SCREENOCEAN ADDS FOOTAGE FROM MUSIC CHANNELS: Aug 24th 2010
UK footage house Screenocean has an exclusive deal to market footage from Box TV, the Bauer Media and Channel 4 joint venture music tv company. Box operates the British tv channels 4Music, Kerrang!, Magic, Smash Hits, The Box, Kiss and Q. Screenocean already handles clip sales for Channel 4 and The Shed Media Group and the Digital Rights Group catalogue of programming, and says the new offering will add "a wealth of unique 21st Century content from the world of music and entertainment...(that) ... brings our deep music footage collection bang up to date." Web: www.screenocean.com
BBC ARCHIVE MOVE WELL UNDERWAY: Aug 23rd 2010
The first 600,000 items from the archives of the UK national broadcaster the BBC -- one of the biggest broadcast archives in the world -- have arrived at the institution's new home, a purpose-built centre at Perivale in West London, three and a half miles form the old archive in Windmill Road, Brentford. The new centre is made up of 13 atmosphere-controlled vaults over two levels which provide nearly 85,000 shelves. If placed end to end they would stretch for almost 61 miles (100 km). In total the BBC has over four million archive items to move -- 2.7m video tapes, 600,000 films and over 700,000 music recordings on various formats. The move is progressing at the rate of 300 crates per day in an operation that is expected to take nine months. A digitisation programme is underway in the new centre at the same time, with the BBC uitilising robotic machines for future access.
TCM PROGRAMMING MARATHON FOR MARCH OF TIME ANNIVERSARY: Aug 23rd 2010
Turner Classic Movies is marking the 75th anniversary of the ground-breaking theatrical journalism series The March of Time with an extensive programming marathon. It goes to air on Sunday September 5, featuring ten short programmes from 1937, to half-hour shows produced between 1938 and 1950. Produced by Time Magazine between 1935 and 1951, at its peak The March of Time provided news on current events for over 20 million people per month in 9,000 theaters throughout the United States often using a news-drama formula. The series is in the hands of HBO Archives which has been managing and restoring it for more than three years. In addition to the TCM programming, the anniversary has already been marked by special showings at the US National Gallery of Art, and events are planned at The Museum of Modern Art in New York, between September 1 and 10. Web: www.hboarchives.com
GETTY SIGNS UP FOR VINTAGE TV DEAL: Aug 21st 2010
Getty Images has joined ITN Source, BBC Motion Gallery and others in granting new UK tv channel Vintage TV access to its footage. In addition to its modern material, Getty markets the collections of the former Archive Films of New York ranging from 20th century newsreels, industrial films, Hollywood and European features to classic documentaries and music-related shoots and productions. Billed as the first ever music channel in Europe for the over-fifties, Vintage TV is dedicated to music from the 1940s to 1976 -- the era before music videos became ubiquitous. Web: www.gettyimages.com and www.vintage-tv.tv
JOHNNY CARSON'S 3,300 HOURS DIGITIZED FOR LICENSING: Aug 17th 2010
During his 30 years on NBC as host of The Tonight Show, Johnny Carson interviewed more than 22,000 guests ... and now all 3,300 hours of the shows have been copied from the three original recording formats to digital files to aid clips licensing. The show, which ran from 1962 through 1992, was the forerunner of to-day's US tv talk shows. Until 1999, the archive was stored in a salt mine in Kansas. Last year, the plan to migrate the footage to a digital format was activated. Now clips can be identified and played on-line via contextual metadata in a database where full program transcripts are linked to video for clip browsing and licensing. Web: www.johnnycarson.com
STORM STOCK CAMERA TEAM HIT BY TORNADO: Aug 16th 2010
A four-person camera team from Texas-based specialist footage house Storm Stock have narrowly escaped serious injury when their vehicle was struck by a Tornado while they were filming. They were in action in Oklahoma and had just captured imagery of tree limbs being blown across the road in front of the car when they were overtaken by the perimeter of the tornado. It struck the car, smashing windows. The camera kept turning and footage shows pieces of car glass scattering across the dashboard as the windows break, then more debris tumbling across the road. Some of the team were cut by flying glass, but all escaped serious injury. Web: www.stormstock.com
FREMANTLE LAUNCHES THAMES TV DIGITZATION OPERATION: Aug 12th 2010
Britain's FremantleMedia Enterprises is launching a project to catalogue and digitize much of the holding of Thames Television, commercial TV weekday franchise holder for London and the South East of England from 1968 to 1992. The 24 years of programming is contained in 100,000 plus hours of videotape and film. Amongst documentaries in the Thames portfolio is "This Week/TVEye"(1968-1992), regarded as the flagship current affairs programme of its day. The task is being headed up by content consultant Caroline Hart, formerly Content Manager at ITN Source.
