No opinion can do this site justice! (filmfour.com)

Member Name: GR-Design

Product:	filmfour.com
Date:	17/05/01 (95 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Too many to mention

Disadvantages: Don't think there is any

Filmfour.com, what a site! As you may have already noticed if you have read my other opinion on channel 4, I love most of the stuff that comes from 4 because of the quality of the products they have to offer. Filmfour.com just made me realise even more about the quality of their stuff. Anyway….

Firstly I must tell you that I am reviewing the filmfour website and not the actual channel, if I was reviewing the channel then this review wouldn’t be so favourable!!

I visit this site at least once a day…why? Well you’ll see in a minute if you read on. The best thing about the website is that its dedicated to films and nothing else, so this one suits me down to the ground!! I may not review all that many films but I love to watch them.

So on we go..

- WHAT’S IT ALL ABOUT

Seems like a good place to start to me! You may think that the website is dedicated to filmfour and its channel. Well, that’s where your wrong. You know how a lot of website, especially TV ones don’t offer you information on any other channels as they are in competition with them? Well this website does just the opposite to that, it actually lists films showing on other channels. So, basically its my one stop shop for movies!

As it says on the site, this is your one stop place for movies and its all true! To give you an idea of what’s on offer I’ll list some of the stuff that’s there, but this one opinion just can’t do it justice and you’ll have to go and visit it yourself. (Why hasn’t anyone else written an opinion on this site?!)

As I’ve already stated, this site is packed with info. On entering the site you will be confronted with a page with a navigation bar across the top, content in the middle highlighting the various parts of the site and again a navigational bar across the bottom. The top navigation bar gives you access to most of the content, but no
t all of it, you’ll find yourself buried deep inside the site in minutes!

- NEWS

This is part of the site I was disappointed with. I thought they would have their own news listed on the site but instead, all of the news is bought to you by Ananova, another news site. However, its all film news an is all relevant to the site, what’s more, its all up to date!

- CINEMA

Brilliant! From here you can do a cinema search to see what’s on at your local cinema, or indeed, where your local cinema is. They say that they have reviews on each and every movie that’s currently released at the cinema, also the new releases and reviews on the films that are going to hit the big screens soon.

This is a massive section in itself, but only a small part of the site. For those of you who visit the cinema regularly this is probably better than your local cinema’s website and is a one stop shop for movie reviews (along with dooyoo of course!!)

The reviews are straight to the point, but I couldn’t quite find out who had reviewed them. Along with the reviews you get a picture of one of the movie scenes aswell as information on who the film starred, who directed it, and how long it is etc Good stuff!!

- DVD

This is much like the cinema, except in DVD form! It’s got the top 10 DVD sales down the right hand side of the screen and all the titles are clickable so that you can get a review on the film if your thinking of buying it. Also, if you do want to buy it, theres always a link to another website that you can buy the DVD from. This category is much the same as cinema though, just for DVD’s
- FILMS ON TV

This is one probably the best part of the site, or should I say, the part of the site I use the most! Basically it allows you to view all the films on TV (terrestrial and sky etc) under one roof. Just click the day you would like to watch a film and then you wi
ll get the highlights of that day i.e. the films filmfour thinks are best (and no, they are not all films off their channel).

However, if you click the full listings link you will be presented with every single film that is on every channel that day. To make it easier for you, they also give you the information in channel and time form so your not disappointed to find that the film you would like to see is on a channel you don’t have! You can do this for the films on TV for the next 7 days and is a great way to list all the films you either want to watch or tape. (You can also get all this information through your mobile if you have a WAP phone!)

Brilliant stuff!

- FEATURES

This is the part of the site that lists your top 10 of movies etc. You can for instance vote for your favourite sci-fi movie in the top 10 etc. You can also get interviews with film stars and directors in Real Media format. There is also a section that acts like a discussion and asks various questions. At the moment they are looking at whether there are too many virtual actors on the screen and reasons to love and hate it!

Other stuff you will find there is The Valet (I’m not quite sure what this is about!) and a section devoted to British comedy.

