THE 100TH POST!
While the wise thing to do to generate traffic is to talk about Disney's purchase of Lucasfilm, I don't have the desire to talk on something that's three years from now, there'll be plenty of time to discuss it (and three years for me to watch the other five "Star Wars" movies people have been badgering me to see).
I just want to take a minute, (or a post) to reflect on the crazy roller coaster ride writing in this blog has been. Initially though, it wasn't just a full-time thing like it is now. My first post can actually be found here, where I literally wrote two sentences on it being my first blog post. The following posts are ramblings, not reviews, just me unfiltered talking about "Avatar" and being snowed in. I had been reviewing movies on the now graveyard MySpace since 2008, the first film I reviewed I believe was Clint Eastwood's "Gran Torino." If any of you can remember the embarrassment of having a MySpace, you'll know there were bulletin posts where you could just talk about anything that came to your mind. I would post DVD reviews of any movie I saw on there, not just exclusively theatrical releases like now.
Surprisingly it caught on with my MySpace friends; I had someone tell me that they read their grandfather my "Bridge Over the River Kwai" review, and I had another tell me they saw a film based on my review alone. Of course, that's the purpose of a film critic, to influence someone's movie-going decision, but at the time I felt like this almighty being! It was really catching on. But after 7th grade, when my mom required I deleted MySpace as it was leaving a dent in my grades, I stopped reviewing until the beginning of freshman year, when a new lady came into my life: Facebook.
After the 2009 Oscar season died down and "Hurt Locker" was crowned king, I didn't have too much material to cover, the number of posts dying down considerably. When the next season came, however, I was on top of it, still only sporadically posting movie reviews. Even that died down, until it came to summer 2011, where I simply had to review the most anticipated film of the decade: "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2." That review took a long amount of time to do, and I thought I got back into the groove of things. Sadly, after my "Help" review in late summer '11, I gave up on interest in the blog, perhaps due to lack of movies seen or adjusting to sophomore year.
After a three month hiatus, I returned once again to awards season with an Oscar buzz post. I did the full coverage of the Golden Globes-Oscar-awards circuit...and...I don't know. Something in me just wished to continue doing reviews, or movie news again. It's like it had been missing for a long time. A contest came up for my Journalism class (I was a first year student). You had to submit a piece of your work for the Free Lance Star Creative Multimedia contest. Naturally I was too sloth to think up a news piece, so I submitted the blog link in lieu of an article. It was also at this time I saw my viewership jump, and the inclusion of pictures in the reviews to generate traffic came to me. With the help of my Journalism teacher, family and peers, the blog was actually becoming something, not just a hobby I did for fun.
The rest is history! The blog miraculously was one of the prize-winners, and 50 bucks, which I spent like a million dollar paycheck, and brought the boastful banner you see at the masthead of this website! I never could have done it without the encouragement of the people I love though, and my friend's suggestion to my journalism teacher that my reviews be included in the paper, which they are now! I promise I'm not at my peak right now, I only hope to continue to grow on this labor of love! If that means writing for my paper, whoring myself out to other media outlets for attention, or putting the blog link as a signature on my text messages so people have no choice but to ask what it is, I'm up for it! I'm hoping to make it another great 100 posts.
I just want to take a minute, (or a post) to reflect on the crazy roller coaster ride writing in this blog has been. Initially though, it wasn't just a full-time thing like it is now. My first post can actually be found here, where I literally wrote two sentences on it being my first blog post. The following posts are ramblings, not reviews, just me unfiltered talking about "Avatar" and being snowed in. I had been reviewing movies on the now graveyard MySpace since 2008, the first film I reviewed I believe was Clint Eastwood's "Gran Torino." If any of you can remember the embarrassment of having a MySpace, you'll know there were bulletin posts where you could just talk about anything that came to your mind. I would post DVD reviews of any movie I saw on there, not just exclusively theatrical releases like now.Surprisingly it caught on with my MySpace friends; I had someone tell me that they read their grandfather my "Bridge Over the River Kwai" review, and I had another tell me they saw a film based on my review alone. Of course, that's the purpose of a film critic, to influence someone's movie-going decision, but at the time I felt like this almighty being! It was really catching on. But after 7th grade, when my mom required I deleted MySpace as it was leaving a dent in my grades, I stopped reviewing until the beginning of freshman year, when a new lady came into my life: Facebook.
After the 2009 Oscar season died down and "Hurt Locker" was crowned king, I didn't have too much material to cover, the number of posts dying down considerably. When the next season came, however, I was on top of it, still only sporadically posting movie reviews. Even that died down, until it came to summer 2011, where I simply had to review the most anticipated film of the decade: "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2." That review took a long amount of time to do, and I thought I got back into the groove of things. Sadly, after my "Help" review in late summer '11, I gave up on interest in the blog, perhaps due to lack of movies seen or adjusting to sophomore year.
After a three month hiatus, I returned once again to awards season with an Oscar buzz post. I did the full coverage of the Golden Globes-Oscar-awards circuit...and...I don't know. Something in me just wished to continue doing reviews, or movie news again. It's like it had been missing for a long time. A contest came up for my Journalism class (I was a first year student). You had to submit a piece of your work for the Free Lance Star Creative Multimedia contest. Naturally I was too sloth to think up a news piece, so I submitted the blog link in lieu of an article. It was also at this time I saw my viewership jump, and the inclusion of pictures in the reviews to generate traffic came to me. With the help of my Journalism teacher, family and peers, the blog was actually becoming something, not just a hobby I did for fun.
The rest is history! The blog miraculously was one of the prize-winners, and 50 bucks, which I spent like a million dollar paycheck, and brought the boastful banner you see at the masthead of this website! I never could have done it without the encouragement of the people I love though, and my friend's suggestion to my journalism teacher that my reviews be included in the paper, which they are now! I promise I'm not at my peak right now, I only hope to continue to grow on this labor of love! If that means writing for my paper, whoring myself out to other media outlets for attention, or putting the blog link as a signature on my text messages so people have no choice but to ask what it is, I'm up for it! I'm hoping to make it another great 100 posts.
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