Hello, my name is Eric C. and I am a pop-culture nerd. Going through life with the constant urge to discuss the casting choice of the next Batman film or the merits of a controversial director is hard and tiresome. If only there was a website that could connect me with other cinephiles; a safe-place where we could discuss, support and complain about upcoming products. Well my website idea, Cine-mate, allows just that.
Cine-mate combines the interface of a movie weblog (like Slashfilm.com, Collider.com, Filmschoolrejects.com, etc.) with the spirit of a social networking site. On cine-mate, under every informational post, instead of a mere "comment section,"will be an interactive chat where individuals can create a real-time dialogue about the factoid or article. Every user will make their own profile, which involves creating a comprehensive list of movie and television preferences. Through these preferences, users would be directed to suggested dialogue pages in order to discuss film news, or recent and past movies.
Cine-mate will also act as a good indicator for new movie buzz. On each post, the user can like or dislike (just like facebook) the upcoming project or production decision. Users can put links to previews or other weblog articles on their profile page. In this way, the site maintains the "trending" factor of twitter. This site can give industry insiders an insight to the decisions they are making. Cine-mate would be free; the bulk of the revenue would be from advertising, which would most likely be for upcoming moves and television shows.
I'm glad to see that you are working on a project that is within an industry you are already familiar with. I am also glad that you have looked at other blogs out there and sites to see what they are doing. This will make your project a lot easier. I wonder if in the long run there might be ways for you to integrate into larger systems such as IMDB or fandango. I think starting small is the best path.
ReplyDeleteThis definitely sounds like a nice idea, and one I would probably get involved in myself if it were here. I'm focusing on a kind of social networking site myself, and the criticism I've heard the most is separating it from Facebook enough to succeed. But having a purpose as specific as this definitely makes it possible to overcome this issue.
ReplyDeleteAnd I agree, you need to make sure further features are added on to expand it enough. If it stays too small it won't be able to attract enough people to stand near Facebook.
And don't worry about revenue, I bet all kinds of movie industries will be lining up to advertise on a site they know will be literally teeming with movie nerds.