Have you ever wanted to download
world cinema movies from the web? Well now you can, as Jaman allows you
to do just that with a dedicated service making the best of independent
world cinema available to rent and buy.
You can even discuss the films with your contacts online using
the social networking community functions built in to Jaman.
Introducing Jaman
Using the latest peer-to-peer
technologies to effortlessly distribute fantastic
looking, high-definition
video across the web, Jaman
offers a significant increase in video quality, and choice of content,
over anything I have seen to date.
As Hollywood persists in rolling out ever more generic,
uninspired
movies there is a growing audience for independent films that have
something to say.
The problem is that in our multiplex cinema culture
there are very limited avenues for distribution and exhibition when it
comes to films that veer from the special effects and superstars
model.
As the Internet evolves into a video-based medium, however,
there are
now rich opportunities for independent film-makers to both distribute
their work, and gain all important exposure through social
media marketing.
Jaman
takes a stab at offering
both, featuring as it does an affordable movie retail outlet for
independent films worldwide, and also an active social
network.
Here
film-makers and world
cinema
enthusiasts rub shoulders, discuss their favorite genres and subjects,
and even have the opportunity to upload and share their own shoestring
productions.
Here are the details:
Jaman – Overview
Jaman
is a niche-targeted retail and community service covering the world of
independent
world cinema.
If you want to easily browse online streaming previews of
indie films
from around the world, and download them to your computer as rentals or
purchases, this may well be a destination worth checking out.
Even if you hold back on any instant purchases – and you are
given
three free rentals to get your feet wet – the other aspect of the
service is its social
networking
dimension.
Here you can chat to like-minded enthusiasts or fellow
film-makers via direct internal mail or on public message boards,
gaining great insights and recommendations along the way.
So whether you are into Bollywood musicals
or
European documentaries, American independent feature films or
shoestring budget shorts, there is plenty to see and discuss in the
thriving community Jaman has already managed to build for itself.
Independent World Cinema To Go
The Jaman
website
is nicely organized in the style of a channel guide, making it easy for
you to get stuck in finding the kind of content that interests
you.
This means that you can search content by where it was created
in the
world, from Asia to Latin
America or by category, such as documentary, comedy and short
films.
Further to these regular retail classifications you can also
make
use of the strong community of enthusiastic movie-lovers to help you
find films that you might like to see.
Community features aside, which
I look at in more detail below, you can browse movies by various
categories such as:
- Most downloaded
- Top rated
- Most discussed
And several others. Furthermore, the Jaman editors hand-pick
movies
to feature on the website, so there is no shortage of ways to find
something worth watching.
Add to this user-generated reviews, star
ratings and group discussions and you have a host of alternative ways
to really sniff out those future classics.
Price-wise a lot of the movies I personally looked at were
very
reasonable, at around $4.99 to purchase and quite a bit less (right
down to being free) for a seven day rental.
This is very refreshing
when compared to other similar services and the hiked-up prices of
world and independent films on DVD.
The one problem I encountered,
being in Europe, is
that a great many of the films I was interested in gave me the
following frustrating message in place of a price:
Unfortunately, due to international licensing issues, a good
many of
the films are only available for US viewers to purchase.
This obviously
isn’t the fault of Jaman, who have to play by the rules that the
production companies set, but it would be nice to have the option to
‘turn off’ films that I can’t purchase or hire rather than clicking
through each time to find myself disappointed.
Even if it were possible
to search by ‘films available in your region’ or some other basic
localization, this would be very welcome.
Jaman Player
While it’s possible to watch movie trailers,
short
films and user-uploads from the Flash streaming players featured on the
Jaman website, sooner or later you are going to want to download the
Jaman player to your desktop.
This allows you to add your own films, for full-screen
playback or
uploading to Jaman, in addition to managing the content you choose to
download for rental or purchase.
The player contains a simple browser
for navigating the Jaman website without having to open it in a
different window, along with your library of videos, download status
and amazing looking high-definition playback of your purchases.
The difference in quality between
these downloads and the streaming content you will find on Joost
or Babelgum
is instantly evident.
Which makes it doubly frustrating that if I want
to watch this great quality video on my TV I will need to hook up my
computer to it, or else go out and buy an Apple TV device to stream the
content.
This is thanks to DRM,
the only major complaint I have against an otherwise great service. To
protect the intellectual property of film-makers, Jaman uses a
proprietary brand of DRM to protect all of its movies.
This makes it
possible to ‘rent’ a movie and have it auto-destruct after seven days,
and keeps users from copying and distributing the video over
peer-to-peer networks.
Limitations
Unfortunately it also makes it
impossible to watch
the movie on anything other than the Jaman player. Want to make a DVD?
Tough luck. Want to watch the video on your iPod? Not today.
This is a
shame, especially bearing in mind that there are alternatives now in
place for the protection of content, such as digital watermarking, that
are less restrictive of end-user freedoms.
Gripes aside, downloads run at a pretty reasonable speed –
obviously
depending on your bandwidth – thanks to the use of peer-to-peer
technologies that mean that users simultaneously upload and download
video, in addition to the work done by the Jaman servers.
This is an
increasingly popular distribution method that puts every node in a
network to use, and can be seen as far and wide as Skype,
Bit Torrent
and Joost.
