| CineMedia's Previous Sites of the Week (2002) | ||
| for the weeks of Dec. 23 - Jan. 6 | City of Domes
| CineMedia glides into the New Year spot-lighting the futuristic "City of Domes" site - which claims to be the first Web site devoted to the 1976 classic Sci-Fi film (and TV series), "Logan's Run," starring Michael York as the "Sandman" approaching his 30th birthday (and therefore his enforced "retirement"). Apart from the usual array of credits, photos, and sound clips, there's also ample sections for the truly die hard Logan's Run fan, including a fantastic section devoted to "Props and Costumes" (mostly guns and hoods - but a lot of images of them!), "Vehicles" (the solar car), "Script Drafts", and "Locations." And finally, what site wouldn't be complete without a "Stuff" section detailing every soundtrack, video, and DVD release this film could ever have. The Sandman would be proud... |
| for the weeks of Dec. 9 - 23 | MovieMaker Magazine
| The online version of MovieMaker Magazine is a highly useful bookmark for filmmakers and fans alike. Clean and not too cluttered, this site provides a nice balance of articles, interviews, and filmmaking resources. The current issue features a number of interesting articles, including "The ABCs of DV Moviemaking" and "The Truth About Jonathan Demme" as well as insightful interviews with cinematographer, Rodrigo Prieto (whose most recent project was "8 Mile") and British director, Mike Leigh. And for the truly serious filmmakers out there, the site features a resourceful classifieds section touting everything from production insurance to cheap film stock and the production links provide even more services and products. Everything is archived and searchable on the site, so there's plenty there to go through now - and much more to come. |
| for the weeks of Nov. 25 - Dec. 9 | The MZTV Museum of Television
| Located in Toronto, the MZTV Museum of Television's Web site is a wonderful tribute to the early years of the tube. Check out the virtual galleries featuring information and images from the 1939 World's Fair in NYC (Great photo of the RCA TR-K Phantom Teleceiver), the Philco Predicta, and early TV experiments. The Interactive Gallery allows you to spin around 3D models of old television sets. Also on the site are previous exhibit essays, an oral history project about people's experiences with television (and there's even a form you can fill out to help contribute to the project!), and a video archive featuring a selection of short video clips (including scenes of demonstrating TV at the 1939 World's Fair as well as a clip of Baird's early Televisor making loud noises and receiving a signal). If you love old TV, you'll love this site. |
| for the weeks of Nov. 4 - 25 | Brady World
| Believe it or not, Christopher Knight (AKA Peter Brady from "The Brady Bunch") turns 44 this week and what better way to celebrate than to watch countless hours of "Brady Bunch" reruns on the tube (the show first ran from 1969-1974) as well as browse through this wonderful ode to the family that never-really-was. Bios, galleries, episode guide - you name it, if it's anything to do with the Brady's, it's here! But we must admit, the "Fan Stories" section verges on being creepy and features such stories as "Jenee shares her exciting evening with Chris Knight at the World's Largest Disco" and "Sydney shares her story of going to Hollywood and seeing Eve Plumb." Now these are true fans! There's also a very active Bulletin board as well as the opportunity to chitter-chat with other Brady fans. And now even YOU can join Chris Knight (along with Brady "brothers" Barry Williams & Mike Lookinland) at the World's Largest Disco being held in Buffalo, NY on November 30th. Then, YOU will have your very own fan story with a Brady.... |
| for the weeks of Oct. 7 - Nov. 4 | LA Weekly - Film Section
