DONATIONS HELP ESTABLISH AFI FILM/VIDEO STUDY CENTER

The establishment of a state-of-the-art film/video study center with videotapes of 250 classic films from the MGM and UA libraries was announced Thursday by the American Film Institute.

The high-tech Jack Haley Jr. Film/Video Study center, located within the institute’s Louis B. Mayer Library, was made possible by a $375,000 endowment gift from Haley, who produced “That’s Entertainment!” and “That’s Dancing!” The films were donated by Turner Entertainment Co. and United Artists. Additional titles were donated by Home Media Entertainment. Sony Corp. of America contributed TV monitors, headphones, three-quarter-inch U-matic decks and playback units.

The new center will allow students to study the production of a specific film or television program from script through the various stages of the creative process. (The library’s special collections house original production materials on some films and programs including production notes and records.)

“The new technology represented by videocassette makes it possible for us to create a ‘library’ of America’s films and television heritage for study by future generations of film makers and scholars,” Haley said in a prepared statement. “Because the American Film Institute is the national organization charged with preserving our film and television heritage, it seemed only fitting that such a study center should be established at the AFI, as a model for similar centers at other institutions.”