The Beginning….

I’m not quite sure how often I’ve told this story here on this site, I know I’ve mentioned it a few times to friends in person, but dammit it’s my blog and I’ll say what I want (queue It’s My Party).

This is officially the 1000^th post on gmanreviews.com. Other than possibly ten in total posts made by Marco Cerritos and Douglas Robinson, to both whom I’m grateful for their time and effort, I’ve been the creator of every single piece of content on this website. Most blogs of this type don’t usually take this long to hit this milestone and I guess I can be blamed for that, I have to. On occasion I’ll be known to miss a day or two, or even a week of updating the blog due to a number of factors. Sometimes it’s work, sometimes it was school other times it was me just being a lazy unmotivated bum. So if you’re wondering why it took this blogger just under 1280 days to make 1000 posts then think no longer and just realize that every so often I either have nothing to say or I don’t feel like talking.

I started writing about film on exactly November, 22, 2006 (link to note) on Facebook for my friends. After a few weeks I decided to write a weekly roundup of films I’ve been watching, still on facebook, for my friends to comment and conversation to ensue. Slowly but surely the comments grew to the point where I thought to myself, “I should probably start my own blog.” I was reading websites such as FirstShowing.net and FilmSchoolRejects.com even back then – and before you ask I’ve never been a huge AICN reader – and thought to myself, “I can do that.”

With that said though I was wary about sinking dollars into any project that I didn’t think would work, either by my dedication or a lack of some sort of spark that would make my site actually traffic worthy and pick up the readers. I knew I was already at a disadvantage for being a movie critic/blogger that couldn’t review a lot of newer releases since they didn’t release on time in Jamaica and I couldn’t really afford to see everything at the time. However, before I started to worry I decided to open up to a wider audience with http://gmanreviews.wordpress.com with my first post being published on July 12, 2007, the review was for Invincible. My reviews at this point had expanded from a one paragraph reviews with basically no grammatical structure to a few paragraphs. Slowly but surely I tried harder and harder to increase my expressive nature to eventually reach the stage where I am today. While I’m not trying to say that I’ve reached a point that is worthy of applauding, I still look at some reviews and articles that I publish and scorn them, but rather that I feel I have grown.

My first post on this website came on March 16, 2008, with a review of Richard Kelly’s Southland Tales. The film was abominable and I don’t think I’ve ever revisited it. It was probably the first time that I’d decided to completely commit to a medium, having constantly cross-posted my content between the wordpress blog and facebook keeping all my “fans” in the loop and getting the content how they wanted it. However, I decided if I wanted to make the move it needed to be a clean break and I was going to have to make it all or nothing. I’d like for everyone to tell me how much better my reviews have gotten from Southland Tales the The Big Year (posted yesterday), but I’m not here looking for flattery (but it doesn’t hurt now does it?).

TUMP…

In 2008 I started to listen to my very first podcast, the /FilmCast. I’d rush home from school on a Monday night to catch Adam Quigley, Devindra Hardawar and David Chen – who I still listen to just not live most times – to hear them talk about movies. I was captivated. To the point where I decided that I finally wanted to start my own. A good friend of mine, Damion Whyte, was the first piece of the jigsaw puzzle as to what I wanted to accomplish in podcasting. I wanted to have a character such as himself, strong willed and very outspoken about his perspective of film, to keep the podcast moving forward.

We, before going the full blown podcast route, actually started out the project as just the two of us doing it for a television programme. We actually taped an hour long pilot episode where we discussed Meet Dave and Get Smart, which was a tough double feature to sit through together to be honest. I even remember Damion being heckled by an audience member in the Meet Dave screening for looking at his Arcos tablet during the trailers. We eventually got to a point where we started to talk about how much we hated the people we heard around us laughing at this crappy movie through text messages (it was a sparse screening and we were discreet with our cell phone usage I promise).

Sadly the pilot didn’t see the light of day, as many of you bloggers know how TV productions go, I didn’t even get a copy so I can’t share, if I could I would just to provide evidence and laugh at myself for how nervous I believe Damion and I were during that taping. With that opportunity dead, after me spending an entire summer harassing the producers and editors running them through the content getting it edited, I decided if we were ever going to get any content released I’d have to do it myself. Therefore I bought a pair of dirt cheap wireless microphones and added my brother, Douglas Robinson, to the panel and decided to start the show in January 2009.

Our very first episode Damion and Douglas ridiculed my Top Ten of 2008 and we reviewed Kevin Smith’s Zack and Miri Make a Porno. Over the time we’ve spent getting together each week we’ve released near 100 episodes of podcasts (mainly due to my continual lack of recording experience and the occasional recording error). Over the years I’ve had the opportunity to discuss films with a few guests that I’m happy to say that I’ve talked with, including: Shannon Ridler, Ryan Helms, Dave Minkus, Ethan Vestby, Sean Dwyer, Alex Billington, Kristal Bailey, Kevin Ketchum, Jeremy Kirk, Merrill Barr, Jack Giroux, Ryan “Hatter” McNeil, Scott Hutcheson, Kevin Carr, Marco Cerritos, Mel Valentin, and if I’ve missed out anyone I apologize deeply.

The site has at many times been at war with me. While it isn’t the most popular of blogs, and I’ve never truly been able to earn a dollar from it, I have earned other things. I’ve earned international connections with bloggers all over the globe. Thanks to twitter (another thing that I was inspired to join thanks to the /FilmCast) I’ve found a medium with which to communicate with people who reside all over the world and some I’m willing to call true friends.

The Future:

At this point the site is going to keep trekking along. I know I’ve been promising a brand spanking new design for the last couple years and I’m sure you believe it’s coming just as much as we all believe that Arrested Development is coming back on air. I’m sure eventually I’ll get around to it but for now I don’t really have the time to do it all.

I’d love to get a couple extra writers now to start keeping content going, especially for those few uninspired days. I’m managing to tally up a lot of new releases reviews as soon as possible and plan postings a lot better now that I manage my time a lot better, and honestly don’t have much else to distract myself from the site right now.

I’d just like to take the time, and I know I’ve done it before but that doesn’t mean I can’t do it again, to thank everyone who’s helped for helping and all who’s been reading for reading and those who’re listening for tuning in. I know this isn’t the best of the lot out there but I’d like to think that this site holds a special place in your RSS feed reader and your morning breaks from work or what not.

Right now I’d like to take the spotlight off of me and shift it onto you, the readers (if you’re truly out there). I’d love to hear how you found the site. There are some of you who’ve told me this personally but leave a comment or send me an email (andrew.robinson@gmanreviews.com) I’d love to hear it. What were you’re initial thoughts and have they changed at all? I’m not looking for hyperbolic rantings but rather just trying to connect once again.

Here’s to 1000 more and the 1000 after that.