◊ Visit: www.futuremovies.co.uk
Jason Bradbury
Taken from thewebreview.com website in 2002 and also featured on the TV show (unfortunately shown way past most peoples bed time!).
ITV The Web ReviewPsychic it's not, but futuremovies.co.uk is one forward-looking site. It's difficult at first to suss what they're aiming at here. As a gathering place for clips and previews it serves its url well. But hidden beneath this tidy concept is another purpose trying to make itself heard. It's evident from the 'About Us' section that the original motivation for this site was the deconstruction and discussion of scriptwriting and moviemaking know-how - which finds a home in the 'Filmmaking' section.
In keeping with the 'future' ethos, up & coming directors get the spotlight here. Its lists of relevant organisations, festivals and courses, and the series of straightforward techniques pieces make for a good read but could benefit from some moving picture support. So then to the crit bit, which is divided between 'Future Releases' and 'Review Archive'.
The editorial is sharp, covering no more than four or five paragraphs. If a trailer's available you can view it here, and leave your mark via the link to the site's forum.
The 'Shopping' area holds a few surprises - the 'Replica Movie Merchandise' offers a window on asseenonscreen.com, and is a clever way for a domain on a budget to guarantee the stash hungry punter satisfaction.
There's a naive charm about this site. It's got the kind of integrity that its board run contemporaries could never buy, no matter how much they spent. If you like film or you're handy with a cam, perhaps it's time to look into the future.
Movie Makers and Breakers
Originally published online in 2006
For many movie-lovers, writing about film is one of the most desirable jobs imaginable. Yet it's a notoriously difficult business to break into, especially if you live outside London. Now the rise of the Internet and the citizen journalist has transformed moviegoers worldwide into comfy-seated critics and popcorn journalists, spreading cine gossip like wildfire and potentially crippling a film's box office before a print even enters the country.
But not everybody can claim the critical faculties of a Pauline Kael, an Anthony Lane or even a Jonathan Ross. If you've got a love of film and know your way around a paragraph, film writing on the internet could be the job for you. Future Movies writer Jay Richardson hears from Johan Da Silva, the website's founder, on how to cut through online.
Dedicated sites like Future Movies offer cineastes and aspirant film reviewers an independent crucible of news, interviews and opinion pitched somewhere between the snobbish views of the Late Review and the snobbish views of the average film fan. With editors in London, the Midlands and Scotland, the site selects its featured films through a democratic process of group email, demand from visitors to the site's forum and personal prejudice. Attracting over a million page views per month, Future Movies provides exposure for cult, world, low and no budget productions that other publications do not.
"From the beginning, we pushed hard to promote underrated films like Donnie Darko," recalls Johan De Silva, the 27-year-old web designer who set up Future Movies in 2002. "The first BBC review slated the film and it never made it to my local cinema, but our rave review and interview with director Richard Kelly helped establish it underground and then break out into cinemas."
A labour of love, Future Movies is funded by discreet banner advertising. Its writer/editors earn a nominal fee per article, plus free tickets for advance cinema screenings, DVDs and opportunities to speak to accomplished filmmakers.
Paul Greenwood, a 33-year-old Glasgow-based IT worker, began writing for the site in 2005 and has already covered both the Edinburgh and Glasgow Film Festivals. "The hardest thing is writing about a film that's neither good nor bad, just plain mediocre, as it can be a struggle to come up with five hundred passionate words," he says. "But I get to see loads of films free before anyone else!"
Paul's IT nouse landed him the gig. "I had linked to FM from the Movie Review Query Engine to read a review. Having a look around the site, I noticed they were looking for London or Glasgow-based writers. I sent in some sample reviews which the editors liked and they invited me to join the team."
Film websites are an ideal launching pad for new writers to build a specifically tailored portfolio. Current Future Movies editors have gone on to write specialist reviews for the Jewish press and national newspapers like The Guardian.
Online is a co-operative environment too, with comparable websites acting as allies rather than competitiors. "Unlike other media on the web, there's little competition," explain De Silva. "Fellow film webmasters should be your friends so that information and links can be swapped, driving traffic to both your websites. When your site's talked about on other sites, search engines register this interest."
Future Movies was picked for inclusion on Google News and is linked to some of the world's biggest review sites, including Rotten Tomatoes, IMDB and the BBC.
So what makes one film website stick out from all the others? Johan maintains that the key is creating great content. Otherwise no-one will link to you or visit again. He also suggests that you "Make it unique in its niche. At Future Movies, we made our reviews more detailed than the competition and we supported those reviews with related trailers, links and interviews."
Johan aims to raise Future Movies' profile and visibility further by responding to changes in the way people use the web. "Technology is still moving on. With the dramatic increase in broadband use, the latest developments are based around audio editions, often called podcasts. We're already planning our strategy to take advantage of this."
