"notes to Netflix" gets a nod from Northborough Netflix

Awhile back, Miss Plum started putting sticky notes on their Netflix returns, and posting photos of the "notes to Netflix" on Flickr. The notes generated a small bit of controversy, because some thought the folks working at Netflix wouldn't want to be bothered. But in the Netflix distribution center in Northborough, Massachusetts, they feel differently:

Even as Cotto and her colleagues are tearing through hundreds of returned DVDs, they take moments to read the angry notes ("This doesn't play - defective!") or occasional rave reviews ("Very funny movie, check it out!") that customers scribble on the paper sleeves.

"We like that," said Cotto, 40, of Worcester. "Sometimes, we do watch them." The notes are forwarded to customer service headquarters in Hillsboro, Ore.

That's good to know.

The rest of the August 23 article, The vast picture show, in a warehouse near you (the Boston Globe), is a good read, and it has an interesting photo gallery of behind the scenes at Netflix.

Hat tip: HackingNetflix

Reed's blog

Reed Hastings, CEO of Netflix, Inc., has joined the Blogosphere, using none other than Blogger and Blogspot, just like one of us.

His Blogger profile is pretty plain at the moment, but his "My Web page" link goes to, guess where, Netflix.com. Is that cute, or what?

He's allowing you to comment, but no email at the moment.

I feel like I could give him a hug.

Via HackingNetflix

What do three stars mean?

According to Netflix, three stars is neutral. I rate most movies on Netflix at three stars. I think it means the movie was OK, but not great, not bad, and still worth a look. I feel like I give every movie a three, so I decided to graph my ratings to see if I really do. The result is a kind of bell curve, I reckon. The data consists of just the 150 movies I've seen so far this year.

Progress report on the 1001 Movies

It's been three months since I last reported on my quest to see all of the titles in Stephen Jay Schneider's book, 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, the 2002 edition. I started in 2004, having seen about 200 of them, and now I have seen 978.

Netflix sent me 595 of them.

Of the 23 remaining, eight are in my Netflix Queue. I have three from Netflix at home. I bought two on eBay. One I have to rent at the video store. One I have to watch at the UNC Chapel Hill library. The final eight are unavailable on home video, or if available, in a foreign language without English subtitles.

I'm going through the book in chronological order, and I just finished the decade of the Nineties.

If you're working on the same list, please let me know how far along you are. I haven't heard of anyone who has completed the list yet. You can track, share, and compare your progress on the fourth edition (2006) of the book at Lists of bests.

For low-budget filmmakers

Dependent Films is an "Illinois Based Independent Film Company" which has very helpfully posted a bunch of Tools & Utilities for filmmakers on their Website, like script formatting templates, sample contracts, agreements, and forms you need if you're making a movie.