Reacting to the TCM Revamp
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 28 มิ.ย. 2024
- George offers a quick lament for the classic graphic design and style of the Turner Classic Movie channel as we endure the latest branding 'refresh'.
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Youre 100% right. I miss that old TCM.
Before my parents got satellite TV and we only had the local channels (so up to when I was 10 or 11) they had a massive library of classic AMC recorded on VHS and I fell in love with classic films from a very young age from that collection. When we eventually did get the satellite channels including AMC, I was shocked how different the then-current (2005-ish) AMC was from the recordings of those videotapes (from the 80s and early 90s). It was much worse. Commercials were rampant and they only played the same 80s and 90s films over and over, completely ignoring the 20s-60s. In addition the logo had become sterile and flat. Luckily TCM was two channels down the street, and it quickly filled the role of what the classic AMC tapes provided for me when I was younger. Seeing it slowly succumb to the same fate has been sad to watch, but I kind of understood it was over when Robert Osborne passed away. Great video
I agree completely. There is something fundamentally empty in the new TCM from what I've seen. That channel was instrumental in introducing me to so many movies in my formative years, big movies I had heard about through reputation but also so many small and obscure films too, so I'll always remember it for how it was back then which had the allure to keep me watching in-between movies because all the bumpers were almost as mesmerizing at the actual content. Unfortunately, my cable provider switched TCM to a premium package a few years back and it wasn't worth hiking up my cable bill when I'd rather just track down more of these movies on Blu-ray in the current time period, so I haven't seen much of the revamp other than what's online. Your comments about the current state of modern graphic design is spot on though and there is a true loss of actual artistry that you would see in everything from architecture to advertising. Why does everything need to feel like we're in a sterile grayscale airport in this day and age?
Thanks for the kind words! I agree especially on the airport analogy- even McDonalds looks like a grayscale bus stop nowadays. Just checked out your channel and gave you a sub. Looks like we’re in a similar spot- let’s collaborate sometime
@@FilmJournal Thanks for the sub! I appreciate your articulate opinions in your videos which is very hard to come by in most TH-cam channels. I would definitely be interested in a collaboration as well.
If everything's ugly, you learn not to ask for anything better.
As someone who would fall asleep soooo many times with TCM on and to wake up throughout the night with these in-between graphics, I am not a fan of the rebrand. I love this video, I watch it quite often! Very underrated channel
What an incredible compliment. I thank you and I'm glad that I was able to create something relative evergreen for you in the TH-cam space. I made the video myself as a retreat to that world.
Totally agree. We watch to escape the “now” and go back to “ then”.
Amen brother!
I miss stylist bumpers in general, from these old TCM ones to the 90s MTV ones both regular and liquid TV to the 2000s Adult Swim ones to the ones that ran on TNT during Monstervision.
TCM should hire you. Very thoughtful
That’d be cool!
I appreciate that you took a year to give this refresh a chance before weighing in. No one can call this a knee-jerk reaction. And I happen to agree with you. I find the new look a downer, even after all this time I've had to adjust to it.
You should definitely have more subscribers.
Great episode and interesting topic! I totally agree with you about the horrible modernization of classical black and white movies, plus the abstract and minimalist graphic design is totally out of place. Really enjoying all of your videos, by the way!
Perhaps it's for the best that I don't have access to the TCM as part as my cable subscription anymore...
I don't know, I totally get your point on the Art Deco / Noir aesthetic and how it sets the tone, but I don't agree that new one is all that awful. To me it's less early 2000s iPod commercial and more Sual Bass opening credit sequence. It seems like they're stepping from 1940s to more Mad Men early 60s. But I get your point, everybody is free to have an opinion.
I agree with your point, but to me it feels flat. Saul Bass would have come up with something more distinctive.
I don't believe TCM UK has ever been like this - as far as I know, they just play the movies - but thanks to TH-cam, I've been down the rabbit hole and caught up on their content over the last year or so. Whatever the presentation, at least there's still one channel showing this stuff.
