Ground Rules
I originally started this movie log to keep track of all the movies I inevitably start and never finish. Or start and finish in more than one sitting. My attention span in recent years has gone down the tubes, and I usually pause a feature at least once, generally around the 45-50 minute mark. In fact, I paused a movie to write this (Palo Alto, CA at 31:07-more to come on this later). This was the original intent of logging when I started and finished each movie.
Looking back over the last few months, it appears that I’ve been pretty diligent about finishing movies in one sitting, which I don’t know is such an accurate depiction of my viewing habits. In many ways, this log has forced me to finish movies more often than I am used to. So I feel the need to establish some ground rules— what exactly I write about in this log, and what gets discarded.
This is easier said than done, though— it’s becoming clear that there is no universal rule for what gets written about, and what doesn’t. In fact, I may learn more from what I turn off than what I actually complete. I’m no film critic— this is as much of a historical log as it is a writing exercise to engage myself with what I just watched, and why I feel a certain way about the material. It’s also an attempt to get back into a routine of stringing words together to create (hopefully) meaningful sentences and complete thoughts.
That being said, I won’t write about the following:
-Movies on TV, started with no intention of finishing
-Individual TV episodes
-Spec scripts I read less than half of
-Movies I’m somehow connected to through exhibition
I probably will write about:
-TV seasons in their entirety
-Individual episodes of Planet Earth (so jam-packed)
-Spec scripts I read more than half of
If I sit down with the intention of watching something, it’s a pretty safe bet that I’ll write about it, regardless of how long I watch it. Scripts are a bit different, in that I can tell within 5 pages if I want to continue reading, and there’s really no point to recording the scripts I put down.
With these ground rules in mind, I may be posting more regularly. Or maybe nothing will change, I’m not sure. The point is: If you haven’t already, feel free to use the “Hide Tumblelog” button. Now resuming current programming.
