
Documentary film archival research bot
I’m researching two separate documentary films. For each project, the bot runs three web crawls and one health check every day. Based on my notes, scripts, and other existing initial research, it identifies research domains by theme and media type, favoring audio and images while applying a higher threshold to other documents. Anything scoring eight or higher is logged in Notion and downloaded automatically when possible. The bot cycles through different themes, and the health check adjusts the similarity threshold based on the results. If many items score eight, it may log and download only nines. If fewer qualifying items appear, it may begin downloading sevens. Most items cannot be downloaded because they are inaccessible to the bot, but they are still logged and linked. I review the items in Notion and mark each one according to criteria such as “people only for research” or “reject—permissions required.” It isn’t a full replacement for professional archival research, but I feel it’s getting me 90% of the way there. As an independent filmmaker, this is a huge benefit. Each morning, it sends me a synopsis, and each week, it sends me a list of pre-written emails to send to archives that require human interaction. 1. I provide the bot with my notes, scripts, and existing initial research for each documentary project. 2. For each project, the bot runs three web crawls and one health check every day. 3. It identifies research domains by theme and media type, with a preference for audio and images and a higher threshold for other documents. 4. It logs items scoring eight or higher in Notion and automatically downloads them when possible. 5. It cycles through different themes and uses the health check to adjust the similarity threshold: it may focus on nines when many eights appear, or begin downloading sevens when fewer qualifying items appear. 6. It logs and links items that cannot be downloaded because they are inaccessible to the bot. 7. I review each item in Notion and mark it according to criteria such as “people only for research” or “reject—permissions required.” 8. Each morning, I receive a synopsis, and each week, I receive pre-written emails for archives that require human interaction.
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