Audiovisual materials relating to the documentary Beatrice Wood: Mama of Dada, 1990-1993

Series contains three video copies of the finished documentary and 153 rolls of 16mm motion picture film negative, which are outtakes from 166 original camera negative rolls. Footage consists of three general types of content: film shot during several of the interviews and one of Wood's public appearances found in Series 1; silent footage of locations, Wood working in her studio; and footage of historical photographs and artworks.

As noted elsewhere in the finding aid, the camera roll numbers assigned during shooting, and appearing throughout the production documentation, do not match the negative roll numbers assigned during editing, which are the numbers on the existing film rolls. Although the documentation is not always precise in its transcription of the footage content and numbering, a rough inventory of footage content was made during processing to facilitate research. Verification by visual inspection is recommended prior to requesting any duplication of the footage in this series.

Footage from interviews of December 1990 appears to be on negative rolls 1-11. Footage from Wood's appearance at the Santa Monica auditorium should be on negative rolls 13-15. Interviews conducted in New York City appear to be on negative rolls 21-36. The December 1991 interviews with Wood and others appear to be on negative rolls 90-94, 105-106, and 116-119. The Luncheon shot on December 11, 1991 is likely to be on negative rolls 102-103. A lengthy shoot in Ojai in December of 1991 includes a significant amount of silent footage of Wood's studio and home, interiors and exteriors, and footage of Wood working in her studio. This footage is likely found on negative rolls 75-79, 80-88, 95-101, 108-114, 126-133, and 135. The remainder of the rolls appear to contain stills of artwork and historical photographs shot in Francis Nauman's apartment and the Philadelphia Museum, New York City exteriors, and stills of artwork shot in Ojai.

Also found in this series are three rolls of assembled shorter trims and outtakes labeled "select neg," and 7 small rolls of work print containing mainly titles and superimpositions. The "select neg" reels seem to have been roughly assembled in early stages of editing, and the footage that was ultimately used in the documentary was cut from these rough edits. Although the footage that was used in the documentary is not found in the film footage in this series, the sound recordings in Series 1 are the complete, unedited original recordings.

Film footage is arranged in rough numerical order by negative roll number, the sequence of numbers assigned during editing. Some of the film rolls were combined, with one roll containing footage from two or more original negative rolls. See Series 2, production notes and lab reports, for more documentation of footage content and links between negative roll numbers and camera roll numbers.

Camera film was originally stored in 33 cardboard boxes provided by the film lab; it has been transferred to archival film cans, sometimes with multiple rolls in single cans. Digital photographs of original cardboard boxes, which have been replaced with archival cans, are available in printed form in Series 2.