Subzin is a search engine that allows you to find phrases in movies and TV shows.
Just enter your favourite quote and it should find the relevant title and tell you the exact the exact time it appears, with links to Neflix if available.
I’ve tried it with a few films and so far it looks impressive.
What the Trend is a useful website that tracks what’s trending on Twitter and why.
For each trend, it gives you a quick explanation of why a #tag is trending (the blurbs are edited by users) and you can see the latest tweets and related Flickr photos and news stories.
* You can follow me on Twitter here (@filmdetail) *
I’ve just started an interactive Google Map for cinemas in the UK.
You can drag it, zoom in and find out more information by clicking on each blue marker.
Our aim is to list every cinema, so if you want your local one to be listed email us at [email protected]
You will be able to view it permanently at filmdetail.com/cinemamap
This is a list of useful movie websites to help guide you to the best film content on the web.
Back in August 2006 I created a list of what I thought were the 10 most useful movie websites but I felt a fresher and more comprehensive one was needed (which is why it is the 2.0 version).
So, the following is a collection of sites related to the world of film broken down into these categories: essential sites, news, blogs, critics, DVDs and podcasts.
If you look on the sidebar to the right you’ll see links to a lot of these sites but I thought I’d expand it and explain why they are worth bookmarking.
Part of the aim here is also to spread the word about quality film sites, so if you want to post this to Digg or another social news site then just use the buttons at the bottom of this post.
I’m sure there are more links out there worthy of inclusion in a future list, so if you have any suggestions email me or leave a comment below.
ESSENTIALS
These are sites that I would consider essential bookmarks. They range from some of the most popular film sites on the web to the more obscure, but all are useful at helping you find the movie information you want.
NEWS
The following section is a little broad but it centres on more general sites that cover the world of film.
Some are established news organisations whilst others are purely online, but all are useful sources of information on the latest film stories.
BLOGS
Blogs have grown rapidly in the last four years, allowing professional journalists and keen movie lovers to publish their thoughts online in a structured format.
Some of these belong to established news organisations, others are independent – but all are worth reading if you want regular doses of movie opinion and insight.
CRITICS
The role of the film critic is one that has come under some scrutiny in recent times with many getting laid off and some questioning their role in an age of blogs and sites like Rotten Tomatoes.
What follows here are the film critics whose opinion and insight is valuable to anyone who cares about the medium.
DVD
For those interested in finding films on DVD and what the latest releases are like then I would suggest the following.
PODCASTS
A number of fine film related podcasts are now available for free and you can subscribe to them via iTunes, RSS feed or via direct MP3 download.
Here are my pick of the best:
So that wraps this list up.
As I said before, if you have any good sites worthy of inclusion then leave them in the comments below or email me.
UPDATE: Jim Emerson’s Scanners blog has now been included (an oversight by me but thanks to Denis at SLIFR for reminding me!)
TimeTube is a very cool mashup of YouTube and the interactive timeline site Dipity.
This means that if you do a keyword search it will bring up relevant YouTube videos in an interactive timeline.
So, for example, if we wanted to to a TimeTube search on Steven Spielberg, type in the keywords ‘Steven Spielberg’ and then watch it build up a timeline of videos related to the director:
Then select the relevant video you want from the timeline, such as this BBC interview Spielberg did with Jeremy Isaacs around the UK release of Schindler’s List in 1994:
Then you can watch the video:
You can also check out parts two, three, four and five of the interview.
> Check out more video timelines at TimeTube
> Steven Spielberg at the IMDb
I’ve just realised that YouTube is down.
Server problems? Or perhaps the Pakistan government somehow taking it offline again, like they did back in February?
Paul Glazowski at Mashable has some thoughts:
First highlighted by Allen Stern at CenterNetworks, the outage seems to have stretched the globe, with reports from people spanning the US, the UK, Estonia, and places elsewhere.
A few simple requests by yours truly for YouTube clips via Google Search this morning return links to unresponsive pages. (The Australian site is down too, by the way.)
Not good, not good. Maintenance gone wrong, is it? Who’s to say? Google’s not talking, neither on the company blog or, more specifically, on the official Youtube Blog.
