So I’m looking at this and I find this. That’s right: it’s an entire website, frequently updated, dedicated to pictures of computers in movies in television. Did you know they used a Twentieth Anniversary Mac in Children of Men? No, you did not and neither did I.
The guy who runs the site is always looking for contributions and even has a Help! page where he asks for assistance in identifying things like the freaking computer lab in Spies Like Us. I literally watched that movie last night and nothing in my genetic make-up compelled me to ask the world what computer lab they featured in a short sequence before introducing Dan Aykroyd’s character (Doctor, doctor. doctor, doctor!) Clearly James from StarringtheComputer.com is made of different, nobler stuff.
I sent James at the site an email for some more commentary on his goals and vision for this amazing site but I wanted to share it with you ASAP. It’s Internet gold.
Who are you? Where are you based? What’s your background?
i’m james carter, a computer systems administrator from york in the uk.
my primary computing interests are free software and old computers (i
have a small collection of old machines, mostly unix stuff). other
interests include podcasting (http://www.podquiz.com) and walking
(http://www.jfc.org.uk/walk.php).When did you start the site?
i renewed the domain the other day, so it must be just over a year ago.
Why did you start the site?
i read a thread on the classic computers mailing list where somebody had
spotted an old computer (i forget which one) in a movie. the consensus
was that there should be a repository of such things, and i thought i’d
give it a go. i wasn’t the first, though. jimw had a “computers in the
media” section on his site (http://www.rdrop.com/~jimw/j-media.shtml),
but it didn’t seem to be updated much and didn’t give much details about
the appearances (not many pictures).Where do you get most of the stills?
i watch all of the films featured on the site. in most cases the stills
are taken from the DVD, if one is available in the UK. if not then i get
a digital copy of the film by “other means” and take snapshots from
that.