CineScope
Your Gateway to Discovering Movies and Series—Trending, Latest Releases, and Everything Cinema
The Problem
Movie enthusiasts often struggle to find comprehensive information about films and series in one place. They have to jump between multiple platforms to discover trending content, check new releases, view cast details, and read plot summaries. There was a need for a unified platform that brings all essential movie information together with a fast, user-friendly experience.
The Solution
CineScope is a modern movie discovery platform that aggregates data from The Movie Database (TMDB) API to provide cinema lovers with everything they need—trending movies, latest releases, detailed cast information, plot summaries, and ratings—all in one clean interface. Built for speed and simplicity, it's like IMDb reimagined for the modern web.
Smart Movie Search
Instantly search and discover movies by title, genre, or keywords with lightning-fast results.
Trending Content
Stay updated with the latest trending movies and series, refreshed daily to show what's popular.
Detailed Movie Info
Access comprehensive details including plot summaries, cast information, ratings, and release dates.
Lightning Fast Performance
Smart caching with Redis ensures repeated queries load instantly without hitting API rate limits.
Tech Stack
System Architecture
Deployment: Backend hosted on DigitalOcean | Frontend deployed on Vercel
My Role & Contributions
- •Designed and built the entire FastAPI REST API backend from scratch
- •Integrated TMDB API for fetching movie data, trending lists, and cast information
- •Implemented Redis caching layer to reduce redundant API calls and improve response times
- •Set up PostgreSQL database with SQLAlchemy ORM for user data and watchlist management
- •Deployed backend to DigitalOcean with Docker containerization
Technical Challenge Solved
Challenge: TMDB API Rate Limits
The Movie Database (TMDB) API has rate limits that restrict requests per second. When multiple users searched for popular movies repeatedly, the application would make unnecessary API calls for the same data, wasting quota and slowing down responses.
Solution: Redis Caching Strategy
Implemented a caching layer using Redis to store frequently accessed movie data:
- When a user searches for a movie, the system checks Redis cache first
- If data exists (cache hit), it's returned immediately without calling TMDB API
- If not found (cache miss), fetch from TMDB API and store in Redis with TTL
- Popular movies remain cached, eliminating redundant API calls
- Cache expires after 24 hours to ensure data freshness
Result: Significantly reduced API calls for popular content and improved response times for cached data.
Key Learnings
Handling External APIs
Learned to work with third-party API rate limits, authentication, and error handling in production environments.
Redis & Celery Mastery
Gained hands-on experience implementing Redis for caching and Celery for async task processing to optimize performance.
Production Deployment
Deployed and maintained a production Flask application on DigitalOcean with proper environment configuration.
Explore CineScope
The platform is live and ready to help you discover your next favorite movie.