UPDATE at 15.15 GMT: It is back up in the UK.
What about where you are in the rest of the world? Leave any comments below.
Have you ever wanted to check TV listings on your mobile phone?
One of the best is Andrew Flegg’s wonderful TV listings site which has listings for nearly all the UK channels.
But there is also a mobile version – written by Chris Lloyd – which you can access via your mobile’s WAP browser.
Just enter http://bleb.org/waptv and you can access the listings which look like this:
There is even an option where you can check out what films are about to screen, which is very handy indeed.
If anyone knows a US version or any equivalents for other countries then just leave them in the comments below.
> Andrew Flegg’s TV listing site
> The WAP version
> On The Box – Another useful TV listings site
I’m not exactly sure how you pronounce the name of this MP3 search engine (I’m guessing it is “MP3-gle”, like saying MP3 and the end of Google) but it looks like quite a useful tool if you are searching for MP3 files.
It is worth mentioning that it isn’t an official Google product.
Check it out here.
The Oscars take place this Sunday and I’ll post my predictions in the next 24 hours.
But until then here are some links to useful websites about everything to do with the Academy Awards.
OFFICIAL SITE
The official site for the Oscars is worth a look for any announcements but perhaps more interesting is their official YouTube channel with highlights from previous years, including David Niven politely putting down a streaker and Michael Moore blasting George W Bush, whilst Academy president Sid Ganis can be seen video blogging at this year’s nominees luncheon.
Plus, they have an Oscar ballot form with all the nominees which you can download as a PDF file.
SPECIALIST SITES & BLOGS
The awards season isn’t all about expensive frocks and Hollywood backslapping. It provides vital exposure for less mainstream films and careers are boosted by nominations and wins.
There are some great sites (from both independent and mainstream media) that cover the awards season in great depth, so if you want to get stuck into the minutiae of ballots, contenders and the politics of Oscar, check out: In Contention, Awards Daily, And The Winner Is, Variety’s Award Central and Red Carpet District, The Envelope at the LA Times, Gold Rush at The Hollywood Reporter, The Carpetbagger at the New York Times and Little Gold Men at Vanity Fair.
More general blogs worth always worth checking out around Oscar time are The Hot Blog by David Poland, Hollywood Elsewhere by Jeff Wells, Thompson on Hollywood by Anne Thompson and Deadline Hollywood Daily by Nikki Finke.
PREDICTION CHARTS
If you are in an Oscar pool or putting a bet on who might win this Sunday, there are a batch of sites that collate a bunch of different pundits and see who is favoured to win in each category.
Among the best are Gurus of Gold, Awards Daily Oscar Watch and The Buzzmeter.
OSCAR HISTORY
If you want to delve in to the history of the Oscars, then Wikipedia is a treasure trove of information with detailed sections on the awards, AMPAAS, a list of Best Picture winners and a list of records.
Filmsite.org has an extensive list of winners and nominees, whilst The Times have a handy one sheet of Schott’s Oscar Almanac.
Do you know any decent Oscar sites? Leave them in the comments below.
Have you ever wanted to watch videos on your mobile phone?
If you are lucky enough to have an iPhone then you will probably have been impressed by their impressive YouTube application, but what about other phones and video sites?
One site I came across recently was vTap – which allows you to search different video sites and then watch them on your mobile.
Previously I’d used the mobile version of YouTube but it was a little frustrating as it only featured a limited amount of videos.
After trying vTap on my Nokia 6120 Classic I was very impressed – not only did it work but you have (as far as I could tell) the full library of YouTube and other video sites.
Not only do you have access to more videos, but on a 3G connection the download time is quick and playback is pretty smooth.
Another nice feature is that you can select the download speed depending on your connection and even just get the audio of the video, if you so wish.
Check out their website for a list of compatible phones or just punch http://m.vtap.com into your mobile browser to check out the site.
The company behind vTap is called Veveo and here is a video of co-founder and CEO Murali Aravamudan explaining the idea behind the site:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8fkiprQDcg[/youtube]
It is worth noting that video on your mobile can be expensive if you don’t have an unlimited data plan (which I do), so make sure you check this before giving the site some heavy use.
