Curators and museums
Accession interviews with donors, artists, and estates — provenance, condition history, and display intent on the record.
The Pre-Roll
Before the work is filed, the record is filmed.
The Pre-Roll is a short, structured, on-camera interview recorded before a body of work enters the archive. It captures the one thing a file cannot hold on its own: the person who made it, saying what it is, why it exists, and what they intend to happen to it. It runs to a fixed format so every subject is treated the same way, and every recording is admissible as part of the provenance record.
The case
Why the Pre-Roll exists
A file proves a work exists. A filmed statement proves a person stands behind it — in their own voice, on a dated record, with their intent stated plainly.
Attribution disputes are usually settled by whoever documented the context first. The Pre-Roll produces that documentation before the dispute rather than after it.
Institutions increasingly require an audit trail for what they hold, display, license, or insure. A structured interview covers provenance, consent, and authority in one sitting.
The recording has a second life: it becomes the introduction to the collection, the exhibition, the release, or the estate — content and evidence from the same session.
Scope
Who it is for
Political organizations and campaigns
Statements of position and authorship, dated and unedited, alongside a documented consent and usage scope.
Legal practices
Client and witness context interviews prepared to a consistent format, with chain-of-custody handling for the resulting media.
Accounting and audit firms
Management representation and process-walkthrough interviews captured once and retained with the working papers.
A&R and record labels
Session and catalog interviews establishing writers, splits, samples, and clearance intent before release.
Marketing and brand teams
Founder, spokesperson, and testimonial interviews with consent, territory, and term captured up front.
Festivals and live events
Arrival interviews with artists and programmers, banked for press use and for the festival's own historical record.
Educational institutions
Faculty, alumni, and oral-history interviews recorded to a repeatable standard suitable for long-term preservation.
Health and clinical organizations
Practitioner and program interviews handled under strict consent controls, with no patient-identifying material captured.
High-end collections and gear
Provenance interviews with owners and custodians — acquisition history, servicing record, and disposition intent.
Game studios
Design authorship interviews covering original assets, contributor credit, and engine and middleware licensing context.
Estates and family offices
Legacy interviews establishing what is held, who holds authority, and what the family intends for the material.
Standard
The format
Runtime
18 to 24 minutes
Long enough for substance, short enough to record in one take without fatigue. Longer sittings are scheduled as two blocks with a break.
Structure
Five fixed blocks
Identification, the work, provenance, intent, and the statement. Every subject answers the same blocks in the same order.
Camera
Two angles, locked off
A primary at eye level and a secondary at a modest offset. No handheld, no zooms — the record must not look directed.
Audio
Two independent tracks
A lavalier and a boom, recorded separately, so a failure on one channel does not compromise the record.
Delivery
Master, transcript, clip set
An unedited master for the archive, a timecoded transcript, and a short cut cleared for public use.
Retention
Archived with the work
The master is stored with checksums and consent evidence alongside the material it describes.
Script
The five question blocks
Every subject answers these blocks in this order. Consistency is what makes one recording comparable to another, and what makes the set usable as evidence rather than as footage.
Block 1 · Identification
Establishes who is speaking, in what capacity, and with what authority. Never skipped, never paraphrased.
- 01State your full name, and the name you work under if it differs.
- 02What is your role, and what does that role give you authority over?
- 03Who do you represent in this recording — yourself, an organization, an estate, or a client?
- 04Today's date, and where we are recording.
- 05Are you speaking voluntarily, and has anyone instructed you what to say?
Block 2 · The work
Puts the material on the record in the subject's own description, before any catalog language is applied.
- 01Describe the body of work we are documenting, as you would to someone who has never seen it.
- 02When did it begin, and is it finished?
- 03What is in it — how many pieces, what formats, what condition?
- 04Which single item matters most, and why that one?
- 05What is commonly misunderstood about it?
Block 3 · Provenance
Traces origin, contribution, and custody. This is the block that decides disputes later.
