Institute’s National Archive.

The BFI National Archive is one of the largest and oldest film archives in the world, containing material from 1895 to the present day. It holds hundreds of thousands of films, videos and digital items representing the nation’s moving image screen heritage. The BFI is on a mission to make itself the world’s most open archive, reframing the public’s relationship with the collections and focusing on the diversity of its audiences.

As a trainee film conservator you will join the BFI National Archive team over 18 months, training under the close supervision of experienced film conservators who will teach you how to conserve and preserve film. Your hands-on training will include learning to handle, identify, catalogue and scan 16mm & 35mm archive film, making digital copies available for the public.

You will learn to archive digital assets into the Archive’s Digital Preservation Infrastructure. You will also spend time with other key roles in the Conservation team who will provide depth and context to your learning. These could include film preservation, film projection, high-resolution scanning, image & sound quality assessment, remastering and restoration, film cleaning, photochemical film printing & processing.

Occasional visits to other Conservation studios, Conferences and/ or Screen Heritage institutions are also part of the 18 month training programme.

What could this lead to?

Successful completion of this traineeship could lead to a wide range of careers across various sectors, including roles in film conservation at the BFI or within one of the many regional or national archives in the UK or abroad. Other potential pathways include positions in post-production, the library or museum sector, or the conservation of other material types and collections such as videotape, paper, stills photography, paintings, costume, vehicles, or buildings. Opportunities may also arise in research or education.

What you will learn

• Safely handle, wind, identify and catalogue archive films (of various formats)
• Start to understand the ethics of film conservation and working with a National Collection
• Interact with the Collections Systems Database, barcode film cans and ensure their location is always traceable
• Scan 16mm & 35mm motion picture film for High-Definition presentation
• Quality-check and ingest digital film elements into the Digital Preservation Infrastructure
• Work with a diverse range of people and teams giving you a broad understanding of film conservation, for example; the Digital & Photo-chemical Film Laboratory
• Spend regular time in the Quality Control projection theatres, under supervision of an experienced projectionist, learning how the technical and physical qualities of a film present as sound and vision when projected
• You will be given time to record and reflect on your learning and experience gained
• You will learn how to create a conservation portfolio and share your work with others during BFI tours and open days.

Knowledge, skills and experience

Essential

• An interest in the technology of film, photography, image and sound, analogue or digital
• Curiosity! A desire to ask and find out why is a core skill of the role. This combined with the ability to accept that sometimes we can’t know all the answers. You might have good research skills from education or a previous role
• Excellent manual dexterity with the ability to handle fragile objects with care. For example, experience in arts, crafts, needlework or model making
• A desire to analyse the quality of moving image and sound, paying attention to details such as, colour, tone, contrast and spotting possible defects
• You must have a keen interest, in equal measure, with old technologies and cutting-edge digital ones
• You must be curious and careful, having a respect and appreciation for old and fragile objects, that may test your patience. This may teach you as much about yourself and how you like to work, as it does the objects you’ll work with.
• Strong communication skills and demonstrable experience of team working, are essential
• Good writing skills with a desire to write technical or qualitative information that will be understood in years to come
• Proactive approach to personal development
• Minimum level 2 equivalent for English and Maths.

Desirable

• A basic understanding of video and audio file formats, compression and file conversion
• An aptitude for working with new and changing technologies, for example Editing systems such as Da Vinci Resolve or Adobe Premiere
• The ability to pay close attention to detail, whilst holding the big picture in mind
• A desire to accurately describe an object, especially in written form – this could come from experience in education, cataloguing, inventory writing etc.
• Excellent organisation skills demonstrated in previous experience, with experience of Microsoft M365
• A proven passion and eagerness to learn
• Demonstrable problem-solving skills.

Unique elements or circumstances in this role include:

• Most of your time will be spent working with the film collection at the Conservation Centre, which means opportunities to work from home are limited
• Training and personal development opportunities will be provided
• This is a two-way pilot initiative where the BFI wants to learn from your experiences as much as you learn from it, because they want to develop their knowledge-sharing practices and develop methods to pass these skills, knowledge and experience to a new generation
• The material in this National Collection spans over 125 years of motion picture film. With all that history the BFI are sometimes required to watch content that may cause offence; however, nobody will be required to watch material beyond what they find comfortable
• BFI encourages reflective practice and knowledge sharing as part of its work. It supports trainees to participate in activities designed to improve collective practice. If comfortable, they might also participate in Conservation Centre tours to demonstrate the film conservation activities they practice.
  

To apply

• Log in to your Creative Access account or register today to apply for this opportunity
• Upload your CV and cover letter as one document (applications without a tailored cover letter will not be accepted)
• Please specify at the top of your cover letter if you wish to be considered as a part of the Disability Confident scheme outlined below, as this information will be shared with the BFI
• Once submitted, you can no longer amend your application, so proof-read carefully
• Do not contact the company directly
• Please email any queries about this role to Creative Access at this address: recruit@creativeaccess.org.uk

We welcome and encourage applications from candidates who are under-represented in the creative industries. This includes, but is not limited to, individuals who identify as Black, Asian, or from other ethnically diverse backgrounds, or people of any ethnicity who belong to the following under-represented groups: disabled people, people with the characteristic of gender reassignment, individuals from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, carers and asylum seekers.

The BFI is a Disability Confident employer, meaning they are committed to recruiting, retaining, and developing disabled people. Creative Access will endeavour to longlist and progess to interview all disabled applicants who best meet the minimum criteria for this opportunity.

Creative Access offers programmes of training, networking and support specifically designed for people from these under-represented groups.