Came the Movietone: The New Yorker has covered cinema from its first issue, in 1925. In this Talk of the Town story from 1928, Robert Benchley writes about the last days of the silent picture and the new “voice culture” that was ushered in by the talkies.
British Pathe Film Archive: You can now preview items from the entire 3500 hour British Pathe Film Archive which covers news, sport, social history and entertainment from 1896 to 1970. 12 million still images over 75 years is alot of stuff.
New personal LazyWeb idea: Movie Friendster. Combine the concepts of Friendster and the Baconizer, using Amazon Web Services to create a visual map of people through movie connections.
I Kick Ass For The Lord.com: Dedicated to Peter Jackson’s horror comedy Dead Alive, his brilliant sci-fi film Bad Taste, the outrageous Meet The Feebles, and last but not least, The Frighteners.
Woody Allen’s typefaces: Scott Steffens of the wonderful contactsheet.org took a nice sampling of Woody Allen title screens.
Hollywood Is Calling: For $20, you can have a real celebrity (that’s their word, not mine) call you or a friend. Why is B.J. there, but not Sheriff Lobo? Damn!
Copyshop: An Oscar-nominated short film about a man employed in a copy shop, who makes photocopies of himself until they fill up the entire world. The film consists of nearly 18,000 photocopied digital frames, which are animated and filmed with a 35mm camera, making for an extraordinary visual feast.
Respect Copyrights.org: As part of its ongoing effort to (one-sidedly) educate audiences about the value of protecting copyrighted works and how they can help fight against piracy in the digital age, the members of the Motion Picture Association of America, Inc. (MPAA) have created Respectcopyrights.org. ?Here, you will learn more about (the MPAA’s view of) copyrights and the people who earn a living working in one of the creative industries that fuel the American economy. You also will find how easy it is to enjoy high-quality entertainment online in ways that both protect your family and the interests of those who created it. (At least the Hear From The Artists section doesn’t reek of bad target marketing such as Don’t Copy That Floppy.)
The Secret Service’s Videos: A list of videotapes in the Secret Service’s library, released because of a Freedom of Information Act request by Michael Ravnitzky. You can ask the agency for any of these tapes by referring to its title and number. As with any FOIA request, whether or not you’ll get it is a crapshoot, but that’s half the fun.
Don’t Copy That Floppy: MC Disk Protector is right: The posse who makes the games you play loves them too. Pay for your software, or there will be no more Oregon Trail.