> Official vTap site
> Om Malick writes about Veveo (the company behind VTap) at NewTeeVee
> Find out more about the vTap application for the iPhone
I got a few emails recently about the current writers strike in the US and whether it would have an effect on any films or TV shows showing in the UK.
Initally I’d held off writing anything in depth about it as it felt a little distant from me, plus other people were covering it better and in more depth. But to make up for my slackness, here is a longer-than-usual post on the whole affair.
The short answer to the question as to whether it will affect shows in the UK is “probably (given how many US shows are imported here), but it depends how serious the strike gets”. For a longer answer, more information and useful links about the strike itself, read on.
If you follow it on the web, you might note how much of the coverage comes not only from established media but from different journalists, bloggers, people inside the entertainment industry and the strikers themselves.
To recap, it is a strike by the Writers Guild of America (on both East and West coasts) that started last Monday. The WGA is the union that represents film, television, radio and new media writers working in the United States.
Every three years, the Writers Guilds negotiate a new contract with the studios and the AMPTP (Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers)- the body which represents them. The dispute is about the new contract and the issue of residuals – the payments writers receive when their work is shown in different formats (e.g. DVD, cable, foreign TV).
Unsurprisingly, the writers feel they are being paid too little, whilst the studios don’t want to pay them more with uncertainty over new formats and how the industry will be affected by changes in technology. The WGA has proposed doubling the residual rate for DVD sales, which would mean a payment of about eight cents (up from the current four cents) for every DVD sold.
However, aside from the DVD dispute is the much more pressing issue of residuals for online content. At the moment, the WGA has no deal with the studios regarding films or TV shows sold via iTunes or streamed or downloaded online. This is a huge sticking point as it is widely assumed that online distribution will take over from DVD as the primary means for distribution.
Added to the already poisonous atmosphere, there is much lingering resentment from the 20-year-old deal the WGA signed for home video – in essence the writers felt that they were not compensated for the hefty profits the studios made when DVD gradually took over from VHS in the last 10 years.
Now the WGA is refusing to make any similar concessions in for so-called “new media” – which they would argue is not so new after all. WGA members are determined that the next deal can’t be like the residuals they got for DVDs.
However, the studios the studios have refused to consider changing the formula. Their argument is that DVD sales are necessary to offset rising production and marketing costs. They have further insisted that the current DVD formula be applied to residuals in New Media (which covers any content sold via the web e.g. iTunes or download sites like Amazon Unbox).
They would also probably argue that developments in technology are radically altering the entertainment landscape and point to the music industry as an example of how difficult predicting the future can be.
YouTube didn’t exist three years ago and now copyrighted content appears there daily (albeit in 10 minute chunks). And what is the residual rate really worth if the next generation of users are downloading films and TV shows for free from sites like The Pirate Bay?
I guess the the studios feel they can ride out a strike – the last major one in 1988 dragged on for 5 months and cost the entertainment industry an estimated $500 million. There are contingency plans (such as stockpiled shows and repeats) but the situation will get much much worse if other entertainment unions decide to join them in a wider shutdown of productions.
In July next year, the key contracts of the other two major industry unions – the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and Directors Guild of America (DGA) – are set to run out. If all three can’t broker an agreement with the studios, they would almost certainly engage in a wider strike that would cripple Hollywood.
What’s interesting about following a story like this on the web is the depth and breadth of information from the parties involved and those commenting on it.
Here are some sites and links that are worth checking out:
Plus, there are plenty of established bloggers providing excellent coverage as the strike goes on:
If you see any useful links then do leave them in the comments section below or just email me.
In the meantime check out this video by Field of Dreams writer and director Phil Alden Robinson in which he explains the history of the WGA and why the strike has happened:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqrrwxfP29o[/youtube]
This looks like it could be a very handy site.
It is called Wikirage and it tracks what is currently hot on Wikipedia.
Check it out here.
[Link via BlogsNow]
> Wikipedia on Wikipedia
> Featured Wikipedia article of the day
Just came across this interesting site via Digg – it is a comprehensive list of documentaries that can be viewed online.
