The debate over the future of physical film has been simmering for a few years now, with major directors and film personalities carving out a place for the future of celluloid. This weekend, Tim League, film advocate and CEO of independent theater chain Alama Drafthouse Cinema, added his voice to the fray. League has a […]
Continue readingTag Archives: inevitable march of time
A eulogy for the Saturday morning cartoon
Yesterday marked the largely unheralded end of a television tradition: the Saturday morning cartoon. For nearly fifty years, network channels devoted a significant portion of their Saturday programming to children’s animated programs, but with the end of The CW’s “Vortexx” block, no major broadcast networks is airing cartoons on Saturday anymore. After years of criticism […]
Continue readingHappy National Ghostbusters Day!
Today marks the startling thirtieth anniversary of Ghostbusters, maybe the most successful comedy film of all time. The film was so successful at release that it stayed the number one film in the country for seven solid weeks, and adjusted for inflation, it is still one of the highest grossing films of all time. Now […]
Continue readingFamous directors throw money to stall the imminent death of physical film
Ever since the all-digital release of 2002’s Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones, filmmakers have steadily moved away from traditional film reels in favor of the increased power of digital cameras. As the Wall Street Journal points out, Kodak film consumption has decreased by nearly 12 billion linear feet in the past 8 […]
Continue readingSee a future without books TODAY at library film screening
As a part of the library that frequently deals with streaming video, we understand hesitations about the transition to from physical to digital media. This is a concern that isn’t just limited to films; the rise of tablets and e-readers has led libraries to also reconsider the acquisition of expensive and bulky books when their […]
Continue readingFarewell, VHS shelves!
There is a time and a place for everything. Unfortunately, the bell has tolled for our old VHS shelves. As we continue to expand our DVD collection, we needed to install more practical and compact shelving, and our rolling VHS unit had to go. Our VHSes are still sticking around, but in the meantime, we […]
Continue readingYikes: 75 percent of all silent films are lost
We love lost and orphaned films, like an early Orson Welles picture that was recently uncovered, but this isn’t something we should have to get excited about. Films are important cultural objects, and it’s a shame if they go missing or are destroyed. Unfortunately, the prospects for early film preservation appear grimmer than expected. A […]
Continue readingWe love our new equipment! (And it needs a name)
This might not be the most exciting news for people outside the library community, but it’s big for us: we’ve officially upgraded our checkout equipment! The guy pictured above is the Mediacheck Model 325. It’s faster and more reliable than the equipment we’ve previously used. It won’t make too much of a difference on the […]
Continue readingThe last DVD checked out from a Blockbuster is appropriate, sad
Last week, home video mainstay Blockbuster announced the closure of its last remaining stores, effectively ending what was only a decade earlier a vertiable empire of film distribution. This is no surprise, especially for those in the DC area (the closest Blockbuster is nearly 30 miles away). Decades later, no one will likely lament the […]
Continue readingSorry, VHS players. The Blu-rays are in!
For the longest time, Media Services has helped patrons view movies on-site with over a dozen DVD-VHS combo players. Sadly, they’re falling apart and hard to maintain, and fewer patrons are using VHSes now than even a few years ago. We’ve future-proofed ourselves by replacing the majority of our stations with new Blu-ray-DVD players. They’re […]
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