Wednesday, February 11, 2009

More people need better editors...


Quick Quiz: Who directed The Nightmare Before Christmas?

If you answered “Tim Burton”, you’re wrong. A quick visit to AllMovie.com shows that Tim Burton produced it. Henry Selick directed it. You’re probably confused because the official title of the film was Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas.

Why do I point this out? Because Coraline was also directed by Henry Selick. Some of the advertising pointed out that the film was “From the director of The Nightmare Before Christmas.” Some people, therefore, assumed that Tim Burton either directed the film or had something to do with it, when he in fact did not.

And by “some people” in the paragraph above, I do not just mean your average movie goer. I mean professional movie reviewers and newspaper writers, including The Sunday Paper, CBC Entertainment, and the Chicago Tribune (which printed the error on the front page of last Friday’s paper).

Um… speaking of bad editors… Shouldn’t someone have caught that before it went on the FRONT PAGE? Do they no longer teach thoroughness and fact-checking in Journalism School? (I mean, we know they don't teach it in Book Publishing.)

Neil Gaiman seems to have a good sense of humor about it: his blog entry.


As does this webcomic.

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In 1789, the governor of Australia granted land and some animals to James Ruse in an experiment to see how long it would take him to support himself. Within 15 months he had become self sufficient. The area is still known as Experiment Farm. This is my Experiment Farm to see how long it will take me to support myself by writing.