For the past few months, I’ve been hard at work on PERA (Personalized Entertainment Research Assistant). It will be integrated with the RunPee app, but will also be a standalone website.
Motivation
I rarely go to the movie theater for fun. It’s pretty much work for me. By the time a movie is streaming, I’ve forgotten about it. I have wanted an app/service that I could easily make a list of movies, and it would alert me when that movie is available to stream. Over the years, I have checked out sites like Letterboxed and a few others. They’re okay, but they don’t hit a home run for me.
Join the PERA (Personal Entertainment Research Assistant) waitlist.
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The other pain point I experience, and tell me we don’t all experience this, is watching a streaming series and then forgetting about it by the time the next season is released. I know that the streaming services do a fair job of putting things like this in front of us–if you keep a subscription. If you watched season one of something, then when season two comes out, the service is usually smart enough to place the new season on your homescreen. The trouble is, it may be months before we fit it into our viewing schedule, by which time, it’s forgotten again.
Again, there are ways around this, but nothing grabs me. And I don’t want to do it because, OMG, there’s a lot of content to keep up with.
I thought about building a solution for this myself, but didn’t want to add another project that requires constant data input like RunPee does.
But wait, now there’s AI
All of the heavy data filtering and analysis that is needed to support something like this can be mostly automated with AI. That was the biggest barrier for me. The other is the actual code to build this project, and… Well, let me say that software development, at least for me, has changed more in the past six months than it did in the previous forty years. (Thank you, Claude Code!)
The Plan
First and foremost, Pera will be an app for making entertainment lists. Whatever type of list you want to make, it will handle:
- Movies and TV shows I want to watch, and no one else in my family does.
- Movies and TV shows I want to watch with the kids.
- Movies and TV shows to watch with my partner after the kids go to bed.
- My favorite movies from the 1990s.
- My favorite action movies, etc.
But wait, there’s more. You’ll be able to filter and join anything at any time.
What people are saying
about the RunPee app.
January 4, 2019
RunPee is one of my favourite apps. No more googling a film before you see it and risking spoilers, this app has everything you need to know, not just the best time to go to the toilet. Dan, the developer, also offers an amazing customer service experience. I recently switched phones, and Dan was very generous in sorting things out with me as I moved over to my current system. If you’re an avid film watcher, this is the app for you!
View all reviews
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- Query: Hey Pera, search all my lists and tell me of the movies/shows I haven’t watched, which is the highest rated.
- From this output, you’ll be able to add selected results to new or existing lists.
- Query: Hey Pera, show me all the movies in my lists that have Nicolas Cage.
The Perfect Streaming Service Manager
Here’s a great feature. Pera will know everything on your lists and what you have watched and haven’t–assuming you keep it up to date. Therefore, Pera would be able to proactively tell you: You know what, that streaming show on AppleTV that you want to watch will take about 2 1/2 weeks for you to finish. There are also four movies in your lists that are on AppleTV. If you wish to subscribe for a month, you should be able to watch everything you want in just about three weeks, and by that time, there’s another movie coming out on AppleTV that I think you might enjoy.
Of course, Pera will have instructions to help you unsubscribe from streaming services as well.
Go Crazy
You get the idea. You can ask anything about the movies in your lists. But perhaps more importantly, asking crazy questions to find movies to add to your lists will be possible.
- Yo Pera! Use the RottenTomatoes Popcorn rating to create a top-10 list of movies that take place during the Roman Empire.
- Hi Pera, good evening. You know what? I’m in the mood to watch a movie that will make me feel nostalgic about fishing. Can you suggest five movies for me to choose from?
But wait, there’s more.
Having lists is great, but we don’t always get to choose what we watch if we have a partner or kids. So, of course, you’ll be able to share lists. Some will be editable by everyone, others might be view-only. Everyone in the family can use the app to share lists. And now, when it’s time to watch something, you can use the “Random Choice” feature to pick a show to watch from your shared list(s) that will take into account the history of which shows were picked in the past. This way, the whole family participates in the selection process.
Watch Schedule
There will be a calendar that you can use to schedule what you want to watch and when. If you’re watching a series, it will take into account how many episodes there are and which nights you typically watch something so that you can see roughly when you’ll finish. This would be super helpful if you want to watch/rewatch a season of something before the next season is released. Pera will be able to suggest: The next season of Blue Eyed Samurai airs on October 4th. If you want to rewatch the first season, you should start around September 27th. Or if there’s a show that doesn’t drop all at once, Pera will be able to suggest when you should start watching it so that you are caught up around the time the last episode(s) drop.
What would your perfect movie companion be able to do?
These are just a handful of ideas that I have. What I would like to know is: what do you need from a movie companion app?
Oh, and fortunately, LetterBoxed lets you export data, so of course I’ll let you import everything you’ve already added to that service.
Join the PERA (Personal Entertainment Research Assistant) waitlist.
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