Oscar Selfie

If you were anywhere near a computer late Sunday night, or indeed for the rest of the week, there’s a selfie going around which, once posted, quickly became the most retweeted picture ever. Technology is becoming an ever more important part of how we watch and enjoy films, it is ever more integrated with our everyday lives. This new silicon revolution is ostensibly of great benefit to us, and for film fans it has opened up a whole new way of watching and enjoying films. It is now far easier to discover new films, share the new found love and discuss, argue and find cinematic enlightenment online.

The world of film moves extraordinarily quickly, and it has become customary for each new trailer or casting announcement to be met with an instant reaction on the social networks. Twitter comes into its own here as 140=character witticisms dripping with snark or hyperbole are fired across the twittersphere at the rate of millions a minute. Knowing who to follow and who to block is all important; it’s not all about marketing and events which happen across the world are local no more.

We would never advocate any phone use in a cinema but the conversations which flow after a premiere, a particularly important screening or a piece of news which has an impact of the film world is best followed on Twitter. You can follow your favourite directors, writers and actors, champion film news, add your own colour to the rainbow of opinion which litter the Twitterspher e daily – it has totally transformed how we enjoy our entertainment.

You can extend the followstalk aspect of this new tech to Pinterest, Instagram and a whole host of other services but this is merely window dressing for the truly important advances which have been made. The Instant Watching Services we look at each week in our viewer’s guide simply didn’t exist a decade ago and only truly became part of our film lives in the last few years. That we can stream the latest big movies instantly and have access to countless classics is the stuff of dreams to any film fan who grew up with the humble video store. This technology allows us to hear about a film, find it, and then watch it within a matter of minutes – that’s an incredible thing.

As these services grow, and we become ever more accustomed to accessing our films this way we should see a massive decline in rental service (if they even still exist) and a vast reduction in physical media on sale. Though we will always champion the cinema as the place to see a film for the first time these streaming services have had a great impact on the choice we enjoy and the ability to discover new films. The monthly subscription model ensures that any slight piquing of interest can be satisfied with a single click – we’ve never had so much choice, so easily available. Then of course you can shout about your new favorite film online and inspire others to check it out – the tech circle is complete.

The latest streaming service to pop up on our radar is PictureBox Films, a monthly subscription service that differentiates itself from competitors by offering subscribers a ‘hand-picked’ selection of films. Instead of featuring an overwhelming number of titles, often resulting in hours of dithering,  its ‘panel of film lovers’ shortlist a selection of films each month. UK film critics James King and Karen Krizanovich work with PictureBox to provide unique content for their ‘PictureBlog’ and the website itself features a dedicated page for every film on the service, designed to help users find out more about the films on offer before they make a selection. You can keep up with all the Picturebox news on Facebook or Twitter.

Other features include ‘bonus content’ such as behind-the-scenes footage, deleted scenes and film clips that are exclusively available to PictureBox online subscribers. They have 60 films on offer at any given time, ranging from Bridesmaids to Frost/Nixon and there is an offer on at the moment where if you sign up, you get your first month free – to  borrow from PictureBox’s own tagline, you may just #ImproveYourFilmLife.

Picturebox