Earlier today I have published this month’s obstruction, which is about writing a review, but also doing an interview about that movie. I thought it was a good idea to ask this week’s question about them as it might help others with passing their obstruction.
Which interviews did you do in the past and how did you arrange them?
and if you have not done any interviews in the past:
Who would you like to interview? Continue reading
I was listening to an old Filmjunk podcast last week where they were discussing The Last Stand. I had seen the movie and quite enjoyed it, but decided not to review it or look further into it. They talked about it and I then heard the movie was directed by Kim Jee-Woon, who was responsible for movies like A Bittersweet Life, The Good, the Bad, the Weird, I Saw the Devil and A Tale of Two Sisters. Although I have not seen that last movie I was impressed with the other three and was surprised to find out he also directed The Last Stand. It made me think about how often I actually look up the details on directors and I have to admit that it is not a lot. In general I will know which movies the big directors (Spielberg, Tarantino etc) will release, but besides that I am not that well informed. It also made me question how important a director is to your enjoyment of the movie. I will seek out movies by specific directors but although some have a clear visual style others might not have that so strongly.
How important is it for you to know a director of a movie and does it have a relation with the enjoyment you get out of a movie?
Last week Twitter opened up their analytics to the general public. The site basically allows you to see how many times you were mentioned, retweeted, if you were followed and unfollowed and the most interesting one, how many times a link you tweeted was clicked. I must admit I am not someone who is extremely active on social networks (although I have a twitter and facebook account for the blog), but looking at the statistics for the clicks I was surprised how little they were used. I used to have social sharing buttons on my blog, but when I found out nobody seemed to be using them I removed them. Now I don’t think I will stop posting to either Twitter or Facebook yet but it did make me wonder about their effectiveness. This week’s question:
Do you use social media for your blog and do you notice the benefit of them?
Welcome to another Monday Question. Hope you have had a movie filled weekend and really enjoyed yourself. This weekend Before Midnight opened in various countries. I saw it at the first possible moment I could and as my review shows I loved it. Just like the other two movies you connect to these two people and understand what they are feeling. It got me thinking that I don’t know of too many other romantic movies which are similar to this. The only ones I could come up with are Once and Lost in Translation. Someone suggested An Affair to Remember, but I was very disappointed by it, as it did not feel realistic for a moment. So this week I’m looking for suggestions:
Which realistic romantic movie shouldn’t be missed if you love movies like Once, the “Before…” trilogy and Lost in Translation?
After an awesome weekend (in which of course the 5 Obstructions blogathon kicked off) and in which I also saw Fast & Furious 6 (which will probably is my favorite action movie of the year) it’s Monday again and you know what time that is: Question Time! This week I want to ask those who have joined the LAMB (the Large Association of Movie Blogs for those unfamiliar) a question (well, two in one sentence actually) about it:
Why did you initially sign up to join the LAMB and how useful has it been to you?
Continue reading
Hello all, another Monday and time for a new question! Last week I wasn’t around these parts (so sorry for not replying to your comments yet) as I went on a well deserved break to attend a wedding int he UK. I stayed in London for almost a week and had a great time there. Since I’ve been there many times I did not do any sightseeing, but did other fun things like eating nice meals, doing some shopping and of course some movie related activities.
I went to the National Film Museum (which is near the London Eye) and it was nice to see some suits used in various movies and read a bit more about Chaplin and the British Film industry. I’ll have to admit though that I was slightly disappointed by it as I thought the presentation of it all could have been a bit better. Some of it came across as a bit messy (for example at the part where the various studios were described there were TV screens very closely together playing different things). The other thing I did was visit The Electric Cinema, which was stunning. Let me first give you an idea what this place looks like:
And let me assure you, it is as awesome as it looks. These are proper sofas which are extremely comfortable, there is a part where you can rest your feet on and if you feel cold there is even a blanket available. The movie I saw here was The Great Gatsby (which I will review at a later date), but it was one of my highlights of the trip and advise you to go there if you are in London (do make sure to book in advance as it is regularly sold out). It was also one of my best cinema experiences ever, so this week’s question:
What is your best cinema experience and in which cinema was this?
