THIS WEBSITE IS CURRENTLY IN RE-CONSTRUCTION
WELCOME TO THE WEB'S LABYRINTH OF FILM | eBOOK | MULTI-MEDIA
THIS WEBSITE IS CURRENTLY IN RE-CONSTRUCTION
The Web's Labyrinth of Film | eBook | Multimedia: an Ongoing Interactive e-Report
(updated:
05-Dec-2011 18:31
)
NEW TO AFFILIATE
VIDEO ON DEMAND
READ REVIEW & WATCH INSTANTLY
(updated: 06-Nov-2011)
READ MORE
READ MORE
READ MORE
READ MORE
1.0 INTRODUCTION
Welcome to the Web's labyrinth of film | e-books | multi-media: this is your portal to a world of home viewing and reading entertainment.
Wider Screenings TM is not designed like contemporary websites. It is a labyrinth for discerning adults, a maze: once you come in, you may not find your way out. Indeed, it is designed specifically to be unlike most contemporary websites.
The navigaton may vary from page to page, with new information, illustrations, articles, features, profiles, reviews, interviews and video content on every page. Some pages may navigate to and from only one page while from others you can navigate the entire site. A HOME option, however, is found on every page. That may make this website difficult for some to navigate - but such are the stormy seas of a genuine e-labyrinth. There are many paths in this labyrinth - the hardest to find hold secrets bound to delight. But beware the e-minotaur!?
Currently, the website is divided into primary sections, themed chapters if you will, accessible from the main menu bar on the home page and section heading pages: these are expanding over time and site development, but at time of updating are:
* Filmviews: mainstream DVD/Blu-Ray/Movie reviews are housed here. Emphasis is given to reviewing those films which can be viewed instantly via Amazon Online Viewing... read the review and watch the movie instantly by affiliate VOD link is the principle underlying this section. Where films cannot be viewed by instant download (by following the appropriate links on the page and menubar WATCH NOW option) Blu-Ray and DVD purchase details are made available through affiliate links (Amazon and Fishpond at time of current update). All reviews are extensive and individual review pages are updated and upgraded regularly with new information and related pages, ebook tie-ins and free PDF supplements. Details on the house review style and featured titles can be found by accessing this section. READ MORE
* E-Books: a sectioned list of all Wider Screenings TM | Transgressor e-book projects, including those by Robert Cettl or designed and published by him for other independent authors. No credit card information or personal details are stored in this section, which provides information and hyperlinks to point of sale. Each ebook description has icons hyperlinked to affiliate points of sale at, but not limited to, Amazon Kindle, Smashwords, XinXii, Sony iBookstore, Barnes & Noble Nook, Kobo, Diesel, Lulu and the Apple iStore. All ebooks have ISBN#s and metadata in their original PDF files. This section is updated with every new release or new point of sale option for immediate purchase and download. Current e-book categories as of this update are: fiction, non-fiction (film, censorship & pornography, travelogue) poetry, erotica, avant-garde & experimental arts, audio book and multi-media. The complete, interactive Wider Screenings TM | Transgressor e-Catalogue can be downloaded from this section: fully interactive it is a pioneering, multi-media e-book in its own right. READ MORE
* MultiMedia: a special section featuring all e-book and DVD-R related multimedia PDF based projects. Most of these are available as downloadable e-books by following the icons to the related affiliate points of sale. The main affiliate for multimedia hosting is Germany's XinXii. Material in multi-media ranges from populist movie reviewing to peer review conference papers with embedded video to interactive poetry chapbooks to in-depth movie analysis of both mainstream and adult content. As most future ebook projects will be multi-media, this is the section in which all information about them is centrally co-ordinated, including publisher advance details. Wider screenings TM | Transgressor fully believes that "enhanced e-books" featuring audio-video embeds will find their true niche in the future of digital publishing and is dedicated to developing a comprehensive range of such enhanced e-book editions in addition to its core digital publishing operations. READ MORE
* Adult XXX: the adult film equivalent to Filmviews, this houses reviews of sexually explicit material (or material which pertains to erotica, human sexuality and/or the adult and sex industry aimed for mature adults but otherwise having mainstream release with adults-only ratings [eg. 'R' or 'NC-17']). Illustrations and embedded video extracts, however, may be of a sexually explicit nature. As the entire website is intended for mature, discerning adults, it is assumed that all visitors to this section have the appropriate foreknowledge of its contents and can choose for themselves whether to continue or not. Wider Screenings TM respects the choice of discerning adults in such cases, deferring to their exercise of reason. Also in this section are details of the adults-only e-book and enhanced e-book editions, including the Pornoteur series debuting in February/March 2012. READ MORE
All of the above sections are accessible through the main menu bar options on each section homepage, though individual pages within a given section may not contain all such links, navigating only within their specific section and to additional, exclusive content within that section. Such individual pages are not accessible from anywhere outside the section: they are uniquely found here. In this way, every section of the website has unique content and an individualized navigation system to explore it. Such is the labyrinth.
