LONDON: APTN Library and Grinberg Film Libraries, two of the world's leading sources of historical footage have signed a representation deal to exchange and sell each other's material.
The London based library and Los Angeles film libraries will begin supplying and licensing material from January 2004.
While Associated Press Television News (APTN) is said to be world's leading video news agency with self-shot material from 1963, Grinberg collection comprises the Paramount and Pathe newsreels, which were the leading news sources of their day from 1896 to the late 1950s, says an APTN release.
APTN content development head Christopher O'Hearn, "It's a great combination - this puts the best of the old together with the best of the new" said. "We can now offer a high quality service to anyone looking for content, from the earliest moving images to the latest satellite news."
Grinberg's Pathe collection is the world's oldest moving image library dating back to 1896. The Paramount newsreel was known as "The Eyes and Ears of the World" from 1927 to 1957. Together they total more than 15 million feet of film, or 6000 hours of material. The collection boasts of movie outtakes and scenes ranging from the Blackton collection of early motion pictures to modern productions from HBO, says the release.
"APTN and GFL's representation deal creates one of the most comprehensive sources of archival footage in the world. Together they will become a one-stop resource for every conceivable user throughout the world. In addition, as we digitise our content, the collection will also be marketing what will become one of the largest sources of still photos pulled from the Paramount and Pathe libraries, covering virtually everything that happened in the world dating back to 1896," said Grinberg's spokesperson Charles Bonan.
The initial stages of the deal will see the top acquisitions of each collection exchanged so that they can be provided locally. Both libraries have major digitisation projects underway which will see a broader range of content available, along with improvements in cataloguing and search ability.
