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Monday, October 10, 2011

Reassessing My Blog

For the first time in months I did something a little daring with my movie watching. Are you ready to be blown away? I actually watched a handful of movies without doing ANY reviews!!  The last review I did was on Saturday for the atrocious comedy, Your Highness (check it out). I guess what started this different frame of mind for me was my realization that the Oscars aren't closing in as fast as I thought - they will be held on February 26, 2012 (roughly 5 months from today). Prior to figuring that out I was starting a 2011 Catchup where I was going to try to watch many of the films from this year that I have missed; I plan on continuing that, just at a less rushed pace. So, with an endless supply of movies I can, and need to watch, I am really increasing my movie watching pace. That, very likely, will either require me to figure out how to do my reviews at a faster speed or I may just have to skip out on some reviews. I think I could accept that as long as I can keep up a steady post rate, but so far my blog consists of only reviews (with two "month in review" posts). My only idea of how to deal with that is for me to figure out non-review, yet still movie related, posts to do; this being the first.



My reviews are lengthy and go into a lot of detail. They take me no less than an hour to write, some have taking me a very long time to write - my review of The Tree of Life (2011) took me at least 4 hours. Changing up my reviews is an idea I flirt with on a daily basis. I always am trying to figure out how I can write my reviews at a faster pace but keep the same length, but so far I am clueless. Most likely asking for assistance on this won't help me much, but I still will try. If you have any tips for how I could write good reviews at a quicker pace fire away because I could really use some help. Writing quicker reviews could make it possible for me to increase my movie watching rate while still writing reviews for most of what I watch.

The majority of ideas that have been mentioned to me are lists and some kind of "spotlight" on a specific actor/actress or director. Lists have not been my strong suit, by the time I finish the list up I remember that I have either left out something or I just plain am not satisfied with it. I always feel like I need to watch more movies for whatever I am listing or I need to watch more movies by whomever I am spotlighting. If I take a break from reviewing I could probably watch a lot of films by a specific director, but I also never feel comfortable taking any real break from reviewing. I am in a no win situation.

This weekend (a long weekend because of Columbus Day) I watched a handful of films with youthful characters who are struggling to mature, "grow up," or just find their place in the world. So, an immediate idea I have is to do a blog about films tackling the maturity of young characters and all of their struggles to do so. I really like that, but that would require me to watch quite a few more films of that kind before I could make a good, knowledgeable elaboration. Maybe I will just get on that...

I really could use some other ideas, and with all the movie lovers that I have met who have such  wonderful imaginations with movie topics, you guys could be a real help. Just think of a topic that you would want to read about, something that fascinates you that I could gain knowledge about or maybe I already know something about whatever that topic is. I am extremely open to ideas because I am interested in every kind/type of film there is (yes, porn also does fascinate me), so let your mind go crazy with this. If I want to talk about movies for my profession, I really need to know my stuff and doing something like this will do nothing less than increase my knowledge.

My main purposes for this post are to once again try to get assistance for the little dilemmas that drive me crazy and make me want to smack a baby. I really want to gain more readers and expand what I do with this blog instead of just doing reviews. The smallest bit of help could be so....well, helpful. For all of you who were too lazy to read what I said and are just skimming (I know it's you!) then I will quickly return to what I need assistance on: Ways or methods to write reviews that still are equal (better works too) to my others but at a quicker speed. Ideas for other movie related posts I could do so that my blog has more than just reviews in it. Let your imaginations soar, go crazy with your ideas, and be sure to give me some much-needed feedback.

9 comments:

  1. I dunno what to tell you when it comes to reviewing. You've always said that you envy my pace and I've always envied your style and craft. There is no secret ingredient to writing as quickly as I do. I actually like your current stylistic choices.

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  2. I've actually gone through this situation earlier this year. My reviews, however, were considerably bare-boned, so my solution was just to add a little bit more. Still doing that to this day.

    Now in your case, I suggest taking out the portions which are essentially filler. Just keep the parts which sound appealing.

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  3. When it comes to reviews, always take your time.
    As for a topic, how about cinematography in film?

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  4. I like your idea of having a spotlight feature on coming-of-age films. But as far your reviews in general, here's my suggestion: you don't need to review EVERY movie you watch. Only review the ones that stick with you for whatever reason (good or bad), and you could spice things up every once in a while with one of those spotlight features. I like your reviews the way they are, but you should probably decrease your posting frequency for your own good. Keep up your great work, Adam!

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  5. Well you should decide for yourself what the audience wants :) And I think you can skip some reviewing on your viewings. You don't want to be caught up writing 2 full reviews every day. Ho out overlooking some directors or actors? Perhaps talk about certain team ups of filmmakers. :)

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  6. This is building off our Tweeting...

    I would say if you ever feel like you don't have enough time to review every single thing you watch, then just don't. There's no rule that says you have to review everything. You could always be more selective. Maybe you'll find time, though, so it would still work to do it for everything, who knows.

    As far as the stuff I was saying about fanfic and satire, I don't know that you really want to go that route with this blog. If you actually want to do some satire, you would need to make it at least a semi-regular thing, otherwise you'd have a random piece of weirdness among a slew of serious reviews.

    I say a lot of stuff on Twitter that shouldn't be taken seriously. I'm usually joking with people on there a lot, but by all means, go ahead and write some LotR fanfic. I bet it would be glorious.

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  7. I would say I'm quite slow at writing reviews so I can understand that sometimes there just isn't enough hours in the day to review every film you watch. My only suggestion is to review a select number of films (perhaps a few more new releases rather than older films and then throw in the odd older film). Or do a couple of full length reviews and then a weekly round-up with say around a 100 word review for each film you saw.

    As you might have guessed from my site - Top 10s are also a good way of speeding up the writing of posts and I think they are generally very popular.

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  8. You need not review every film you experience at least not in any great detail. Leave length for those you truly admire or those you truly despise otherwise what you are left with is repeated phrases or similar sounding analysis and reviews can begin to sound like one other.

    Instead of reviewing what makes the film "good" or "bad" and explaining what "works" and what "does not", instead talk about the themes a film holds or its place in society or what it is trying to say.

    If you choose to go a satirist route, you will have a hard time, sorry. Satire isn't as easy as many people think it.

    Spotlights would be nice. It is an easy feature to implement and an easy one to continue with. I was doing interviews, as you know, and stopped simply because time and well decided to cut it back to once a month to keep it "fresh".

    If you want more views and comments, you have to advertise yourself. Blogs, forums, social networks. Give yourself a "fan page" on Facebook or something. Right now, nothing distinguishes you from any other internet movie blogger. Your reviews are well-written and worth reading, but I know that because I read them, others do not. WHY should someone read something you write what makes your opinion so important? I do not say this with hate, but rather these are questions you need to ask yourself and then display in your site's presentation.

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