https://letterboxd.com/
In today's world, media consumption is the name of the game. Everywhere you go, you're bombarded with media of all sorts: television ads, radio jingles, news broadcasts, political tweets, and on and on and on. Not to mention the internet which contains a near-infinite stream of videos, songs, photos, ideas, and just about anything else you could imagine. And our habits reinforce this - on average, internet users spend 6½ hours a day online. And this isn't a small subset of hardcore gamers or anything - we're talking about 4.4 billion internet users across the world spending more than 6 hours online every day.
The problem is when we can?t stop binge-watching one show or movie, and then our attention spans are really limited for anything else.
Even if you didn't realize it, you probably agree with me that we live in an overwhelming era. The amount of media available at our fingertips is absurd. If someone recommends a movie or series to you and you respond with, "Sounds great! I'll have to add that one to my list," you're not alone. We all have backlogs of things we want to watch - it's kind of funny when you think about it. But the problem is when we can't stop binge-watching one show or movie and our attention spans are really limited for anything else.
I find it interesting how the people on Letterboxd discuss movies and share ratings and thoughts. It's a great way to remember what you've seen and to connect with others who are passionate about film.
I am going to review the service Letterboxd, turning it inside out to see what it is all about. What is Letterboxd best utilized for? And can it help organize this part of your cultural life? What drew me to the website was the idea that I could keep track of anything film-related in one place, and ultimately reduce my mental clutter. Now I want to explore whether or not it does that, and how you can best utilize it yourself.
How it Started
Since 2011, Letterboxd has grown exponentially from a website that few people had heard of to a platform with millions of active users. The site began as a private beta hosted at Brooklyn Beta in late 2011, and quickly became popular among film enthusiasts. In order to accommodate the growing membership, Letterboxd introduced a tiered membership structure in early 2013, which allowed free users access to many basic features while premium members had access to more extensive features. Since then, the site has continued to grow and adapt as user demand has increased.
How it Works
Seems like a great movie to check out, right?
When you're looking for a movie database and community discussion forum, it can be a bit daunting to figure out how the website works. Basically, it goes something like this: let's say you're thinking of watching a new movie and you want to see whether the online community gives it a thumbs up. Rather than deal with Rotten Tomatoes' ranking system (which divides audience ratings from critics?), you can head to Letterboxd and see what the community thinks of it. Letterboxd combines ratings from both big-name critics and everyday folks like me. For example, at this moment, Parasite boasts a 4.6 out of 5-star rating with thousands and thousands of reviews. Seems like a great movie to check out, right?
You can also read ?audience reactions? and ?teacher ratings,? which will give you a good idea of what other educators think about the film.
But keep scrolling, and you'll get thorough schooling in all there is to know about the movie. After reading a short synopsis, you'll find a comprehensive About section, which includes the cast & crew list, details about production, and the genres the movie has been lumped into thus far. Beneath this, you'll find a mix of recent reviews and popular reviews, the latter of which are often written by respected critics. You can also read audience reactions and teacher ratings, which will give you a good idea of what other educators think about the film.
Then, we're met with one of Letterboxd's best features. Beneath the title's thumbnail at the top of the page, you'll see a small "Where to Watch" tab. This marvelous feature shows you exactly which streaming services and/or networks the film is currently available on, and whether or not you can rent or buy the film there. This feature is a result of a recent partnership with JustWatch. Rather than bounce between each of your streaming services manually, this feature allows you to get to watching without a moment wasted.
After you've finished watching your film, you can save it and add it to your diary. Over time, you'll accumulate a retrospective that you can return to at your leisure. In your diary, you'll find the films you logged, the date you logged them on, and your rating and review (if you gave one). All these parameters can be made public or private. You can sort through them, too, using filters like "decade," "genre," or "rating." Personally, this is my favorite part of Letterboxd, as it helps me consolidate my thoughts.
One of the fantastic features of Letterboxd's consortium is its lists section. Here, users can group collections of films and share them with other users. These lists can be followed, shared, liked, etc. Because it's such a popular feature, users put a lot of time and effort into cultivating their lists. As I browse now, some examples of lists are Anxiety-Induced Cinema; High Art Genre Movies; and A24 - Complete Filmography. Browse for a few minutes and you'll find half a dozen lists that interest you and get you excited about seeing those new films.
This website provides a comprehensive overview of films, from the beginning of your film search all the way to post-viewing discussion and reflection. The website features a community-based ranking system, social media style comment-and-like platform, IMDb-like database, and user-curated lists. It's hard to find anything on this website that isn't well thought out and conceived.
Mobile Experience
After installing the Letterboxd app on my phone, I was worried that it would be difficult to create a clean interface. But surprisingly, I was wrong. The app is sleek and modern, and the user interface is easy to use.
Despite some limitations, there's not much to complain about with the Letterboxd app. Logging films that you've just watched is incredibly easy, and navigating through the UI is just as intuitive as it is on a desktop client. Additionally, it's impressive how clutter-free the app and mobile web client are given how old the app is.
Letterboxd Pro/Patron
While Letterboxd is totally free to use, you do have the option to upgrade to a paid membership if you want more benefits. There are two tiers for paid members, the first of which is called Pro and the second, Patron. Pro membership provides you with several features including year in review-style statistical breakdowns, more control over the activity feed?s filters, and other numerical breakdowns like all-time stats. These might include parameters like which actor you?ve seen the most; what genre you gravitate towards; what decade you prefer. Patron membership costs $19 a year and includes all of the above plus early access to new features before they're released to everyone else.
Then there's the Patron membership, which costs a lot more than the Pro. For $49 a year, a Patron membership will grant you a slew of features that you probably don't need. This includes being granted early access to beta feature, having your name ?in lights? on the Letterboxd Patron page, and having a special insignia to signify your elite membership on your profile. Obviously, this is intended for people who appreciate the work Letterboxd has done and want to give back by supporting the service with a monetary contribution.
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