The Briefing Room

Amsterdam - The national Filmmuseum in Amsterdam has chosen US company Thought Equity Motion to be their partner in the digitization of the Dutch national film heritage. In the next years this Denver based company will digitize literally thousands of hours of feature films, documentaries, short and animation films. Thought Equity Motion will digitize these audiovisual documents in Amsterdam. Today the Filmmuseum and Thought Equity Motion signed the contract for the digitization, as part of the large scale project Images of the Future.

The digitization of the Filmmuseum films by Thought Equity Motion is the second partnership by the Filmmuseum within the Images of the Future project as the preservation of the museum’s films has been assigned to Cineco/Hagefilm lab in Amsterdam and Cineric in New York.

Thought Equity Motion – which has many large clients including Sony and Paramount – will be a very important partner for the Filmmuseum. The scanning of thousands of hours of Dutch feature films, documentaries, student films, short films and animations will be done on 2K resolution with encoding to amongst others High Definition and standard resolution. As a result of these efforts the entire Dutch film collection from the past and present will be available digitally for screenings in theatres, on websites, portals and video-on-demand. The Filmmuseum is working towards this digitization of the Dutch film heritage with the Association of Feature Film Producers and the collective right holders. With this large scale digitization the Netherlands is at the forefront worldwide of making its audiovisual heritage digitally accessible.

Sandra den Hamer, director of the Filmmuseum, said “The partnership with Thought Equity Motion is a great step forward for the Filmmuseum in its efforts to digitize its collection, and make it widely accessible for future generations.”

“Thought Equity Motion brings to this project our world class asset management platform, giving Filmmuseum direct online access for the first time to master-quality digital files of its collection,” said Kevin Schaff, CEO of Thought Equity Motion.

The digitization of the Dutch film history is part of the project Images for the Future. Within this project the Filmmuseum in Amsterdam, the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision in Hilversum, the National Archive in The Hague, independent Dutch think-tank Knowledgeland, the Central Discotheque in Rotterdam, and the Association of Public Libraries open up the wealth of 20th century audio and visual material that has been stored in the archives of the parties concerned.

Thursday 16 October 2008 Kevin Schaff, founder and CEO of Thought Equity Motion and Sandra den Hamer, director of the Filmmuseum, officially signed the contract for the digitization of the Filmmuseum’s collection.

About the Filmmuseum

The Filmmuseum is the national institute for cinematography in the Netherlands. The museum’s collection of films covers the entire history of cinema from the very first silent films, dating from the late 19th century, up to the latest contemporary digital productions.

This internationally renowned collection, to which many Dutch and foreign titles are regularly added, is the source of inspiration for the museum’s film programmes, exhibitions and events. Every year, there are major thematic programmes examining the history of film and contemporary cinematographic developments. In addition, the museum organises open-air screenings, festivals, theatrical family shows and retrospectives.

The Filmmuseum houses the largest film library in the Netherlands. The museum also acts as distributor of classics and contemporary, independent films. For more information, go to www.filmmuseum.nl

About Thought Equity Motion

Thought Equity Motion is the world leader in providing access to high quality film, video and music content. The company’s forward-thinking approach to digital video has produced an array of products and services to meet the exploding demand of new media.

Widely recognized for its expertise in licensing rights, Thought Equity Motion is the licensing agent for renowned media companies including Paramount Pictures, MGM, NBC News, HBO, National Geographic, Sony Pictures, the NCAA and hundreds of others.

With offices located around the world, Thought Equity Motion offers the broadest, deepest content collection available. This vast collection, combined with leading-edge technology, makes Thought Equity Motion the preferred destination for multimedia professionals. For more information, go to http://www.thoughtequity.com

Contact:

Marnix van Wijk

Press & PR attaché

E-mail: mwijk@filmmuseum.nl

FILMMUSEUM

PO Box 74782

1070 BT Amsterdam

The Netherlands

Phone: +31 (0)20-589 1405

Fax : +31 (0)20-683 3401