In the age of streaming, it’s hard to imagine not being able to watch a film again after its theatrical run, or a show after it has aired on television. But almost half a century ago, this was the reality faced by then-high school student Dann Garcia.

He observed at the time the dearth in the available television material from the past two decades. This prompted him to record some rare TV moments through magnetic tapes -- a process he would later find out to be archiving.

“Kahit papaano, may mare-reserve ako na halimbawa. Tumanda man ako, may puwede akong balikan,” Garcia said.

The International Council on Archives describes archives as the “documentary by-product of human activity retained for their long-term value.” These can come in different forms, including video. Archiving is the process of preserving such materials.

While Garcia isn’t an archivist by profession (he is a technology support engineer), the practice of archiving and preserving old media has since overflowed to archive hobbyists like himself who dare learn the ropes of the craft on their own.

Starting with archiving

Back in the day, Garcia recorded TV shows using VHS (Video Home System) tapes, a form of magnetic tape produced by Japanese company JVC that became the standard for home video tape recording in the late 20th century.

One of the first TV events he archived was the 25th anniversary special of the Philippine Basketball Association, which contained rare footage of the league’s games from the ‘70s and ‘80s.

“Nakipag-away pa ako sa pamilya ko noon, kasi noong panahon na ‘yun isang bahay, isang TV set, isang VHS. Kung ano ‘yung papanoorin ng isa, ‘yun ang papanoorin ng lahat. Sabi ko, padaanin ninyo muna ako,” he recalled.

Garcia shows the master copy of his TV recording of the PBA 25th Anniversary special from 2000 in an online interview with ABS-CBN News.

Due to the high costs of blank tapes at the time, Garcia improvised by recording television broadcasts over films on VHS tapes at their home. When he got hold of a computer, he upgraded to a TV tuner which he used to record straight to hard disks and export the footage to CDs.

Later on, he was also able to digitize his analog magnetic tapes and store them on computer hard disk storage systems.

Jerome Villanueva, another millennial archive hobbyist, took almost the same path as Garcia. His fascination for archiving started with a love for Filipino-dubbed anime, especially Doraemon and Voltes V.

“Noong bata ako, sobrang crude nung process ko. Dahil gusto ko ‘yung isang episode ng Doraemon, ‘yung cassette recorder tinatapat ko sa TV. Nire-record ko lang ‘yung audio,” he recalled.

Once in high school and college, Villanueva started exploring the archiving practice and purchasing his own equipment to record television broadcasts and convert magnetic tapes to digital formats.

His priority was preserving old tapes of family occasions, such as his first birthday celebration and his mother’s 18th. He also offered digitizing services to friends, making it a money-making venture at some point.

The test of time

One of the biggest challenges in the archiving process, according to Garcia and Villanueva, is looking for usable tapes and working equipment.

Patrol ng Pilipino: Paano nire-restore ang mga lumang pelikula?

“Ang pinaka-first step is to find a working VHS. Kasi in this day and age, mahirap nang makahanap working VHS. Hahanap ka pa sa [online] marketplace o sa tiangge,” Garcia said.

It was a good thing that he had a friend who gave him their old VHS player for free. Villanueva, meanwhile, lamented the difficulty in finding magnetic tapes that have stood the test of time.

“Ang na-record ko lang na media is mostly early and late 2000s na. Saan ka makakahanap sa ngayon sa buong Pilipinas na sobrang init, nasisira na ‘yung mga tapes? Saan ka makakahanap ng material na ‘80s, ‘90s?” he told ABS-CBN News.

This is the same concern highlighted by Australia’s National Film and Sound Archive, which warned that magnetic tapes not digitized by this year could be at risk of being lost forever. It calls this dilemma ‘Deadline 2025.’

Former Film Development Council of the Philippines (FDCP) chair Liza Diño-Seguerra noted in 2021 that about 65 percent of the Filipino film library is considered lost or destroyed, and “whatever is left that’s unpreserved is exposed to damage and deterioration each day.”

The Philippine Film Archive, which is under the FDCP, hosts a variety of audiovisual archives including television shows. Its collection, however, is quite small at 25,000 audiovisual elements when compared to the Australian NFSA’s more than 4 million items as of 2024.

“Sana magkaroon tayo ng effort at masuportahan din ng government ‘yung ganitong klaseng initiative kasi napakahalaga nito sa history ng bansa, sa ating kultura,” Villanueva said.

Fading away

The concept of archiving may have been set aside due to the emergence of video streaming platforms which hosts a plethora of television shows and movies. But even these libraries can get taken down arbitrarily and with little to no warning.

Meta, the parent company of Facebook, has announced in February that it will be deleting live videos on the platform after 30 days -- meaning old live broadcasts on the platform are now gone. Shift in company direction is also triggering content takedowns like Netflix’s interactive sci-fi thriller film ‘Black Mirror: Bandersnatch’ which have been removed from the streaming site last May 12.

Meta updates policy on Facebook live videos, removing them after 30 days

In the Philippines, archiving has also taken a hit, after ABS-CBN’s Film Restoration Project ended its run after 14 years of preserving classic Filipino feature films.

ABS-CBN Film Restoration ends 14-year run

‘Bumabata ulit’

More than its cultural impact, Garcia likens archived material of television shows to a ‘time capsule,’ as seen in the feedback of social media users when he uploaded footage of old broadcasts on Facebook and YouTube.

“Sinasabi nila bumabalik ‘yung oras, bumabata ulit. Laging ganoon ang comment nila, kasi karamihan ng content ko, early to mid-2000s. ‘Yung mga bata noong panahon na ‘yun, ngayon mga adults na,” he noted.

He also had the same experience with batchmates from college after he shared with them a report on ‘TV Patrol’ from 2004 which featured him and his friends.

Garcia (in green) and his college batchmates are featured in the ‘Citizen Patrol’ segment of ‘TV Patrol’ in 2004, which he managed to preserve the recording of. Screenshot from Dann Garcia/YouTube

“Noong in-upload ko sa YouTube channel ko ‘yung recording noon, ‘yung mga kaklase ko na alam na nangyari ‘yun at mga kasama ko sa college, sabi, 'Totoy na totoy ka pa.' Tapos tawa na lang nang tawa. Tapos mag-aano na lang ng impromptu na get-together,” he recalled.

Archived old media also gives the current generation an outlook of the past, said Villanueva, who is also sharing parts of his collection on the “Collection of Jerome Villanueva” YouTube and Facebook pages.

“Natutuwa ako sa ibang nagco-comment sa YouTube na, ‘Ako po ay isang Gen Z. Napapanood ko po ‘yung mga pino-post niyo and sobrang tuwang-tuwa ako na makita and ma-witness kung anong itsura ng TV dati,’” the archive hobbyist shared.

Apart from their personal platforms, Garcia and Villanueva also share their archives to members of the Facebook group Obscure and Lost Media Philippines Archiving Community of over 20,000 members from different generations, who also share a love for old media and the advocacy of preserving them.

The challenge now, Villanueva believes, is the race against time to save the remaining surviving tapes of the past to preserve it for the use of future generations.