System Requirements
System Requirements – Mac
Minimum
Requirements:
- 1.8 GHz PowerMac G5
- 1.83 GHz Intel Core Duo
- 256MB of RAM
- 64MB of Video Card RAM
- QuickTime 7
Recommended:
- 1.8 GHz PowerMac G5 or faster Mac computer
- 2.0 GHz Intel Core Duo or faster
- 512MB of RAM or greater
- 64MB of Video
Card RAM or greater - QuickTime 7
System Requirements – Windows
Minimum Requirements:
- 2.2 GHz Pentium 4
- 1.83 GHz Intel Core Duo or equivalent
- 512MB of RAM
- 64MB of Video Card RAM
- QuickTime 7
Recommended:
- 2.8 GHz
Pentium 4 or faster processor - 1024MB of RAM or greater
- 64MB of Video Card RAM or greater
- QuickTime 7.1 or higher
- Windows Media Player 9
- DirectX 9.0c
Web 2.0 – Social Networking
Jaman
is more than just a movie
download service, though, and one of its key features is the strong
social networking functionality built into the website.
Upon joining the service, you can
create a profile
for yourself, either as an enthusiast or film-maker, and list your
favorite genres, films, film-makers, actors and actresses and so on, as
well as providing contact details or a link to your website or
blog.
From here you can privately message other users, create
reviews, make
lists, add movies to your favorites and add contacts to your buddy
list, just as with any standard SNS.
Where the action really goes on in Jaman though is the
groups:
Groups, of which there are a good many, are a great way of
uploading
videos and discussing them with other users.
With a combination of
streaming flash video and simple discussion threads keyed-in on a
particular niche interest or genre, it is easy to find at least one
group likely to be of interest.
This is a great way of finding new content
and
forging connections with like-minded people while you’re about it, and
lifts Jaman up from being a retail destination to being a genuinely
engaging community. iTunes has a lot to learn from Jaman in this
respect.
To encourage you to bring your own contacts on-board, Jaman
offers you
two free one-week movie rentals for every friend you sign up.
In
addition to the three free rentals you receive upon signing up, this is
a good incentive to get users to commit to giving Jaman a try, and
possibly spreading the word, creating viral traffic for the service.
Jaman For Indie Film-Makers
Jaman
isn’t a user-generated
content destination in the same style as
YouTube,
but it does offer the opportunity for aspiring or established
independent film-makers to give exposure to their work, and even make
money from the download system.
From what I could establish Jaman
has two avenues for film-makers to use. On the one hand professional
film companies can
submit
their details using an online form.
On the other,
users
can upload their own productions
to the service using the Jaman player, which allows you to import your
own videos. They then have a choice between distributing their film for
free, using on-site Flash video streaming, or offering it for sale or
rental in high definition format.
The key distinction between the two, as it seems to me, is
that the
first form is for feature-length movies, while the Jaman-player upload
option is for productions of an hour or less.
I was unable to track
down how much of a cut Jaman takes from the sale and rental price of
any videos sold.
Furthermore, to increase that all
important
exposure for film-makers, it is possible to sign up for a film-maker
profile when you join the service, listing your role, awards,
representation and experience for all to see.
In this respect, the
social networking aspect of Jaman could prove useful as both an
exercise in exposure, but also in networking with other independent
film-makers from around the world.
Co-productions could feasibly start
this way, which would make for some interesting globally-teamed movies.
Conclusions
Jaman
is a cost-effective way to
rent or purchase the kind of independent world cinema that you won’t be
seeing on iTunes any time soon.
By providing high definition quality
video and making use of peer-to-peer file distribution technology it is
possible to watch your movie downloads in full screen, and the quality
of these videos is the most impressive I have seen to date.
If you find yourself tired of
Spiderman sequels and
endless additions to the Die Hard franchise, Jaman has a great choice
of independent films that span the globe and offer something a little
different from the norm.
Given that world cinema DVDs are invariably
hugely overpriced, the cheap purchase and rental prices from Jaman will
come as a relief to both consumers and independent producers looking
for a distribution channel that works for them.
Personally I could have done without the proprietary DRM used
on the video downloads, which effectively means that I
am locked into using the Jaman player.
Our GNU/Linux
friends are going to find themselves out of luck if they want to make
use of the service.
Even Windows and Mac owners are going to have
to hook up their notebook to the TV or buy themselves an Apple TV if
they want to watch their movie purchases on something other than a
monitor.
This is a shame, really, as there are a growing number of
alternatives to DRM available and this approach is the biggest
deviation in the Jaman set up from its pretensions towards a Web 2.0
status.
The Wisdom Of Crowds
DRM aside, however, Jaman does
take advantage of another Web 2.0 paradigm – the
wisdom of crowds.
With a social network at its core, a solid reviews system like
that of
Amazon.com, and the opportunity for film-makers and movie-lovers to
interact, Jaman taps into the opinions and knowledge of its
users.
This
makes separating the hidden gems from the the less impressive fare much
easier, while providing a great platform for world cinema fans to
interact around their favorite subject.
In short Jaman is a much needed
niche-destination
for those that wish to explore the other side of movies and escape the
Hollywood mainstream.
It is also yet one more golden opportunity for
professional independent film-makers to distribute their work using the
latest peer-to-peer technologies.
Additional Resources
If you would like to learn more about Jaman, you might want to
check out the following links:
- The Jaman
website - How
Jaman Works - Intro
for film-makers looking to use Jaman for distribution - Extensive
Jaman FAQ - Jaman News,
including previous coverage
Michael Pick is a contributing author discussing broadband video tools and software. His work can be found on MasterNewMedia. Post has Some Rights Reserved.
