HE re-design

Hollywood Elsewhere has been re-designed and will go "live" with the new look sometime this weekend. The architect is the brilliant Brian Walker, who's been with HE since the August '04 launch. A few things are being modified, tweaked. I'm going to add a feature in the archive drop-down menu called "Yellowing with Antiquity" that will feature scans of print articles I wrote for the L.A. Times, Entertainment Weekly and other outlets in the early to mid '90s.


Posted by Jeffrey Wells on March 4, 2008 at 9:36 AM

comment #1

Dave Author Profile Page says ...

Looks nice and clean, Jeff-- good going Brian!

Posted by Dave Author Profile Page at March 4, 2008 9:46 AM

comment #2

Noel Murray Author Profile Page says ...

Can I make one request, if it hasn't been integrated into the redesign already? Can you add a "next article" and "previous article" link to the bottom of each page? It sucks to have to return to the main page every time in order to get to the next entry.

Posted by Noel Murray Author Profile Page at March 4, 2008 10:00 AM

comment #3

Edward Author Profile Page says ...

Looks good, great job. I like the way you keep improving. I look forward to reading your older articles.

Posted by Edward Author Profile Page at March 4, 2008 10:01 AM

comment #4

lazespud Author Profile Page says ...

Good job Brian --

Nice and clean and modern.

One other suggestion for your yellowing archive; a link, possible to archive.org, that takes you to archived web articles from Jeff's days at Mrshowbiz.com, reel.com, and viewaskew.com...

Posted by lazespud Author Profile Page at March 4, 2008 10:10 AM

comment #5

T. Holly Author Profile Page says ...

Noel, I think that's buy design... clicking for dollars, or something. Will my RAM blow out this weekend? That "recent comments" thingy would be nice, but I think it's buy design too.

Posted by T. Holly Author Profile Page at March 4, 2008 10:22 AM

comment #6

Jay T. Author Profile Page says ...

Very slick... and I agree with the comment above about the inclusion of next and previous articles -- that would be very useful.

Posted by Jay T. Author Profile Page at March 4, 2008 10:27 AM

comment #7

nemo Author Profile Page says ...

"Yellowing with Antiquity" -- now your readers can beat up on you for snarky things you wrote 15 years ago!

I'm a constant reader from the Mr. Showbiz days. It would be fun to go back and look at some of those old web articles.

Who was that guy who succeeded Jeff Wells at Mr. Showbiz? He was very funny, but sadly died after a few years. My favorite line of his was in response to a reader who called him "a bitter old queen". "I am not bitter!"

Posted by nemo Author Profile Page at March 4, 2008 10:31 AM

comment #8

mutinyco Author Profile Page says ...

For a second, I thought that said Bart Walker redesigned your new site...

Posted by mutinyco Author Profile Page at March 4, 2008 10:37 AM

comment #9

Craptastic Author Profile Page says ...

Ha!Ha! I have not heard a good "Bart Walker" joke in a long time!

Posted by Craptastic Author Profile Page at March 4, 2008 10:42 AM

comment #10

vp19 Author Profile Page says ...

I think I'll like it -- love the archive idea, too.

Posted by vp19 Author Profile Page at March 4, 2008 10:46 AM

comment #11

jcbkny Author Profile Page says ...

The new look seems nice and clean. Good job. Another suggestion please: currently, when returning to the main page after clicking over to "...read more," the site returns you to the very top of the site/first item. It would be great if you could return to the main page *at the item where you left off* and continue reading down from there instead of having to start at the top and scroll way down all over again.

Yup. That'd be swell. Thanks!

Posted by jcbkny Author Profile Page at March 4, 2008 10:56 AM

comment #12

christian Author Profile Page says ...

Where are the dancing cats?

Posted by christian Author Profile Page at March 4, 2008 11:22 AM

comment #13

Breedlove Author Profile Page says ...

Sounds good. I'd like to read some of your old stuff...Jeff's whole operation in general fascinates me. Very cool to be your own boss and write about movies, obviously...this is tacky but I wonder what kind of money Jeff makes from this site, and what kind of money it's possible to make if a site like this really starts to catch on even bigger.

Posted by Breedlove Author Profile Page at March 4, 2008 11:29 AM

comment #14

T. Holly Author Profile Page says ...

Who the hell knows breedlove? But it's not Jeff Skoll ebay-type money. And the question isn't as tacky as anything BurmaShave has posited on behalf of p.Vice or as tacky as asking a newly engaged woman how many karats her ring is. I'd never wear one of those things, but I had to ask, and her world crumbled as if she had picked the wrong schmo to marry.

Posted by T. Holly Author Profile Page at March 4, 2008 11:54 AM

comment #15

gruver1 Author Profile Page says ...

