And action! How we recorded a video

Published on 17 January 2017

Among the activities within the extended project was the preparation of a promotion video. Before the shooting, we had to consider several questions; in particular what we were trying to say, what purpose the video should serve and who we were hoping to reach. Our aim was to address the general public, to promote the project, to show how much work we had done within the project, and to create a video that would introduce the project and create the right atmosphere at the educational programmes that would take place in March 2017 in Norway and in the Czech Republic.

There were basically two ways to choose from to present the project. The first of them was to create a video in which the main actors of the project would explain the individual goals, activities and outputs. The second option was to portray a story of one book, which would represent all the others. A story in which librarians bring out of the shadows of depositories books with moving stories and bring them to their readers. We chose the second option as the first concept did not differ from the way we presented the project on our website and in the Czech and foreign media.

We began to cooperate with Štěpán Wait, who had studied photography at the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague and also directing at the Film and TV School at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague. Together, we decided to create a video in which we would put emphasis on beautiful shots of books with a commentary.

We had to ask ourselves which book would become our main heroine. We chose the book Freimaurerei und Politik im Zeitalter der Französischen Revolution (Freemasonry and politics during the French Revolution) by Adolf Rossberg, published in 1942 by Nordland-Verlag, a Nazi publishing house. The book was originally owned by Professor Gregor Schwarz-Bostunitsch, one of the very controversial figures of the first half of the 20th century. The Kiev-born Schwarz-Bostunitsch was a keen occultist, a naturalized German who established himself as a passionate promoter of theories about a Judeo-Masonic-Bolshevik conspiracy. He was an intriguing person, a typical product of his time. The thickly-written notes in the volume confirm that Schwarz-Bostunitsch read Rossberg’s book shortly after it was published, on his way from Regensburg to Marburg in the second half of 1942. Bostunitsch’s detailed notes indicate his extensive knowledge of the field and also confirm that he knew Rossberg in person. In several places he points out that the author learned information that was important for the edition from him. Their personal contacts are also documented by Rossberg’s obituary, pasted into the book Thanks to an obituary pasted in the book and the written notes, the book is an interesting object in itself.

After this decision was made, the first version of a script was prepared, explaining the nature of the Reserve Fonds of the National Library in which the books are stored. At one moment, our heroin appears in the script, going from hand to hand, finally ending up with librarians who first take it from the depository, clean it and catalogue it. After that, it is borrowed by a research and studied in detail. At the end of the video, we briefly introduce the project Books Discovered once Again. It must be said that there were fierce discussions regarding the script and it was not at all easy to give it its final shape. We always had to keep in mind the video's purpose and it was clear, that not everything we would like to say would fit in the commentary.

We had whole two days in early December 2016 reserved for the shooting. We worked intensely, with almost no rest. The first day, we were shooting in the National Library’s building in Hostivař. First, we filmed how a book is cleaned, then books being lent in the study room, then the process of cataloguing and finally, we filmed in several depositories. The second day, we went to the depository in Neratovice to film the Reserve Fonds and the process of sorting out books before their subsequent processing. In this place, I would like to thank all the National Library staff who participated in the filming, because the cooperation with them was simply excellent and thanks to them, there was a very pleasant atmosphere during the filming.