| We reckon that the LA Weekly's Film section is probably the best, darned film review publication around - in both print and online. Cutting edge features, pithy film reviews, and if you're wandering around Los Angeles wanting to catch a flick, this is the place to turn to. Like most of the best online review sites, the LA Weekly also archives all of their previous reviews and by a click of a button, you're reading the review. Email- and printer-friendly versions of each page are also available. And while you're at it, check out the rest of the paper - it's quite good! |
| for the weeks of Sept. 16 - Oct. 7 | DVD Town
| Want to keep up with what's coming out on DVD? Check out DVD Town - a great site for accessing monthly release lists, fun and opinionated film reviews, and news about upcoming DVD releases (including a number of official studio press releases). Keep up with new additions to DVD players by browsing through the many features about DVD hardware. But two features really stand out on this site. First, there is the "My Town" section that allows you to not only organize your DVD collection, but also allows you to "show off your collection to the other users." Hmmm, interesting. The second feature that we like is the "Easter Egg" section that lists hidden treasures that can be found on various DVDs, such as the "Lost in Space" trailer hidden on the "Austin Powers" DVD. Grooovy, baby! |
| for the weeks of Sept. 2 - 16 | ScreenSound Australia
| ScreenSound Australia is the name for the National Screen and Sound Archive of Australia and their Web site presents a dense and engaging array of details about film, television, and radio Down Under. Browse through their often humorous suggested "School Lesson Plans" section with such as lessons as: "Watch a silent movie. How do the actors communicate without words? If you couldn't speak, how would you communicate? In pairs, write a message down and try to communicate it to your partner without words." Next, find their "Legends of Australian Screen and Sound section" and click your way through various "Tributes to Great Australians of Screen and Sound." We particularly liked the one for film director Charles Chauvel (1897-1959) who directed such classics as "Forty Thousand Horsemen" (1940) and "Jedda" (1955). Each film page is also linked to the Archive's collection database for even more details about the film. After that, scoot on over to the online Film Preservation Handbook and see diagrams of the "general structure of cellulose and a cellulose ester (triacetate)" used as film base polymers or read about cold storage options for preserving old films. If any of the terms seem unfamiliar to you, there is also an excellent "Technical Glossary of Common Audiovisual Terms" containing definitions of over 640 AV words. Finally, check out the huge online store featuring classic Aussie videos, DVDs, CDs and books. It might be one of the only places where you can get many of these classic Australian titles. |
| for the weeks of August 19 - Sept. 2 | Fisher & Sons: The Six Feet Under Fan Megasite
| Fisher & Sons - everyone's favorite "independent" funeral home - has been racking up the kudos lately, with no less than 22 Emmy nominations! And this Web site, devoted to the increasingly popular TV series, is an excellent resource for either "getting up to speed" with the show or for those who want to know every single item of knowledge relating to Nate, David, Ruth and Claire Fisher. There's information about the characters, the "deceased", and every episode aired so far - complete with transcript, synopsis, and analysis of each episode, as well as a trivia challenge to test your expanding knowledge of the show. We love the show - and love this site as well. Keep your eyes peeled for the newly designed site - coming soon! |
| for the weeks of August 5 - 19 | The Editing Room
|
Concept: Take a box office smash hit film (say, "Men in Black 2"), reduce script to punchy one page highlights, add funny, parodic twists to the script, and then add to "The Editing Room" Web site.
Example:
MEN IN BLACK 2: THE ABRIDGED SCRIPTª EXT. NEW YORK STREETS
WILL SMITH battles an alien with the help of ATTITUDE.
