TAMPA BAY FILM ONLINE FILM FESTIVAL 2009
The official Tampa Bay Film review of the Tampa Bay Film Online Film Festival By C. A. Passinault
Tampa Bay Film Online
Film Festival
The Official Review
words and pictures by C. A. Passinault
About this review and potential
conflicts
The writer of this review of the Tampa Bay Film Online
Film Festival is also the owner of the online film festival, as well as
the Tampa Bay Film sites. Additionally, this review is not scored entirely
on base merit, like a normal review, but has factors weighed in which
are only known to the writer, as he is directly involved in next generation
online film festivals, and the successor to the current online film festival.
As such, these developments, although they may not be able to be revealed,
are being considered in the scoring of the current online film festival,
as the few drawbacks of the online film festival are being addressed with
the upcoming online film festivals.
2009, The Year That The Online Film Festival Came Into Its Own.
The overall concept of an online film festival is not entirely my own, although creating a Tampa online film festival was entirely my idea.
Tampa Bay Film Online Film Festival Scorecard
Please note that a score of 5 is average.
Concept (1-10):
9 (-1
deduction from last year's score of 10)
Not quite as fresh as a concept when the online film festival
was developed in 2006, launched in 2007, and grew in 2008. There were
improvements to the overall concept in 2009, however, although those improvements
are small compared to what is in development with the successor of the
online film festival, which, at the earliest, would not debut until 2011.
The embedded file format continues to be both a blessing, and a curse,
and the cost effectiveness is diminishing with cheap, plentiful bandwidth
and file storage becoming widely available. 2010 is expected to be a routine
year, at best.
Venue (1-10):
8 (+1
improvement over last year's score of 7)
With more free Wi Fi access points available, and compatability
with popular devices such as the iPhone and the iPod Touch, the venue
of wherever you happen to be just gets better. It is now possible to have
a film festival at the local McDonald's while drinking a milk shake.
Vendors (1-10):
2 (-1
deduction from last year's score of 3)
Still no vendors, merchandise, or indie film sales /downloads,
this is not expected to improve until the next generation of the online
film festival in 2011.
Organization (1-10):
10 (+1
improvement over last year's score of 9)
The upgrade to the new Super Raptor class site format
from the Raptor 3, and the addition of a right-side Tampa Bay Film site
navigation menu led to improvements to the main menu of the online film
festival. Films were much easier to find, and watch, and the channel based
organization format of the online film festival was further enhanced.
In 2009, the online film festival left the growing pains of its first
two years behind, and became fully operational.
Entertainment (1-10):
8 (-2
deduction from last year's score of 10)
Although 2009 saw more indie films and less film trailers
on the online film festival, issues with films being removed without warning
by the owners on the embedded file accounts gave our viewers a few films
which would not play. Dependence upon external video file sources is the
main weakness of the online film festival, and what used to be an advantage
by allowing us to quickly add films lost its edge when additional support
work and graphics work required with the online film festival gave us
administrative time roughly equivalent to if we had to host and manage
the film files ourselves. Additionally, 2009 saw changes in the embedded
file formats itself, with more pop up ads on the video itself, and videos
that could be configured to be private, rendering them unwatchable. These
issues will not be resolved until the next generation of the online film
festival debuts, and is expected to be worse in 2010. It will be very
difficult, logistically, to maintain a playlist of over 100 films with
these ongoing issues, which limits the online film festival, and slows
the addition of films (although the flexible and fluid nature of the upcoming
PHP/ Database based online film festival would return the embedded file
format to an easy, and cost-effective, format; the new online film festival
will use our own flash-based viewer, and the reliance of external embedded
files would be phased out, so this advantage may never be realized, if
we were to skip the new 3rd generation online film festival and go to
the 4th).
Attendance (1-10):
10 (Same as last year's score of 10)
Our unique visitors, and "attendance", for the
online film festival, grew in 2009. The online film festival was fully
up and running 99.9999% of the time, and with several films being viewed
every second of every day, there is no better platform for promting, and
marketing, indie films in Florida than the online film festival. By late
2009, it had been established as a standard in the indie film industry,
and our numbers and watched films vastly out pace all of the film festival
events in Florida, combined! The online film festival is open, and available,
free of charge, 24 hours a day and 7 days a week, wherever there is an
Internet connection, on everything from laptop computers to iPhones.
Features (1-10):
8 (+1
improvement over last year's score of 7)
The Tampa Bay Film Online Film Festival.
Admission Value
(1-10): 10
(Same as last year's score of 10)
It’s free, so that’s good, but the ads can
be annoying.
Overall Film Festival
Score (1-10): 9 (+1
improvement over last year's score of 8)
Good, clean web site design and layout.
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PUBLISHED 05/04/10
UPDATED 05/04/10
Super Raptor Class Web Site by Wordsmith Domains. Super Raptor Class 0005, commissioned 120509.1010 hrs.
Web Site Design by Wordsmith Domains. Photography by Aurora PhotoArts.
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