A few weeks ago, Dick, who
runs this site, and whom I have known for many years, asked me to divulge
the experiences I am having in setting up an Independent film. So here
goes -- but remember this: if you have the illusion, as we all do in
this industry of madness, to walk the red carpet at Cannes or outside
some huge cinema in Los Angeles, keep it -- hold onto that dream because
that, ultimately, is what it is all about. But prepared to have your
ego shattered, your creative juices dried, your imagination crippled
and every word that you wish to direct or have written, ridiculed.
Thank you for your support so far. It's been brilliant to build up a following of thousands of enthusiastic film students. Now we want to take it to the next level.
We want to make this the best student film website it can be, and that means a few changes.
1) A brand new design. As you can see, we've had a makeover. Take a look around and let us know what you think. We think it's rather snazzy.
2) A greater focus on you. We want to throw the spotlight back upon you, the people that have made this website so great. This means more of our news is going to be about you guys.
3) Better content. We've brought in a few top class writers, and even someone to get in touch with a lot of you and work with you all to build the website you like.
4) A source of information. Want to know the latest gossip about film schools? The best advice about applications or breaking into the industry? Or even how to get funding for your next project? We're going to have the inside scoop.
5) More opportunities for you. We're going to be exploding with opportunities over the next few months. We're going to build upon our relationships with film schools, promote any films you upload all over the internet and give everyone the chance to contribute with content.
This isn't going to happen overnight. It's going to take a lot of effort and we're happy to invite some of our top student filmmakers to get involved. In the meantime, we hope you enjoy the content, and we look forward to hearing your feedback.
Ah, the film trailer. The only, and indeed the best
reason for heading down to you local multiplex to catch the latest blockbuster.
For me, it was the highlight of my day out at the movies, or the 'pictures' as
we used to call it back in the day. I'd always arrive with a fresh bag of hot
popcorn in plenty of time. I used to sit there in that dimly lit room listening
to the soundtrack for the film that was about to play, munching away as ads
played for Walls Cornetto ice creams and Westlers hot dogs - 'available in the
foyer now'. In fact, I remember being done with both my medium sweet and 7-Up
before those commercials had even ended. Then came the aforementioned best bit
- those glorius trailers, or coming
attractions as they were known. What would we get to see today?
Now,
I'm a child of the 1980s. The days way before the Internet or any of that.
Cinema was the ultimate day out for a nerdy teenage school kid that was just
getting interested in girls and kissing in the back row - not that I can ever
remember doing anything in the dark, dingy area of my local ABC in glamourous
Gloucester. There was always something better happening up there on the
big-screen than down the blouse of any girl that had the honour of accompanying
me to see a film. You see, back then it wasn't cool to go down and see a film
on your own. All of my mates were into football or indeed rugby, my town's
preferred sport, anything but sit in a dark cinema in the middle of summer. My
love was always the pictures, and I would go with anyone. Even if that was a
girl. Of which there were many throwing themselves at me at the age of twelve
(I wish).
I hoped that you enjoyed my very brief history of the film trailer last week. There's more to come from that very soon, but here's a look at what, in my mid, are the top ten movie trailers of all time. Now, I know that there's going to be a lot of people out there that are going to disagree with me, but I hope that you'll agree with some of my choices too. If you don't, then do let me know. These are judged not on their merits in terms of the quality of the film themselves, but on the content and quality of the actual trailer. So, without furthur a do... here goes.
No. 10 - MIAMI VICE
Film numero uno on our list of the best trailers of all time is for the
Michael Mann movie MIAMI VICE, based on the popular television show
that he produced back in the 80's. I love the original show, and here
Mann takes all of the good stuff from the film (there wasn't much), and
packs it into the trailer. We have Crockett, Tubbs, guns, girls, cars,
boats, glowing night-skylines and Mr. Jay-Z pumping out the soundtrack.
Movie sucked. Trailer rocks.
Welcome to part two of my article on the history of the film trailer. In the first part of this article we looked at where the trailer originated from, and my own personal look back at my own memories of the movie promo. Here, we look to the present, and indeed the future of the trailer. Read part one right here .
The film trailer will never be the same without Don LaFontaine, but his
legend lives on, and trailers to this day are as popular as ever. Not a
day goes past that a new promotional trailer or teaser fails to hit the
new channel of advertising, the Internet. Websites have, over the past
few years been built soley dedicated to showcasing recently released
trailers, debuting sometimes even before they have been screened in
cinemas. Even the might Apple.com have their own area of their massive
website dedicated to streaming trailers in high-definition Quicktime at
www.apple.com/trailers and the hugely popular You Tube has seen
thousands of classic movie ads from yesteryear uploaded by movie lovers
across the world. But it doesn't stop there...
