markfp2
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Posts posted by markfp2
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> {quote:title=lzcutter wrote:}{quote} I don't know how some posters manage to watch all the movies they DVR or burn off to DVD.
Lynn, you mean we're suppose to actually watch them? I thought we just had to collect them. Well, there goes the rest of my life.
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> {quote:title=redriver wrote:}{quote}
> We had a tv station in my hometown that had an afternoon movie and cut everything to fit a 90 minute time slot
All stations had a format of some sort as to how long a movie could run. At the station I worked at for many years it was 101 minutes maximum for a two-hour time slot and 76 minutes for a 90 minute slot. Anything longer had to be cut.The program director was good though, he usually tried to book films that were reasonably close to those times to keep the cuts at a minimum. Longer movies were usually scheduled in longer time slots or late night where it didn't matter what time they ended.
Of course, now films are sent to stations pre-edited by the studios, both for content and time. All are cut to a standard 92 minutes for a two-hour slot. It doesn't matter if the original film was 118 minutes or 125 minutes, chop,chop, down it goes to 92, And people wonder why I never watch movies on commercial stations.
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Well, it sounds like it could be fun. I kind of guessed at the number of films based on the fact that you had over 2100 hours worth, but if they are comedies you might actually end up with more because comedies, in general, tend to be shorter than dramas. Regardless, you'll still have a great many to watch. Probably the simplest way to watch them is just to start at the top of the first page and work your way down, but that's up to you.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy your adventure and will let us know how you're making out as you go along.
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I wonder if Universal has found it more profitable to make them available for short-term lease only. I think in the last ten years or so they've been on TCM, AMC, Chiller, Cinemax and I'm pretty sure at least one other network. Since these are some of the few b/w films that numerous channels actually want, putting them up for bid every year or two probably raises the price higher than if one channel had them locked in for say five years. Of course, that does put TCM at a disadvantage.
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> {quote:title=markbeckuaf wrote:}{quote} It's on the old regular commercial channels that I first discovered my love of classic films and TV shows!
Me too. I was very lucky. When I was growing up in the 1950's, our area had three stations that were very competitive when it came to programming movies. Just about any film available to TV, in those days, was shown on one station or another. I'll bet in any given week they must have run at least 30 films. It's what got me hooked on classic films.
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It would be hard to tell you without knowing what's on the list and also what your tastes are. It sounds like you're making a chore for yourself just because you want to be able to say you've watched all of them by Christmas. It seems to me that being on a timetable like that would take the fun out of it, but that's just me.
I'm guessing you've got about 1100 or movies to watch. If I was going to do it, I think I'd mix it up. Much as I love certain genres, I wouldn't want sit down and watch nothing but westerns or horror or musicals or whatever for days on end.
One possible way would be make a list of the films you know and like and a list of the ones you don't know. Start with one you like then pick 4 or 5 of the others at random watch them then another one you know and so on. The more variety you give yourself the less chance you have a being bored.
Good luck!
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> {quote:title=redriver wrote:}{quote} They had commercials, but we didn't care. It was that or nothing..
It is amazing what we put up with back then, mostly because we didn't know any better. We had a tv station in my hometown that had an afternoon movie and cut everything to fit a 90 minute time slot, usually by just running the first reel in for the time needed and starting the movie there. That's were I got to see many RKO classics for the first time. You can imagine my surprise the first time I got to see KING KONG in a theater and discovered that it didn't start with the ship arriving at the island.
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I love it when other channels run classics too. After all, TCM can't show _every_ classic film. Although it does feel a little odd watching a black and white film anywhere but TCM.
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> {quote:title=midnight08 wrote:}{quote} > I'm hoping TCM will continue to show more Fox films, especially those from Fox Films (before 20th Century Pictures merged with Fox to form 20th Century Fox). It seems that 20th Century Fox has little concern for their Fox Films as they are rarely ever shown on FMC
There's a lot of us here that feel the same way as you. I'm sure TCM would love to run them if they could get them. However, Fox is really strange. They won't lease them to anybody else, but won't show them on their own Fox Movie Channel. As far as FMC goes they seem to have a limited number of classics that they just run over and over again. If they didn't want the films for themselves, you'd think that they'd be happy to lease them to TCM and get some revenue from them instead of just letting them gather dust in their vault.
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There was also a very good British mini-series called ISLAND AT WAR which was
Produced by Granada Televison in 2004 and shown in the U.S. on PBS. It was released on DVD and you might even be able to find it at your local public library like I did.
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> {quote:title=HollywoodGolightly wrote:}{quote} Even though it was made in 1955, at the height of the widescreen craze, it was not filmed in any widescreen format (which also means that the VHS version, if you can find it, doesn't seem to lose any image on the sides).
