Ask HN: "Tattlr": The End of the Annoying Moviegoer?
On to my idea: What if there was a way to alert theater staff of disturbances without leaving your seat and missing the movie? You can’t make a phone call to the theater because that would further add to the disturbance of your neighbors. (It also may result in some retaliatory action by the culprits.) You can’t send a text message because I don’t know of any theater that has a number you can text that will instantly connect to their staff. In addition, trying to type out a text message in the middle of your movie takes time and the unending glow from your phone may disturb your neighbors. You’ll also miss the movie in the process. Whatever the solution is, it would have to be a simple i.e. 3-step process that lets staff know something is amiss in your auditorium.
This is what I came up with: a geolocation check-in app, similar to Foursquare, that automagically pulls down the information of the movie theater you’re attending, along with the seating chart for the actual auditorium you’ll be sitting in. Your only input would be entering the row # and seat # upon entering the auditorium. (This works even better for Arclight or AMC where you can choose your seats in advance upon payment.) Here’s how I envision it working:
Let’s say the people behind you are getting rowdy:
Step 1: Press the app icon on your smartphone to open the app.
Step 2: Select your issue from a short list of possible issues. Stuff like “Sound is off”, “Projector malfunction”, “Idiots on cell phone”.
Step 3 (Optional): A seating chart pops up in which you can select the actual seats where the disturbance is coming from, relative to your current position.
That’s it. The movie theater would receive this info on their end, possibly a complementary web app that they have running in the background at the concierge desk, and dispatch a staff member to check it out. This works for 5 key reasons:
1- You don’t miss any of the movie.
2- You’re not disturbing your neighbors with a phone call to the theater, or long text message with the glowing light from your phone, or getting up in the middle of the movie.
3- You wouldn’t have to waste time describing your current location, its already stored in the app thanks to your phone’s GPS and your seat input.
4- It’s not a social app so you wouldn’t have to worry about random people knowing your EXACT location. Only the theater would have access to your location.
5- You don’t risk getting confronted, shot or stabbed in retaliation. These inconsiderate degenerates will have no idea who was responsible for alerting staff.
I’ve affectionately titled this app: Tattlr (pronounced tatt-ler). I’ve conducted a fairly exhaustive search and haven’t been able to find anything like Tattlr. I’d love to get your input on this. Let me know if something like Tattlr exists already or, better yet, what the inherent drawbacks are. I can’t think of too many. Check that: I can’t think of any.
Feel free to reach out to me in the comment section of my blog (http://thegeoffreyhull.com) if you’re interested on working on Tattlr with me. Obviously we’ll need an app developer, but a biz dev person can be useful also. I’ll be busy with DinnerPlayer (http://dinnerplayer.com) so I have no problem playing a mere cursory role in Tattlr’s development. Hit me. -G
29 comments
[ 8.1 ms ] story [ 158 ms ] threadLook at it this way: If I pull out my phone to use Tattlr to report a person chatting it up on his phone behind me during a movie, I'm simply piggybacking on the existing disturbance as opposed to creating my own disturbance. Who's going to notice me using Tattlr when the guy behind me is being a far greater nuisance? Everyone's attention will be on the jackass talking on the phone, not the jackass tapping the screen on his smartphone.
OR
If a shouting match breaks out in the back of the auditorium. Will people be more worried about getting nachos and soda thrown on them or the guy 2 rows up illuminating the place with his smartphone?
I, like you, can maybe think of one other bad experience I've had at the movies before this weekend. Tattlr certainly wouldn't be an everyday kind of app. Heck, one may only use it once or twice a year. However, I think there's value in the peace of mind of being in a large dark room knowing a theater attendant is only a couple screen taps away.
There can be no abuse of the system because the theater will have access to the exact seat positioning of the complainer. Remember, people must check-in in order to use the app.
>>>Instead of relying on users downloading the app, and annoying their seatmates...<<< I'm not sure it'd be that big of an annoyance for seatmates. As I said in a previous comment, users wouldn't be creating an additional disturbance by pulling out their smartphone and using Tattlr, they'd simply be piggybacking on an existing disturbance that created the need for Tattlr in the first place.
Example: Guy talking on the phone in the auditorium. Everyone is distracted by him. You covertly pull out your phone, and with a few screen presses you alert theater staff. Your seatmates will be too annoyed with the guy talking on his phone to be concerned with your antics.
Example 2: The sound in the theater goes haywire or projector goes dim for no apparent reason. You whip out your phone to alert staff with just a few button presses while everyone in the theater grumbles about the horrible sound and/or picture.
In short, you're not the origin of a new annoyance, you're simply piggybacking on the existing annoyance.
Also, most of the theaters I've been block cell signals. Seems like a much simpler solution to me.
I've never heard of theaters blocking cell signals.
But the theatre can provide limited WiFi to enable you to pin point your location even without being able to receive GPS.
1) Charge each user a nominal fee for download. OR 2) Charge movie theaters for their participation. Imagine the profitable data we'll be supplying them with on every person that checks-in to their movie theater using Tattlr. They can incorporate their own special promotions based on the ongoing user data they obtain each time a user checks in.
This what I've come up with thus far. I could be totally off-base with these assumptions.
It improves the service and gives them Jmp feedback.
Go talk to some movie theaters.
Also don't over engineer it. A simple wa to say that the sound isn't working for a particular movie at a particular movie theater should be a good start.
-vivek
What type of pricing model can we offer movie theater companies? Monthly fee? One-time lump sum for each theater? I'm not sure how that would work.
Focus on figuring out if there is a pain.
I remember reading that some company had built this on springwise or sprouter weekly. But it was a hardware device which had to be installed in the theater so you could beat them by price.
Bottom line: Write up a proposal (4 slides of how this will be used) and then hammer linkedin to get an interview with someone who is slightly executive at a movie theater. Do like 10 interviews. You'll know by then if there is a pain.
Also research that company I mentioned above.
It seems like selling the backend tech / service to the movie theaters is the way to, but can you create enough of a value proposition to charge them enough money (assuming a re-occuring basis) each month to stay in business?
Also, I'm not entirely familiar with how movie theaters operate, but it seems like a vast majority are controlled by a relatively low number of chains. If the individual theaters are run on a franchise model, it may be easier to penetrate. But if they're all corporate controlled, selling seems would be a much larger challenge.
[1] I've also never had too bad of an experience at the movies. Aside from some guy who was eating popcorn obnoxiously during "The Dark Knight", I can't think of anytime I've really been annoyed with someone at the theater.
Maybe if the user loaded the app and registered before the movie started, they could keep it in their pocket, unlock the phone, tap an area of the screen, and receive a vibration pattern as feedback that the theatre has been notified? It would leave the usher to determine the problem, but could reduce the "glow" annoyance. Just a thought. Best of luck.
As far as Tattlr's complexity is concerned, I'm not sure it gets much simpler than 3 quick button presses on one's smartphone to alert theater staff of an issue.