The Last Picture Show

What an amazing journey it has been to conceptualize, speculate and imagine about cine-mate.com. This project has made me aware how much needs to go into making a website. Content isn't the only end-all. In order for this site to run smoothly hardware for headquarters, interesting color schemes, and proficient privacy settings are necessary.
Reviewing another blogger has made me aware of the idea of having a simple and function interface. Websites like /Film showcase easy-sharing capabilities and the ability to connect to pages that the reader may find interesting. Since cine-mate is a social-networking and information blog, the idea of on-page sharing (through facebook or twitter) is very important. It would be great if cine-mate, facebook and twitter could work together in harmony, instead of contradicting each other.
Lastly, receiving comments and commenting on our peers has been very rewarding. It is always important to get reinforcement, whether a virtual pat on the book or a lurid question to make you think about ways to improve the blog. Commenting on others have allowed me to think critically about entrepreneurial ideas and ways that technology can bolster them. In the end, the project has shown me how ubiquitous technology is today. Things that were once viewed as science fiction, is now as quotidian as a pen and paper. If we embrace technology, I get the feeling we'll all live happily ever after.

The blogs I commented on: Chloe Guillemot   

http://chloeguillemot.blogspot.com    Carly Sigel http://chloeguillemot.blogspot.com Eileen Spath http://www.entreeileen.blogspot.com/

Slash-er Blog

Since my youth, I have scoured the world-wide web for the perfect movie weblog. I wanted one with up-to-date information, interesting theory pieces, which was constantly updated. After years of search, I finally found it at /Film (Slashfilm.com). The site is edited and run by Peter Sciretta. Mr. Sciretta has hired numerous pop-culture aficionados for the site to write the articles he cannot. The blog has won numerous awards, including "Time Magazine's Best Blog of 2009," "Total Film: Best Movie Blog," and 2008 "Weblog Award."

It is extremely easy to navigate /Film. For avid followers, the best way to find posts in order is to scroll down the page. If you're looking for something specific, you can use the search bar or look through the numerous tabs (News, Reviews, Comic Books, Horror, Remake, etc.) One of my favorite features of /Film is Page 2. Page 2 is a daily, five-page compilation that contains small, fun things like movie-related lists, film memes and droll pictures. One of the best part of /Film is it's social network capabilities. 

Right when you enter the page, there is a small panel on the side that allows you to like or tweet the page. Every single blog post gives you the ability to attach it to your facebook or twitter from the page. There is also a list of tags and related articles to find other articles to a similar to the one your reading. Lastly, the articles on /Film are thoughtful and fleshed out. These bloggers take their movies very seriously.

The Color Purple

You can't have a motion-picture without the picture. A website about movies that lack a rich and colorful interface would be a travesty. I'd like the site look to resemble that of an old-time movie theater. An abundance of rich reds and dark black. With my knowledge of RGB and CMYK, I believe I can make that happen.

Using the color formula learned in class, 0123456789ABCDEF, I will be able to make each page have a rich and lurid color scheme. Also. when the blog will show screenshots and pictures of upcoming film, especially spectacles in the vein of Avatar, rich and precise color is important. The idea of color will also remain significant in regards to user profiles.

I want users to be able to customize the look of the profile whichever way they want. By providing a rich color pallet, and the ability to alter brightness and saturation, profile customization can be achieved. Every profile can be a work of art. If ones favorite movie is Die Hard, and chooses to display the poster on the profile, the colors better pop. Movie is a visual medium, shouldn't cine-mate be as well. 

The Sound of Music

An important component of cine-mate is sound. Contrary to popular belief, sound is a huge part of a film. Riveting scores can make or break tension and suspense in a film. One of the reasons why Friday the 13th was so scary can be attributed to the chilling "k-k-k ch-ch-ch" sounds before the killer would strike. Soundtrack also add a new layer of depth to a film. Movies like Pulp Fiction and Clerks are praised for how well their soundtracks compliment each scene. Due to this fact, sound and music is an important part of cine-mate.
The site will have a sound section. I hope users can download mp3, or even wav files, of specific songs or scores from movies. I would also like there to be a sound effect section, where amateur film makers can share and download sound effects in a large archive.
The soundtracks would mostly be in mp3 form. Users can enjoy them on their computer, ipod or smart phone. Sound effects will be in wav. Even though wav files take up more space, the quality is better, and that is important when making movies.

