Around the web in 3 new ideas

Made By Many had an Away Day last Friday, where all of us were asked to present a couple of things that interested us. I presented three: the first was Criterion.com.

The Criterion DVDs form part of every movie lover’s must-have collection, and I’ve been planning to build a collection for a while now. In the meantime, however, I was happy to note that they have started a social network of their own, with elements like blogs, a free advertising-supported online festival of specially curated films, and an online shop. I signed up to explore it a bit, and it looks pretty comprehensive. You can opt to watch a film online for $5, any number of times for one week. If you choose to buy a DVD of the film, the $5 will be added to the cost. In their social network, called The Auteurs, you can browse lists of top ten films, film reviews and so on. Each film has its own page, which is a storehouse of all things related to it: images, a trailer, reviews, blog posts and so on. They also have a Frequent Flier programme, where every $ spent on the site earns you a point, and every 500 points earns you a $50 gift certificate. The film festival is one of the most interesting aspects: you can see films that you are usually screened at Cannes, Venice, Toronto and so on, in the comfort of your home. Because let’s face it, not everyone gets to go to these renowned festivals. I like that they make films accessible for a film lover like me. 

The second thing I spoke about was Asi and Nicky’s This Book Will Be Famous project. The pair have created the book on their own, based on the idea that it is a sort of Pass the Parcel-Message In a Bottle-Six Degrees of Separation experiment. The book has only six pages, and is to be passed from one famous person to another. Each will leave a trace on it: the ‘trace’ could be anything, from a poem or story to a ticket. The final product will be auctioned off for the charity NSPCC. I think it’s a very creative idea, and wish I’d come up with something like that!!

The final thing I mentioned was Smashing Telly, which is a site that picks interesting, free-to-air stuff from the internet and collects it in one place. I like it because unlike Watchification, which does the same thing but picks programmes from the BBC iPlayer only, the stuff on Smashing Telly doesn’t expire, so you’re not faced with dead links or a ‘this programme can no longer be viewed’ message.