If memory serves me right, I think that in 1955 CinemaScope was still the main wide screen process. Any other studio wanting to use it had to pay a royalty to 20th Century-Fox. Universal did use it in 1955 for TO HELL AND BACK, which was the studio's biggest grossing film that year, but I suspect that LADY GODIVA had a budget that couldn't support it.
It wasn't much longer before other processes became available and studios quickly dubbed them with their own names such as WarnerScope and Metroscope.
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> That's part of TCM's annual "31 Days of Fred."
The schedule isn't out yet, but I hear that theme of the month for June is "Films That Fred is Tired Of" and as a special surprise for him (I shouldn't tell) between the films everyone in the TCM programming department will perform all the songs from SINGIN' IN THE RAIN.
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Sometimes TCM shows films numerous times and sometimes only once or twice.Some seem to get shown just about every other month and others once a year or less. It all depends on what kind of deal they could make with the distributors. The only way to tell when it's showing again is to keep watching the schedules.
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> {quote:title=mevernon wrote:}{quote}
> C'mon guys...... some of you old **** have to remember this old war movie.
Maybe they know, but just aren't telling you because you called them "old ****". Some folks of a certain age find that term offensive.
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I knew it existed, but have never seen it. I was a kid when it came out and I've got a feeling my parents wouldn't take me to see it because of the title. Perhaps, now that TCM has cracked open the vault door a little at Universal, it will turn up someday.
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While others sometimes did show the cast at the end, I'm pretty sure that Universal was the only one to use the "A good cast.." line.
Having said that, there was a smaller distributor called Reelart that made deals with Universal to re-release some of its older films usually as double features. Reelart would put it's logo on the beginning and sometimes redo the opening credits, but I've never seen a print where they changed the end credits. So I guess that technically you could say that the line was used by somebody else.
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It wasn't until the early 1970's that most every film started running endless credits at the end.
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There's another thread about this. It appears it was some kind of computer glitch that sent out the notices by mistake.
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> {quote:title=mr6666 wrote:}{quote}
> MAY !
> Are you kidding? I'm _still_ waiting for my February issue of the NP Guide !!
> Any idea when I can Expect THAT???
Sounds like the post office struck again. Give them a call at the subscription number (800-TCM-1002). I don't know if they still have any extra copies they could send you, but at least they'll extend your subscription for an extra issue. I've discovered that if I don't have it by the beginning of the last week of the previous month, they'll mail a replacement if I call.
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I don't know how many people appreciate how difficult this was. Imagine, first they had to come up with 360 films that were "connected". Making it more difficult, all of them had to be Oscar nominees or winners in some category. Then, probably the hardest thing, all the films had to be available for TCM to show. It was a tremendous and time consuming undertaking. It would not surprise me if it took them a year or more to set this schedule up.
Oh, we can debate about specific films. This one has been shown before or that one is too "new", or why was one film shown and not another, but let's not forget to give TCM's programmers credit for a spectacular and well done job.
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I had never seen THE GREEN GODDESS before and watched my recording last night. Really enjoyed it, especially the ending (shh. no spoilers from me) Of course, I always liked Arliss. I thought the print quality was excellent for it's age. A little bit of noise on the track, but I can't complain about that.
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I don't know. I haven't heard a thing of what's coming in May.
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I'd say within a week or so. Looking forward to it myself.
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> {quote:title=SuzanC wrote:}{quote} Your explanation is plausible, but ... acquiring rights to a movie doesn't necessarily mean permanent rights, does it? How does a network acquire the right to show a movie?
It's a very involved process to lease movies for television. To make it simple, TCM or any other channel, for that matter, will negotiate with a studio or distributor. Usually, it's for a certain number of showings over a specific period of time. It could be just a couple of showings over a month or two to numerous showings over several years. It depends on the deal they make.
If more than one channel is interested then they bid for the rights and the winner gets the films. At the end of the lease, the films revert back to the studio or distributor who will most likely put them up for bid again. Sometimes deals must be struck years in advance of the films becoming available.
It's really much more complicated than I explained, but this should give you a general idea of what happens.
DVRs and TCM
in General Discussions
Posted
> {quote:title=HollywoodGolightly wrote:}{quote}
> Last I checked, prices were in the neighborhood of $100 for a regular DVR (at least the DirecTV ones), $200 for a HD-DVR,
As a long-time DirecTV subscriber, I just wanted to point out something that sometimes confuses people. When you get a DVR from either DirecTV or Dish Network, you are not buying it, you are leasing it. Actually, that's true with cable DVRs too, but I don't know their specifics.
It doesn't matter if you get it through them or from a store like Best Buy, the $99 ($199 HD) you pay is just part of the lease. After that you pay around $6.00 a month DVR fee in addition to the normal monthly programming charge. It's actually a pretty good deal because if you were buy one outright it would cost you around $500. ($800 HD).
For most folks, it really doesn't matter if it leased or not, but it's something everyone should be clear about.