The Evolving Newsroom

I had a sneak peak at the NZ On Screen website-in-progress last week and it looks great. I didn't have much time on it and didn't see much in the way of content because the site's still being developed and the content edited and checked for copyright.

But first impressions suggest a lot of thought has gone into making the site user-friendly, intuitive to navigate and packing all the tools you need to enjoy watching moving images on a computer screen.

In a nutshell, according to NZ On Screen, the site is: "A showcase of moving image and sound content created in New Zealand or by New Zealanders for local and international audiences."

More than that I cannot say because I haven't seen the content list and I'm not sure whether there will be complete works on there or just excerpts or both. But I'm told it's a rich and interesting catalogue and that more will be added over time.

I'm hoping it'll be a place where you can scratch the kind of itch you get when you half-remember a short film you saw at a festival in 1986 and want to see it again. Or want to watch Angela d'Audney read the news or Hawkesby present The Top Half (is that what it was called?) or a documentary about a film-maker or a film about a documentary maker etc.

I gather the site will launch later this year although there's no official launch date yet. In the meantime you can drop in on the blog.