The NSF/LC-funded VidArch project is moving beyond a focus on the preservation of data and isolated information objects to the preservation of persistent context that will make today's videos not only accessible, but also understandable far into the future. This project builds from the Reference Model for an Open Archival Information System (OAIS) but also uses the archivist's traditional descriptive tool, the finding aid. The VidArch project is blending the conceptualizing power of the finding aid with the complexity and information-rich nature of video to create the video-, and more generally, multimedia-enhanced finding aid. This paper reports on our progress toward developing a framework of elements to be documented within video collections (related actors, events, objects, places and times), and a cost-effective means to locate, authenticate, select, and capture these materials within preservation environments. In this process we seek to identify those elements that are best documented today and secure contextualizing materials for them while noting other elements that will be more deeply supported by materials available in the future.