- SCREENING ROOM

The screening room part of the site is dedicated to short movies and hosting clips from your favourite movies, or that’s what it says anyway! It also has interviews (as does nearly every section) ad again, real media clips. I must just add here that the media clips are of a superb quality and have three different vriations. You can either choose to view the media clips in low, medium or high quality. This will all depend on your connection speed and for 28k modems I would recommend low, 58k medium and ISDN/cable High quality. This again just goes to demonstrate the quality of the site. A lot of sites don’t bother with these details.

- MAKING
MOVIES

This part of the site will take you behind the scenes and tell you a bit about how the movies are made. At the moment you can go behind the scenes of East is East and Captain Coreliis Mandolin. What you are offered is again, a Real Media Clip.

They also have special features in which they will give you Real Media clips of the crew, directors and actors of films. A good part of the site if your into this sort of thing!

- BANNED

Ok, so we all know that channel 4 and their sister channels are not afraid to push the boundaries and will show as much as they can get away with. This shows in some of the films they show. The website is no different! This section is a hugely interesting section devoted to films that have either been cut a lot to make it on video or have been banned in this country altogether (and it doesn’t take that much to get things banned in this country so the section is quite a big one!!)

So what will you actually find here. Well again, you will find real media clips on some of the films that have been banned, You will find a top 10 of the most controversial films and be able to view information on them. Something I liked was being able to view the seven deadly sins which for each sin, they had listed a movie. You can also get descriptions on what requirements there are for a film to pass the video people and to get a certificate.

A good section and a lot of detail, however, you do have to register to be able to view this part of the site, you can’t just go and view it (a good thing I think). You do need to heck a box to say you are 18 which covers the site but on the other hand, there is no way for them to know that you actually are 18!

- GAMES

Now, I can’t actually comment on this game as I haven’t played it. There is one game available at the moment called Timecast. I’m not quite sure what you have to do on it, but it does require flash! A ni
ce touch to the site though, its not all movie sites that have games on them!

- FORUMS

Filmfour.com allows you to talk to other users of the site through their forums. The forums are quite well designed and easy to view and use. There are various headings for different topics on film such as ‘banned’ ‘general’ ‘making movies’ and ‘DVD’. Again, this is another good part of the site and just goes to show the amount of work they have put into the site.

- FILMFOUR CHANNEL

This is another part of the site I use lots (and I mean lots, I visit at least once a day to see what’s showing!) This is a bit like the ‘TV Movies’ part of the site. The difference is that you are given listings for what is shown on the filmfour channel’s (yes there are more than one filmfour channel!). You just choose the day and it lists the movies, if you want a bit more info on that movie, click it and you will get a scene shot and also info on the movie and the cast and crew.

From here you can also subscribe to filmfour and read the FAQ which basically tells you all that you want to know!

- FILMFOUR PRODUCTIONS

This is a small part of the site giving you information on what productions film four are either showing at the moment, have shown or are in the process of making. That is of course, if your interested!


So, that’ a site rundown and I’ve already wrote 3 pages in word and im starting to get a bit worried! I’m going to harp on for a bit yet though, I can’t provide you with half the information can I!

- NAVIGATION & DESIGN

Design of the filmfour site is remarkably good. You will be confronted with mostly red & black with grey text and a white background, but it all falls together to make quite a nice looking website. The graphics are good and although the site relies heavily on graphics, it doesn’t
seem to slow the site down too much. All the pictures are of good quality, however, as with a lot of sites, if your viewing this site at a large resolution you may feel as if the scene shot pictures that go with the movie info could benefit from being a bit larger, or at least make it so that you can click on them and then view them in a new window. Just a minor complaint though!

Navigation is also easily with all links clearly standing out to you. The navigational bar at the top is a bit of a pain though. When you hover over one of the sections, you are given sub sections underneath, however, these subsections are in a very small space and if like me, you are using a laptop to view to site, and using a trackpad for your mouse movements, clicking on the sub sections can be a task of its own and you’ll often find yourself mising the link and having to hover over the main section link again. Apart from that, there’s nothing more I can complain about!
- OVERALL

Overall this is a superb website and I just can not give it enough praise. I’m now onto my fourth pag in Word, I wouldn’t have spent this much time on a review if the website wasn’t worthy of it!

If your into movies then I strongly suggest you visit this site and take a look around. I can easily and confidently say that you’ll love it! Go and look now!

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