WILL SMITH ........ The credits roll as WILL SMITH pretends he is still a rapper. END. Result: A very timely and funny take on Hollywood films and scripts. A new script added every month. |
| for the weeks of July 22 - August 5 | Rocket Video
| Now Rocket Video is our kind of video store. One of Hollywood's top shops (pop into their off-line store at 726 North La Brea in LA to browse the aisles) for off-the-beaten path videos and DVDs. Online, the store is very simple. Search by title or artist, get a list of hits, check out price and availability, and toss the vid into your virtual shopping cart. And do they have everything! Desperately looking for "Butt Ugly Martians-hoverboard Heroes"? They currently have 479 copies of this "classic" flick for $9.99! And keep your eyes on their "Coming Soon" release pages to pre-order videos and DVDs. Now you'll never need to leave your house.... |
| for the weeks of June 24 - July 22 | Jerry Beck's Cartoon Research
| Jerry Beck is the author of a number of books about cartoons, including "WARNER BROS. ANIMATION ART" and "THE 50 GREATEST CARTOONS", and his wonderful site is "Dedicated To Classic Cartoons: Past, Present & Future." Check out the beautiful color images of "title" frames organized by production studio or browse through the long lists of animated features. There are ample reviews of newly released cartoons as well as very up-to-date animation news items. News Flash! "Man caught stealing GARFIELD'S royalties!" and "FOX NEWS says SPEEDY GONZALES is back! If you want to visit more cartoon Web sites, the selective Links page provides you with a nice selection of sites to explore. Finally, if you have any lingering questions about the ins and outs of cartoons and their characters, check out the "Very Frequently Asked Questions" section. Example "Q: IS TWEETY A BOY OR A GIRL? A: A Boy. Tweety is a male canary." Ahh, now that clears up that little debate! |
| for the weeks of June 10 - 24 | World Socialist Web Site Film Reviews
| Published by the International Committee of the Fourth International, the World Socialist Web Site Film Reviews provides an intriguing take on both Hollywood and non-American movies - of course, from a leftist perspective. The ICFI states that they "anticipate enormous battles in every country against unemployment, low wages, austerity policies and violations of democratic rights" and strive to provide "an intelligent appraisal of the problems of contemporary society." So on to the movies. The "Film History & Features" section leads with stories such as "The 74th Academy Awards: of race, war and a lack of backbone" and "Why was Stanley Kramer so unfashionable at the time of his death?" - good, juicy stuff that refuses to take the MOR approach so often seen in major film publications. The site also features interviews with directors including Deepa Mehta and Volker Schlöndorff (lively and insightful) as well as a huge listing of films shown on TV (over 1000 of them!) with brief capsule reviews (i.e. "Coma" (1978) - A paranoid view of doctors as body snatchers). Finally, be sure to click on the "Correspondence" link to read an array of engaging letters in response to (and defence of) the site's reviews. The exchanges about David Walsh's 1998 review of "Saving Private Ryan" are particularly interesting to read through. Wonder what Trotsky would have thought of Matt Damon's performance? A solid film review site. |
| for the weeks of May 13 - June 10 | Lost in the Past
| "Lost in the Past" is a sub-section of the ever-changing "Lost in the Stars" site and is "dedicated to those who found both fame and youth fleeting...and to those who are just now finding out." Sweet. Essentially, this is a cute little fan site devoted to young male actors whose stars have since faded - ranging from Willie Ames to Parker Stevens with some Leif Garrett and Jimmy McNichol (and even a gallery devoted to Menudo) thrown in for good measure. As you are whisked into the gallery index, the site invites us to "lose ourselves in a blow-dried, sun-tanned, occasionally Spandexed, but innocent past...." What you get is a series of half-way decent scans of the actors in various roles. This is a site for the truly devoted star fan - but not for the "too devoted." On the site's FAQ page, the Webmaster complains about how many people request for him to do "shirtless" galleries on the site. His reply: "This site is about actors, not body parts." Of course it is.... |
| for the weeks of April 26 - May 13 | hayden-christensen.com