FOOTAGE.NET REACHES ONE MILLION CLIP LANDMARK: Aug 11th 2010
Footage.net, the stock, archival and news footage network, says it has reached the landmark of one million clips accessible through its multi-collection search facility. Footage houses CriticalPast and DVarchivehave recently joined the Footage.net family, additions that have enabled the portal to reach the landmark. The new additions have also greatly increased the volume of royalty-free content available on the site. Footage.net hosts the databases of more than 30 top flight motion libraries, searchable together or separately through the same interface. Web: www.footage.net
AP ARCHIVE ADDS 10,000 HOURS OF BREAKFAST TV: Aug 2nd 2010
Under an exclusive deal, AP Archive is newly marketing and licensing imagery from the TV-am archive, containing the 10,000 hours of non-news material of the UK commercial breakfast television franchise holder which operated in from 1983 to 1992. AP Archive has released details of a new agreement with Moving Image Communications, which previously marketed the collection. TV-am's presenters included Sir David Frost, Anne Diamond and Anna Ford, and the hundreds of interviewees included political figures such as George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Nelson Mandela. The deal also gives AP Archive rights to market other Moving Image collections including the Drummer Films vintage travel documentaries produced between the 1950s and 1970s. AP has restored this 35mm collection to high definition. Web: www.aparchive.com
FRAMEPOOL IN EXCLUSIVE DEAL WITH "ANIMALS ON BLUE": July 29th 2010
Munich-based portal Framepool has grown its portfolio of animals for composition in partnership with Animals on Blue, which it describes as the industry leader in this "unique field". The exclusive distribution agreement adds to the Framepool offering footage of all species of animals shot against blue or green screen. Animals on Blue, founded in 1999, has film studios on a 16-acre site in Buckinghamshire, England, where animals are filmed under controlled conditions.The filmmakers work with 35mm film cameras as well as the latest RED camera and plan soon to become the world¹s first carbon-free film studio where all electricity will be generated by wind turbines. Web: www.framepool.com and www.animalsonblue.com
GLOBAL IMAGEWORKS OFFERS GYRO-STABILIZED AIR SHOTS OF GULF OIL: July 29th 2010
New Jersey footage house Global ImageWorks says it newly has exclusive high def gyro-stabilized aerials and ground footage showing the extensive oil slicks from the BP blow-out, and booms across the Gulf into Pensacola. The footage shows support and fire ships and an oil ridden Pensacola beach. Web: www.globalimageworks.com
UK GOVERNMENT TO SCRAP FILM & ARCHIVES COUNCILS: July 27th 2010
Among its cost-cutting measures, the new UK coalition Government is to scrap the country's Film Council, and The Museums, Libraries and Archives Council. Set-up by the Labour Government in 2000, The Film Council was established partly in response to the criticism that, while subsidised British films had artistic merit, they rarely made any money. Taking over from the Arts Council, projects have included an Oscar-winner, Robert Altman's Gosford Park, the headline-grabbing reconstruction of the Bloody Sunday shootings, Bend It Like Beckham, Fish Tank, The Constant Gardener and The Last King of Scotland. The film council has 75 employees. The Museums, Libraries and Archives Council describes its role as "leading strategically" and promoting "best practice in museums, libraries and archives" and includes film its in mandate. It has a board of nine and on its website lists 128 staff working in nine divisions from offices located around Britain. The Government says its support for the functions of the organisations will continue and it will consider options for transferring responsibilities to other bodies. Web: www.ukfilmcouncil.org.uk and www.mla.gov.uk
HUNTLEY & SKILLSET PLAN ARCHIVE FILM RESIDENTIAL COURSE: July 27th 2010
UK footage house Huntley Film Archives and Skillset, the creative industry body which supports skills and training for people and businesses in the UK, are organising a five day residential course entitled "Film Archive Collections : a practical management guide". The course is targeting those who wish to develop a career in film archiving, or have got a collection and want to exploit it. Huntley says the intensive and hands on course will help students evaluate, manage and utilise moving image collections. It will be held in September. Contact via: www.huntleyarchives.com
