By Petra Moog
Cinemanow is a wonderfully designed webpage which gives you immediately
the feeling of cinema (nice java animated intro of a movie roll spying
out the buttons you can later click on…). The site is set up
by people who have been already involved in cinema, film production,
film making, etc. - people who like films. The goal of the site is
to bring films out of the mainstream to the public and the Cinemanow-folks
believe that the internet will change the way films are made and moreover
distributed. After finishing the intro the user can choose between
different buttons which links the user to other pages. These buttons
are: Watch, Make, Buy, Networking, Search, SignUp/Login.
Watch
In this section the visitor can watch for free (after signing up and
login) round about 150 movies. In the pay per view section Cinemanow.com
offers the user some selected movies to buy on the net. In general
users can browse films by genre (first category which appears is action
followed by comedy, drama, foreign, horror, science fiction, short
films and pay-per-view films). It possible, either, to search for
your favorite movie by a pull down list or by browsing the site. The
users will be informed on new acquisitions by Cinemanow.com.
Cinemanow.com is counting how often the movie has been watched and
than sets up a favorite list. Most watched films are Doom Generation,
Curse of the starving class, Standoff, Valentino returns, Leprechaun,
The hole, Teenage Bonnie & Klepto Clyde, Studio Notes, Capone,
Warlords. These movies embrace almost genres like action, futuristic
adventures (science fiction), romantic comedy/drama, horror and short
movies.
But more important the audience can vote about the movie (grates
from 1 to 5) and give a brief review on it. Users can tell about problems
receiving or playing the movie on the web and resolving the problem
(this is really a problem of that page to really get watch the films).
Moreover users are able to set up a Cinemanow.com section or playlist
with their preferred movies. The movies can be shown on whole screen.
Make
- a very informative section for young filmmakers, writers, etc.
Tips where are schools, how to write a screenplay (practical hands-on
tips), classified section where you can buy, sell or trade equipment,
interviews with insiders/ stars… In this section the filmmaker's
resources includes news, classifieds, software freebies, the rubrique
keep informed and hints on US film schools.
Buy
Choose movies by genres or search your preferred movie. Then pick
it and pay $12.99 for a VHS or $15.98 for DVD.
Networking
Here users can buy or sell used equipment. Visitors can list events
and announcements, job opportunities, and services. Easy to use by
picking a category to browse and than click "post a classified"
to sell something.
So Cinemanow.com works with all technical instruments web-design
offers to make cinema happening on the web.
Cinemanow offers a broad range of different movie genres. But the
audience prefers a lot of short movies (genres: comedy and society
reflecting movies) and action movies.
Given the today technical possibilities short movies are easy to
stream and to get/download for the users. Moreover young filmmakers
can easier effort to make a short movie than a common movie. Moreover
a young filmmaker can introduce himself easy by putting a short movie
as a business-card ion the web. In these days, where everything has
to be quick and fast - I think short movies are the best thing for
the net. And they reflect in the best way the generation surfing the
web - fast, changing, get a quick insight of something and move on.
Sometimes critical, sometimes funny or sad, looking for action for
not being board and with some ideas of the future. The short movies
on Cinemanow.com follow these directions.
Observing different kinds of movies on the web I think short cuts
(fast cuts) are very often used - going along with the kind of movies
shown (for example Doom - a little bit like Tarantinos Pulp Fiction.
Moreover the instrument of close ups (closed shots to faces or special
scenes) is often used. And this goes well along with the screen measures,
it lets you sometimes forget, that you are watching a movie on your
computer.
A lot of movies on Cinemanow.com are closed to the commercial mainstream.
But on the other side Cinemanow.com is a platform to show foreign
or short movies, which would have never a chance to enter the commercial
channels. On the Cinemanow.com the avant garde audience could find
their movies but the average movie-watcher, too. May be Sundance.com
is the better place in the web to get ideas on the state of the art
of young filmmakers, but Cinemanow.com is almost a first or second
step in this direction.
But mostly this page offers a broad overview on what is going on
in the young filmmaker community. It might be helpful to them to find
information and hints…