I Want DVDs

I found a leaflet stuck in one of my magazines, which admittedly, isn't usually a newsworthy occurance. They tend to be about tigers, and I would like to adopt one, but it wouldn't fit in my bedroom.

Anyway, this leaflet advertised a new site - iwantdvd.co.uk. The basic idea behind it is very interesting. Their advertising claims;

Unlike other DVD stores, www.iwantdvd.com has been specially designed to make online shopping more fun. Rather than finding yourself surfing through ten million DVDs waiting for a title to catch your eye, you can simply use the website's DVD selector to narrow down the search!

First, you need to put in who the DVD is for, with choices including everybody from yourself to your parents, siblings, children, best mate or other half. Then refine your quest by putting in the recipients age, film preference (comedy, horror, drama, etc) and details about their personality (are they funny? Romantic? Stylish?). The DVD selector will then use this information to rummage through the websites extensive library of content, choosing suitable DVDs to fit your criteria. You can also watch trailers and read information on its choices before you decide to buy them or not - perfect! Why waste time when www.iwantdvd.com can do all the hard work for you?

...well, because they've mistyped their own website address twice would be a good reason.

Ignoring that embarrassing error, the copy does look interesting, but I'll admit to having doubts as to how well it works. Sites like Amazon and LoveFilm, among others, also feature a recommendation feature, but this is based on votes given by their customers, and your history with the company. Anyone who uses Amazon regularly will generally be able to find a good choice or two among its many, many recomendations - and the fact that, at times, it's only batting 1/10 doesn't matter, since that feature isn't Amazon's main selling point (the books are). So far, LoveFilm's recommendations have only served to remind me to watch the next season of a series, but I remain in hope. After all, I've already got 300+ films on my list, so it's not like they've got many to choose from. And again, since that isn't the company's main selling point, it simply serves as a rather nice bonus.

But, iwantDVD is going beyond that. Rather than simply having the feature, they've decided it to make it their main selling point against the many, many other DVD sites out there. And how do they do it?

They could hook into a larger database, like that of IMDB, and use their long history of user ratings to sort films. Or they could categorise the films by themselves - say, have a given film score highly for a gift for a grandchild, and lower for one for a girlfriend (I'm assuming the film is Happy Feet, or Igor, or something). Give it a higher score for the younger age groups, and lower for older groups. Higher for people who are funny and like comedies. Then, when someone inputs the options, find the film which scores highest overall.

The problem with that system is the lack of user feedback. Sure, the system can be tweaked as the site grows, and people actually buy the DVDs, but during its delicate time, while the system is still finding its feet, that's not going to help. Honestly, I'm not holding out a fantastic amount of hope for this site.

So, I decided to test it, with my boyfriend. The objective was simple try to find a film which one of us owns, or at least wants to own, without actually lying about any details.

The first option you need to input is the recipients relationship to you, and there are quite a lot of options to choose from - dad, mum, brother, sister, son, daughter, me, girlfriend, boyfriend, best mate, husband, wife, evil twin, mistress, friend, partner, the ex, grandfather, grandmother, grandkid, cousin, aunt, uncle, mother-in-law, father in law, family pet, neighbour, nanny, teacher, boss, bribe, room mate, imaginary friend, secret santa, charity, arch enemy, and other. I think someone was having a lot of fun with this. I also think it would make more sense to have a separate 'gender' option, so they could cut a few options off this list, but that's just me.

Then age; 0-6, 6-12, 12-15, 15-18, 18-35, 35-55, 55+. These categories are much broader, and have some overlaps. I think that's a bad sign. Maybe whoever wrote the options was having slightly less fun at this point.

I also think that more weight should be given to age, rather than relationship. Or even to any of the later options, the next of which is which genre they prefer - action, classic, comedy, rom-coms, drama, family, horror, musical, romance, seasonal, sci-fi, suspense, or television.

I don't think I need to point out that television isn't a genre, do I? They're also missing indie, among others (I noticed that one, because I had a go at making it show Juno). Fantasy, too.

You can't tell, but I have my sad face on right about now.

The final option is for personality type, and I truly doubt the legitimacy of that option. Firstly, why would a funny person want to watch a comedy (which is what the system is going to find, if you say that)? They're already funny.

The options are also quite limited, when compared to the vast range of humanity; neurotic, observant, spontaneous, misunderstood, funny, romantic, stylish, flirty, strict, popular, stressed out, workaholic, loyal, outrageous, charistmatic, optimistic, charitable, laid back, streetwise, paranoid, troublemaker, hard to please, sympathetic, moody, gossip, player, smart arse, arrogant, or chilled out.

I'm not entirely sure why any of those - particularly stressed out and chilled out, which are temporary states - would effect one's choice in films. I also think that they should allow one to choose three or so of these, since I'm guessing they're using it to establish themes within the chosen genre.

Now, my boyfriend the horror fan, can be quite neurotic, but that doesn't mean he likes The Butterfly Effect (I do, because of the chaos theory, and because I don't like horror films and this isn't one). He didn't think much of Gremlins either, when I focused on him being misunderstood. The set of "six iconic films" was really cheating, but since he only liked one of them, it didn't do them much good (True Romance).

For me, the site suggested Micky Blue Eyes, Miss Congeniality, Dave and Doc Hollywood. I've only seen two of those (the same two I've heard of), and neither was on my list of "DVDs I want for Christmas" (which included Persepolis, Juno, Happy Go Lucky and the second season of Green Wing). I do like Miss Congeniality - it's one of those happy, witty little films that one can watch over and over (well, this one can). However, if I were going to get one of those on DVD (and I should), I'd be going for Legally Blonde or The Devil Wears Prada.

The site then, with a tweak of options, suggested The Batman Legacy for him and The Prestige for me - both of which were met with a resounding 'meh'. And not the positive kind.

I did manage to find one that he owned by claiming he liked sci-fi and was misunderstood - The Matrix Reloaded. Unfortunately, that film also got a 'meh', since he's now sick of it. To be fair though, the site didn't know how long he'd owned it, or even that he did. Action and neurotic came up with The Batman Legacy again, which he's sure that he wouldn't like (I double-checked).

All in all, not a fantastic start. It might work better if one could input a few films that the recepient already owns and likes, to help narrow it down a little. In fairness, I'm not a member of the site, and it may allow you to do that if you are - at least with your own films. There might even be a user-feedback system. This site could be fun for finding films you wouldn't have considered otherwise, but the choices are far too mainstream for that to really be an option.

Anyway, in conclusion, I'd say that if you're going to use this to actually help choose a present, don't use it for someone you're quite close to without double-checking their choices. On that note, my six-year-old arch enemy (who is hard to please and likes musicals) would, apparently, like a box-set of Elvis films. Funny, I thought she might prefer Igor.