Midweek Mumble – Missing The Good Stuff?
Midweek Mumble Time – This week Rodney asks the question, How do you decide what to watch?
Anybody who writes a blog about film, especially if they’re the soleoperator, will understand the pressures of trying to maintain their site. Updating the comments, writing new reviews – taking time out to see new films! – and networking across the blogosphere with like-minded individuals; this all takes time, and inevitably, things get missed.
Those of you reading this who may very well be single, financially free from responsibility or otherwise have plenty of spare time will probably not understand what I’m on about, but there’s plenty of bloggers out there who find themselves struggling on a daily/weekly basis to cover everything they want to. As a father of two young kids, with a full-time job to take up 8 hours of every weekday, I know how hard it is to find a spare couple of hours to sit down and enjoy a good film, review it, and update my blog accordingly. Watching an age-appropriate film around the kids is often impossible – not because there’s not enough kid-flicks out there, rather, it’s the fact that you want to watch a film where stuff blows up and bad things happen that accommodate an adult-level intelligence, and you just can’t do that while your three-year-old is monopolizing the telly with the kids channel.
So you segment your time more often, trying somehow to find the between family time and film time (the latter of which includes blogging), which, out of necessity, predicates a razor being taken to the vast array of material you have the potential to watch. My regular intake of blockbusters, independent cinema and art-house fare are all scrutinised as to which film I’m probably going to enjoy more than the other, and which film would my readers probably enjoy my opinions on more; quite often, lesser known film often fall by the wayside in my limited time to allow for the more commercially successful, popular-with-the-masses film, a trend which concerns me greatly.
Unfortunately, with only a finite time in which to continue my passion for cinema, certain things must be passed over until a later date. Trouble is, the number of films I want to watch but must get to later seems to be growing at such an exponential rate, I’m actually starting to look forward to my retirement years so I can spend some more time wading through the pile!
All of this is a round-a-bout way of bringing me to my question of the week – how do you decide which films to watch, and which to pass over, if you’re time poor like myself? My decisions are made based mainly on the volume of a film: the louder the film, the more inclined I am to want to test out my home cinema with it, while the quieter, more intellectually demanding stuff tends to get pushed back… I never said it was a foolproof method, it just works for me.
What, then, works for you?
About The Author – Rodney Twelftree
Aussie film fan Rodney has been writing about film, DVD and Blu-Ray since 1998, when he became Chief Reviewer at a now-defunct Adelaide-based online retailer. A fan of blockbuster and mainstream cinema, as well as dabbling in arthouse and independent forms of the industry, Rodney prefers to spend his nights and weekends in front of the television watching the latest release on Blu-Ray instead of out getting sloppy drunk like many of his friends. When he’s not out in the Front Room, Rodney can be found writing reviews for his own website www.fernbyfilms.com, helping good mate Al K Hall over at The Bar None, and dabbling in lists over at Top 10 Films.
Rodney Twelftree
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For me Rodney, a man in a similar situation to you, I go on running time… which is very annoying.
By the time the girls are asleep and we are settled in for a film, I have to think what time will this finish???
This has prevented me from seeing The Help, Once Upon A Time In Anatolia, and many others I WANT to see but look at the 140+ mins and think I am never going to make it!!
Nice post
He he, you’ll understand then that running time is equally important to me as well!
I know that feeling, having three kids in the house. I do most of my movie watching when traveling to work (on the train). It allows me to see almost a whole movie each day. If that wasn’t possible I would have lots of trouble keeping up with all the releases. So I don’t have the issue of making a hard choice of what movie to watch. Being able to watch movies on the go is very important to me, it’s even the reason I didn’t take a company car because I would miss out on it!
interesting Nostra, I need the full experience. Although I have had to watch a few DVDs at work to meet deadlines, but it was never as good an experience
Yesterday bought myself a Nexus 7, so the screen I now have is a bit bigger. Of course I prefer the full experience as well, but if this is the way I can enjoy watching a lot of movies, so be it
Good headphones help as well, I have in ear headphones that are very good in blocking out outside noise.
I don’t really mind where I watch a movie – I’m a lot less selective about watching a film on my PC or portable DVD player since I had kids – but like Scott, I’d prefer to enjoy a film in my lounge with the volume up…. that said, I’ve been known to watch a film over a couple of days during my work lunch break on my phone. Not the best way to do it, but sometimes ya just gotta do what ya gotta!!
Nice!! Maybe if I had a long commute I would be the same. I walk an hour to get to work, but that wouldn’t be the best place to catch a film huh… BONK is the sound my head makes as I walk into a street light
That’s a long walk! Maybe you should get a bike, leave at the same time which would save you some times that could be used to watch a part of a movie
I used to bike it, but now I have a dog, and she comes to work with me…. Hence the walk.
Ah well
I don’t really HAVE to watch anything… let alone review or blog about stuff … I’ve only one child and I struggle to see the things I want to see.
Sir, I salute you.
I accept your awe, Chris!
Humble to the core….
Great topic Rodney, lots of interesting points raised.
Runtime is a big factor for me, but usually so I can fit as many films in as possible in one night. 80 mins films are more likely to be watched within a day of being bought than 3 hour long films. Also, it’s pretty geeky, but films in more lists on http://www.icheckmovies.com are also bumped to the front of the queue.
I feel for those who have to fit in their viewings on public transport, I get cagey about even watching films round my friends if they have no surround or small screens!
Re Public Transport – too bad if you’re watching a film with heaps of violence or sex….. Might make for some awkward galnces from the passengers around you if they see boobs on the screen….
Must remember to spell-check my comments before hitting “post”…..
Most of the time it will be the pedigree of the film and the hype around it. If a classic is getting a re-release on Blu-ray that I’ve never seen before I’ll give that priority over an older film streaming on Netflix.
I have to side with Tom with runtime being important as well. If I see a film around 90 minutes I have no problem putting it on anytime of the day. Whereas something like Lord of the Rings would take an investment of an entire evening.
It also has to do with availability of films. If a film is playing close and intrigues me there’s a good chance I’ll check it out. If it’s playing in Boston, my hype must be high for me to see it. Case in point: For a Good Time, Call is playing in Boston now. I’d like to see it, but it isn’t a must see. Whereas when The Master opens in Boston in two weeks I’ll be there the first chance I get.
There’s other hobbies involved as well including Japanese Anime, Video Games, Television Series, Comic Books or even Books. All of these different media fight for my attention, so it can be quite difficult to plan for a movie.
Pedigree is also a big one for me, Max, but it’s trumped by running time and the potential for explosions.
I’m so shallow.
I’m not really picky and often times, I will just choose movies according to my mood. I guess the main aspect I look at is how much critical acclaim the movie got. I will generally avoid anything that is blatantly below average when it comes to critical reception.
It’s really a mixed bag. I’m a member of a local film club, showing older movies in a real theatre once a week, so that’s one ingredient of course. Then I get some free prescreening tickets once in a while, not because I write about movies, but because I hold a loyal member club card at the theatre chain, which leads to some benefits. Obviously I’ve gotten this thanks to being a frequent movie goer. I don’t watch everything that comes up in theatres of course, but movies where I know and love the previous work by the director, movies I’ve heard a lot of good about… you know.
I also pick movies that I can borrow for free at the library. My choices there are governed by gutfeeling.
Basically it’s a lot about my mood and about that I want variation.