Where to go after making a film? The following year doubled as both blossoming and constriction: Twitter provided a way to re-join the conversation that had shifted from blog comments to social media and inspired my #WatchlistScreenCaps exercise (representing every film I watched with a single striking image), but as I settled into this fun, convenient approach I was also writing less and less. The projects I'd begun the previous fall all languished while I catalogued not only what I viewed, but what I read and listened to.
Subjects include live-blogging a marathon of art films streaming on Hulu, celebrating viral YouTube videos of the past seven years, paying tribute to Boston in the wake of a bombing, reviewing Guru Dutt's powerful Pyaasa (at a time when few films inspired me to write an essay), and marking Lost in the Movies' fifth anniversary through a comprehensive history of the site.
Although its central feature was created several years earlier, Press Play features my De Palma video w/ Kevin B. Lee interview is my highlight for this period, joining my work to a broader conversation with a master of the video essay form - pointing forward as well as back.
FEBRUARY
Updating my picture gallery
Deciding what to do now that my film is complete
Visual tribute to two competing motifs in David Fincher's Facebook film
Here is where Lost in the Movies really crossed over to Twitter
Pictures from Nagisa Oshima's blistering, satirical, sensitive avant-garde polemic
Fresh capsules on A Nos Amours, Hobson's Choice, Mamma Roma, The River, Salesman, Summer with Monika, and Tokyo Twilight along with quotes from my older reviews on several other films
Announcing my first live-blogging, as I prepare to watch a bunch of films I've never seen before, choosing from a Criterion/Hulu library
The Love Goddesses • Courage for Every Day • The Junk Shop • Emporte-Moi • Being Two Isn’t Easy • The Machine That Kills Bad People • Emotion
A screenshot and a caption for every feature, short, music video, miniseries, and original YouTube content I will watch for a full year...it starts with this first round-up of ten
After a two-month break I resumed the Favorites series with Oshima's iconoclastic work - but this would be my last entry for two and a half years
MARCH
Another ten screenshots, including a couple Indian classics and a couple new releases
Shifting into a mostly visual approach for a while, with Twitter leading the way
A screenshot for each chapter of the documentry miniseries
Another ten screenshots, from many emotionally intense films
Building up to the fifth anniversary, I re-shared my favorite pieces for several months
Another ten screenshots, focused on shorts and videos from 1982 to 1984
APRIL
Swept up by my first Guru Dutt production, not knowing anything about him beforehand (this was my last film review for six months)
Memories of the New England city, written immediately after the marathon bombing
Another ten screenshots, including some more Indian classics
Two New Wave giants offer insight into their creative process
Screenshots of documentaries, cartoons, experimental films, and a few live-action narrative features watched in a single day
Kevin B. Lee interviewed me about my first video essay (from 2009) and my concerns/process with video work
MAY
Another ten screenshots, with several imaginative low-budget selections
Rounding up the albums I listened to over the previous two months
Another ten screenshots, including the first YouTube classic selections
Another ten screenshots, based mostly off some random "Greatest YouTube videos from its first five years" list (aside from the frog one, which is very much a personal favorite)
Another ten screenshots, with many 1990 short films
Another ten screenshots, almost exclusively tied to Arthurian legends
Another ten screenshots based on that YouTube list, with animal and infant hijinks
Another ten screenshots based on that YouTube list, with some Election 2008 flashbacks
Another ten screenshots, the last of the YouTube exclusives based on that list
JUNE
Finished with dog memes and onto Carl Thodor Dreyer, as I screenshot my personal favorite films of all time
For the third type of media round-up I introduced this spring, a documentation of books via covers and sample passages
Another ten screenshots, half from Disney
Eric Rohmer and Hans-Jurgen Syberberg adapt the Grail legends - here are pictures of each version
Tradition and revolt in tension (a Javed Akhtar quote from The Story of Film)
Another ten screenshots, including various adaptations of Dangerous Liaisons
JULY
I didn't usually blog about politics at this time but was horrified by the Trayvon Martin verdict and infuriated by the rhetoric surrounding the case (although in retrospect I didn't go far enough in some observations)
Albums I listened to in the early summer
Another ten screenshots, featuring narrative and experimental shorts (both live-action and animated)
Briefly marking my fifth anniversary, with a much bigger post to come
In an essay stuffed with links, I trace my content, expansion, and many changes in design over a half-decade
Another ten screenshots, featuring many action-oriented car promo films directed by major auteurs
Massive tribute to the work of Mark Cousins, with a screenshot of every single film included in his fifteen-part documentary
Marking six months since I completed my movie
Remembering the creation of an undersung masterwork from a nine-year-old maverick with a Hi-8 camera and lots of toy dinosaurs
(I covered this period on Episode 16 of my Patreon podcast)
Next: The Watchlist Hits Toontown (August - October 2013)
(in which my visual viewing diary emphasizes animation)
•
Previous: Best Face Forward (November 2012 - January 2013)
(in which my visual viewing diary emphasizes animation)
•
Previous: Best Face Forward (November 2012 - January 2013)
No comments:
Post a Comment