Information in this website concerns movies and e-books, with related multi-media and original video-on-demand material. As mentioned, some of this material is sexually explicit where it pertains to adult-oriented product under review. However, the adult content is only a small part of what is an ongoing and expaning labyrinth chronicling the world of the movies and their makers, the latest developments within the digital publishing scene and providing a wealth of exclusive e-book content not limited to the movies. Wider Screenings TM holds that adults are not offended by consensual material on film, in print, e-book, audio-book or multi-media whether sexually explicit or not and that such adults value incisive, scholarly and accurate reviewing, profiling and information.
1.1 THE MOVIE INFORMATION HUB - READ THE REVIEW AND WATCH IMMEDIATELY
Read and Watch. That is the motto. Review priority on this website is given to older releases which are featured on the Amazon Instant Viewing option and can be downloaded online through Amazon for immediate home viewing. Links to such home viewing options are found in the WATCH NOW menubar option and via hyperlinked icon at the conclusion of the featured review. In this way, Wider Screenings TM patrons can read an in-depth review and watch the movie at any time by following the intricate hyperlink system integrated into every review page. Point of sale details are also included in the hyperlink options for those patrons who would prefer to own a copy of the movie as opposed to watching it online.
All films | DVDs | Blu-Rays reviewed on this website are thus available for purchase from third party affiliates - Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk and Fishpond.com at time of current update. Clicking on affiliate links and purchasing material via this site assists Wider Screenings TM in recovering operating costs and is appreciated (as are donations to continue to support free online content). No credit card or other information is viewed or stored by Wider Screenings TM and all financial transactions unless otherwise indicated are with third party affiliates.
In addition to review text and screenshot illustration are specially edited embedded videos. Designed to illustrate the critical commentary and thus included as fair use, these illustrative embeds include trailers, extracts and mini-documentaries about the movie under review. These embeds are chosen to give the reader / browser a concise overview of the movie prior to any download, purchase or follow through action regarding their home theatre apparatus. Where possible also, expanded PDF enhanced ebooks of the film in review, expanding on the review text online and featuring additional embedded video material, are available for immediate sale and download through affiliate e-book retailers. Onsite purchase facilities through PayPal are in progress.
1.2 E-BOOK AUTHOR (C) CENTRALITY
E-book content as integrated into the labyrinth occurs via 1) the READ MORE menubar options, 2) additional hyperlinks to point of sale, and 3) banner advertisement for individual or collected e-works. Where possible, ebook information pertaining to every film reviewed onsite is included, whether originating from Wider Screenings TM or not. This is done as a customer service, to provide the labyrinth patron with as much follow-through reading information as possible to inform the discenring choice. The ebook information is a complement to the WATCH NOW option, designed to provide patrons with a comprehensive array of customer services to enhance their home viewing (and reading) movie-going experience.
All e-books featured on Wider Screenings TM are original, either written by - or designed, layed out and published by - Robert Cettl. Each e-book description (or banner) is linked to the appropriate point of sale through the appropriate affiliate logos. Wider Screenings TM e-books (and those of the business name Transgressor) are currently available through e-retailers worldwide. Library acquisitions should contact Robert Cettl directly for a complete catalogue. All PDF masters have unique ISBN#s and related metadata. All e-books contain original and exclusive material. In addition, the site features reviews of select ebooks and links to their point of sale as appropriate. Requests for ebook reviews can be directed to the webmaster. Likewise, all film revew material is written and designed by Robert Cettl unless otherwise indicated. Original fractal imagery and banner art is (c) Ed Seeman and is used with permission. All other embedded video material is used under the principle of fair use / fair dealing and is for the purposes of critical illustration only.
If you appreciate the review content and want to see / read in its entirity the material reviewed and extracted within the labyrinth, please support the (c) holder and purchase/view/read the items through an affiliate link as provided.
2.0 ORIGINS AND DIRECTIONS
Wider Screenings TM began as the online complement to a film review column in the monthly self-help magazine No Limits, on sale in newsstands throughout Australia in 2008.
After 3 issues, the magazine folded in the global financial crisis and fall of the Australian dollar. However, it came back in electronic form, as an e-zine, just at the time when the e-book revolution was beginning. Indeed, at that time, Kindle had just come out but the lucrative Amazon market was closed to non-US (foreign) authors, self-publishing tied to the possession of a US bank account.
The early columns focues on themes popular with the self-help demographic - relationships, health, self-actualization - though in a genre dominated by faux spiritualism Wider Screenings TM from the outset maintained an atheistic, rationalist, secular humanist stance. To do so successfully, it faced a paradox of sorts: the self-help field was at that time dominated by yet another fad, The Law of Attraction (as popularized in the book The Secret
Author Robert Cettl (pictured left) was at first somewhat daunted by having to superimpose the New-Age silliness (as he saw it) of The Law of Attraction (LOA) onto his blend of populist film reviewing and scholarly analysis. It was a hard ask, but the author responded as he would to an assignment requiring film analysis through a prism on structuralism, post-structuralism or (ideally) post-modernism: the reviewing was a generic hybrid - film criticism from the point of view of the LOA (READ MORE).
