I think features like most popular, highest rated, and recent listings are typically the most used, and the most useful. Those are certainly the methods I use.
| PerryKroll.com | TRC | "If not actually disgruntled, he was far from being gruntled." Wodehouse
Posts: 5197 | Location: Tisch at New York University | Registered: June 03, 2003
Another thing that would be very cool is some kind of "suggest a film to watch" feature that finds films with low number of ratings/days on site ratios.
| PerryKroll.com | TRC | "If not actually disgruntled, he was far from being gruntled." Wodehouse
Posts: 5197 | Location: Tisch at New York University | Registered: June 03, 2003
I agree with Paul, I'd search by worst reviewed every once in awhile. You can learn as much from a horrible film as you can from a good one. Although posting a big message on the front page basically saying "This film sucks, watch it" probably wouldn't be the best idea.
Instead of a list of the best 50, there should be a list of every archived film, categorized by rating.
Posts: 174 | Location: Canada | Registered: September 27, 2005
I usually pay more attention to the forums. It really depends on whos name I happen to catch on the "New Films" thing, or if I happen to see a really great screen shot that grabs me. I don't generally thumb through the site and look for films to watch, because when I did that I felt annoyed with a lot of what I watched, many more poorly concieved, shot, lit films than good ones (I understand it's a studentfilms site, but some of that stuff I wouldn't have paid 1 dollar to host, let alone 10+.) It was almost like some of the people just rushed to get some kind of thing done, with no real planning or anything. I pay a ton of attention to the forum though, and if someone (especially JW, Mark Denega, TD, etc.) says "watch my new movie", generally I'll watch it.
A worst reviewed would be good, but I don't think some people could really accept being on that list. Some of the people on here unfortunately believe that they are the be-all, end-all of student filmmaking, but some of their movies aren't anywhere near that level. Giving them a realistic review sometimes might make them somewhat annoyed. I love watching any movie on here, because you always take something away from them, whether it's "wow, that's an inventive shot, I can benefit from that" or "wow, that's the worst shot I've ever seen, I don't think I'll ever use something like that."
Posts: 805 | Location: Jersey | Registered: September 07, 2004
I try to review all new films that come out, but some I'm just driven away from by poor previous ratings, or uninteresting screenshots and synopsis. I don't usually go back and watch too many old movies on the site, unless I have a particular liking for them , such as "Lachrymose" and "Ken's Specs." I tend not to watch films over 15 or 20 minutes, simply because most of the films I've seen of that length seem to drag quite a bit. If a new film pops on the Best Reviewed listing, I'll usually check that out. I actually use the Best Reviewed, Most Popular, and Genre browsers often. I can't remember ever using the School browser, and once in awhile I'll randomize.
i like to watch the music videos. or i might be in the mood for a certain genre so I almost always browse by genre. I also like the idea you had of showing month by month stats for each film, showing the rise and fall of a film's ratings or popularity for each user. but along that same graph you should have the "site average" so a film can be compared to that site average. aka the average film has a rating of blah blah and an average number of monthly views of blah blah. and show that month by month as well. also i like one of the other poster's ideas of being able to browse the worst films. but i think a clever way to do it without having to outright label the worst films could be just to list films by ratings in each genre. (i.e. 5-star films on page 1 and 1-star films on page 20)ALSO i think that the ratings system needs to be modified by genre. in documentaries there should be another category instead of acting (maybe "interesting people"?) and the screenplay category could be "subject matter". (these kind of tie together, i know. so maybe you could limit it to just four) in music videos, maybe the screenplay rating could be replaced by "story/concept" and acting could be "acting/performance" (the problem with that is it is debatable whether a good music video has anything to do with a good performance, so again you could possibly take that category out. and in studentfilms.com newsletters you could propose ideas and ask people to vote by email or have a link to some kind of poll. or have many different polls with each newsletter. I think you could also have "studentfilms.com classics". films that have been on since the beginning or for awhile and have achieved a cult status or high viewings or high ratings or have provoked discussions, etc, etc. I'm just throwing these ideas out there. If you like 'em you can take 'em, if not you can send him right back but I think that just for tonight we shouldn't be co-anchors, we should be...co-people. Burgundy Out.
Posts: 31 | Location: la la land | Registered: January 15, 2006
One thing I would like to see is an improved search engine, something that takes into account description hopefully, but at least every word in a title.
For Example. My short "The Lost", doesnt show up when you search for "The Lost", but shows when you search for "Lost".
Not a huge deal, but I think an improved search engine would benefit the website.
Posts: 461 | Location: Not Applicable | Registered: December 09, 2002
I'm also curious to see the website's total current film count as well as average rating across the site or some kind of bell curve chart to show how many films have what rating. what can i say, i like statistics.
Posts: 31 | Location: la la land | Registered: January 15, 2006
Hey Chris, how long do you think it will be before we see that "Least # of reviews" list? I always feel sorry for the guys who pay money but don't receive a lot of reviews.
Posts: 975 | Location: Australia | Registered: December 20, 2002
another idea might be to have "mini-forums" for each movie. like right by reviews and all that. when clicking on the discussion button, you'd be led not to the general forums, but to a new forum specifically for that film. this would give watchers a chance to talk more directly with the filmmakers about their projects.
Posts: 31 | Location: la la land | Registered: January 15, 2006
Studentfilms.com Filmmaking Forums 
