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Four Panels: Help/FAQ

What is Four Panels?

Four Panels is a movie review/online comic site, created by John Sears and Jenny Rowland. It is available free for viewing on this wonderful new confabulation known as the Inter Net. More information can be found here.

How does the categorization of Four Panels reviews work?

You might have noticed that reviews are divided into three sections: In Theaters, Second Run, and On DVD. It's pretty simple what ends up where.

If a movie has recently been released (or re-released) in theaters, our review of it will start out in the In Theaters section. It will stay here until it is moved to another category according to the guidelines below.

After a movie has had its run in your AMCs and your United Artistses and your Regals and whatnot, chances are there is still a theater nearby where you can catch it, along with a selection of other movies that were in the main-run theaters a few weeks ago. This is what a second run theater is. Now, there is no set amount of time that a movie has to spend as first-run before it goes to second; some run for a month or more, while others barely manage a week before being relegated to the land of dollar tickets. We use Cinemark as our indicator of when a movie has crossed over from first to second run. As a second run chain with locations in over 30 states and several countries, Cinemark is a pretty good tool for review categorization.

Once a movie has come out on the home video market, we move its review to our final category, On DVD. A movie listed as On DVD may very well still be in some second-run theaters, just as a movie listed as Second Run may still be in some first-run theaters. However, if Amazon.com says a movie's out on disc, we update the category accordingly.

If, at the time we first review a movie, it already qualifies for the Second Run or On DVD category, then it will be placed accordingly on the Four Panels site.

How are movies rated on Four Panels?

We don't have a precise rubric to use when deciding how to rate a movie. Basically, the less we feel that we've wasted our time watching something, the higher a number of stars we'll give it. 5 stars would be a really enjoyable film, without any performances or plot elements that particularly annoyed us, and probably something that we would gladly watch again. 0 stars would be Dark Harvest 2.

What do you have against Movie X? What is your thing with Movie Y?

Four Panels reviews are wholly the opinion of Jenny Rowland and John Sears. If we insult a movie, we probably didn't like it. If we heap praise upon a movie, we probably did like it. It is okay not to agree!

Why can't I see the comic? All the images are coming through as little red Xes/empty boxes/broken thingies!

Four Panels makes extensive use of the PNG image format. PNGs are awesome because they compress to much smaller filesizes than GIFs can, while still looking better. If you are using a browser that does not support PNG images, I would strongly recommend downloading the most recent version of Firefox. Not only is it free, but it is fast, easy to use, and pretty much as safe from spyware and viruses as it is possible for a browser to get.

Hey, your site looks all funny! Some of the stuff is hidden underneath other stuff, and I can't read the comic because those stupid blue curtains are covering it up!

If you are using Internet Explorer, the simple answer is to try another browser. I know you've probably heard this a lot, but it really is a good idea to at least try the switch for a while. It is a well-known fact that Internet Explorer sometimes does its own thing with code, when pretty much everyone else has agreed on a standard. I'm writing HTML for that standard, so if IE decides to ignore it and make up some new rules, you are going to get a pretty funny-looking display. There is honestly nothing I can do about this, short of coming over to your house, figuring out what your Explorer thinks it is doing, and then coding a super-special version that works for only you.

If you're not using Explorer, then maybe I messed something up. Feel free to email me with details or even a screenshot of what looks wrong. I want this to be a site that works and does not eat people, so your input is appreciated.

Can I use Four Panels content somewhere else?

Depends. The following uses of Four Panel content are okay:

The following uses of Four Panel content are NOT okay:

What if I have more questions?

Ask them!

All content © 2006 by Jenny Rowland and John Sears except where noted.
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