FOCAL International has established, in memory of Jane Mercer, a grant which is intended to provide assistance to those wishing to further their professional development in the audio-visual footage industry.
• The grant is aimed at those individuals who are either intending to develop a career in the audio visual footage industry or who are currently working in the industry.
• Closing date for 2014 applications 31st January 2014
Footage training grant – apply before 31 Jan
Posted in news
AWV and Newsreel Archive sign exclusive news footage representation – Nine Network
Independent of stock footage library Absolutely Wild Visuals and Newsreel Archive, owner of the historic British Movietone Archive, have announced an exclusive worldwide distribution deal to represent Nine Network Australia’s entire collection of news and current affairs archive footage. AWV will be the exclusive agent for the collection within Australia and New Zealand, while Newsreel Archive’s international partner, AP Archive will market the collection throughout Europe, Middle East and USA.
Nine Network’s news content includes an impressive depth of national and international material from Nine Network’ showpiece programmes Nine News, 60 Minutes, A Current Affair, Sunday, Business Sunday, Nightline as well as The Today Show.
CEO of Newsreel Archive, Matt Miranda said “We are thrilled to be able to offer the iconic Nine Network news and current affairs archive to our local and international client base. Combined with the archives of AP Archive and British Movietone, AWV is now uniquely placed to be able to offer a complete range of 20th and 21st Century Australian and international news and current affairs footage from one single, convenient source. The combination of these premium news footage sources makes for an unrivalled offering in the Australian market.”
Managing Director of AWV, Bettina Dalton said, “The addition of the Nine news archive enables AWV to provide a one stop shop for its clients. We are now able to provide content from 1896, the first ever footage of Queen Victoria, through to news-breaking 60 Minutes stories from just a week ago. This opens up endless possibilities for documentary and television commercial producers, as we prepare to dive into Nine’s collection and uncover the really great gems of the last 50 years. In addition to news and current affairs, Nine’s collection extends into the much-loved Sunday and 60 minutes series whose production values have always resulted in enduring high quality content.
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Pond5 offers RED Native Files + passes 2M stock video clips milestone
Stock Media Marketplace Pond5 is now supporting Redcode RAW (R3D) the native format for the popular RED series of ultra-HD cameras.
They say:“RED offers stunning resolution and colour depth, and enormous flexibility in post- production,” said Javier Salinas, Lead Video Curator. “We’ve been seeing an increasing amount of 4K and higher resolution footage coming onboard, and there’s fast-growing demand for it from our buyers. We’re proud to be leading the charge by becoming the first true marketplace to support R3D, making their pristine, customisable, professional-quality footage accessible to a wider audience.”
Pond5 also announced their stock video collection has doubled in size over the past year now offering over 2 million clips. Co-founder and CEO Tom Bennett says: “Thanks to the tens of thousands of artists around the world who have entrusted us to represent their content, we are rapidly expanding the size of our collection, as well as its quality and diversity,” said co-founder and CEO Tom Bennett. “We’ve found that by giving our artists greater freedom and control, we’ve ended up with higher-quality content, and more of it.”
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ITN Source – 2014 important historical anniversaries & milestones diary + clips
Stock footage resource ITN Source in the UK are online with a handy 2014 Anniversaries and Events calendar with related historical clips.
Posted in news
Book: Impact Media Summit 2014 – early bird tickets available now
IMPACT March 12-14, 2014 Turin, Italy – marketplace for factual content
Building upon the successful legacy of previous editions that took place in New York, Rome, London, and Toronto, IMPACT in Italy is a new take on the established genre and is a must-attend for all serious players in factual content.
From broadcasters, producers, archivists to noted figures in the history, biography and current affairs realm, IMPACT’s attendees are a veritable who’s who of the genre.
Unfolding over the course of two intense and productive days, IMPACT features an agenda crafted by practitioners, including:
• Keynotes, talks and multi-speaker sessions covering the most significant content production and development issues being faced today
• Screenings of the finest content, including a roundup of the best factual content from around the world
• An awards and recognition program that selects and honours the best factual content in the world
• Facilitated one-on-one meetings, enabling content executives to meet, buy, sell and collaborate
• Identification of new opportunities to influence viewers and monetize content in television, film, and digital media
• Stimulating intellectual & cultural performances, presentations, and activities
The early bird booking price is available to Jan 2014 here
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Huntley Film Archives adjusts website pre-viewing after footage theft
↑ View before and after examples clips of Huntley Films colour correction
UK based independent film library Huntley Film Archives started digitising films providing viewing of exceptional quality through their website. Films with colour correction and simple logo banner were viewable. However, ‘very early on a major broadcaster successfully circumvented our viewing method, zoomed past the banner and running time-code and broadcast one of our films. We never saw a penny.’
