The Linkroll: Surfing for Movies

In my last post, I talked about how the internet and blogs allow audience members to now have a more active part with movies. So to keep with that theme, I figured I should share with you some websites and blogs that can point you in the right direction, some of which I check constantly for the latest news in the movie industry (see link roll on the right). To help give an idea of how good these websites are, I will be using the Webby Awards Criteria and the IMSA Criteria for judging websites and blogs. Since we're covering the movie industry, it would be best to first look at the Motion Picture Association of America, seeing as they decide the ratings of all the movies. The website is basic in presentation, with some images of recent movies, but the content is what's valuable, as it covers their system of censorship and what all the ratings mean and what decides the rating. Now, with an understanding of the rating system, one can go to the American Film Institute, a very well respected institution, which holds the lists of what are considered to be America's 100 best films. The website has and overall pleasant design, with the navigation through the site set up in an easy format, plus the site provides information regarding film events, including AFI film festivals. Now that we know what are considered to be some of the best films, we might want to know what other people think about it, and so this would take us the next two sites. The first is Rotten Tomatoes, a site that is more or less about rating movies. It is a bit cluttered with its appearance, but it provides a lot of the latest information with the opening page, and then the search can be used to find other movies and see other opinions and ratings. There are links to the latest movie news, but they're not as extensive as some of the other sites I'll be talk about in a little bit. The next site for reviews and general movie info is the Internet Movie Database (See image to the right). It's not the most visually appealing site, but it provides a great deal of info, not just movie ratings, but also other various aspects of movies, both existing and currently in production. It's a constant reference for film students. When it comes to movie news, where better to look than movie magazines? So as a good source, here are two website extensions of magazines. The first is Vanity Fair, which right from the beginning has a very nice, simplistic design. In that first page, it has links to the latest articles regarding the film industry, and it is pretty easy to navigate through the rest of the site to find the other articles. The other magazine site is Premiere. It's easy to navigate through this site and find what you're looking for, and it even has a handy calendar right in the beginning of the "coming soon" section that gives an idea of what's to come. But when it comes to the latest news, there are four blog sites that I constantly check, as they provide the latest updates on news and rumors in the film industry. The first, Superhero Hype!, caters to the superhero side of movies. What's great is the first thing you see on the site is the latest news, so you know what's out. Then it's not so difficult to cycle through it and look at older posts. The biggest problem with site is just that it's limited only to comic book movies. So, to make up for that, there's WorstPreviews, which covers a lot of news and rumors regarding mainstream films. It does not have the most attractive layout, but it is definitely on top of things when it comes to the latest news. Another similar site is IGN Movies, which covers a lot of the same subject matter, but it has a more attractive layout. All the latest news are laid out in the beginning, and is constantly updated. But this site, too, focuses on mainstream movies. So, the final blog, Ain't It Cool News, offers the widest coverage for news and rumors of the film industry. It's probably, of all the ten sites, the least attractive in appearance, but it covers everything, from mainstream, to indie, to cult films, and it releases news anytime of the day, as soon as they find out. And these last four blog sites all offer the opportunity for readers to comment and discuss on the topics. With these ten sites, I hopefully have offered a start in where to go to learn more about films and the latest happenings in the industry. More sites will be added to the linkroll as I find them, so keep a look out for more!