Flicks to click (cont.)
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D.Film
Focus: Shorts
Format: QT
Connection Speed: 28.8Kbps and upThe D.Film Digital Film Festival presents a new entry as part of its year-round fest on a regular basis, each a high-quality short or other oddity, often from a well-known director (such as Doug Liman or Agnieszka Holland, whose short The Wedding is one of the site's most popular titles) or a rising star (such as comic-book artist Dave McKean). Its quality content is unavailable anywhere else and makes up for the paucity of material. It's also one of the few sites that lets you download entire films for local, jerk-free viewing at your convenience. What's more, D.Film mounts a real-life film festival that has played in cities from San Francisco to Cannes.
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Filmfilm.com
Focus: Shorts, animation
Format: Real
Connection Speed: 56Kbps and upNever mind the crummy name, because FilmFilm is a great resource for indie filmmakers at any stage of their project. From casting your movie to finding a set builder, the guides available here make locating your crew a snap. In addition, the site will host your production's Web page, or simply let you pitch your project "to the world," ostensibly to find collaborators or the necessary financial support you need to get started. Of course, you can watch your own and others' final products until you're blue in the face, too. And judging from the overall quality (or lack thereof) of most of the shorts, that's not such a far-fetched notion.
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Yahoo! Video
Focus: Features, shorts, TV, animation
Format: Win Media Player, Real
Connection Speed: High bandwidthWhat can't you find at Yahoo!'s emporium of digital entertainment? Not much, unless you happen to be looking for something that's new. Yahoo! Video's extensive film archive lets you stream full, big-time features, seemingly exclusively from the silent eraâ€"Charlie Chaplin is the site's No. 1 star by a long shot. Still, the site has dug up some modern content; for example, The Doom Generation is open for viewing. One warning: Good luck making sense of the site's organisation.
- Sightsound.com
Focus: Features, TV, music videos
Format: Win Media Player (IE only), Flash
Connection Speed: High bandwidthHome of 2000's ambitious Quantum Project, ostensibly the first feature film to be released exclusively for online sale (for US$3.95), Sightsound is now known for releasing the Internet's first dud. Starring John Cleese and Stephen Dorff, the reviews of the 32-minute "feature" have been damning, leaving visitors idly clicking on Sightsound's other content, which leans strongly toward children's programming (one word: Barney) and music videos by obscure groups. It also created a splash recently by making the Miramax theatrical release Guinevere available for download.
- ShortFest
Focus: Shorts
Format: QT, Real
Connection Speed: High bandwidthAt "The Internet's First International Short Film Archive," you can browse through an infrequently updated collection of location-themed shorts from such faraway settings as Brazil and Japan. At ShortFest's companion site Anything That Moves, 10 filmmakers are given a predetermined theme or score and asked to create a short work. Sounds promising, but the site is still in its infancy.
The visionaries of film, video, and animation have already set up shop online -- is Hollywood about to take the plunge? Our annual Hollywired report takes a look at where the industry is now and where it's headed.
