ALWAYSi: The Independent Entertainment Network
By Zoe Agnew
Pretend for a moment that you are one of the lucky people who has
excellent
internet access, say a DSL or T1 connection. Also imagine that you
have a
computer set up that could accommodate hours of comfortable viewing,
preferably including a large monitor and a cushy lounge chair. Perhaps
then
you could access the ALWAYSi site as it should be, and the monthly
fee is a
bargain. Otherwise it is relegated to the category of a solid resource
for
entertainment research, and not much of an entertainment site itself
for a
general populace.
This is a problem across the board with online video, of course,
but ALWAYSi
is clever to focus on film students and up-and-coming creators of
films. This
audience, as well as independent film enthusiasts, is probably more
willing to
weather connection difficulties than many other users.
The site seems to meet the needs of this particular audience in a
very
thorough manner. There are a variety of film offerings that do not
resemble
your usual weekend movie-going thoroughfare. The current homepage
offers up
three featured choices. The first is a 23 minute film called "A
Glimpse of
Hell: The Documentary" which is a complementary short to a FX
movie based on
the events of the USS Iowa. The second feature is the classic 1942
movie,
"Penny Serenade" starring Cary Grant, which is an weighty
109 minutes.
Finally, the last featured web film is the just-released teaser trailer
for
the upcoming Harry Potter movie. Perhaps this last example is incongruous,
but these three featured elements capture well the breadth of film
content
that the site contains.
To further entice this particular audience the site also offers up
industry
information including events like film festival listings and links
to
production tools helpful to a web filmmaker. Most importantly though,
is the
ability for filmmakers to submit their work to the site and immediately
access
a global audience. Best of all there is no charge for this submission,
and
ALWAYSi does not have to be your exclusive web distributor.
ALWAYSi is smart to focus on the audience that it does as early-adopters
of
this technology, and they do an excellent job of entertaining and
inspiring
that audience with a clean and simple site design. But until internet
access
generally improves, the rest of us need to be happy watching ALWAYSi's
very
short films and trailers.