Another Monday and over here it is a national holiday, so it is a long weekend for me. Recently I was listening to the Filmjunk podcast. They were talking about the way they were watching movies and one of the points which I found interesting was the sound part of it. There always is a lot of discussion of watching movies in 3D, but how about surround sound. When you watch movies at home do you insist of watching it with surround sound or don’t you care if the sound is only coming from the TV. I thought it was interesting since I always have surround sound when I’m watching a movie at home, but it made me think if it really made a lot of difference. To me it does when I’m watching an action film, but if it is a relative simple drama I do not think I would miss it.
Do you think surround sound adds a lot to a movie or don’t you mind watching it with TV sound (or no sound and subtitles)?
It’s Monday and this past weekend the LAMMY winner for best blogathon was announced. Although I was nominated I (unfortunately) did not win, but I’m happy to congratulate Mettel Ray for her Movie Alphabet blogathon. We have already decided we’ll go head to head for next year’s Lammy, so look forward to some great blogathons. Now back to the regular program, this week’s question:
Going to the cinema is something which we all do as almost nothing beats seeing movies on a huge screen. A lot of frustration at the cinema will come from your fellow moviegoers, whether it’s because they are looking at their phone during the movie, talking loudly or eating smelly food, these are simply facts about seeing a movie at the cinema which we won’t be able to change. But forget about the other people watching the movie and look at the cinema itself, that’s what this week’s Monday question is about:
What’s the most annoying thing about your local cinema which you wish they’d change?
I have to say that the cinemas I go to are very good so the annoyances are pretty small. The only things I’d like to see different would be that in one of the cinemas there are only two spot to pay for the snacks, which means there are usually huge lines. It always surprises me as that’s the place where a cinema makes the most money. The second thing is that sometimes the lights will be turned on before the credits have finished (or sometimes even during the last scene). I’m interested to hear about your annoyances.
Another Monday which of course means that is time to answer a new and fresh Monday Question. This week I am wondering about your creative process when it comes to your blog. What does your workflow look like? How do you come up with new ideas?
As you know I have a couple of fixed posts (currently on Monday and Friday). Those are posts I can create well in advance (if time allows of course) and for the Monday Question I try to have an evergrowing list of questions ready which I hope you will find interesting to think about. The “Many Faces of…” posts take quite a bit of time preparing, since I will have to go through a complete list of movies an actor or actress has been in and find pictures related to them. Then I have to properly cut them to make sure that the final collage looks good. I must admit that I would love to add the titles of the movie underneath each picture, but I simply do not have the time to do so. On the other days I have my reviews (at least 3 per week) and as you can see on the righthand side, I’ll let you know which ones you will be able to expect. I watch more movies than I review, so I will pick the ones which I think are interesting to write (or warn) about. For those upcoming reviews I will already find the pictures I want to use, format them and put them in a draft. So when do I prepare the actual reviews? My aim is always to prepare everything for the whole week on Sunday evening. This takes a whole evening, but at the end of the evening everything for the week will be ready and scheduled. This means that during the week I have time to spend on other things (reading and commenting on other blogs).
As for developing new ideas they usually come to me quite easily, but I don’t always act on them and give them time to develop. This goes for blogathons, but also new series. This gives time to perfect the idea and change things you initially thought were a good.
What’s your creative process when it comes to blogging?
I have been blogging for a couple of years now and during those years I have discovered many great blogs. As a blogger I think it is very important to read and comment at other blogs. I think it is one of the fun things about blogging, that sense of community and talking to likeminded people. There is one problem though: the total amount of blogs I’m following. I have not counted them, but I would not be surprised if there are at least 40 or 50 I subscribe to. The reason I started subscribing was because it was impossible to start visiting all the blogs, especially if some were not updated. Subscribing offered me a way to receive every new blog post through mail and read and respond on the ones I like.
If you follow so many blogs however there is a very big flow of emails hitting your inbox and it is normal to get 20 to 30 mails per day, which I do try to keep up with, but I started feeling like I’m always falling behind with a full inbox staring me in the face. A couple of weeks ago I decided to change my reading behaviour and set up some filters on my Gmail. Every mail from each blog is now automatically tagged and stored and archived, so I can read all the new blog posts from one specific blog and my inbox stays as good as empty. Although I still get the same amount of mails I do not see them immediately. The advantage of that is that I do not feel as pressured to read each and every mail as they enter my mailbox. To keep up I select a couple of those archived folders and work through all the mails from that blogger. I really prefer this way of reading new blogposts now even if it means I’m sometimes late to respond.
So I’m wondering how you do it and if there are maybe some other efficient ways to read other blogs you might use:
How do you keep up with reading and responding to all the blogs you follow?