Motion Picture Preservation and Duplication: Bono's commitment to our national and personal archival film collections


Ordering from the National Archives
Are you new to the ordering process? Maybe our chart will help you! Click on the diagram for a full view. It includes hyperlinks to NARA & ARC
As an approved vendor authorized by NARA to handle all of its motion picture and video archival formats and designations, whether P, I, I-2, or P-2, we invite you to submit your Item Approval Request Form (IARL) to us via e-mail. We use a unique internet based e-mail bid process. We need to view a clear and complete copy of the IARL. This form is the only means by which we can respond. Before issuing a bid we will also need to know the specifications for your transfer. Therefore, please attach your IARL to a detailed email that outlines your transfer needs. We will not provide a bid unless we receive an e-mail from you; we are unable to fax bids. We do not provide "ballpark" bids over the phone. If you do not have a completed and approved IARL yet, download one from our site or contact NARA and request the electronic version of the IARL. You will receive a blank interactive IARL for your keyboard input. The form requires MS WORD 2000. Upon completion, return the IARL form to NARA for approval. You will receive an approved form that will contain the specifications of the items you wish to be duplicated. Once you have the approved completed IARL, you are ready to contact us. To receive an electronic version of the IARL: mopix@nara.gov If you do not have MS WORD 2000, you may download the PDF to send to NARA. If you received an IARL from NARA via fax, scan the IARL and save it as a PDF, TIFF, or JPEG and attach it to your email request. We no longer receive IARLS via fax because they are difficult to read and usually require unnecessary follow-up on your part and ours. Please ensure that your IARL is readable. The only way to start the bid process is for you to e-mail us with your specifications and attach the IARL to the e-mail. Our e-mail is: archives@bonofilm.com. Please include the specifications for your project in your email. In the body of your message, please describe the service you require (high definition or standard definition telecine transfer for film items, film-to-tape or hard drive, tape-to-tape, etc). Be specific, please. For example, if you are transferring to tape include the tape format and whether you wish a compilation of items on one tape or prefer each item on a separate tape. Our policies section contains information pertaining to payment and shipping methods. For NARA orders destined for a professional production, please specify your intention in the column marked In column #3 of the item approval request list (IARL), please ONLY insert the following statement: "film if avail." This will alert the NARA staff that if a film "I" and an "EI" (electronic intermediate) exist for the same item, they will pull the film "I." Native full bandwidth telecine transferring from the film "I" in high definition and standard definition will always yield the highest quality transfer. When you send your IARL to us via e-mail, please designate your preferred format in your e-mail message. Please note that we can transfer to a variety of formats. Failure to follow this above simple written procedure will result in major confusion and could prevent you from receiving your requested material. If you are interested in NARA material for personal (non-broadcast) use , please note that we do not transfer directly to VHS. We can transfer to any of the formats listed above and then make a VHS dub or DVD-R dub for you. We will only provide a bid via email. You will find that our response time is usually within hours. Send email.
For potential customers: NARA's current search system is called ARC which stands for Archival Research Catalog. Visit ARC on the NARA site to locate the items that might suit your needs. (http://www.archives.gov/research_room/arc/). You will need to find the "Variant Control Number" that is posted in the details of a title, about half way down the page. The NAIL control number is the number that you will use when filling out the IARL (Item Approval Request List). To view sample screens that you will find up on the NARA ARC site, open our PDF file entitled ARC 1. Fill out the IARL and submit it to NARA. This is a wish list; you are not obligated at this stage to proceed with an order. You are merely checking on the availability of the material, the archival format, approximate running time, and "pending" code for each item. No vendor can estimate your costs without the approved IARL returned from NARA. To reduce cost and turnaround time, pay particular attention to the approval codes in the far right-hand column of the Item Approval Request Form. If time and budget are important to you, an "I" in that column is most preferable. NARA charges a $17.25 handling fee for each "I" or "P" item; we pass that cost on to you with no extra charge. Please note that if the title that you wish has more than one reel, each reel is considered a separate item; therefore, you will need to enter each reel separately on the IARL and you will be charged for each reel. The "P" means that no film or video copy for public access to that item exists. If you wish access to that material you will be required to pay for the creation of an electronic intermediate copy (Digital Betacam) of the item. As of May 1st, 2007, the "normal" $17.25 handling fee is charged for "P" items. The "-2" designates a restricted item which requires processing of proper release forms from the holder of the material. Although NARA will provide you with the information on the holder, you are responsible for obtaining the permission. The time necessary for that extra step is difficult to calculate. Please note that the runtimes provided by NARA are not always correct. Your estimates will be based on the runtimes provided on the IARLs; expect adjustments to final invoices to reflect any differences. Customers will be notified if there are major discrepancies between the IARL designations and the material picked up from NARA. Cancellation policy. To accept an estimate that we have provided, please follow the directions on the bid that we send to you. Please note that once you have accepted the bid, we immediately place your order with NARA; therefore there are no cancellations after you agree to accept the estimate and its terms and conditions. We cannot offer research assistance nor can we order and search material to find out if items contain the material you need. We would recommend starting with the online Research Room and ARC. The National Archives site also provides an extensive list of independent researchers that will help you locate material for a fee. We can only transfer or duplicate full reels, per NARA regulations.



8601 Adelphi Road College park, MD 20740-6001 301-837-3520 (phone)
Revised 22 May 2007