#WatchlistScreenCaps, 8/7 (Looney Tunes edition)

Here are the last ten films I watched (all of which happen to be Looney Tunes cartoons), with a screen-captured image and quick sentence on the subject. Follow this feature on Twitter here, read about the kickoff here, and see all past #WatchlistScreenCaps here. Links below are to my post on the film in question.

#WatchlistScreenCaps, 8/6 (Bosko edition)

Here are the last ten films I watched (all of which happen to be cartoons starting the early Warner Brothers character Bosko), with a screen-captured image and quick sentence on the subject. Follow this feature on Twitter here, read about the kickoff here, and see all past #WatchlistScreenCaps here. Links below are to my post on the film in question.

(A few years later when re-sharing #WatchlistScreenCaps on Tumblr, I came across information about the character's racist backstory which I detailed here - an unfortunate postscript that bears mentioning.)

#WatchlistScreenCaps, 8/3 - 8/4 (animated shorts edition)

Here are the last ten films I watched (all of which happen to be animated shorts), with a screen-captured image and quick sentence on the subject. Follow this feature on Twitter here, read about the kickoff here, and see all past #WatchlistScreenCaps here. Links below are to my post on the film in question.

#WatchlistScreenCaps, 7/25 - 8/3 (early 00s short films edition)

Here are the last ten films I watched (all of which happen to be short films released between 2001 and 2003), with a screen-captured image and quick sentence on the subject. Follow this feature on Twitter here, read about the kickoff here, and see all past #WatchlistScreenCaps here. Links below are to my post on the film in question.

Strange Sounds: #iPodAlbumPlaylist, pt. III

I've just completed another album playlist - this one contained twenty-five albums. As usual, they were shuffled so the order is arbitrary. Some are familiar favorites, others new discoveries for me. Covers, titles, and favorite tracks are featured below. You can follow my listenings on Twitter and scan my last playlist or look at all previous round-ups on this blog.

It Was 20 Years Ago Today: When A Star Moves

Where there's a will there's a way, even if it makes no sense. On July 31, 1993, twenty years ago this day, I began shooting my first movie in the woods behind my aunt's house in New Hampshire. We used my dad's Hi-8 home video camera, several friends, an alien made of tin-foil (I provided the voice live, just off-camera), and several toy dinosaurs filmed in close-up (later to be intercut with the actors in an effort to disguise their true size). It was a surprisingly organized beginning although this orderly kickoff would soon devolve into a mess of delays, personal conflicts, and technical difficulties - all surprisingly ubiquitous even at this early phase. I utilized a formal screenplay, detailed shot list, out-of-sequence shooting (timecode diligently logged on Hi-8 tape), and a shooting schedule soon fragrantly disobeyed. My father was the cinematographer and I shouted orders from behind his knee, a four-and-a-half-foot tyrant in sweatpants two sizes too big.

Watch my short film, Class of 2002

Six months ago today, I concluded a month devoted to promoting and discussing my first online-exclusive short film. Class of 2002 is a (dramatic rather than comedic) mockumentary in which a young man remembers classmates whose tragic lives intersected his own after high school graduation.

Since completing my work on Class of 2002, I've become far more engaged with Twitter and also seen my blog traffic triple and quadruple. It seems a good time to introduce new readers, followers, or drive-bys to my movie. I hope you enjoy it. And if you do, please share it with others - right now, that's the only promotional campaign I have.

For more on Class of 2002, explore the round-up of related posts which went up on January 30. The film is also available on Vimeo, if that's your thing.

Odyssey of Images: a complete guide to The Story of Film

This is a visual directory to every film featured in Mark Cousins' 2011 documentary miniseries The Story of Film. I have screen-capped a frame featuring the title of each clip used, so let this serve as a resource both for those who've seen the doc (and want to revisit some of the titles), and those who haven't yet, and need some inspiration.

If you like this sort of thing, I've done it twice before, for Allan Fish's decades countdown and for my own video clip series. You also check out my previous posts on Cousins' opus (and the book it's based on). Beneath the proceeding pictures I've also included links to my own pieces on the films featured by Cousins. Incidentally, if you are a fan you can follow him on Twitter.

#WatchlistScreenCaps, 7/17 - 7/24

Here are the last ten films I watched, with a screen-captured image and quick sentence on the subject. Follow this feature on Twitter here, read about the kickoff here, and view the previous #WatchlistScreenCaps roundup here. Links below are to my post on the film in question.

5 Years: The Complete History (more or less) of Lost in the Movies, 2008 - 2013

I began my journey on July 16, 2008, in a small-town public library in New Hampshire. At the time I knew so little about blogging that I worried about my computer being able handle Blogger's format. False alarm after all, but somehow I prefer this particular genesis anyway: the image of a neophyte blogger sitting at a public computer, excited yet not quite knowing what he's doing or where it will lead.

The past five years have been fairly tumultuous and my blogging has often reflected that. Despite numerous changes in format, approach, and output my blog - initially titled The Dancing Image but renamed Lost in the Movies about nine months ago - has been an anchor for me, an always-welcome port in the storm. I'll tend to skirt over most of the geographical relocations and personal/professional adjustments of the past five years to focus exclusively on the evolution of my blog, but certainly my work was part of a larger pattern.

Not a fan of navel-gazing? Let this serve as fair warning: excessive belly-button lint ahead. That said, I suspect many bloggers (and even some non-bloggers) will enjoy this lengthy read; perhaps it will remind them of their own evolution, inviting a warm, maybe bittersweet, sense of nostalgia. The blogosphere is still very young today, but the past half-decade has brought many changes and much experience.

Links are sprinkled throughout this piece; think of it as a long hallway with many doors to be opened and explored. For that reason and because it's so damn long, you may want to read in installments. Or not.

Let's begin...

Lost in the Movies turns 5 today

I am writing an extensive 5th anniversary overview of my blog's history but me being me, it's taking longer than expected and doesn't look like it will make it up before midnight. Thus, I want to post some sort of acknowledgement on the day itself and here we are.

The official anniversary post will be up before morning, but in the meantime I want to thank anyone reading this for, well, reading this. When I began my blog it was entirely for myself and very much under the assumption I'd probably never find any readers. I am extremely gratified by the people who have discovered and enjoyed my work over the years, whether they are lurkers, commentators, or sporadic visitors. Thanks for making me feel like my efforts are worthwhile.

I've seen peers of mine post the most under-the-radar acknowledgements of their own anniversaries - perhaps a sentence slipped in to an otherwise irrelevant post. God bless 'em, but that's not my style. Embarrassing as it may be to admit, this blog has been my proudest accomplishment of the past five years and I intend to celebrate its birthday with appropriate pomp. If you are skittish about such self-absorption, feel free to tune out, but do return - I expect that within a week or two I will be posting more regularly, not just with my viewing/reading/listening diary as I have been lately, but with actual reviews.

Today I've hit a significant signpost on the road, but the path continues, heading into the horizon as far as the eye can see. Thanks for walking with me some of the way.

#WatchlistScreenCaps, 7/5 - 7/16 (short films edition)

Here are the last ten films I watched (all of which happen to be short films), with a screen-captured image and quick sentence on the subject. Follow this feature on Twitter here, read about the kickoff here, and view the previous #WatchlistScreenCaps roundup here. Links below are to my post on the film in question.