CLICK & DOUBLE CLICK: MOVIE MANIA SWEEPS THE INTERNET, YODELERS TAKE NOTE (COLUMN 8)

Cybertip: Be careful of imitations on the web. http://www.whitehouse.gov is the official White House page. A parody of the page can be found at http://www.whitehouse.net, and on the surface, it looks very similar. The Jolly Roger flying atop the flag pole tips off visitors.

America has a passion for movies and the movie makers have discovered the Internet in a big way. The multimedia capability of Internet provide a perfect match for Hollywood. The net brings you endless video clips from new and old films.

You have to be patient when downloading audio and video clips unless you use a streaming audio or video program, which allows you to view or hear as information is downloaded. Video clips may take five to 15 minutes or more to download. Before you start, you need to download a number of free plug-in programs including RealAudio, Shockwave and Quicktime.

Each of the studios has its own web site, promoting new releases.

http://www.foxhome.com

Peggy: Calling all yodelers in Cyberspace. As it promotes the sale of The Sound of Music video, 20th Century Fox is sponsoring a yodeling contest online. Two yodeling examples, an authentic yodel and a creative yodel, are available for you to download and study. When you perfect your own yodel, you can upload it to Fox. The best eight yodels will be singled out for recognition on the web site this month.

Joni: Watch the advertising for new movies. Many of the blockbusters have their own web sites. At one point, Mission Impossible's site was getting millions of hits every day.

Peggy: One of the sites that will no doubt be popular is for the upcoming movie, "Star Trek: First Contact." The site can be accessed now, but it won't officially launch until October. The film opens in late November.

http://startrek.first-contact.com/

Joni: You can download the trailer now, but starting in October, you can join the crew. You can take part in a hands-on training cruise, working and communicating with other trainees in real time. You may be required to take up combat duty. The movie sites are some of the more fun places on the web with lots of games and clips.

Peggy: For an overview of Hollywood, try out

http:/www.hollywood.com

With a multitude of frames, hollywood.com brings information about movies and entertainment news. The site offers photos, reviews, sound, trailer, videos, notes, shockwave, website, movie tunes, bitesite, and interactive, depending on what the movie studio has developed. However, we found some movie web sites linked to the studio pages that weren't listed at hollywood.com., including "Twister" and "A Very Brady Sequel."

Joni: Patience, patience, patience. We downloaded the "shocked multimedia kit" for the new movie "The Trigger Effect," even though the 20-minute download estimate was rather discouraging. We hate to wait. You can, however, do other things on the site while you're downloading.

Peggy: Actually, it was worth the wait. It gives details about the credits and cast using interactive games. You have to find a flashlight battery, a match and a key to illuminate the information.

Joni: You can try to find your way through the house during a blackout. Footsteps echo on the computer. We died rather quickly, twice. If you're more interested in humming the show tunes, instead of watching the clips, go to

http://www.movietunes.com

Today's choice offered tunes from four films, including "A Very Brady Sequel." I remember the Monkees. Apparently, so does Marsha. The tracks are offered through RealAudio. We chose a movie tune medley from this redone kooky cult flick. Ah, the classics.

Peggy: Computer technology allows you search huge databases, including many devoted to movies. Answers to movie trivia are just a mouse click away. The most comprehensive free source of movie information on the Internet can be found at

http://www.imdb.com

Joni: You can search by movie or TV titles, actor, director, writer, crew names, character names, or even by plot. It's searchable by every name of every character and actor in the credits. It's also completely searchable by the crews' names.

Peggy: This site has everything about everybody in Hollywood. For example, it lists the cast of soap operas. It tracks back everyone in the cast of "Guiding Light" since 1952. Did you know Kevin Bacon played Tim Wexler in 1980? He also played a role in "Search for Tomorrow." It also shows Kevin Bacon has appeared in 35 movies or TV series.

Joni: It just so happens that two men at the University of Virginia feel that Kevin Bacon is the center of all things in the film universe. You can find this unique theory at the Oracle of Kevin Bacon. The theory of this page is that two people are linked if they've been in a movie together. Kevin Bacon has apparently been in so many films with so many people, that you can connect him to most actors or actresses (dead or alive) in two or three links.

http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~bct7m/bacon.html

Peggy: For example, Alfred Hitchcock was in "Show Business at War" with Orson Welles in 1943. Welles was in "A Safe Place" with Jack Nicholson in 1971. Nicholson was in "A Few Good Men" in 1992 with Kevin Bacon. You get the picture. You can also play this game with Arnold Schwarzenegger as the center of the film universe.

Joni: Pick a name, any name. I picked Elizabeth Taylor. The answer is two. Taylor was in "The Flintstones" with Elizabeth Perkins. Perkins was in "He Said, She Said" with Bacon. The most common connection question is Elvis Presley. He has a Bacon number of two. Presley was in "King Creole" with Walter Matthau. Matthau was in "JFK" with Kevin Bacon. I don't know what's more amazing: the search engine or the fact two people took the time to create it.

Peggy: It's fun and somewhat addictive. It took us 10 minutes to get higher than two. I'd recommend it. E-mail us with your favorite Kevin Bacon movies at movn@ldd.net.

See you in Cyberspace.

~Joni Adams is managing editor and Peggy Scott is a graphics editor/staff writer at the Southeast Missourian.