A Scanner Darkly

In IST195 this past week, I learned about something called quick response code. Quick response code involves scanning a certain code, usually with a smart phone, that brings you to a specific webpage. These codes look like if a zebra's crotch was censored and pixelated for television. My idea is for cine-mate to one day team up with production companies and/or movie theaters. It would be awesome if posters or movie tickets could have these quick response codes on them. If a viewer wanted to find out relevant information about the movie, they can just scan the quick response code.

The scanning will direct the smart phone to the cine-mate mobile site. The site will contain past articles about the movie, everywhere from casting information to development details. There will also be links to reviews and trailers or behind the scene featurettes. Scanning of the quick response code could also give the viewer an option to add the movie to their profile preferences. The potential of quick response code doesn't even stop there.

When someone buys movie tickets from fandango.com or movietickets.com, she gets emails asking her what she thought about the movie. It would be great if there was a quick response code on that email that   brought the consumer to the cine-mate mobile chat page to discuss the movie with other cine-mate viewers. The possibilities of quick response code, in tangent with cine-mate, are endless.

Hardware Boiled

Hard Boiled, John Woo's action classic, is one of the greatest shoot-em up movies ever made. Hard Boiled taught me a very important lesson; it doesn't matter how big, strong or fast you are, just what hardware you have. Now please don't mistake this allusion for me going on a shooting rampage like Chow Young Fat's character. I'm using this film as a metaphor for the importance of hardware. I expect cine-mate to have many users constantly updating profiles, preferences or discussing movie news. The only way I could proficiently run this website would be to have effective and efficient hardware at our headquarters.

I expect the main server computer to be suped up, in order to the site to function effectively. The computers running the site would need to have very advanced central processing units (CPU). These cpu's, or processor, carry out basic instruction that operate the computer. With all the activity on the site, I'd need a powerful processor to fix glitches and attend to problems. I would most likely invest in a quad-core processor, which contains four processor cores. I believe the Itanium quad-core processor from Intel would do the trick I would also need to purchase a lot of memory.

My server and other computers would need a healthy amount of random access memory (RAM). RAM is the memory that contains all the operating system files of the computer. I would most like invest in buying magnetoresistive RAM. This RAM is less volatile than others. It has great storage capabilities, uses less power and has faster access time then an electronic RAM.  Putting money into buying capable hardware is extremely important for the site to function. Especially in the first few weeks, any glitch will be a huge turn off for a user. Having fast and efficient hardware will allow the site to function smoothy and give me the opportunity to fix glitches and problems.

The Social Network

Unfortunately, this blog post is not a critical analysis of The Social Network (that movie rocked). Instead, this post will focus on cine-mate's social networking capabilities, especially in regards to privacy. In today's social climate, it is easy to find significant information about an individual, in simply a click of a button. This notion is scary, especially for an up-and-coming professional like myself. For example, Facebook may serve as a gateway for employers to see how stupid I am during the weekend. I am sure no employer would be impressed seeing me in a white jump suit, mouth open, with beer flowing down my esophagus (crazy things happen at theme parties). Fortunately, on cine-mate, none of this personal information is required. 

Cine-mate is not about the individual, but instead, about lurid discussion of pop-culture. A cine-mate member is not required to put in or share any personal information on the website. When a user makes a profile on cine-mate,  all he or she would be asked to include is movie, television and music preferences. Users are not linked via intimate details, but instead, through these aforementioned preferences.  In this aspect, a cine-mate user is safe from the prying eyes of the curious public sphere. 

Though there is a chat component in cine-mate, a user is not encouraged to share personal information. Cine-mate is a vehicle for pop-culture discussion. Hopefully, these chats will focus on rumors about Battleship or a new AMC show, not personal information. These "live-chat" discussions are only open to people participating in them; no one can just google a cine-mate avatar and see what he or she stated in a past chat. My hope is to make cine-mate a safe environment for pop-culture nerds everywhere.