FilmForce goes beyond gaming
Celeb of the day, film coverage add to content
Since last week's column about two film news and rumor sites, I've been contacted by many other site owners wondering why I didn't choose to highlight their destinations as well. Me: 1 man. The Web: Billions of pages.
But I'm willing to make a go of it, so let me address another such place today: FilmForce.IGN.com.
Started in 1996 as a gaming site for Nintendo 64, IGN has more recently spread into film, DVD, music and cool tech toy coverage. While the bulk of this site network's content still involves game reviews, previews and insider tips, the film section is also quite well developed, at least as it concerns movies with things that go "Boom!" To give you an idea of the site's flavor, The Celeb of the Day filmforce.ign.com/celebs.html seems, however statistically improbable it may be, to always be an actress.
IGN has special sections devoted to the biggest films of interest to their core teen boy audience with interviews, photo galleries and fan boards; Piglet's Big Movie and Bend It Like Beckham, conversely, are not even given reviews. Other noteworthy features include 10 Questions and Video Interviews; unfortunately, the site's large format ads often push the hard-to-differentiate headlines several clicks down the page.
IGN was one of the last dotcoms to go public before the market fell, and reported a profit in Q4. The original film editors came from The Force.net, the largest Star Wars fan site at the time, which was bought by IGN. The site now has five full-time film editorial employees, and freelancers are used from time to time as well.
Most of the FilmForce site is free, though you might come across a few sections that require you to be an "insider" at $5.95 / month -- this gated area seems to feature more extra gaming tips, previews and privileges than film content, though all subscribers can turn off some ads.
Got a site to share with me? Email tfsmith@reedbusiness.com