| Starring as Anakin Skywalker in the upcoming "Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones" and finishing his stint on the London West End in the stage production of "This is Our Youth," Hayden Christensen has established himself as one hot property! And this site, hayden-christensen.com, goes a long way to inform you of everything that is Hayden: Born in Canada, he's 6'4", and was star of the FOX TV show, "Higher Ground." The "News" page (which also serves as the homepage) contains a long list of news items beginning with a Friday, January 14th, 2000 news story about Hayden being cast for "Higher Ground." There's lots of screen shots of Hayden acting and you can even watch his appearance on "Entertainment Tonight" in the Multimedia section. But if you really want to dive into some Hayden action, enter the message board section where there is always a lively discussion going on. Ever wonder if stars actually visit any of their fan sites? |
| for the weeks of April 15 - 29 | CHUD
| CHUD stands for "Cinematic Happenings Under Development" and is one of those great sites that spreads the wild rumors and hot gossip that are circulating in the entertainment biz. The VERY up-to-date news section typically runs over 10 bits of news a day, while the interview section is growing rapidly (recent interviewees include Danny DeVito and David Arquette). Chats, box office, message boards, DVD reviews, film grabs and trailers are all present - so there is plenty to do on this site. We even got a few chuckles from the section of the site that turns the tables and reviews recent issues of entertainment magazines (such as "Film Comment" and "Movieline") and gives you the low-down and what's good and what's bad in the current issue. A disclaimer at the bottom of the page reminds us that CHUD "is a privately owned website that features a great deal of rumor and speculation, and must therefore be read as entertainment." It also want to make sure we know that "CHUD.COM is no way affilliated with the film C.H.U.D." OK, entertaining it is! |
| for the weeks of April 1 - 15 | HBO Online
| Here's an informative and content-heavy site from the cable channel that brought us such saucy TV hits as "Sex and the City" and "Six Feet Under." Of course, you can check out HBO's daily schedule or download the HBO Guide (as a pdf file), as well as browse through areas devoted to each of HBO's many of a TV series, documentary, or sports event coverage. But, you really must head directly to the HBO screening room where you can watch ample clips (using either Quicktime or RealPlayer) of their TV shows, including "Band of Brothers" and "Oz" and their much talked about documentary on "The Vagina Monologues" as well as their recent movie productions ("Cats and Dogs," "Someone Like You"). (As usual, there's an online store where you can buy everything from DVDs to "The Sopranos" Barone Sanitation Cap...). |
| for the weeks of March 18 - 31 | LA Weekly - Film Section
| Anyone who has lived or spent very much time in Los Angeles will be familiar with the free, weekly newspaper, the "LA Weekly" - home of a "sort of" independent perspective on politics, arts, and entertainment. It is, quite literally, the "Village Voice" of La La Land. The Web site echoes a good deal of the print version with ample entertainment related interviews, movie reviews, and special features. They also provide weekly "Picks" for current, revival, and video film releases. We like the ability to email articles to friends or to generate pages that are "printer friendly," but especially enjoy the "Capsule Review Archive" with its reviews from previous issues - from "Aaron's Magic Village" to "Zoolander." And if you find yourself either in LA or heading that way, check out the "Film & Video Special Events" section for funky screenings and analytical forums. |
| for the weeks of March 4 - 18 | 16mmFilms.com
| FILM COLLECTORS UNITE! Look - it's a site devoted to collectors of 16mm films. Cruise through the "Forum" section consisting of a very active bulletin board with the exchange of a lot of information (as well as numerous announcements being made) with questions ranging from "how to deal with films turning red" to "how to focus when using an anamorphic lens." The "Vintage 16mm" section features rich histories of some of the more famed 16mm distributors of the past, such as Blackhawk Films and Thunderbird Films (in .pdf format). For all of you budding 16mm film collectors, there's the handy F.A.Q. listing every question and answer that you'd feel too embarrassed to raise while in the company of other hard core collectors ("What is a splicer?" "What is Vinegar Syndrome?" "What does LPP mean?"). Finally, the "Links" section is focused and an excellent place to look for a quick link to a film lab or film convention. Oh, and by the way, "LPP" means "Low fade Positive Print" film stock, made exclusively by Kodak. |
| for the weeks of Feb. 18 - March 4 | The Films of Doris Day
