Mega Film Library to be created

Wednesday, March 29, 2006

United States: Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE) and Thought Equity, home to the world's largest entertainment motion content library, today jointly launched the Sony Pictures Collection, a distinctive library of film footage that includes scenes shot during the production of SPE's box-office hits and cinematic masterpieces. The Sony Pictures Collection is an unparalleled partnership that marks the single largest motion content investment in the stock footage business and unites film content from SPE (and its theatrical brands, including Columbia Pictures, TriStar Pictures and Screen Gems) with Thought Equity's exceptional technology and user experience and is offered to the production community through www.thoughtequity.com/sonypictures.

Thought Equity specializes in the licensing of premium film and HD motion imagery aimed at serving world-class production professionals. The Sony Pictures Collection provides producers worldwide with instant access to high-caliber footage filmed for its blockbuster franchises as well as from some of the most beautifully filmed features ever made. The Sony Pictures Collection features footage that iscostly, time-consuming and physically demanding to shoot, including explosions, stunts, natural phenomena and scenes from remote geographic locations. The collection includes technically challenging footage depicting extraordinary atmospheric and outer space scenes, and sophisticated special effects. Highlights of the collection include footage specifically designed to evoke emotions that are adrenalin-pumping, inspiring, humorous and poignant.

"Sony Pictures Stock Footage will continue to service customers and sell content directly as we have been doing for many years. However, taking on Thought Equity as an exclusive partner will extend our reach and bring our library of more than 70,000 clips to the attention of a much wider audience around the world," said Brian Merriman, Executive Director Business Development, Worldwide Product Fulfillment for SPE. "With Thought Equity's premiere technology, we'll be able to show more people just how breathtaking and dramatic our footage really is."

"Thought Equity's mission is to take the world's finest motion content and make it available to production professionals worldwide with a level of speed, efficiency and quality never before available," stated Kevin Schaff, founder and CEO of Thought Equity. "The Sony Pictures Collection represents the best filmmaking talent in the world and characterizes the level of quality our customers have come to expect from us."

The collection boasts unique international footage filmed in environments that require months or years of staging, including scenes from remote locales, as well as ones that capture fortuitous circumstances impossible to recreate. At the same time, the Sony Pictures Collection includes highly usable footage in great demand, such as establishing shots. It offers some of the best coverage of American metropolitan cities like New York and Los Angeles and the all important driving point of view footage. Still, the library is rich with process plates, footage that serves as background when actors are filmed in front of a blue or green screen.

"The Spider-Man, Men in Black, Bad Boys and Charlie's Angels franchises didn't just provide us with amazing stunts and explosions, they yielded a treasure trove of subway footage, driving scenes, and riveting images of everyday life in metropolitan cities," said Merriman. "Similarly, the library is plush with natural landscape footage of unparalleled cinematic scope from such critically acclaimed features as Legends of the Fall, A River Runs Through It, Seven Years in Tibet, and Memoirs of a Geisha," stated Merriman.

The Sony Pictures Collection footage was shot entirely on film and is hand-selected for entertainment and creative use. The collection is available for immediate online download in HD and lower resolutions, and can also be delivered in any film element required.