MPTV

MPTV

MPTV was founded by photographer Sid Avery who was best known for his work taking candid photos of celebrities during Hollywood’s Golden Age. It now exists as an ever growing archive of still images focused on "preserving the memory of some of the greatest celebrity legends of our time.” The site includes over 1 million photos from over 60 photographers and focuses on images of the red carpet, film legends, and retrospective prints. The site encourages users to register with them so that they can license images.

There is a drop down menu on the about MPTV page which allows you to browse photographers alphabetically. Another way to browse the image collection is to select legends, red carpet, or retrospective images and then type in a keyword. A menu will pop up asking you to select which of the three areas you’d like to search or if you’d like to search in all of them at once. After doing this you are able to browse the retrieved images. Each thumbnail has a unique number and description beneath it as well as the date it was taken and the name of the photographer. There is also a link underneath each thumbnail that if clicked on will add the image to your “lightbox.” This is how you would save a list of images you’d like to license if you are logged in to MPTV. No watermarks appear on the thumbnails of the images.

Selecting an image opens a new window that contains a larger, watermarked version of the photograph and its metadata. The caption information describes the film the image may be from, the person within it, the date, and the studio name. There’s also a keyword list, the image number, the max file size, dimensions, dpi, and specific release information.

Though the images are of good quality, the watermark makes them impossible to use. Of course, this is because they are copyrighted and require licensing to reproduce the images in any way. There is a good amount of legal information linked on the side frame of every page containing an image. There are also options to download previews, view terms of use, print previews, view purchase instructions, add to your lightbox, or register mptv pro.

The audience for this site would primarily be those looking for good quality, professional images of Hollywood legends and stars walking the red carpet. Since this site is focused on commercial interests, it’s likely the casual browser would visit to view the images but quickly become annoyed by the large watermarks. The legal information assures the browser that it is not wise to reproduce the images in any way, ever, if they haven’t purchased the licensing.