| "Que Sera, Sera...." Born Doris Kappelhoff in Cincinnati, Ohio, Doris Day went on to become "America's Girl Next Door" on movies screens around the world and continues her work today as an animal rights activist. This loving site is a happy journey through her life, films and albums. The site remarks how "Doris Day was an ordinary person who possessed extraordinary talent and an innate ability to entertain people and make them feel good." And indeed, a look at her films - from "April in Paris" to "Young at Heart" - reaffirms this range and talent. Each film page features an analysis of the film, countless stills, lobby cards and posters, and even a review from "Radio Times." The "Sing-a-long-a-Doris" area of the site features fourteen music clips of Doris singing as well as links to many of her albums on Amazon. Be sure to also check out Howard Green's "Doris Day Film Quiz" ("39 Questions - one for each of her films") featuring such zingers as "What well-known actress made her motion picture debut in a bit part in the CinemaScope musical, 'Lucky Me'?" Answer: "Angie Dickinson." Although no longer in the limelight, her stardom and persona remain with us. As Doris would remind us, "...whatever will be, will be...." |
| for the weeks of Feb. 4 - 18 | The Dark Side of the Scooby Gang
| Okay, we all love that loveable, mumbling cartoon dog, Scooby Doo and will sit through endless reruns featuring the gang driving around in their van, solving countless mysteries, and doing battle with ghosts and monsters. But finally, the madness must stop! Everything is not hip and nice with the gang! This site is devoted to a fantasy, alternative universe featuring "The Nega- Scooby Doo Gang - "a group of misfits that find great pleasure in trying to do others harm...and is built on a kind of a mix between evil twins and the dark side of the do-good mystery solving team known as the Scooby Doo Gang." Read fan stories and look through fan art featuring this "other" gang. Learn more about "Hot Stuff Freddy," "Dark Daphne," "Disgruntled Shaggy," "Scrappy Doo," and "Evil-minded Velma" (Age: 22; Hobbies: reading Edgar Allen Poe and books written by imprisoned convicts; creating weapons such as the Slicer 'n Dicer; Favorite Quote: "Jinkies this, buddy!"). Fun stuff. Is it time now for that devil Scooby Snack? |
| for the weeks of Jan. 21 - Feb. 4 | Maine Film Office
| Need a set designer in Portland, Maine? Or are you considering using Maine as the setting for your next flick? Or maybe you just want to know what current film and TV projects are beng filmed in state famous for its lobsters. Well the Maine Film Office's online site should be your first stop. As the location for the current hit film, "In the Bedroom," Maine is basking in the limelight as one of the more interesting places to film these days. Find all sorts of production services through their ample listing or contact other filmmakers who are based in Maine. Our favorite part of the site is the "Maine Locations" section where you can look through various locales suitable for a variety of film and television projects including a number of scenic roads, lighthouses, and forests. Browse through the "Houses and Mansions" listing and check out the images of The Inn on Winter's Hill - a great place to shoot your next Victorian period piece. Helpful and current information that is professionally presented. |
| for the weeks of Jan. 7 - 21 | Western Australian cinemaweb
| The "Western Australian cinemaweb" is an interesting trip down memory lane documenting "the places where films have been shown in Western Australia," including most cities in WA including Perth and Paraburdoo (home of the "Open Air Picture Gardens"). The site is very easy to use: pick a town or region or keyword and click search. Each town features all of the venues that have been used for showing films, spanning a wide range of locales: Hoyts multiplexes, numerous town halls, and even the "Star Skating Rink" in Perth. Most of the entries have photographs of the venues (both then and now) as well as a detailed historical description of the cinema. If you love the history of movies, this is an engaging visit to a specific, focused region. Popcorn anyone? |
| for the weeks of Dec. 17 - Jan. 7 | Coming Soon!
| Fascinated by TV rumors and Hollywood scoops? Does the early knowledge of cast members of a yet-to-be-released film make you shiver? If so, then this is the site for you. "Movie Briefs" covers most of the big movie weekly releases, while the healthy list of Online Forums gives every anxious fan their say. There's box office figures, a twice-weekly "Who Said That" trivia game, news, and release dates. Yet the real treat is the "Film Database" where you can either search or browse film titles and can not only see a decent list of production specs, but also an adequate listing of links to trailers and other promotional materials. And if that's not enough, each film database record also links to all of the related gossip scoops that have been logged on to Coming Soon! "Shhhh - did you hear that......" |
| Read Previous Sites of the Week From 2001! |
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