Byrne's book, popular though it was, was nonsense philosophically and spiritually - it said little that wasn't a development of Charles F. Haanell's once banned The Master Key System
The column and e-zine were popular enough and developed into a sizeable Twitter following. In addition, author Robert Cettl was invited to press screenings of the latest releases - Paranormal Activity [Blu-ray] (2009) Unrated
However, just when it was up and running, however, the e-zine's editor changed tack and Robert Cettl declined to continue the weekly column, opting instead to concentrate on his prime interest - adult cinema and censorship practices. With No Limits' devoted emphasis on family-friendly aesthetics and the column (and website) interest in adult film, erotica and sexually explicit material, the markets diverged too much to be reconcilable though considerable time was devoted to a plan that would have seen a series of adult oriented self-help based film criticism, concentrating on the healing power of sexuality and the viewing of sexually explicit material. Such was not to be and the website went solo.
Unemployed at the time, author Robert Cettl was awarded an ARTS-SA grant and was accepted as a SAR Research Fellow at Australia's National Film & Sound Archive researching representations of disability in Australian Film. With his newfound responsibilities and practical considerations, Wider Screenings TM floundered, lying dormant and upgraded only sporadically with a new movie review or half-hearted attempt at a re-design and re-conceptualization. Sustained primarily by the author's large Twitter following, the website eventually went into hiatus pending a complete overhaul and upgrade. Shorn now of any responsibility to the self-help ethos, the content could be shorn of that critical prism and restored to what it was originally meant to be - a labyrinthine journey through the world of the motion pictures and their inter-relationship with the emerging field of digital publishing.
With Cettl trained in web design and digital publishing, by late 2011 - just as he took up a teaching position as a TESOL instructor at the Dushanzi Middle School #1 in Xinjiang province in China and thus earning Foreign Expert certification in the People's Republic of China - the opportunity was finally ripe for a complete overhaul and re-launch. This time it would be integrated with the authors interest in digital publishing: of film-related material and, as one of the few truly independent digital publishers in Australia, of the works of talented but lesser known authors looking to experiment with the e-book medium. This time thus, the new re-launched Wider Screenings TM would alse feature this exclusive e-book content as it slowly embraced multi-media capabilities within the PDF format.
As Cettl had made many short films in the three year interim, and one feature digital video (now housed in Australia's National Film & Sound Archive), the new Wider Screenings TM could thus also now incorporate origianl video content, video on demand and (potentially) pay-per-view. The author was optimistic that finally, the time was right for what he had initially conceived some three years earlier. There were two main problems, however: 1) Australia still lagged behind the e-book revolution despite the bankruptcy and closure of ts two largest bookchains - Borders and Angus & Robertson - and, 2) Australia's isolationist and wowserist ISP policies made hosting any adult content on an Australian ISP a hassle, thus requiring the hunt for suitable offshore hosting.
2.1 THE DREAMLIFE TRILOGY
Robert Cettl was first contracted to Inkstone Press to write a movie trivia and quote book. It was decided to release two seperate books, one for the "trivia" and one for the quotes. Disliking the concept of "trivia" though appreciating the functionality of the term as a marketing keyword, the book became an anthology of movie anecdotes.
The anecdotes were selected after a long research process reading the biographies and critical accounts of filmmakers and their films. Website research was augmented by a large personal library of film reference books. Content ranged from behind-the-scenes information about the making of Hollywood classics to insider information on some of Hollywood's biggest stars. Aimed for a more mature audience the resultant book, Film Tales, steered clear of faddish contemporary Hollywood for a look back at previous eras, the films of which were at the time increasingly working their way onto DVD release. Indeed, DVD revolutionized the home theatre market, soon becoming the most successful rollout of new technology eclipsing even the VCR a generation earlier. A well-researched compendium of wry, amusing and informing anecdotes, Film Tales
Film Talk
Together, these three books were to be the basis of the Wider Screenings TM website, comprised of free content to support the books and the magazine column. It was the beginning of a merket push to bring film non-fiction into the self-help and self-development field. However, the publisher, Inkstone Press, was struck by the global financial crisis and the push was transferred from print to e-book. The intention was the same, but despite plans for two subsequent works - Sensational Movie Monologues
The original trilogy for Inkstone Press (and Inkstone Digital) were briefly marketed as an inter-related trilogy under the moniker The Dreamlife Trilogy. The term "Dreamlife" referred to the period of the author's life in which they were written - the happiest time of his life, during which time he fell in love. The books are now all available in e-editions with a collected release pending. Though much has been written in the time since, the books have a special place in their author's heart for the time of their writing, carefree and optimistic, the love of life translated into an evident love of the movies. A dreamlife indeed.
2.1(A) THE SCHOLARLY ROUTE
As the Dreamlife Trilogy was completed and the original Wider Screenings TM website up and running, Cettl completed his second scholarly book for McFarland & Co. Inc in the USA.
Called Terrorism in American Cinema: An Analytical Filmography, 1960-2008
ALL CONTENTS (C) 2011- ROBERT CETTL & ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
LOGO IMAGE © ED SEEMAN, USED WITH PERMISSION
LAST UPDATED:
December 5, 2011 18:31