You're completely right. TCM sold out its mission to try to appeal to younger audiences, and now it's a mess. I wonder: did they show up? Now, it just looks like any another movie channel just with more pretension. And there's nothing wrong with gatekeeping.
For the last several years, minimalist movie posters have become unfortunately prominent in collector circles, mostly unofficial fan prints. Many of them just boil a movie down to a single piece of iconography, digitally represented in basic shapes and solid colors. The kind of thing not designed to be even the slightest bit stimulating or exciting on its own, rather, just the bare minimum to trigger the built in nostalgia of something that was actually meaningful. It's a cheap trick, which has unfortunately permeated modern movies and pop culture in general. I can't wait for the movement to recoil back to whatever gutter it crawled out of.
Those truly are hideous. Like the Pulp Fiction poster with just a stylized picture of Bruce's gold watch or a royal with cheese. I'm glad we have guys like Studio Stella and Kyle Lambert keeping the style alive- and in some cases- shamming the studios back into the classic mode.
It feels like TCM is selling out the old look and Noir way and to over "inclusive" corporate greed. I miss Robert Osbourne TCM. Robert Osbourne is unreplaceable. The great thing about old TCM was that it felt like the past. I believe it was a better time than the present day. I long for those times again.
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hate the new design. Which they would offer two variations of their channel. i would not mind paying for the older version.
I'm not a fan of the rebranding at all but to say this totals out to some decline of TCM overall I think is overreacting majorly with all due respect - and I do truly mean that, the fact that anybody gives a whit about TCM at all I think is marvelous and we're all fans of classic movies and what they've done here I think. Now what you mention about curation is still intact, very passionate people (I think Alicia is great, seeing a woman not much older than me being a host just makes me happy) downright brimming with this classy zeal still open and close out movies the same as always and make me feel like I'm returning "home" every time I watch, actively I mean because I have TCM on all the time. There's a sense of community there, wondering who is watching what for the first time and being pleased and surprised something underseen or what you've been wanting to see is airing that day. Getting to share that with others and having this channel that helps foster that continued appreciation and enjoyment is something I ascribe to TCM.
I do understand there's a give and take in what remains the same and what changes from a business standpoint and whether or not it's ultimately effective, the modernization is something they're trying so people this very well could be a dealbreaker for in watching classics are catered to as well. Colorization bringing people in is nonsense and I agree with your point that what those people want is not the actual thing but a retouching of that thing, but even so many need convincing classics are relevant so I think "where then meets now" as a slogan can't be so easily dismissed. I think classic film purveyors ideally should provide for both moods. When you want to see how something so old is relevant to now (Granted this mainly applies to people who are new to it all and shocked when an old thing is prescient) *as well as* people like you or I who want to don TCM like those glamour queens of yesteryear put on furs to pretend the past is within our reach. I find it a shame you show the October promo in your video and fail to see just how much care and thought is put into not just the programming which is indeed only one side of it, but the presentation of it.
Much of the rebranding outside of these wonderful promos I look forward to *is* tacky and makes it harder to snuggle up to TCM but if it's found uninitiated people respond to the punchiness and new coat of paint better until the movies themselves hopefully hook them so they don't stay for just such a superficial and ego stroking reason of everything old needing to "meet now" instead of us sometimes meeting then perish the thought? It's worth it. To newbies this world of classic film can be intimidating after all. I watched Friendly Persuasion for the first time on the channel today and felt so content with its addition to my day, and this experience continued to be delivered to me no matter how much I have my separate complaints, is something I'm thankful for and I would hope keeps longtime fans alike.
I really appreciate your taking the time to engage with this video. I agonized over whether I should even make these statements bc I tend to want to avoid being overly negative and I also didn’t want to conflate my feelings on the channels design with its content/hosts, etc. obviously I realize this is a highly esoteric concern. I even trimmed some of my more caustic critiques. Mostly I wanted to revisit the classic TCM graphics package for my own nostalgic enjoyment.
@@FilmJournal If it was too negative I'd have dipped midway and not subscribed. I enjoyed the video even if I disagreed. 🙂