Monday 4 November 2019

Stand up for Netflix: Roll the variable-speed playback out!

Introduction and summary

According to "Netflix angers film-makers with 'insulting' speed-up function", film-makers are angered because they think that a new feature on Netflix, which allows users to watch movies and TV series at various speeds, are destroying their works even though it is still in the testing period. Netflix argues that such a feature has been long available already in DVD player or YouTube and has been frequently requested from members. Although they may be planning to launch this function, they have been concerned about creators and says that it depends on the feedback they receive. 

Twitter post by @BradBirdA113: Whelp— another spectacularly bad idea, and another cut to the already bleeding-out cinema experience. Why support & finance filmmakers visions on one hand and then work to destroy the presentation of those films on the other???

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Response: What is your opinion?

As a Netflix member, I have been waiting for this feature for age. Some of the efficiency experts even advise us to watch videos at a faster speed to make the most of our time wisely. For me, I found that the function that can adjust the speed is quite useful because it makes my life more efficient. I have a habit of watching videos and films at a faster speed. I started doing this two years ago and discovered that acceleration makes viewing more pleasurable. The faster pace makes it easier to enjoy the flow of the plot and the scene. 

As I consume all the videos on my computer or my phone, I’ve developed other habits too. Sometimes I speed-up. Sometimes I slow down. I don’t watch them at normal speed anymore. I accepted that these viewing techniques have done something strange to me, but that is because I was trying to understand the structure of the story and pay attention to where I needed.

One of the most common thoughts which go against this function is that it ruins the cinematic experience. They said that this kind of feature is destroying filmmakers' works. However, I think that technology nowadays allows us to appreciate the contents in new ways while using our time manipulatively. Although not everybody may do the “speed-watching” as I do, they have the right to watch all content in their own ways.


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Question for your classmates

What do you think about Netflix adding adjustable playback speed? Do you think it wastes the contents or not? 



2 comments:

  1. After her useful, and pleasantly short, summary, I enjoyed reading Byte's response, in which she largely disagrees with the popular opinion she accurately reports in her summary of the article.

    At first, I was inclined to agree that the change was a bad thing, but as I read Byte's response, in which she explains here reasons for liking the option of changing the playback speed, I was changing my mind a bit. I still think I would prefer to listen to pieces of art the way their creators designed them, but it does make sense that you might want to speed up other things.

    In the TED talks that I like (see links on the righthand side of the blog), the option of changing the playback speed has been available for a long time, and although I prefer to listen at the normal speed, I sometimes suggest that students might like to slow them down a little, but not so much that they sounds weird.

    I might give a slightly speeded up NetFlix program a test run. If it's only 10%, that might be OK, at least for some things.

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    Replies
    1. But I'm not sure that I would want to speed up Mission Impossible - Ghost Protocol, one of the specific films mentioned in Byte's source. (Yes, I read your source before I check your blog summary and response.) The action and speech there is already pretty fast.

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