Moviemistakes.com
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Moviemistakes.com is an Internet website created by Jon Sandys in 1996 and is principally dedicated to the recording of mistakes found in movies and television; it also includes trivia, quotes, hidden DVD Easter Eggs and movie trailers. It currently lists more than 76,000 mistakes and has over 1,200 registered members.
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[edit] History
Sandys initially became interested in the topic of movie errors while attending the Royal Grammar School, Guildford, England after noting mistakes in Jurassic Park and True Lies.
The MovieMistakes website started in 1996, then only a single page with a few mistakes and an email address. Sandys moved on to Southampton University, operating the site on the university server. [1] In 1998 the Times newspaper ran an article on movie mistakes, including the web address of the site, bringing a considerable increase in traffic. In 1999 the site outgrew the university servers and moved to a dedicated server - Sandys also invested in some promotion and solicited advertising to finance the site.
On April 9, 2001 the site got a major boost when the Daily Mirror ran an article on mistakes in the film "Gladiator".[2] On the same day, Sandys was contacted by the popular UK morning show "The Big Breakfast" [3] and was invited to appear on the show to discuss movie mistakes, which became a weekly feature on the show until its cancellation. This exposure brought on invitations for more interviews and further interest in the website, the increased traffic leading to a temporary shutdown while the systems were upgraded[4]. With these developments, Sandys began to work on the site on a full-time basis.
By 2003 the site was averaging 25,000 hits a day and a record 100,000 hits in December 2003 when an article on mistakes in "The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King" was posted on Slashdot, crashing the site server. A server upgrade was prompted in January 2005 when a list of the "Top Mistakes of 2004" was copied by several publications and the site received a record 150,000 hits, again crashing the site. [5]
The site has been referenced in interviews with filmmakers informing them of their mistakes, most notably Peter Jackson [6] and Gore Verbinski [7].
[edit] Present Day
In 2003 the site began to sell annual memberships offering members the ability to have their names associated with all their submissions, to be able to view screen-captured photos illustrating many of the mistakes and view the site without adverts, although membership is not required to submit mistakes, corrections and questions. The site has also expanded to include lists of the top mistakes, most mistakes, best pictures, videos, perfect films (those with no recorded errors) and a section for generic and specific movie questions, as well as links to other related sites. Sandys has continued to make occasional television appearances to discuss the topic.
The site currently receives around 25,000 unique visitors per day.
[edit] Related Projects
Since 2002 Sandys has written seven books on the subject, five dealing with movie mistakes, one with movie trivia and one with television mistakes. In May 2006 he started the first spin-off site BookMistakes.com, followed in March 2007 with GameMistakes.com. He is also a co-founder of RuinedEndings.com, which provides detailed synopses of movie plots. In May 2008 Sandys created Poll the Other One a site where people are able to view, add and/or vote on polls about movies and wide variety of other themes.
Sandys also served as program consultant on the UK TV show Movie Mistakes Uncovered.[8]
[edit] References
- ^ "UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHAMPTON: Student's Web page dedicated to movie mistakes.".
- ^ "THE GAFFE-IATOR; 124 errors found in Oscar-winning film".
- ^ "IMDb.com, Jon Sandys Filmography".
- ^ "movie-mistakes.com forced into short term shutdown.".
- ^ "Boo-boos filmmakers would rather we forget".
- ^ "Newsweek, Gaffes: Fellowship Of The Nitpickers".
- ^ "Outnow.ch interview with Gore Verbinski".
- ^ "Full Cast and Crew for Movie Mistakes: Uncovered".