Just use the menu to navigate to each film. (N.B. Some might take a while to load)
> Check it out the list of free documentaries
> Find out more about documentaries at Wikipedia
A couple of weeks ago Anne Thompson – an established film writer who also has a keen understanding of new media – moved from her post at The Hollywood Reporter to their crosstown rivals Variety.
You can check out her new blog at www.thompsononhollywood.com
She notes in her first post that:
Although I wrote the Risky Business column at L.A. Weekly for seven years, and filed some more Risky columns for Filmmaker Magazine in 2003 and 2004, and convinced the folks at THR to let me use Risky Business for my weekly column there, they want to hang on to it. It’s a hard-won part of my identity. But I’m moving on.
Although it is a hassle starting a new site from scratch (and a tad mean spirited for THR to hang on to the RiskyBiz moniker) sometimes a change can be an invigorating thing.
All the best to Anne at her new URL.
> Thompson on Hollywood
> Anne’s first column at Variety (which discusses 300)
Box Office Mojo have introduced a clever new section to their site called Chart Watch.
It tracks films to see if their rank has gone up on the various charts at athr site. You can select two views: Changes by Chart (which lists all the charts each movie moved on) and Changes by Movie (which lists all the movies that moved on each chart). It is handy to see how certain films are doing.
For example, it is interesting (or worrying depending on your viewpoint) to see that Night at the Museum is the 41st highest grossing film of all time at the worldwide box office.
> Chart Watch at Box Office Mojo
> The most successful films of all time at the box office according to Box Office Mojo
It looks like Amazon have created their own Wikipedia clone. It is called Amapedia and although it is still in beta, the idea is a very good one.
A wiki for Amazon products not only gives us more information about the huge amount of books, DVDs and products they have but also allows Amazon to better to gauge customer responses.
It will be interesting to see how this develops
> Amapedia (link via Read Write/Web)
The rather wonderful Lifehacker has posted an excellent set of links and advice for moviegoers:
Here’s the deal: if I’m going to shell out the dough to see a movie in the theater, I like to get my money’s worth, especially since I have to do quite a bit of maneuvering (babysitters, scheduling, etc.) even to get there. I don’t want to waste my hard-earned cash on the newest Rob Schneider craptacular; then again, just because a film has the George Lucas stamp of approval doesn’t necessarily mean it’s my cup of tea.
In this week’s feature, I’ll run down the sites I use before (and after) I go to the movies in order to make my dollar stretch just a little further.
For those of us outside the US its a little American-centric but the links are still worth checking out. (Link via Digg)
If you want to check out the latest viral videos doing the rounds on the Internet this chart comes in handy. It tracks the latest videos people are watching on YouTube, MySpace and Google Video.
* UPDATE 12/05/08: For a more updated list click here *
As someone who reviews films and DVDs the internet is an invaluable resource, but what are the most useful sites? After a look through my many film bookmarks and feeds here is my selection of the 10 most useful websites that I use on a regular basis:
If you have any comments or suggestions for a useful site then do send me an email.
Although it only deals with US releases at the moment Release Guide looks like an extremely useful site if you want to check out the release dates for Films, DVDs, Albums, Games and Books.
> Release Guide
> The RSS feeds are particularly useful if you are into that kind of thing
I’m not advocating anyone sneak into cinemas but Double Feature is an interesting little tool. Can we get one for the UK?
King Kong opens today in the UK and here are some interesting links on the film to celebrate the release of one of the year’s best films.
> Composer Howard Shore left the project late on, so his replacement James Newton Howard had a tight schedule to keep to – SoundtrackNet has a great article on how it was all done.
> Worth1000 has some amusing photoshops of King Kong (my favourites are "Primates of the Caribbean" and the Kong iPod)
> Get King Kong showtimes for your local cinema
> Get the latest Kong news from KongIsKing.net
> Some video of "The Making of Kong" (via vfxblog)
> Get the latest reviews of the film on Metacritic
If you have seen it then do leave a comment on what you thought of it.
Want to know what films are on in your area? Have a look at Google’s new showtimes funtion.
Just enter your postcode or location and it brings up the relevant cinema listings.
MORE DETAIL
> Google UK – Cinema Showtimes
> For those across the pond here is the US version
