diff --git a/video_metadata/util.py b/video_metadata/util.py
index a822a4d..fc3bda2 100644
--- a/video_metadata/util.py
+++ b/video_metadata/util.py
@@ -1,4 +1,23 @@
 
+import logging
+import sys
+
+
+def getLogger(is_debug):
+    if (is_debug):
+        logging.basicConfig(level=logging.DEBUG)
+
+    logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
+    formatter = logging.Formatter(
+        fmt='%(asctime)s, %(levelname)-5s [%(filename)s:%(lineno)d, %(funcName)s] %(message)s'
+    )
+    handler = logging.StreamHandler(sys.stdout)
+    handler.setLevel(logging.DEBUG)
+    handler.setFormatter(formatter)
+    logger.addHandler(handler)
+
+    return logger
+
 # NOTE: modified from here: https://code.activestate.com/recipes/137951-dump-all-the-attributes-of-an-object/
 #   to only print attributes
 def dumpObjAttr(obj):
diff --git a/video_metadata/views/tmdb.py b/video_metadata/views/tmdb.py
index 45bb365..a9b6a51 100644
--- a/video_metadata/views/tmdb.py
+++ b/video_metadata/views/tmdb.py
@@ -1,6 +1,5 @@
 
 import cgi
-from contextlib import closing
 from datetime import date
 from enum import Enum
 import json
@@ -11,7 +10,7 @@ from urllib.error import URLError, HTTPError
 import urllib.parse
 import urllib.request
 
-from flask import Blueprint, current_app, flash, request, render_template
+from flask import Blueprint, current_app, flash, Flask, request, render_template
 
 from .. import util
 from .. import db
@@ -20,7 +19,6 @@ from .. import db
 ####################
 # constants
 
-bp = Blueprint('tmdb', __name__, url_prefix='/tmdb')
 TMDB_API_URL = 'https://api.themoviedb.org'
 TMDB_SEARCH_MOVIE = '/3/search/movie'
 TMDB_SEARCH_TV = '/3/search/tv'
@@ -28,6 +26,13 @@ TMDB_MOVIE_LINK_URL = 'https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/'
 TMDB_TV_LINK_URL = 'https://www.themoviedb.org/tv/'
 
 
+####################
+# globals
+
+bp = Blueprint('tmdb', __name__, url_prefix='/tmdb')
+logger = util.getLogger(Flask(__name__).config['DEBUG'])
+
+
 ####################
 # data structures
 
@@ -90,6 +95,10 @@ class view_result(object):
 
 @bp.route('/query_movie')
 def query_movie():
+
+    logger.debug('Flask(__name__): {}'.format(Flask(__name__)))
+    logger.debug('debug: {}'.format(Flask(__name__).config['DEBUG']))
+
     errors = []
     query = query_data()
     response = response_data()
@@ -174,7 +183,7 @@ def isQueryCached(query_str):
     cur.execute('SELECT COUNT(*) FROM movie_queries WHERE query=?', (query_str,))
     count = cur.fetchone()[0]
 
-    print('DEBUG: {}, count: "{}"'.format(util.getFunctionName(), count))
+    logger.debug('count: "{}"'.format(count))
 
     return (count > 0)
 
@@ -190,13 +199,11 @@ def makeLocalQuery(query_obj):
     elif query_obj.query_type == query_type.TV_SHOW:
         pass
 
-    print('DEBUG: {}, number of rows matched: "{}"'.format(
-            util.getFunctionName(), len(cur.fetchall()))
-        )
+    logger.debug('number of rows matched: "{}"'.format(len(cur.fetchall())))
 
     if len(cur.fetchall()) > 0:
-        print('DEBUG: {}(), query string "{}", match found in local db'.format(
-            util.getFunctionName(), query_obj.parsed_query_str)
+        logger.debug('query string "{}", match found in local db'.format(
+            query_obj.parsed_query_str)
         )
 
         for row in cur:
@@ -204,8 +211,8 @@ def makeLocalQuery(query_obj):
             vr.title = row["title"]
             results.append(vr)
     else:
-        print('DEBUG: {}(), query string "{}", no matches found in local db'.format(
-            util.getFunctionName(), query_obj.parsed_query_str)
+        logger.debug('query string "{}", no matches found in local db'.format(
+            query_obj.parsed_query_str)
         )
 
     return results
@@ -263,9 +270,7 @@ def storeTMDBQueryResults(query_obj, result_list):
     conn = db.get_db()
     cur = conn.cursor()
 
-    print('DEBUG: {}, adding query string "{}" into local cache'.format(
-        util.getFunctionName(), query_obj.parsed_query_str)
-    )
+    logger.debug('adding query string "{}" into local cache'.format(query_obj.parsed_query_str))
 
     try:
         cur.execute('INSERT INTO movie_queries(query, year) VALUES (?, ?)',