Wells to Breedlove: HE's audience continues to grow among readers, but because it is not written for the insufficiently educated Walmart Jabba masses it has a ceiling. It can and will do as well as it can and will do among the innately smart or better educated, and among film industry, media, angry guy and elite snob readers. The ad money is good...in some cases very good. It's been better this year than it was last year. The only unfortunate thing in this vein has been a decision by Warner Bros. to yank HE advertising bucks, which they gave me steadily for three years straight in '05, '05 and '06. I don't know anything firm, but I strongly suspect that the below article may have had something to do with this.

http://www.hollywood-elsewhere.com/archives/2007/07/selling_reserva.php

Posted by gruver1 Author Profile Page at March 4, 2008 12:03 PM

comment #16

Zimmergirl Author Profile Page says ...

Are you sure that's why? I would investigate that one if I were you. Don't assume anything. All I'm saying.

Posted by Zimmergirl Author Profile Page at March 4, 2008 12:23 PM

comment #17

Rich S. Author Profile Page says ...

Publicists crack me up. HE draws a high-octane movie loving clientèle, which WB is willing to forgo reaching with an ad because Jeffrey writes some snarky column. Don't they read the talkbacks? If so, they would realize that said clientèle actually does analyze and criticize Jeffrey's posts pretty frequently. In fact, nearly every damn time.

If we were dittoheads, then I might understand. But though we love Jeffrey to death and appreciate his blog, we sure don't move in lockstep with him. I guess they're not used to dealing with people that actually think for themselves (which, come to think of it, is the point of about half of Jeffrey's posts).

Posted by Rich S. Author Profile Page at March 4, 2008 12:26 PM

comment #18

lazespud Author Profile Page says ...

Ah the No Reservations stuff... definately topped later by the 3:10 to Yuma mess (which you were absolutely RIGHT ON about, by the way, and you notice they didn't use any of that horrible original concept art in the DVD release)...

That's why we love you... you don't seem to have a governor switch when something strikes you as bad... ad dollars be damned. WB should get over themselves....

Posted by lazespud Author Profile Page at March 4, 2008 1:12 PM

comment #19

DavidF Author Profile Page says ...

Looks better. I wouldn't mind if you lost those side-banner ads that slow my computer to a halt...

Posted by DavidF Author Profile Page at March 4, 2008 1:21 PM

comment #20

High Chaparral Author Profile Page says ...

Quick note Jeff - they might be more popular with the advertisers and they might make you more money, I really don't know, but Flash ads are the work of Satan.

The new design looks grand.

Posted by High Chaparral Author Profile Page at March 4, 2008 1:52 PM

comment #21

Rich S. Author Profile Page says ...

(cough)Firefox!(cough)

Posted by Rich S. Author Profile Page at March 4, 2008 2:03 PM

comment #22

Burbanked Author Profile Page says ...

I wasn't sure if you were soliciting suggestions here or not, Mr. Wells, but since that's what the page is turning into I'll chime in...

I second jcbkny's suggestion above of clicking back to the main page at the same point where you left it; that's fairly standard usability and I always feel sad that it doesn't happen here.

I'd also like to request some kind of reviews archive or category so that readers can quickly access your straight-ahead movie reviews. No offense, but your search engine for finding such things kind of blows.

Posted by Burbanked Author Profile Page at March 4, 2008 2:17 PM

comment #23

Dan Revill Author Profile Page says ...

Will we be able to edit our comments when we mispel stuff?

Posted by Dan Revill Author Profile Page at March 4, 2008 4:07 PM

comment #24

gruver1 Author Profile Page says ...

Wells to Aladdin Sane: That would be nice all around. I kind of doubt it, but I'll see if it's possible.

Posted by gruver1 Author Profile Page at March 4, 2008 4:14 PM

comment #25

Zimmergirl Author Profile Page says ...

If you switch to Wordpress you can add a plugin to edit comments. Wordpress rocks, btw. Far superior to Movable Type, imo. And yeah, Firefox....the best.

But..."definately topped later by the 3:10 to Yuma mess (which you were absolutely RIGHT ON about, by the way, and you notice they didn't use any of that horrible original concept art in the DVD release)..."

Oh THAT was the 3:10 to Yuma mess? Hm. I seem to recall some other tidbit, so to speak.

Posted by Zimmergirl Author Profile Page at March 4, 2008 4:36 PM

comment #26

Jay T. Author Profile Page says ...

If you view the current H E site in IE7, when you click back to the main page from an article (using the back button) it already does return you to where you left off. For me anyway...

Posted by Jay T. Author Profile Page at March 4, 2008 4:44 PM

comment #27

gustav13 Author Profile Page says ...

Hopefully Jeff will also provide an extensive bio this time around.

I will also miss the timely contributions of "Team Elsewhere".

Posted by gustav13 Author Profile Page at March 4, 2008 5:38 PM

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