Hello,

This from FreePrint has some interesting links ...

Matt
>                           FEATURE ARTICLE
>         http://www.freepint.co.uk/issues/301100.htm#feature
>
>          "Web Sources for Film and Television Information"
>                 By Ray Templeton and Danny Birchall
>
> From the very beginning, one of the web's strong suits has been the
> involvement of enthusiasts and detail-obsessives; for much longer, the
> worlds of film and television have attracted a similar cast of
> characters.  Put the two together and the result is that the web is an
> enormously, and ever-increasingly, rich source of information and
> images about film and TV, whether your interest is commercial,
> educational, recreational, or just curious; whether you are a producer
> seeking cast, or a fan wanting to find out what happened in a missed
> episode of Ally McBeal. This brief overview can only indicate some of
> the key sites, as well as starting points from which you can navigate
> easily to more detailed levels.
>
>
> General Reference
> -----------------
>
> By far the most comprehensive source of film information, and always a
> good place to start, is the well-established Internet Movie Database.
> IMDb provides detailed cast and credits for about 200,000 films, as
> well as plot summaries, user comments, awards info, trivia, images
> etc., as well as links to relevant external sites.  It's an
> interactive service: it relies on submissions and corrections from its
> users to maintain accurate information. You can submit your own
> updates to the IMDb either through the website itself or through
> specially-formatted emails.
>
> <http://www.imdb.co.uk>
>
>
> IMDb also includes information about television, but a much more
> detailed TV reference site is epguides.com, which offers detailed
> episode guides for thousands of  TV shows.  It's clearly strongest on
> currently running US series, but there's plenty of detail of UK
> programming as well, and it is improving all the time.  Using the
> strengths offered by the web as an information medium, epguides solves
> the problem of providing personality information by the simple
> expedient of linking to IMDb.
>
> <http://www.epguides.com>
>
>
> Commercial and Industry Reference
> ---------------------------------
>
> The key printed reference work for people working in the film and
> television industries in the UK,  The Knowledge is now a comprehensive
> web resource, with continually updated listings of production needs
> "from props and vehicles to catering and crew", as well as "events,
> exhibitions, conferences, screenings or training days on the diary
> dates page".
>
> <http://www.theknowledgeonline.com>
>
>
> Essentially a links site, TV Link pulls together not just industry-
> specific links, ranging from footage sales <http://www.footage.net> -
> a global network of sites serving the footage trade, with facilities
> to search across a range of stock, archival and news databases - to
> casting <http://www.talentworks.com> - a database of actors and
> actresses, searchable by attributes as diverse as ethnicity and eye
> colour - but also includes a facility entitled The Producer's
> Briefcase, with links to everything from car rentals to exchange
> rates.
>
> <http://www.timelapse.com/tvlink.html>
>
>
> In the absence of reliable bibliographic control of audiovisual media,
> it's worth bearing in mind a site like Blackstar, which is a retail
> service for video and DVD, but also provides a quasi-bibliographical
> facility, in that it offers a fairly reliable (at least in respect of
> feature films, TV series and popular non-fiction) indication of what
> titles are in print at any given time, and can be searched in various
> useful ways.
>
> <http://www.blackstar.co.uk>
>
>
> The movie business
> ------------------
>
> To be in the know about the latest events in the film business (or at
> least to give that impression), you rarely have to move far from your
> monitor: a wide variety of sites trade in everything from breaking box
> office figures to scurrilous rumours about the stars.  With its home-
> made look and feel, Ain't It Cool shares the reputation of Matt
> Drudge's political news website for garnering the scoops and leaks
> that the industry would rather you didn't hear: inside news from
> outsiders, if you like. The site's correspondents mail in accounts of
> previews seen, hints directors have dropped in interviews, and any
> other tidbits of industry news and rumour, and the editor, Harry,
> posts them for all to read.
>
> <http://www.aint-it-cool-news.com>
>
>
> Print magazine Variety has been the house journal of Hollywood ever
> since there was a Hollywood, reporting on the deals done, the stars
> signed and dropped, and most importantly of all, the money made.
> Online Variety provides much the same, day-by-day. For studio
> executives, or the seriously addicted, VarietyExtra, a subscription
> service, will email you breaking news, and allow you to juggle box
> office returns on the site.
>
> <http://www.variety.com>
>
>
> The daily online news service allied to EMAP's Screen International
> magazine, Screen Daily provides news headlines covering a similar
> territory to Variety, from a UK and European angle: companies bought
> and sold, festival previews and other industry news.
>
> <http://www.screendaily.com/>
>
>
> Organisations and funding
> -------------------------
>
> In Europe and the UK, the role of public bodies in funding film
> production and defending national film cultures against the tsunami of
> Hollywood product has frequently been unclear, if not contentious.
> Nevertheless, such bodies provide useful information and advice, if
> not cold hard cash, to those interested in making, showing and
> teaching people about film.  Since May this year, the Film Council has
> assumed responsibility for publicly-funded film production in the UK.
