Turner Classic Movies to show old films on internet

BY A CORRESPONDENT

26 May, 2007:

Turner Classic Movies is launching Media Room, internet’s first major video destination devoted entirely to classic film and the first one regularly devoted to widescreen cinema.

Users can view movie scenes in their true panoramic widescreen Cinemascope format, without letterboxing, and in large expandable views.

Media Room will be launched on June 1, 2007, with over 3,000 pieces of video content from the classics. On offer would be short-form videos, including classic trailers, short films, classic movie clips and interstitials as well as an occasional feature films.

According to Turner Classic Movies, the service also features the online premiere of the 1937 romantic comedy Living on Love for free on the Media Room website. This movie would be available in its complete version.

The company plans to offer features in a widescreen Cinemascope format which would replicate the cinematic experience of a theatre.

Some of the other movies to be shown in the new section of Turner Classic Movies’ website include Rafter Romance (1933), A Man to Remember, and Double Harness.

Media Room will offer new, programmed themes of classic movie scenes and trailers everyday, and users can create their own play lists of favorite videos, including the ability to recreate their own movie theatre experience with short preview animations.

The website offers easy-to-browse categories and the ability to search for video from specific actors, directors and filmmakers. Another feature allows users to link and embed URLs for sharing and social networking.

According to Turner Classic Movies, the Media Room significantly expands tcm.com’s already extensive, media-rich interactive movie database, which features content related to over 130,000 titles, listing more than 1.25 million people; 100,000 pieces of biographical data; 15,000 written biographies; and more than 10 million distinct pieces of information, spanning the full continuum of movie history from the 1890s to films currently in production.

The database also includes over 500 exclusive image gallery archives of rare photos on the making and marketing of great classic films, including costume drawings, press books, illustrations, posters, classic scenes and more.

Besides, there is comprehensive library content licensed from the American Film Institute’s AFI Catalogue of Feature Films, an ongoing research project, with additional content bought from internet Movie Database Inc. and other sources. These arrangements allow Turner Classic Movies to include film content from all of the major movie studios.

Turner Classic Movies, currently seen in over 75 million homes, is a 24-hour cable network from Turner Broadcasting System Inc., a Time Warner company.