The Auteurs is a new online movie service that focuses on delivering “auteur” cinema via high-quality video streaming. From their website:
Four things that were on our minds when we first dreamt the Auteurs: Number one: why can’t you just watch In the Mood for Love in an airport lounge? Number two: why is it so hard to get hold of Antonioni’s complete filmography? Number three: Wouldn’t it be great to instantly send Tati’s Playtime to a friend if you think they need it (there’s nothing like film therapy)? Number Four: why do films on the Internet look just awful? And that was that. We simply couldn’t resist the idea of everyone having their own online film library… your little cinema, anytime, anywhere… after all not everyone can make it to the Cannes Film festival… less if you are a school teacher or you live in Winnipeg (or both)… but that doesn’t mean you can’t recite all of Kubrick’s films in reverse chronological order or that you are not desperate to watch the latest Kitano film that is definitely not going to be released in your local multiplex.
Wired Magazine recently posted a short profile on the service, and Wired being Wired, they delved a little into the technology behind the whole thing:
The site’s tech is as groundbreaking as the content it features. Unlike Apple, which requires iTunes, and Netflix, which relies on a third-party app, Auteurs sends compressed files to your browser’s Flash plug-in for instant streams. What’s more: Engineers work behind the scenes to boost the viewing experience, painstakingly tweaking the compression settings for each film with a tool chain that includes mplayer, x264, ffmpeg, and mp4box. They also add lush 5.1 Dolby surround sound. “Our office is a combination of film geeks and AV nerds,” says Efe Cakarel, the company’s founder. “Even if a film is available elsewhere, it’s not going to be the same because of the expertise we’ve brought to encoding.” For further quality control, a selection judge from the Venice Film Festival curates the library.