You know it’s weird, but until Kristin one of our long time posters mentioned it, I totally forgot that this is EM’s “”unofficial”” birthday month!! In July of 1997, I wanted to broaden my horizons and get back into my second love which was writing. My first love was playing Piano. So I said hasta lavista to my four year gig as a marketing analyst at the Discovery Channel to figure out what I wanted to do with life.
I helped launch a local newspaper here in the Washington, DC area, and after having a disagreement with the editor, I decided that I wanted to do my own thing, get my own voice out there, and have complete control over everything, unfortunately I didn’t have any money, but this wonderful thing called the Internet had just come on the scene, and I was like, hmm….. Soon after that EclipseMagazine.com was born.When Eclipse first launched it was meant to be a portal, a massive online meeting place for Generation X. When Eclipse first launched I knew nothing about HTML, or how to design a website, our very first design was absolutely HIDEOUS. It was simply a black doorway page with a big huge dripping red X on the front and we started with about five or six articles. Back in the day, we were known primarily as a gaming site, we had hundreds of interviews, reviews, and features that covered the world of Video Games. Most of those articles I wrote myself. While our Film coverage was next to nothing. Eventually the gaming side became too massive, and game companies as a general rule are the absolute worse to deal with, so I decided that we had to focus the site on something, so I decided on the movie biddness. So we dropped our game coverage and focused on this buisness called show, and the rest is History.Sean O’Connell were one of, if not the, very first writer to respond to a small ad that was placed in the “”Washington City Paper.”” He was wet behind the ears and I took him in and gave him an opportunity, now look at him – he’s has a book deal, and is now doing film reviews for a Charlotte TV Station. He later became known as “”Titanic Boy”” because the idiot loved Titanic and saw it seven, SEVEN times in the theater. I remember the days when “”Titanic”” was that great dividing line when I knew what type of “”critic”” someone would be based on the simple question “”What did you think of Titanic?”” And believe it or not in the entire seven years that I’ve known Sean, I don’t believe we’ve ever been in the same room together. We have to plan all our review conspiracies via email.I’m proud of the fact that we’ve never gone the “”commercial”” or “”populist”” or “”geek”” route. That we’ve always remained sort of cutting edge, offered 100 percent honest and unique looks at films and the industry regardless of what controversy that may come from our opinions. We almost never post wire stories, or press releases (only for contests), or cheesy “”Hey check out this new trailer!”” “”Wow I’m absolutely DYING AND CREAMING my pants over this new IMAGE from Spy Kids!”” and disguise this material as “”news.”” Our interviews have always been cutting edge, and an adventure to arrange and conduct. We were the first organization to interview “”The Blair Witch Guys,”” we were one of the first to feature the folks behind “”MY Big Fact Greek Wedding,”” we talked with Leonardo Di’Caprio back when no one knew who he was, I managed to get a rise out of Spike Lee, I hated speaking with John Singleton, we talked to Michael Clarke Duncan before his “”breakthrough”” performance in “”The Green Mile,”” talked to my favorite guy Marc Dascascos, and more.After Sean came Steve Hallex, and then the floodgates just opened. Over the years, we have had more than 30 or 40 people writing for the site, some of whom have gone on to do bigger and better things. We went from six new articles during our first week online to averaging more than 700 original, substantive stories a year. The site now gets more than 2.5 million hits a month, has a couple of thousand folks who receive the newsletter, small but active forums, if you do a Google search on EclipseMagazine you’ll see we’re linked from 100s of websites, and some of the weirdest places you could imagine. We have run more than 300 promotions over the years, everything from our famous DVD giveaways to tickets to advanced screenings, to video games. All of this was done with absolutely no money.Two years ago this month, I launched our very first message boards, that was part of EasyNet’s services, the boards were terrible, but folks like Kristen, Susan, Helen, etc. came anyway and put up with the horrible boards anyway. Then a year and half ago, I totally revamped the site and made the entire thing totally interactive. We’ve gone through several design changes, and software updates, and other than the occassional problem, the new dynamic site is a lot easier to maintain than the old “”static”” one. Where are we now? I have no idea. Last year we launched a brand new television show called EclipseMagazine, we recently signed a deal with Real Networks to create a subscription based broadband channel called DaydreamTV, and we have plans to eventually launch a print version of EclipseMagazine.With all of the recent hack attacks, upgrade problems, and just how bad the Internet has gotten in the last year, I admit I question our existence and reason for being, all the time. But ultimately, I’ll probably never let it go, no matter how much I want to at times. I may take a few months off to think, write screenplays and that great American Novel, rejuvenate, and work on some of our other projects, but this site will always be here. Sean and Tiffany has volunteered to take over the day to day duties on numerous occassions and I may take them up on that offer sometime in the next few months. I’m also working on recruiting new folks to write for the site, eventually these people will be able to post their own stuff without interference from me. So again, this site will most likely always be here.Even though I have ranted and raved during the last year or so. Through all the controversies from LOTR to folks bitching about the Advanced Screenings, to other behind the scene battles with the studios and game companies, it’s been an interesting seven years. I’m not sure that I would have changed a thing, it has been a wild ride, and we’ll see what lies in the future for EclipseMagazine.