- 01Who made it? Name every contributor and what each one contributed.
- 02Was anything licensed, sampled, commissioned, or inherited? From whom, and on what terms?
- 03Where has it been held since it was made, and who else has had access?
- 04What documentation already exists — contracts, receipts, registrations, correspondence?
- 05Is there any part of the history you cannot presently prove? Say so plainly.
Block 4 · Intent
Records what the subject wants to happen — the instruction the record carries forward.
- 01What do you want done with this material in the next five years?
- 02What must never be done with it?
- 03Who decides if you cannot?
- 04Is any use here restricted — territory, term, medium, or audience?
- 05How should it be described after you stop describing it?
Block 5 · The statement
One uninterrupted take, delivered to camera. This is the segment that gets used publicly.
- 01In one sentence: what is this, and what is it yours to say about it?
- 02Why does it matter that this is on the record now rather than later?
- 03Say, in your own words, what you are asserting about ownership and authorship.
- 04Anything you want on the record that we did not ask?
Instructions
Rules for the interviewer
- Ask the question as written, then stop talking. Silence is where the record gets made.
- Never supply the answer, never rephrase into a leading form, and never say "so what you mean is."
- One question at a time. Stacked questions produce unusable answers.
- If an answer is vague, ask once for specifics — a date, a name, a number — then move on.
- Do not correct the subject on camera. Note the discrepancy and resolve it in the follow-up memo.
- Do not react. No agreement, no surprise, no encouragement — a neutral record reads as credible.
- If a subject asks to strike an answer, mark the timecode and continue. Nothing is deleted; exclusions are documented.
- Never coach toward a legal conclusion. Capture facts and intent; leave characterization to counsel.
Instructions
How the subject prepares
- Bring the documents you have — contracts, receipts, registrations, correspondence — even if incomplete.
- Bring the single item you consider most important, or a photograph of it if it cannot travel.
- Have names, dates, and figures written down. It is better to read a number than to estimate it.
- Wear solid mid-tones. Avoid tight patterns, logos, and anything that rustles against a microphone.
- Plan for 90 minutes on site for a 20-minute recording. Setup and consent take the balance.
- Do not memorize answers. Prepared speeches are visible on camera and weaken the record.
Instructions
Production checklist
Before
- Signed release covering territory, term, medium, and permitted uses, executed before the camera is switched on.
- Confirm authority: the subject can speak for the material named in the request.
- Scout the room for noise floor, reflective surfaces, and mains hum. Reschedule rather than record badly.
- Label media and confirm free space and battery on every device, including the backup recorder.
During
- Slate every take with date, subject, block number, and take number, spoken aloud on camera.
- Run the two audio tracks independently and confirm levels at the head of each block.
- Keep a paper log of timecodes for names, figures, and anything flagged for follow-up.
- Do not stop mid-block unless a technical fault requires it. Note the fault on the log.
After
- Offload to two destinations and verify checksums before any card is cleared.
- Produce the timecoded transcript and have the subject review it for factual corrections only.
- Package master, transcript, log, and signed release as one accession bundle.
- Issue the follow-up memo listing every unresolved item and who owns each one.
Guardrails
Consent and handling
- Consent is written and specific. Verbal permission on camera supplements the release; it never replaces it.
- No patient-identifying, minor-identifying, or privileged material is captured without documented authorization from the party who can grant it.
- Masters are stored encrypted at rest with least-privilege access and a logged retrieval trail.
- The subject receives their own copy of the master. The record belongs to the person who made it.
- We document; we do not adjudicate. Nothing in a Pre-Roll session is presented as a legal determination.
- Public clips are released only from the cleared cut, and only within the scope the release names.
Booking
Request a Pre-Roll interview
The Pre-Roll is a documentation service. It records statements, context, and intent — it is not legal, accounting, or clinical advice, and nothing captured in a session is presented as a determination of any kind.