Site of the Week: Classic Cinema Online
Some websites specialize in analyzing classic movies. Others specialize in reviewing the classics. And then there are websites that just play the damn things.
Sandra Doolin's Classic Cinema Online focuses on streaming full-length movies from "Golden Hollywood" -- a catch-all term she developed for films of all genres that are at least 30 years old. "It was such a classic time," she says. "We had different ways of looking at life. Classical movies really left more to the imagination. They just don't make them like that any more."
Since launching a little over a year ago, the website has become a
treasure trove of hundreds of movies dating from the dawn of cinema all
the way through the mid-1970s -- all high quality features that play
instantly on your computer. This is made possible by the fact that many
classics have been around long enough for their copyrights to expire,
which places them in the public domain.
Sandra posts between 4 and 12 new films a week, depending on how many silent and foreign films she happens to find in addition to Hollywood favorites. And make no mistake, these are the favorites: A random sampling of movies currently on the site include King Kong (1933), The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), Dr. Strangelove (1964) and It's a Wonderful Life (1946).
Says Sandra: "I've never been a big movie buff with modern movies. I don't find those as entertaining. The music is different, the scripting is different, the whole personality of the films are different. I think classical movies have historical value. They give us a picture of how life was for our parents, our grandparents."
Cinema Classics Online does more than play movies. In its third week, the site drew about 800,000 people. Traffic has since tapered off to 200,000 a month, but a robust viewership is evolving nonetheless, and Sandra has created a forum where readers can discuss the films, request future postings, and even download movies. And it's all free.
I don't agree. Classic Cinema Online is a shameless imitation of a blog named "filmschatten" at http://filmschatten.blogspot.com. I suppose Sandra took all her ideas from there, including lay-out and flash player design. Filmschatten is older (goes back to 2006) and the real thing!
I think both sites have something to offer. Their organization of titles is completely different, and I appreciate Cinema Classic's old-movie-theater feel. I think filmschatten is also great, but the two sites went up within only a few months of each other. Gonzo, if you're the purveyor of filmschatten, I think the site is great and I apologize if I have offended. But I think it's quite a stretch to accuse Sandra of "shameless imitation." I think both sites bring something unique to the table, so if you'd like to argue your case further, I encourage you to do so.
At the end of the day, can you ever have too many classic movies on the net?!
Actually, I didn't know about filmschatten until just after I put Classic Cinema Online up in December of 2006. The site that inspired Classic Cinema Online, actually, was http://www.jonhs.com/.
When I first saw that site, it was basically a forum with movies posted to it, and when you click on a movie it would take you to a cinema screen, similar to mine, only his has blue drapes, and his blue drapes actually look better than my scarlet ones.
jonhs.com, like Filmschatten, is quite different from mine in theme and focus, and we all have our places in the internet entertainment industry.
As for Filmschatten, If you look closely, you'll notice that Cornelius plays a lot of Classic Cinema Online's movies, and I also play some of his movies, as well. I've also found some of Classic Cinema Online's movies being played on jonhs.com.
The way I see it, we all have something to offer, and we tend to exchange movies, too, when we upload them to various hosts and make them available for others to play on their sites. It's a friendly exchange -- we all tend to watch each others sites and see what each other is showing, and if we like it, we'll snag it for our own sites according to the hosting site's user terms and policies.
I often refer people to Filmschatten or JonHs if they don't find what they're looking for at Classic Cinema Online. Classic Cinema Online is geared towards the older movies, and while Filmschatten and JohHs post quite a few of those (some that I can't get ahold of, even!), they also play more recent ones that come up, along with some other things. They both have a wider span than Classic Cinema Online, my site's sole focus is nostalgic and family oriented. Well, this with the exception of my foreign films blog, which shows some recent films that have some adult oriented content.
I have utmost respect for Filmschatten, by the way, it's my second favorite site next to my own, actually.
PS - lol - when I found the player that I'm using in addition to the google player (about 3/4 of Classic Cinema Online's movies are on the Google player), I did notice that it looked a lot like the one Cornelius uses. It's a good player, and that Cornelius was using it was good enough for me to use it too, because it speaks well of the player. I didn't want a player that I was going to have to fight with or that would give my visitors a hard time!
I noticed after I started using it that other film sites also like that player. I think the player's designer can safely say he's pretty well cornered the market with the various movies sites on the net, that is an excellent player, I've not had a bit of problem with it.