Movie Website Updates for July 29 - August 4
August 4, 2005
During the past week promotional websites for several movies were launched and some older ones added additional content. Here the list of this week's releases, a couple of new sites and few updates, including this week's winner, Broken Flowers - Official Site.
The 40-Year-Old Virgin
2046
Asylum
Bailey's Billion$
Beowulf & Grendel
The Brothers Grimm
The Cave
The Chumscrubber
The Constant Gardener
Dirty Deeds
Domino
The Dukes of Hazzard
Duma
The Exorcism of Emily Rose
The Fog
The Fountain
Four Brothers
Just Like Heaven
Lord of War
My Date With Drew
Pulse
Rumor Has It
Saint Ralph
Secuestro Express
Serenity
This Divided State
Thumbsucker
V For Vendetta
Valiant
Venom
Walk the Line
Yesterday Was a Lie
Yours, Mine and Ours
More than a dozen clips were added to the site, some help setup the premise of the movie, others are more there for humor. Some of the clips didn't work for me, but overall they help sell the movie, (especially the speed dating clips.) There are still plenty of features marked coming soon as well, (bios, production notes, TV spots, clips, and interviews) and after more are added it could be an award-winning site. One last note, I think they doubled or even tripled the number of songs clips used for background music.
No real changes in almost a month.
The full site is up, but after a rather in-depth intro there's not much else here. Synopsis, cast & crew bios, and seven video clips. I must say, I don't like how the bios are done, you must scroll through all of them and can't just jump to the one you want to read.
Simple site with all the usual features, (mostly in the press kit) but without any style.
The big announcement detailed the world premiere, which will happened during the Toronto International Film Festival.
Broken Flowers
I really like this site, it has all the usual features, and display them in a manner that increases the interactivity. The site starts out in an airport with Don Johnson but by clicking on the plane you follow him on his journey. Each section has either some of the regular features, clips, or both as well as another object to click to take you to the next section. Add is some fine background music and you have the winner of the estranged Weekly Website Award.
A whole lot of new pictures were added to the site this week.
All the regular features were added to the site, as was a music video.
No changes since last week, which means I still can't get the game to work.
The placeholder site underwent a redesign, which includes a new trailer.
All sites should have some sense of style, but style should never come at the expense of convenience. For instance, the cast pictures scroll across the bottom but less than half the cast are displayed at any one time so you have to wait till to get to the person you want to see. Then when you click on them it starts from the beginning. As for the rest of the site, the only real content is the poster and the trailer.
The flash site is up, and it certainly has style. All features show up in pop-up windows that keep coming back no matter how many times you close them. It's certainly interesting idea, but the execution is a little flawed.
With the film opening tomorrow the rest of the regular features were added to the site, (bios and production notes.) Overall it's not a bad site, but it didn't make me want to see the movie. However, that has more to do with the quality of the movie itself.
No changes in a couple of weeks.
Another site that spends way too much time trying to convince the reader that demonic possession is real and not enough time trying to convince the reader that the movie is worth seeing.
The image gallery and the trailer were added to the site. It tries hard to be moody and creepy, but I found it almost instantly forgettable.
This teaser site is either way too much of a teaser or it's not working. All I get is the funny colored, shifting background, the monotonous background music and the option to download the screensaver. If there's anymore, I can't see it.
More of the features that were marked coming soon have been added to the site. This includes the production notes, clips and webisodes. The clips and the webisodes made we want to watch the movie even more, which is the prime job for a website.
The trailer was added to the site, and I have to admit that I liked it. It looks like it will be a fun romantic comedy, fluffy, but fun and Reese Witherspoon looks great in the part.
The trailer went live this week, it looks good, but I can't shake the feeling I've seen it before.
No real changes since the site first went live.
The site just has the basics, (synopsis, cast & crew bios, etc.) and a text interview with the director. There's a little bit of animation that helps set the mood, but nothing else.
Just the placeholder site with the trailer. It's much better than I thought it would be, and lord help me, but I think I'm starting to like Kevin Costner as an actor again. Didn't think that would happen after Waterworld.
Simple site with a lot of information but not much in the way of sound or animation.
It looks like the new breed of Miramax site will only be one step up on the old ones. Sure, they have much more style, but when the starting point is an ugly shade of beige it would be hard not to have more style. Maybe in a couple of years they'll have animation and sound on their sites.
The placeholder site underwent a complete redesign, but the only new feature is the new trailer, which is only on Apple.com at the moment. It's a big improvement over the first trailer mainly because it feels like it's a movie that the average person will enjoy and not just for Firefly fans. However, the International Trailer is the best version so far.
This is a simple site when in comes to style, which is acceptable for a documentary site. There is a whole lot of video clips here, more than a dozen including news coverage and looks at various screenings. There is also a Blog is you want to read more information about the film.
Simple site with all the usual features, synopsis, cast & crew bios, image gallery, and trailer. The only real hook are the drawings that are show before each section, most of which can be downloaded as wallpaper. Three sections, Blog, Gallery and Showtimes, are marked coming soon.
Seven clips from the Comic Con was added to the site, and you can listen to or read the complete comic con panel as well.
Two more games were added to the site this week.
The typical, beige Miramax site with absolutely no information.
Just the trailer so far, which was not as powerful as I was expecting.
Simple site with the synopsis, blog, cast & crew bios, concept art, and information about the studio. The film's just in pre-production so there's plenty of time for more content to be added later on.
They switched the trailer over to Quicktime so I could watch it this week, but it really wasn't worth it. I liked the original, but this modernization makes it look like a clone of Cheaper by the Dozen than anything else.
Submitted by: C.S.Strowbridge
Filed under: Movie Website Updates, Walk the Line, The 40 Year-old Virgin, Beowulf, The Dukes of Hazzard, The Exorcism of Emily Rose, Four Brothers, V for Vendetta, Yours, Mine and Ours, Just Like Heaven, Rumor Has It, The Brothers Grimm, The Constant Gardener, The Fog, Serenity, Lord of War, Pulse, Valiant, The Cave, Broken Flowers, Domino, The Fountain, Thumbsucker, Duma, Saint Ralph, Asylum, Secuestro Express, My Date With Drew, The Chumscrubber, Bailey's Billion$, 2046