Back from Spring Break

Hello everyone,

Two weeks have passed since my last post and I’m keeping up with finding other blogs that I enjoy.  Last week I stumbled across a blog called The Silver Screening Room.  I absolutely love it for it fascinating and opinioned tone throughout the entire blog.  Its blogger has a voice that is all his own, and it’s fantastic.

His post “Top 25 Most Anticipated of 2014” details (self-explanatory) the films he was most excited for.  While the title is very straight-forward, I eagerly clicked the link because I primarily wanted to recall films were going to be released.  (This morning I saw the trailer to the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film and laughed. Hard).  But, I wanted to note if other interesting films were going to be release. 

He begins the post with number 25, but The Fault in Stars caught my attention. 

From skeptical synopsis-reader to tear-stained trailer viewer!

His first sentence characterized himself as someone who was excitedly transformed.  (The exclamation point emphasizes the pure enthusiasm.  The character transformation offers a comedic insight into his opinion of the film.  I rolled my eyes when I first saw the trailer because it seemed like a typical young adult adapted book (very popular now).  Its stand-out quality is that the book offers serious insight into the devastating impact of cancer.  But his own humorous outlook has made me rethink the entire film.  Maybe the book is as good as everyone has been raving about. 

The Foxcatcher also made me chuckle.

I love it.  The shortened synopsis offers a stark view into this particular opinion.  The tone comes off as mock-excitement covering the genuine eagerness for this film.  The comma pause about the release date demonstrates a sense of exasperation (as I interpret it) because the release date has not yet been announced.  The repetition and parallelization of his opinion represents exasperation yet anticipation for this film.  

Find the post here: Top 25 Most Anticipated of 2014

I continued to peruse his blog until I saw a post called "More Than Mere Noise: Score, 1993."  A picture of John Williams bowing in respect as he held an Oscar I was drawn into an Academy Awards-oriented post once more.  The blogger listed a series of songs from each of the films nominated and of course Schindler's List was placed last as it did win Best Original Score.  

The brevity of his opinion represents the sense of respect that he possesses.  As a film that depicts the atrocities of the Holocaust during World War II, the film's score must portray a haunting sense of loss.  This blogger's tone similarly offers that references.  It begins with the one word.

Beautiful.

There is so much that the word attempts to capture.  When reading the post I can already feel impact of the word.  The singularity conveys his opinion.  His voice, while normally light and often enthusiastic, transforms into emotion.  The singularity also represents his trademark ability to offer opinion in a with brevity.  

For those of you who have not seen the film or heard the music score please take a listen if you get the chance.

Here is a link to this post: More Than Mere Noise: Score, 1993

Please take a look at the blog for yourself! Silver Screening Room

Blog - The Film Experience

Unsure of what I would find, I typed in the words ‘Film Blog’ into Google.  The first few links contained professional newspaper film blogs and Deadline.com.  I clicked the second page and I stumbled across Blog – The Film Experience.

Let me introduce you to a blog called: Blog – The Film Experience

The name itself is melo-dramatic in nature.

Originally written by an individual who calls himself Nathaniel R., he is a member of the Broadcast Film Critics Association.   But, it seems like you wouldn’t know that if you first glanced at his biography picture.  It was only after I scanned his Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr account links did I realize that he was certified.

After reading his ‘About’ page he apparently served on four international film festival juries and appeared as an on-air Oscar pundit for Sky News London. 

In a nutshell, this blog discusses entertainment news.

The posts are numerous and contain a vast amount of information.  The posts range from interesting leading links for the day, film reviews, and celebrity news to entertainment award coverage that seems to be designated towards anyone who is interested in the entertainment industry.  I immediately liked the information that was displayed in each post.  It is surprisingly difficult to find a blog run by a certified critic (this means there is some legitimacy to what they write) who incorporates both tabloid and entertainment business material.

There are always individuals posting comments under each entry for the day.  This blog’s audience is made up of the passive moviegoer and the informed film critic. 

The blog itself is not strictly scholarly or strictly a critique of film or the entertainment industry.  Rather, it takes information from all corners of the entertainment industry mixes them together into one large boiling pot. 

For example, in a post titled, “Rooney Mara Pans Out,” the writer Tim Brayton discusses the fact that actress Rooney Mara was cast as Tiger Lily.  This is an issue because a Caucasian individual was cast as a minority in a Hollywood film(once again). 