BBC ISSUES GUIDELINES FOR ARCHIVE FOOTAGE USAGE: July 14th 2010
The BBC has issued guidelines to its staff and independent programme makers giving details of the standards expected in its High Definition programming, including acceptable processes for the usage of archive and library material. The guide, available as a download from the BBC website, has a section on "how to cope with mixed formats and archive" material. It specifies ideals for up-conversions and screen ratio conversions. The guide is available as a pdf via: www.bbc.co.uk/commissioning/production/
MARCH OF TIME SPECIAL AT NATIONAL GALLERY: July 14th 2010
Working with HBO Archives, the US National Gallery of Art is to host "The March of Time: Seventy-Fifth Anniversary", a move that is part of its ongoing film series, "Film and Reality in the 1930s: Roots of the Docudrama". The screening will take place on July 24 in the East Building Concourse Auditorium. Entry is free and open to the public on a first-come, first-served basis. HBO has been managing and restoring The March of Time, an award-winning newsreel collection originally produced by Time Inc. from 1935 to 1967, for more than three years. The series separated itself from its Hollywood studio competitors by mixing highly produced, long form documentary with dramatic reenactments. Web: www.themarchoftime.net and www.hboarchives.com
INDEX OF PINEWOOD UPDATES WEB PORTAL: July 13th 2010
UK footage house Index Stock Shots has re-launched its website with a new look and a new gallery of imagery. Index has its headquarters at Pinewood Studios and claims to be"one of the few independent stock footage houses still operating." The updated site highlights its rights-managed collection with galleries featuring footage of the commercial air industry, energy and climate, and worldwide cities, traffic, trains and what it calls "icons". All Index material comes from 35mm camera negatives and is available in 1080 HD, SD and on film. Web: www.indexstockshots.com
LISIUS HELPS ARTBEATS REACH 100 BRANDS: July 13th 2010
Royalty free footage house Artbeats says it now hosts 100 different represented brands. Three new collections include material from Texas-based storm chase footage pioneer Martin Lisius. While his own company, Storm Stock, concentrates on what it advertises as "the highest quality collection of storm footage in the world" much of it shot on 35mm film and High Def video, Lisius' Artbeats collection offers standard definition material he describes as " strong, dramatic" content. Web: www.artbeats.com and www.stormstock.com
CAMBRIDGE DEAL TAKES WAR MUSEUM FOOTAGE ON-LINE: July 7th 2010
British archive systems management company Cambridge Imaging Systems is completing a contract to supply the Imperial War Museum with advanced software, making its extensive film and video archive readily accessible to scholars and general public alike. Cambridge's services include encoding, transcoding and retrieval of stills and video, and previous clients have included the BBC, British Pathe and Ministry of Defence, along with universities and newsfilm management and distribution companies. The film and video archive of the IWM is one of the oldest film archives in the world, with expanding collections extending to over 20,000 hours of material in a variety of formats. Previously, around one third of this material had on-line documentation but there was no on-line access to any moving images. Encoded footage is being added regularly to the IWM's site at www.iwmcollections.com
RECESSION & RESTRUCTURING HIT HARD AT BBC MOTION GALLERY: July 5th 2010
BBC Motion Gallery, the clip licensing arm of BBC Worldwide, reported a trading loss in its financial year ending March 31, its profits wiped out by one-off re-structuring costs as it moved out of its solo marketing and sales role in North America to partner with Thought Equity. Overall, revenues were down 16 per cent from UKP14m ($23m) in the previous year to UKP11.7m ($17.7m). As the recession hit, the biggest reversal was in licensing sales into UK tv programming as the main-stream commercial channels wrestled with the recession and cut investment in the kind of programming that uses clip footage. Sales in the rest of Europe held up, with France and Germany returning like-for-like revenues on the previous year. Sports licensing held its own, and education sales were up over 30 percent. Execs, who described last year as "tough", say the first quarter of the present year, just ended, showed signs of some recovery. BBC Worldwide itself saw sales rise by 7% to UKP1,074m ($1,625) and says it "is able to offset the impact of pressures in one market by capitalising on better conditions in others." Web: www.bbcmotiongallery.com