> Its site, though sparse, provides details of the council's remit and
> the various production funds available to apply to. More usefully, it
> also carries Lowdown: the low budget funding guide, which provides an
> introduction to how to get your low-budget film funded, and an
> extensive directory of contact details for funding agencies and
> organisations at every level from regional to European.
>
> <http://www.filmcouncil.org.uk>
>
>
> Tasked with preserving the UK's film heritage since 1933, the BFI
> provides a wide range of educational and exhibition services as well
> as preserving and releasing prints of classic films. The site provides
> comprehensive information on all the BFI's activities, as well as
> access to searchable catalogues from the collections, what's on at
> London's National Film Theatre and regional arthouse cinemas,
> downloadable educational materials, full catalogues of the books and
> videos the BFI publishes, and in-depth features based around BFI
> releases and retrospectives.
>
> <http://www.bfi.org.uk>
>
>
> The European Audiovisual Observatory provides business information on
> the 'audiovisual sector' in Europe, including film and home
> entertainment. The focus is on statistical information, foresight and
> market analysis.  It's quite dry, and definitely not for the casual
> browser, but for an overall view of the media markets in Europe,
> indispensable.
>
> <http://www.obs.coe.int/>
>
>
> Careers and Training
> --------------------
>
> For those interested in working in the industry, or in studying and
> knowing more about it, there is a range of options.  For UK-specific
> training information the first port of call should be Skillset, the
> National Training Organisation for Broadcast, Film, Video and
> Multimedia.
>
> <http://www.skillset.org.uk>
>
>
> The BFI's site (see below) has a regularly-updated database of short
> courses in Media and Multimedia, with details of short (i.e. less than
> 6 months) courses in film, television, video and radio across the UK
> (co-published with Skillset).
>
> <http://www.bfi.org.uk/education/skillset/>
>
>
> Magazines
> ---------
>
> The Internet has long threatened to revolutionise the world of
> magazine publishing, replacing monthly glossies full of ads with fast-
> changing news and reviews. Online film magazines, however, are no
> exception to the trend of offline 'brands' extending their reach into
> the online world and taking their existing readership with them:
> independent web ventures find it hard to establish the vital
> 'mindshare'.  One of the few independents, the recently revamped 6
> degrees, concentrates on cinema beyond the multiplex, with a monthly
> roundup of reviews of all films currently on release, including mini-
> runs and limited releases. The reviews are written by volunteers
> rather than professional journalists, but nevertheless of a high
> quality. They also provide links to and information on film festivals
> world-wide, and perhaps most usefully a free-to-submit small ads
> service where low-budget filmmakers and cast/crew can seek each other
> out.
>
> <http://www.6degrees.co.uk>
>
>
> Empire Online, the web version of the news-stand magazine, provides a
> more mainstream view of the movies, with up-to-the-minute production
> and celebrity news alongside reviews of films on UK release. In
> collaboration with partner websites they also provide links to
> trailers for forthcoming releases, and a search facility allowing you
> to find out what's on at cinemas in your local area.
>
> <http://www.empireonline.co.uk>
>
>
> Part of the ever-growing Guardian 'unlimited' empire, Filmunlimited
> takes film reviews and features from both the Guardian and Observer
> newspapers and adds daily news items. Rooted strongly in the
> broadsheets' film coverage, the emphasis is on 'cultural' and world
> cinema, with lengthy features.
>
> <http://www.filmunlimited.co.uk>
>
>
> And finally
> -----------
>
> No article on film and TV websites, however brief, would be complete
> without something for the true obsessive.  A perfect example of such a
> site would be The Oracle of Bacon at Virginia, an on-line version of
> the Kevin Bacon game, in which movie buffs compete to see how quickly
> they can link personalities using their appearances in films.  For
> example:  Stan Laurel has a Bacon number of 3 - he was in Jitterbugs
> [1943] with Vivian Blaine; Vivian Blaine was in The Dark [1979] with
> William Devane; William Devane was in Hollow Man [2000] with Kevin
> Bacon.  The search engine on this site enables you to link any
> personality to any other in this way.  Hours of fun!
>
> <http://www.cs.virginia.edu/oracle>
>
> > - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
>
> Ray Templeton is Head of the BFI National Library, and has worked in
> public, educational and specialist libraries.  He has been involved in
> the development of public information systems since the Prestel
> experiments of the late 1970s.  While at the Library Association in
> the mid-1990s, he was project manager of the bid to the Millennium
> Commission to fund a national network linking public libraries across
> the UK.
>
> Danny Birchall is the editor of the British Film Institute's website
> <http://www.bfi.org.uk>. Before coming to the BFI, he was editor of
> the University of Sussex Information Service. He is also a freelance
> writer on digital media and the Internet, having most recently written
> for Sight and Sound magazine on digital movie piracy.
>
> > - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
>
> Related Free Pint links:
>
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