Robert Dewar Commercial Director at the company picks up the story: “So, we sadly decided to digitise lower quality viewing copies. Viewing copies are made from our good old Steenbeck viewing tables, but colour correction, scratch reduction and adjustments to tone and scale are no longer carried out. We have protected the middle of the screen with a ghost image of our Huntley Film Archives logo.
What can you expect from a viewing copy, and how does that compare to what you would eventually see at the time of master delivery?
To reassure you, here are a couple of ‘Before’ and ‘After’ examples (above). All versions remain low resolution, and eventual Master quality will be significantly better than that seen on the After version below, but this should give a part-way demonstration of what is achievable.
The techie bit – We currently export our films as MPEG-4 files.
These files are 640×480, which is a relatively low res compared with other websites. With our current software we are unable to customise our export settings, and have to rely on what is standard with each file type, according to our programme. So our finished resolution is set by the parameters we need the file type to meet (ie, aspect ratio, frames per second, etc), It is also limited by what is realistic for us to upload with our current server space and hosting abilities.”
3100 films are digitised to date and with around 75 films being made accessible weekly – ‘another 77000 to go’
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Full digital Cine-Mundial magazine at Media History Digital Library
The Media History Digital Library is now representing 30 years of Spanish-language monthly film magazine Cine-Mundial, spanning from 1916 until 1946. Most of these issues come from the collection of the Library of Congress Packard Center for AudioVisual Conservation.
View Cine-Mundial MHDL’s Lantern search facility
Find Cine-Mundial MHDL’s Hollywood Studio System Collection
Posted in Uncategorized
Launched: AP Middle East footage archive – ‘fully digitized’
↑ Watch the showcase – Instant Middle East Archive
The Associated Press has launch ‘a fully digitized archive of video footage from, about and relevant to the Middle East and North Africa.’
They say: ‘This innovative new product, AP Instant Middle East Archive, includes more than 60,000 news stories from 1900 to the present day sourced from AP Archive, the film and video archive of the AP, as well as from the world-renowned British Movietone News archive. New coverage is added every day from AP’s video newsgathering activities around the world.’
AP Instant Middle East Archive charts the history of the region, documenting such key events as World War I and II, the crisis in Palestine and the founding of Israel, the Arab-Israeli conflict, war in Lebanon, revolution in Iran and both Gulf wars. It also includes more recent footage from the Arab Spring, the upheavals in Egypt and the Syrian civil war. Significant events that took place outside the region are also included, such as the Camp David peace accords, the 1972 Olympics in Munich and the Sept. 11 terror attacks.
Among the personalities featured prominently are Lawrence of Arabia, King Idris of Libya, King Faisal of Iraq, Golda Meir, Moammar Gadhafi, Yasser Arafat, Saddam Hussein and the Shah of Iran. The economy of the region is also covered extensively, as well as the development of the oil industry and the rise of the Gulf States. Other areas of interest include the arts, religion, culture, entertainment and sports.
“This product is simply the finest visual document of the history of the Middle East and North Africa,” said Alwyn Lindsey, AP’s director of international archives. “It is a must for any news organization that is serious about covering the region.”
Posted in news, Uncategorized
Event: ‘Archiving Tomorrow’ 20-22 November – Manchester UK
‘The conference is to bring together Archivists, Academics and Film Makers, Editors, Producers, Directors and so forth to discuss, debate and learn about the indepth revolution that is the transitional period between Film and Digital.
AT-13 will be an outstanding opportunity for all those interested in the fast-moving area of media creation and preservation to mix with experts in the field, exchange experiences and learn about the latest techniques and developments. Participants can also achieve a publication in a professionally produced volume of proceedings.’
Full details here
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Barcroft TV smashes YouTube on-channel record views for October
get a taste of the production ↑
Barcroft TV, the video TV production arm of UK photo agency Barcroft Media are celebrating a record amount of YouTube views through October – 17.96million!
MD at Barcroft Sam Barcroft tweeted: ‘Awesome work by the @Barcroft_TV team, smashing the record for most on-channel YouTube views in a month with 17.96million for October – So proud of our teams – consistent, clever and passionate. Well done and thank you all so much for your excellent work.’
• Barcroft TV are ranked no. 34 in the UK across all [YouTube] categories.
• read the PhotoArchiveNews.com 2009 interview with Sam Barcroft Opening The Manhattan Office
• view all Barcroft Media news articles on PhotoArchiveNews.com
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