I've got a friend in holland and we've been trialling the concept of saturday evening "film night" using zoom and streaming off my laptop using a usb video grabber and a source, (or running teh files off the P.C. youtube, etc.
It seems to work pretty well, until anyone else joins in, then we are reduced to 42 minutes of runtime before we all need to log in again. We've only done three people so far, but we believ we can do many more.
So here's how it works if.anyone wants to join in. I will provide the zoom server details. You log in at ten to eight with your video and microphone muted (please) and teh programme will start at 8P.M sharp, giveing us all 30 minutes of video and sound. when zoom cuts us off, count to ten (how long it takes me to get the service back up) log back in and make a cup of tea. I will be using a ten minute egg timer, to give me time to process all the log ins, and you to take any comfort break you can fit in to ten minutes and then the next 32 minutes will be served. After the first silent and video less login, those of you who want to can open your mikes & video and chat in the interval, but unless you have an actual emergency that requires we stop the film please keep your microphones off. (some of the audio settings we use will serve you better quality sound than zoom normally gives, but it works way better if the audience is muted We can mute you automatically when the programme is running,which would make it easier for the more forgetful amongst us, but then it would be entirely MY film night, not YOUR film night. I think you deserve the right to complain if I'm not doing my job right! Of course, you will all want to "choose the film", and some of you I expect will get to, but the whole point is to entertain you with something you may well have not seen, that hopefully is not too awful or offensive, to be still mostly enjoyable, and which has been selected to appeal to the Autistic temperament as far as is possible.
Because this Saturdays screening should involve more people, than just me and my mate, we will have to do this relogging in thing, but sooner or later one of us will get paid for zoom, and we can then run a longer period between "ad breaks".
Until someone wrestles control from me, or I run out of weird little films, I intend to pick the films, and this weekend we kick off with "Tomorrow I shall be scalding myself with tea".
A nineteen eighties soviet era czechoslovakian time travel film. It offers a quiet chuckle about the blatant soviet propaganda and characterisation of the american pasengers, a bunch of would-be time travelling Nazi's, some 1970's travel film quality footage of beautiful architecture, a (frankly, somewhat twisted love story), and for many people they want to see it again one day to see if they can follow the plot better the second time around, (particularly us potheads!) so it's a good first film to run.
If it goes well, and people seem to have a good time, I'll try and make it a reliable and regular thing, If/when after a while, people get bored of my taste, you can DIY, and I can join your audience. I'll run out of content pretty quickly anyway, I don't have many DVD's.
If we get any "stoners", and you want, we can run stuff like my "morrocan hashish documentary", or "up in smoke" later in the evening...
Anyone who might have a couple of hours to kill on Saturday evening, feel free to join in.
It does not have to be at all interactive, you can keep your mike and video off and join and leave without saying a word. (Indeed I rather hope you will !) Alternatively, you can practice the basics of social intercourse, in the ten minute breaks, (if you've got a cooking timer that does ten minutes, just set it when the breaks happen). and if there's a need I'll run a single session after the film has ended, in the unlikely event people want to "chat". (It could happen!)
I'll be running the film anyway for me and my mate, so all I need to do if there is any interest is publish my zoom details on Saturday morning. It's a real big ask to get me to do this and get the timings right, and the service reliable in any way, but I've been considering it for many months now, and it think a few of you might come to enjoy it...
If the NAS don't object, we could always use a thread on this forum for you guys to interact with about the film you have just watched are watching, so if you really HAVE to complain or comment favourably even, you can do it here rather than talking over the programme. The only "Rule" I'd really want to attach as the "cost" of me providing the service. (I'm on the ADD end of the spectrum, if I let you all blather your way through the film, I'll end up listening and get too distracted to be a good "projectionist" !)
Legal disclaimer: This is not a Public Service I am offering, it is a shared semi-social Austism/Aspergers activity proposed to be undertaken by me for my own personal entertainment and pleasure. (and it is hoped any participants who may attend!) The general public are excluded by the fact that I administrate the private zoom session, and have to authorise the users access every half hour, so I am making "Fair use of the material" as the law provides for me to do, and not engaging in an illegal distribution of content. I counsel my viewers to respect copyright law and not record the session.
If you've had an adverse interaction wth me on this forum, but still fancy watching a film I might be showing, you will be as welcome to attend as anyone else would be.