“The internet, including the Film Experience, has been busily discussing the issue of casting able-bodied persons as disabled characters these past few days; it's a conversation that needs to happen, but it's galling to step back and realise that we haven't even finished fighting the easy representational battles yet” - Source

Brayton is right.  The fact that he placed emphasis on the easy representation battles (is it so hard to cast a Native American actor?) brings to light one of the many issues in Hollywood at the moment. 

Because the Oscar season recently ended, this blog is filled with a majority of Academy Award-inspired posts.  Past winners and speculation fill this time period in the blog.   The writer keeps tabs on 

recent winners.  In the article "Carol Now Filming" writer Nathaniel R explains his reasoning for following this film:

"First pics of Cate Blanchett filming Carol based on Patricia Highsmith's "The Price of Salt" (which is sometimes called "Carol" or vice versa). I know everyone thinks I'm this huge Cate Blanchett nerd now that I fell so hard for her in Blue Jasmine but truth: I'm in this for director Todd Haynes." - Source

Writer Nathaniel R. has a clear set of honest opinions.  I want to read professional's opinions without the overindulgence of harsh critiques and an irritating sense of self-righteousness.  

To me, this blog demonstrates that there is a way for individuals to incorporate entertainment business, film critiques and tabloid gossip without leaning one way or another.  I don’t like to be pulled in one way or another because pure tabloids are inundating the news, and pure film critique blogs take themselves too seriously.  Blog - The Film Experience is a great starting point for a blogger like myself who generally enjoys the entertainment industry and who wants to bring some sort of opinion to a variety of its elements.  

According to over 700 sites that link to this blog (one of which includes the infamous Internet Movie Database).  Clearly I'm not the only one who is enjoying pursuing this blog.   

Take a look for yourself - Blog - The Film Experience

And the Winner Is...

If there is one thing to remember from this week’s past Oscars, it is the selfie that was seen 'round the world. 

The Oscars were wildly successful as 43.7 million individuals viewed it. (Source)  This makes it the most-watched Academy Awards since 2000.  So, why was it so wildly popular?

My own excitement was due the fact that Let It Go was nominated for Best Original Song and Best Animated Feature.  (I happily watched as it toppled U2).  But, the major event in the Academy Awards turned out be Ellie DeGeneres taking a selfie with several of Hollywood’s most recognizable stars.

She used her perfectly placed Samsung phone several times during the broadcast (pulling it out and just messing with it) until she finally put it to good use. 

“Let’s make this the most retweeted picture on Twitter.”

The challenge was set for the world.

How Hollywood.  How predictable.  While I shamelessly reblogged the photo, I thought about what a fantastic plug it was for Samsung.  Its sheer white color stood amongst the red and gold of the show.  Now at the time, I noticed how just over one million people reblogged the photo. To the world, it seemed very spur-of-the-moment, to me it just felt like another desperate grab at incorporating new media and the young tech savvy generation into an arguably dwindling awards show. (Nothing spectacular had occurred in the recent award shows).

The day after the Academy Awards, a majority of the media discussed the now-infamous selfie.  Articles poured in all eagerly gossiping about what was said by each actor as the selfie was taken.  At one point Jennifer Lawrence quipped, “We’re going to have to flash a boob to get this reblogged.”  Who was the official owner of the photo? (Hint: It was Bradley Cooper because he took the photo even though it was Ellen’s cell phone).  The Hollywood gossip sites raged on and on about the picture.

Flash forward a few days and people are now discussing a different matter.  It was recently revealed that Samsung has purchased over 20 million dollars worth of advertisement during the Academy Awards equaling approximately 5 minutes of advertisement runs.  They even paid for Ellen’s brand spanking new white Samsung Galaxy Note 3 and for her to use it during the broadcast. (Source)  She never mentioned the same Samsung itself, but it was difficult to miss the white color. 

It was going to be product placement at its finest.  A managing director of the branding firm of Landor Associates notes the impact of the photo, “You can’t buy the magic of going viral.” (Source)

Too true.

As many individuals know, the selfie’s reblog crashed Ellen’s page on Twitter.  With now over 3.3 million reblogs, the picture easily overtook the Most-Retweeted title on Twitter within the first hour.  

While it can be argued that everything during the Academy Awards is planned (I can generally agree), the Academy is now tightening the gap between consumer and celebrity.  This recent show demonstrates that “Hey! Celebrities are just like you, we take selfies too!” 

I certainly don’t have anything against it.  In fact, I loved the this years Oscars despite the critic’s reams against Ellen.  While the selfie staging was apparent, I was pleasantly surprised by how delightful I found this years Academy Awards to be.

It was a great show, especially with the pizza included.