I have gotten pushback on the second Peetime in this movie, where Odysseus and his soldiers are attacked by the giants/Laestrygonians. I think this stems from a fundamental misunderstanding of how we choose Peetimes.
Peetimes are not just boring scenes. Of course, if there is a 3 1/2 minute boring scene in a movie, then we absolutely use that as a Peetime. But how many movies, especially in a movie like The Odyssey, have boring scenes at all, and certainly not for 3 1/2 consecutive minutes. Given that most movies don’t have long boring scenes, we’re left to work with what we have.
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The definition of a Peetime
Scenes that can be concisely described that have the least amount of narrative flow and emotional impact on the story.
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Brilliant idea with great information
I’ve been using RunPee for a few years now and it’s basically a requirement of going to the movies for me. The best part of course are the “pee times” that give you cues, synopses and times for when you can pee without missing the most important parts of the movie. There is also information about the credits- length, extras and if there are any extra scenes at the wayyy end. Super helpful to just know that it is or isn’t worth staying. There is a timer function that will buzz your phone when it’s a good time to pee. I also appreciate that the app is very conscientious about it being an app you use in a theater- dark background, all silent alarms etc. I will always enjoy the experience of the theater even if I could watch things at home- but I’ve even used it at home to check for things like after credit scenes or other information too.
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- Concisely described: if there’s a scene that requires a long synopsis in order to keep the user in the narrative flow of the story, then this Peetime doesn’t work. It’s not uncommon that I have a Peetime picked out and start adding it to the database, only to discover 100 words into the synopsis that maybe I was wrong. It doesn’t help if the synopsis is too long to read during your walk back to the theater.
- Least amount: Let’s face it, some movies don’t have any good Peetimes at all. In that event, I have to choose from the best of the worst. It’s a good problem for you, because it usually means it’s a good movie. But it’s a bad problem for me. It’s no fun trying to guess what people will disagree with the least.
- Emotional impact: This isn’t the emotional impact on the characters, but on you, the viewer. Obviously, a Peetime that puts characters in emotional scenes is almost universally a bad Peetime. But I also think about the emotional impact on the viewer. For instance, a character may have an emotional scene, but if it’s a minor character that doesn’t matter to the plot, then maybe it’s not such a bad Peetime. Conversely, a scene where the characters aren’t overly emotional, but the viewer is, might be a horrible Peetime. I learned this lesson way back for the second Transformers movie. There was a scene that could have been a great Peetime, but it had a sweaty and sexy Megan Fox. I think I understand my audience well enough to know that they don’t want to miss that scene.
That last bit is what makes finding Peetimes such a hard job: what is the viewer most interested in seeing?
That depends, because we don’t go to see movies for the same reason. For instance, the genre list for The Odyssey is: adventure, action, fantasy. I don’t know who chose those as the genres because I definitely wouldn’t label The Odyssey as an “action” movie. There is action in the movie, but that’s not what the movie is about. But that doesn’t mean that some people didn’t expect an action film and that those action scenes are what they most want to see.
In my estimation, the scene with the giants/Laestrygonians is ideal. It starts with a slow-developing scene as Odysseus and his men spot a Laestrygonian child, then shortly after that they are running for their lives. What follows is a chaotic retreat. The only thing that matters in this scene is how Odysseus reacts to the death of so many of his men. And that happens after the Peetime ends, as Odysseus sails away and watches the men in the other two boats die.
In my book, that Peetime is about as good as it’s going to get in a movie like this.
The important question is: if not this Peetime, then which? There is an hour-and-15-minute gap between the first and third Peetimes that needs to be filled. This isn’t something that a user can realistically answer because they’re not looking at a timer and taking notes. But it is something to consider that a Peetime may not be ideal, but still the best option.
Constructive Feedback
If you’ve noticed, I’ve made it as simple as I can for users to provide feedback in the app. On the Synopsis screen there is a button that users can use to go to a form and provide feedback on a specific Peetime. And they used it for this second Peetime 15 times to express their displeasure with this Peetime. Compared to other movies, that’s a lot.
I read and respond to all support emails–if the user supplies an email address to respond to. Most of the feedback leads to improvements in the data. For instance, sometimes we get details wrong, such as attributing a line of dialogue to the wrong person. And sometimes, such as this Peetime, it’s just a simple this is a terrible peetime. Which, is feedback, but not constructive at all. Feedback like that mostly annoys me because it’s someone complaining about something subjective with objective language. If you say this Peetime is terrible, then you’re just flat wrong. I would accept, I think this Peetime is terrible. But in today’s world, some people think that if they think something is good or bad then everyone thinks that, or at least should think that.
Just because it’s a terrible Peetime for you, doesn’t mean that it isn’t a great Peetime for someone else. To date, 9,629 people have viewed the synopsis for the 2nd Peetime. 15 people have sent negative feedback. That’s 0.15% of the viewers. If we assume that only one person in a hundred bothers to send feedback, then 1500 out of 9,629 is still only 15.6% of users who disagree with the Peetime. That’s more than I would like, but still acceptable.
Conclusion
The negative feedback from this Peetime will result in some changes. First, I removed the Recommended Peetime for this Peetime because 85% isn’t a home run. Second, of those 15 who expressed displeasure with this Peetime, 12 of them used objective language and, unsurprisingly, they were all anonymous. The three non-anonymous users who expressed displeasure did so in a cordial manner. Therefore, I’m going to disable anonymous feedback in the RunPee app. Users who are signed in can easily use the built-in form, and users who are not signed in can email me directly at [email protected]. It’s sad, but people can’t be trusted with anonymity.
Perhaps I will lose some users over this, but I don’t sweat it. The RunPee app is completely free to use and donation-supported. Only 3.8% of users ever donate a cent, and I’m assuming they have registered accounts. It really doesn’t bother me if I lose a few users who never supported the app.
Creator and developer of the RunPee app. When something doesn’t work right in the app it’s pretty much his fault. 🙂
Aspiring author. Would like to finish his “Zombie Revelations” trilogy if he could break away for working on RunPee and the cottage he’s building for RunPee Mom.