VINTAGE TV RAIDS THE ARCHIVES FOR PROGRAMMING: June 29th 2010
A new UK TV channel, Vintage TV, is sourcing material from the archives of ITN and BBC, from Channel 4 and the RPM Collection of music programming both through their footage agent ScreenOcean, and from programming rights companies Eagle Rock and DCD Rights. The channel will roll out on Sky and Freesat in September targeting viewers over 50 with programming about the music, culture, fashion and trends of the 1940s through the 1980s. The channel's plans include the production of 500 music videos using footage from ITN Source's New Classics collection which contains news and lifestyle footage from the 1950s and 60s, editing film and video imagery images to match the tracks. BBC material is being made available through a deal with Motion Gallery which gives Vintage access to online clips plus 60, 70, 80's compilations. The footage will be used to produce music videos for the channel, DVDs and online.
FOOTAGE.net ADDS 57,000 CRITICALPAST CLIPS: June 16th 2010
New venture CriticalPast, which already claims to be among the largest on-line resources for royalty-free, historic footage and photos, has added its entire collection of more than 57,000 motion clips to the Footage.net search platform. (See news story June 9). Web: www.footage.net and www.criticalpast.com
SCREENOCEAN TO REP FOOTAGE FROM UK INDIES: June 11th 2010
Screenocean, the fast expanding UK footage house launched by technology group Cambridge Imaging, has a new deal to represent a range of material from the UK independent production sector. Footage from the Shed Media Group includes content from production companies Wall to Wall, Ricochet, Twenty Twenty and Shed Productions. Programming encompasses drama, factual entertainment, reality TV, comedy and entertainment as well as documentaries and current affairs aired by the BBC, Channel 4, ITV, Discovery, National Geographic and ABC. Web: www.screenocean.com
ITN SOURCE UPS EDUCATION CONTENT: June 9th 2010
ITN Source, the footage sales arm of news producer ITN, has re-launched its education clip website and is expanding its Education Clip Library to include material aimed at educationists involved in teaching English as a foreign language. The new clips enable education publishers to include video in multimedia products for students at an advanced stage of English learning. The new videos cover two areas, "Being British" and "Grammar",the first containing cultural footage on subjects such as historic sites, galleries, museums, social heritage, literary figures and the monarchy, while the second features examples of day-to-day verbal exchanges involving situations such as hailing a cab, asking for directions and making a restaurant reservation. Web: www.educationcliplibrary.com
NEW VENTURE OFFERS RF US GOVERNMENT ARCHIVE CONTENT: June 9th 2010
A new on-line venture is offering a royalty-free collection of thousands of hours of historic film and video clips drawn largely from US government agency sources. CriticalPast has been formed by a team of archival research, film, and Internet professionals based at Dover, Delaware. Key themes in the collection include Early Motion Pictures, World War I, World War II -- including scores of clips related specifically to D-Day and Pearl Harbor -- Korean War, Vietnam War, American Presidents, The Great Depression, Civil Rights, and the Cold War. The web portal also offers millions of still images taken from the motion content. Web: www.criticalpast.com
FOOTAGEBANK NEWLY OFFERS PLANET EARTH HD AERIALS: June 9th 2010
High definition pioneer FootageBank HD has a deal to make available more than 100 hours of aerial HD footage captured by Helinet Aviation Services for the BBC series ³Planet Earth.² Most of the footage was not included in the 11-part series and has never been viewed by the public. For ³Planet Earth,² the gyro-stabilized HD camera system system allowed for gathering images from long distances without disturbing animals, while capturing behavior that had previously never been recorded. Web: www.footagebank.com
