10 Years of Film Reviewing

Well who would’ve thought this would happened when I started this blog 10 years ago back in 2008 that I would’ve made it this far and had some of the success that I’ve had with it in terms of some of the opportunities it opened up so yeah this is a bit of an anniversary column and being a significant one I wanted to write something about it.

So what inspired you to want to do this some of you might ask? Well the impetus of it all actually started in 2007 and I was doing a Multimedia course at the time and just wouldn’t shut up about Hot Fuzz which I saw that March in cinemas and back then I rarely went to the cinemas to see movies sure I went every while or so but not in a huge way I mainly watched films on video when I was young (living regionally you don’t have a lot of that access cinema wise especially if your local was notorious for projector problems.)

With some encouragement I decided to dab my hand in writing reviews so I decided to do so and they weren’t the best when I look back it was an early attempt to find my voice and put down my thoughts on some films like Spider-Man 3 to use as an example but I decided to leave it for a while.

Then in 2008 as I started to go to more movies in the cinema and I would tell people about what I saw and what I thought of it I was encouraged again to start a review blog as that kind of thing was starting to emerge in a big way at that time and after a bit of thinking I decided to give it a go and on Friday August 15th 2008 I officially launched my blog with a review of the double disc DVD of Dirty Harry.

And what a ride it has been yes it has had its ups and downs but so much has happened in that time and firstly I want to start with the many friends and fans I met and made through social media which really made this just something fun for myself into something that I could actually share with others from all over the world not just Australia and really make into something substantial after all if they were going to many movies why couldn’t I and then be able to talk to them about it and whether we agreed or disagreed on said movie.

And secondly came an opportunity in 2014 that I thought would never come and that was to be able to talk on Radio (ABC Radio no less) about these new releases as we very rarely see that sort of thing on traditional Media platforms any more be it Radio or Television or Print sure some of that film reporting/reviewing exists but so much of it felt like it was swallowed whole by the digital disruption of the last 10 to 15 years so to get such an opportunity was for me something that frankly I couldn’t have imagined getting.

As not only did I get to talk about films but also it opened up a potential career path that I had never ever imagined when I left school in 2003 and on top of that I met and made some wonderful friends there that came to mind when I saw the Post back in January and seeing what it is that they do up there on that big cinema screen was very moving for me.

As for what the next 10 years holds well who knows certainly I didn’t think this 10 years would hold as much as it did and open up what it did so like any good roller coaster ride I intend to sit back and enjoy the ride and thank everyone who has come by this page, commented on my reviews, opened up those Radio opportunities and liked my reviews on Twitter and commented there as well.

Here’s to many more.