IMDb Turns 15

An anonymous reader writes "15 years ago today, Col Needham posted some shell scripts to rec.arts.movies which allowed anyone to search lists of actors, actresses, directors, and biographies. From this humble beginning -- which predates Yahoo, Google, and even the web itself -- the IMDb has wrangled the collective wisdom of millions of submitters to become not only a top 100 website but also a standard Hollywood tool for filmmaking. IMDb is celebrating with a retrospective of the last 15 years of IMDb and movies. Congratulations to IMDb and the internet community that built it."

Comments

What other pre-web services are out there?

[suso]

Its easy to see that the IMDB is one of the oldest if not the oldest internet services (I'm not talking about protocols). And it also predates the web. I was wondering if any of you could name other Internet services that predate the web and still exist today. What constitutes a service is probably difficult because things like IMDB made a move from Usenet to Web which are two very different protocols (although they used them simularly).

DISCLAIMER: Again, i'm not talking about protocols like HTTP, Usenet itself, IRC, etc.

Re:What other pre-web services are out there?

[blueg3]

I don't think IMDB even comes close to being one of the oldest Internet services. While it predates the Web, perhaps, it's only by a month or so. ENQUIRE was developed in the 80s, and the first Web pages was written in late December, 1990. The answer here also greatly depends on what you mean by "an Internet service". In the very first days of the Internet, the Telnet protocol could be used to access a number of mainframes. At the time, UNIX access to a mainframe computer could certainly be considered a service.

A giant THANKS! to the IMDb people.

[CyricZ]

I just want to say Thanks! to everyone who has contributed to the the IMDb effort. Indeed, time and time again I have found it to be the ultimate resource when it comes to films. The database is always very complete, the summaries and cast lists accurate, and all in all it is a very helpful website.

Many cheers and pip to them all! May they continue to provide such a useful service for years to come.

Reverse Lookup

[Buddy_DoQ]

IMDB has always been there for me when I need to know the name of an actor or crew that contributed to a given film. I can't always recall actor names, and it's always interesting to see what other films the director has made. Sometimes I go in looking for one little tidbit and end up spending hours digging through the 6 degrees of Kevin Bacon, as it were.

Cheers!

Ongoing IMDB Challenge

[hal2814]

IMDB is just fun to play around with. My friends and I have this challenge to see who has the most entries for acting in the IMDB. Orson Welles was the top guy for about a week. Then Peter North took over. He stayed there for a long time until it occurred to me to look up Mel Blanc. Anybody out there know someone who can beat Blanc (898 entries for acting)? Anybody out there want to guess on tops in other categories (writer, producer, notable TV appearances)? Is there a way to search IMDB for these statistics (of course, that would be cheating)?

How about adding music?

[AugstWest]

It drive me *nuts* that they don't list any information about the music used in the movies.

It's a vital part of every movie, as vital as any of the other info listed, but for some reaon imdb always excludes it.

What gives?

A copy of IMDb on Jan 22, 1997!

[antdude]

http://web.archive.org/web/19970122085113/http://i mdb.com/ (couldn't use HTML link for it, so copy and paste that (no spaces)).

IMDB

[modi123]

IMDB (1990)
Directed by: Col Needham
Writing credits: Jeff Bezos
Michel H.
Jon R.
Murray C.
Ron H.
Giancarlo C.
Peter S.
Oliver H.
Jake D.

Genre: Movies, TV, geeks, videophiles, one-line-aholics

User rating: * * * * * * * * 8.5/10 [643,044 votes]

Cast overview, first billed only:
Col Needham ... .rec.arts.movies

MPAA: Rated PG-13 for violent content, archaic GUI, and being free
Run time: 15 years
Country: International
Language: French / German / Italian / English
Color: Color : Techniolor
Certification: USA: PG-13

Trivia:

How do I break into show business?

Semi-famous actors (often people who've done a lot of commercials or character roles), writers and agents/managers with varying levels of scruples keep certain arts-themed publications filled with ads, week after week, promising to tell you the secrets... if you pay for their seminar, service or book. In fact, preying on the "wannabe" is a cottage industry in any field that puts up barriers to entry, be it the movies or publishing or the music industry. We look at these people much like the get-rich-quick gurus on late-night TV... it stands to reason that they make more money telling you how to get rich with their secrets than they do using them, otherwise they'd be too busy using them to have time to sell them to you for $49.95.

The best advice we can give you are these few points...

1. Don't quit your day job. It can take years and you'll need money to live. Harrison Ford quit acting and worked in construction for a few years before coming back and getting his break. Bruce Willis was a waiter and bartender while he tried to get stage work in New York. Even people who seem to be overnight sensations played bit parts and struggled before they suddenly burst onto the scene in a prominent role.

2. A real agent or manager will not ask you for money (be it an "up-front fee" or "seed money"). They make money when they get you a job. Also, in California, talent agents must be licensed and there are laws governing their relationship with clients. Go to the unions, preferably SAG (Screen Actors Guild) or AFTRA (American Federation of Radio and Television Artists) or WGA (Writers Guild of America), and ask for their "franchised agency" list. You can buy it for a nominal fee or in some cases get it online for free. These lists will contain licensed agents who have signed contracts with the unions to follow specific rules when representing clients.

3. Take classes. It may be hard figuring out whether the $10 per session class is as good as the $100 per session class, and we can't help you there, but classes give you two benefits. First, they help you hone and perfect your craft, whatever branch of show biz you want to be in. Second, they will help flesh out a weak resume. If you don't have credits, you need classes. If you're wondering about the credits of the person teaching the class, look them up in our database. Except for writers on individual TV show episodes, we keep pretty good records.

4. Until you're commanding $20 million per film, you're not entitled to have a big ego. Don't reject parts you think are too small or insignificant because you're too busy looking for your big break. Judi Dench won an Oscar for six minutes of screen time.

If you're looking for books on breaking into the business, you may want to check out Amazon.com's entertainment book section where you can find books about screenwriting, acting, directing, etc.

How do I break into show business?

"THE LIST"

[Caped Cod]

Even prior to Col's nifty script (which quite certainly was the beginning of the searchable IMDB), there was this innocent little posting with "THE LIST" as its subject. I don't recall the original author.

The body of the article was a rather short (5 - 10, IIRC) list of actresses. This list was better known as "the list of actresses we wish we could boink".

We guy-nerds (and maybe some properly-inclined gal-nerds) added to THE LIST for a few weeks until some decided that our salaciousness required male targets as well. Eventually, the lists, umm, grew and the "want to boink" aspect somewhat, umm, fell off. :-)

So, before it went legit, the forerunner of IMDB was completely founded on fantasizing about sex.

Re:I'd like IMDB more if...

[magefile]

Really? Because the other information (biographical and trivia-related, for example) that people can post for free can be (and I've seen many circumstances where this is the case) false and reputation-damaging, or simply an invasion of privacy. Don't get me wrong, IMDB is really neat, but there's no way for an individual to correct or limit the information about themselves.

Kevin Bacon

[knitting fool]

Ah, yes! I made quite a sport of combining the two in my undergrad days.

The Oracle of Kevin Bacon

I don't know how long I spent looking for an actor with a Bacon number of 5, but I finally found one. Now if I could only remember his name!