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Film Picker: take the bias out of picking your next flick!

My first authentic coding project, created in October 2022, and put to good use multiple times since.

Problem: how to randomly pick a film to watch next, without personal preference influencing the outcome?

Solution: use Film Picker to choose...

...a source at random

...a film from that source at random

How to use Film Picker

🎬 save list(s) of films as CSV file(s)

🎬 update the CSV references in the JS files (here, named main.chest and main.shelf)

🎬 check that source.picker refers to the relevant named sources (here, 'Chest', 'Shelf' and 'Curzon')

🎬 run source.picker

$ node source.picker.js

🎬 if 'Chest' or 'Shelf' is picked, run the corresponding script. For example:

$ node main.chest.js

Result:

The script will print a randomly generated shortlist, allowing the user to choose from this list.

Observations:

🎬 the script will not produce duplicates in the list

🎬 the number of films on the shortlist can be easily changed within the code

Improvements:

🎬 prompt user to input the names of their sources 🎬 prompt user to state the number of films they want on the shortlist 🎬 allow user chance to tweak the shortlist (e.g., if one of the films had recently been watched)

🎲 this would mean saving the shortlist, choosing films to pop out of it, and replacing them with new randomly generated films from the CSV file

🎬 creating categories to be selected at random for the Curzon option, leading user to pick from a specific category on the Curzon Home Cinema website