New Directions

Isn't that the shitty name of the Glee Club in Glee? I think so. Anyway...

Time sucks. I wish I had time in the day to do everything I want to, but between work, family, friends, and other obligations, my blog has suffered over the past month or so. After a record-breaking February, traffic took a major tumble in March. Part of that, I'm sure has to do with movie malaise after the Oscars, but I contribute the bulk of it to a shocking lack of output on my part.

So I've spent the last few weeks thinking about how I can become more active again. The answer: Less full-length reviews. Gone (at least for now) are the days where I'll write 700 words about every movie I see. Instead, I'll be introducing a number of new series which will include more news and capsule reviews than anything. I'll try to pump out 3-4 per week.

On Mondays, I'll write my "News Desk" column, offering thoughts on the news from the past week, including box office numbers, any and all things related to Oscar, and upcoming new and DVD releases.

Tuesdays will be a "From the Vault" column, where I'll offer capsule reviews of any older films I've seen. If I haven't gotten around to seeing any, I'll either take the day off or just talk about something that's on my mind. Expect this column to appear and disappear most, depending on my schedule.

Wednesdays will be all about "The Art House Corner." Independent movies are my favorite to watch and write about, but they are a time suck when I look at how they do traffic-wise. So for this column, I'll talk about all things independent/foreign/doc, preview anything coming up that I'm excited for, and briefly review anything that I've seen that fits in this category.

Thursdays will be devoted to "Your Thoughts," a discussion post. I'll introduce a topic (ideally, one that will be related to a new release), give my brief opinion, and throw it out to you.

Gotta get down on Friday, so I'll typically take a day off there.

Saturday will feature a full-length review, either of a new release that I saw or something else that struck me as worthy of the time and words.

And Sunday will remain Top 10 day.

Finally, I'll be doing one longer feature at the end of every month. The two I have in mind right now are "Director's Spotlight," which will involve watching a number of films from a certain director's filmography, rating and comparing them, and talking more about the director's strengths and weaknesses. The other feature is "The Gold Standard," where I'll cover a certain Oscar category, watch all the films from that category over the course of the month, and discuss them together in one long post. Obviously, both projects will take a while, hence the only monthly appearance of them both.

I hope this proves to be interesting for you and I both. I'll miss writing full reviews so often, but I just haven't been feeling as inspired lately, and I think a new gameplan will bring the best out of my writing.

Feel free to leave some thoughts on the new plan for the blog, as well as any ideas you had for posts.

Thanks,
John