Seven Ways to Watch a DVD

I recommend trying at least one of the following on a repeat viewing, and it may or may not increase your enjoyment of the film.

Don't do these the first time you watch a movie because you might get angry, annoyed, or frustrated, and that is not my intention. (The goal when watching movies is either to have fun or to broaden your experiences.)

1. On mute. No sound means you're going to pay more attention to visual details: lighting, camera angles, cuts, composition, and body language. If you want to improve your awareness of these elements (say, for a film class or to impress your movie buff friend), definitely watch a movie on mute.

2. Dubbed in a foreign language. If you're studying a foreign language, here's an opportunity to work on your listening skills, especially if you don't have the story memorized.

3. Watch side characters and ignore the main character when he/she is on screen. I don't realize all the acting that goes on in the background, and I bet neither do you. Here's a way to notice that.

4. Turn on commentary. Good for director's explanations, cast stories from the set, and random bits of trivia.

5. Skip every other scene. (Not recommended for movies that involve heavy time travel.) I haven't tried this yet, but I imagine it's sort of like Choose Your Own Adventure with more fixed parameters.

6. Watch with headphones on. The movie will sound different from the time you watched it on TV or in the theater, and in a cool way.

7. Create your own intermission. Break the movie into two or three parts, with a fifteen minute break in between each part. (Or break for however long you like. Doesn't matter to me.) When you pull away from the movie and give your mind some time to process what you've already seen, you might pick up on something that you normally would not have realized until the movie was over.

The Netflix Game

One of my favorite games is The Netflix Game. I haven't talked to anyone about this, so it might be my invention or maybe loads of other people do it too. (Let me know in the comments if you do.)

This is how you play. You choose one element you want in a movie. For example, specific genre, a certain actor, earlier works of a director, John Williams soundtrack...It can be any element you want.

You search for movies on Netflix that meet that one criteria (and that you haven't seen before, if that wasn't obvious). Depending on what your element is, you might have to enlist help from IMDB and/or Rotten Tomatoes. When you find potential movies, do not read the plot summary or reviews or cast listings or anything about the movie.

Find the potentials that are rated at least 4 red stars. Those are Netflix's predictions about how much you will enjoy the movie. Add one of those to your Netflix queue.

When you watch that movie, you have almost zero information on it (assuming you didn't cheat). You might not have any expectations of it (which is fun!) and hopefully, you'll enjoy it because Netflix thought you would, and Netflix's rating system is four kinds of wonderful.

There are no points in this game, but you can consider a "win" when you enjoy the movie and a "loss" when Netflix's prediction lets you down.

So yesterday I played the Netflix Game with Runaway Jury and it was a win. My One Element was John Cusack as a main character. I got bonuses, though, because Dustin Hoffman and Gene Hackman were in the movie too (and I didn't know that until I was watching. More fun when you don't cheat, see?). Netflix predicted four stars for me, and yes, I liked the movie but didn't love it.

It's a good way to spend rainy afternoons, the Netflix Game.

Don't push your content down the page

I went to Mashable to read this article about YouTube's new paid subscription model. The page loaded and I saw this:

The big headline is nice, but I don't care about the shares and likes when I haven't even read the article. Everything else is ads, ads, ads. So I scrolled down to this:

A huge photo of the YouTube logo...and the image doesn't tell me any other information. Under that in relatively tiny font, is the article. (Also, notice that the text on the National Geographic ad is easier to read than the article text. Priorities.)

I'm all for visually interesting pages, but don't make me scroll down an entire screen length before I can read the article. The first word in the headline is "YouTube," so I know that's the subject of the article. The huge logo wastes space, and it's unnecessary.

The page layout gets in the way of what should be most important—content.

When Community plays like a comic book

Spoilers for 4.12 "Heroic Origins."

Over the past four years, genre episodes have been some of Community's best episodes. We have a new but familiar environment that lets us learn about the characters. In this week's "Heroic Origins," Abed maps out how the characters' paths crossed before they became a study group at Greendale.

The comic book references are plentiful:

• Jeff is the bad guy who turned good
• Abed sees himself as the villain, but everyone is a villain and a hero in some way ("We're all Spider-Man")
• Everyone was a catalyst for at least one character ("We're all Uncle Ben's murderer")
• Dean Spreck at City College uses a voice modulator for an evil laugh and has blueprints for a killer robot
• Comic book panels and text act as transitions throughout the episode
• We learn more about each character's back origin story (and at the yogurt shop, "Don't You (Forget About Me)" from The Breakfast Club plays, which calls back to the first episode of Community)
• Abed mentions the movie Unbreakable a few times
• The story was in fragmented pieces, much like Heroes

Despite all of these references to comic books and superhero stories, the essence of Community is still there. Abed's unique point of view helps the characters learn and understand more about themselves. The situation turns sour with everyone feeling angry or uncomfortable but at the end, Jeff thanks Abed for his insight and the whole group is grateful for it.