Big Screen Biz is one of those great sites, which many people may not necessarily know about, but should. While there are a large number of sites which just provide the same information to another site, this one has a number of unique features and options which makes it stand out.
One of the first things to highlight is the ‘Release Chart’. While many sites may have a release site, bigscreenbiz has gone one further and provides extra information which would be useful to the projectionist (Release Date, Film, Running Time, Rating, Format, Sound, Distributor, Amount of Prints, Exhibitor Relations and Materials) – the format is particularly useful as it says what the aspect ratio is for the print. The only downside is that is US specific so there maybe films which are not listed, but it a good starting point.
The second very unique thing to bigscreenbiz is the ‘On eBay’ section. As the wording says, they do the searching on eBay so that you don’t have to. The page returns all the items on eBay which are cinema related from projectors to cinema signage and everything in between. Again the only draw back is that this based on the US eBay.
There is a great free ads section where people can post there own items.
The navigation of the site is straightforward and obvious. The design of the front page is a bit jumbled, but that is only a minor issue. This is a great site, which feels quiet friendly and whose aim is to be a community for cinema people across the world.
If you would like Screentrade to review a particular website, please contact me directly on: webmaster@madcornishprojectionist.co.uk.
Download Times:
| Connection Rate | Download Time |
|---|---|
| 14.4K | 212.81 seconds |
| 28.8K | 106.41 seconds |
| 33.6K | 91.21 seconds |
| 56K | 54.72 seconds |
| ISDN 128K | 16.76 seconds |
| T1 1.44Mbps | 1.45 seconds |
Navigation: *****
Good Design: ****
Updates: ***
Content ***
Download Speed: ***
Overall: **
Overall: This site has real potential, but the slow download time combined with simple content, such as links to the main film websites let the site down – I would rather use IMDB.
Testing Information: This site is tested using a laptop at 1024 x 768 resolution running Windows XP, Firefox Version 20.0.1 and Internet Explorer 7 over a 8Mb Broadband connection. For the text only test Lynx on a Linux Server is used. A website entitled WebSiteOptimization.com is used to test the web site to calculate the download speeds.