Starbucks’ Sound

For most of us, coffee drinkers, Starbucks have become an addiction and a way of life. That’s why they picked out the best books, best movies and best music that their market would surely love!
Hear Music–chooses the songs that are played in Starbucks coffeehouses and are placed in unique album compilations! It’s one of the […]

Van Halen’s ‘The Reunion Tour’ Rescheduled

You Are There: The Reunion Tour’ is Van Halen’s return to the road which began in fall 2007. David Lee Roth, the band’s original lead singer got together with the band for the first time in more than twenty years for this reunion tour.
The band has postponed their tour dates this month of March due […]

5 asian film to start up

My earliest childhood memory (seriously) is watching Star Wars, and that started a lifelong love affair I’ve had with the movies. However, if you’re like me at all, most of the film you grew up watching was in English and the only real Asian film you were exposed to usually involved a big guy named Godzilla. But the truth is there is some great and innovative film coming out of Asia that unfortunately gets next to no attention from North American audiences. As a matter of fact, most people I talk to are still surprised when I tell them “The Ring” was originally an Asian film.

Now, the reality is that I am FAR from being an expert on Asian film. I’m just a film fan who has started to develop an appreciation for some Asian cinema. So I thought it would be a good idea, as a casual Asian film fan who is also just in the process of developing my understanding for the genre, to introduce some of you who are interested in expanding your horizons, to 15 movies to get your feet wet in Asian film. Some of you have seen lots of these films already, but I know a bunch of you haven’t.

So without any more delay, here are 15 benchmark Asian films to get you started. In no particular order:

1) Ju-On (The Grudge)

Yes, the original version that the inferior North American Grudge (with Michelle Gellar) was based on. To this day maybe the scariest film I’ve ever seen apart from American Werewolf in London. The main difference between most North American horror and Asian horror, is that American horror tries to scare you with gross visuals and “startle scare” (when something jumps out at you), whereas a lot of Asian horror freaks the hell out of you with your own imagination… with concepts and atmosphere… with tension and mood. Ju-On makes you want to check yourself into a mental ward your nerves take such a beating. FROM THE IMDB: “An evil curse and vengeful spirits seem to linger upon a house where the horrific murder of a woman and child took place and anyone who sets foot inside the house is marked for a terrifying haunting which will not rest. One by one, those who have been tainted by the house begin to die, and nowhere is safe”

2) Fist of Legend

Not the deepest, or the most artful, or the best… but hands down my favorite Jet Li film of all time. Set during the Japanese occupation in China, the political and cultural tensions are really just a backdrop to total non-stop ass kicking deliciousness. Everything you expect to find in a great old style kung-fu film and more. Revenging a slain master, settling even the most trivial dispute with to-the-death combat to be followed by more ass kicking. The action is amazing, funny at times, always pretty lighhearted. FROM THE ROTTENTOMATOES: “A martial arts protege (Li) leads his classmates in revolt after their teacher is poisoned by the invading Japanese. The final fight scene is arguably one of the best of all time. Fights choreographed by Yuen Wo Ping, action director of THE MATRIX”

3) Sympathy for Mr Vengeance

Have you ever had a day where nothing seems to be going right… so you try something to improve the situation by doing something a little drastic, but that only leads to the situation getting even worse, then you try to fix what you did wrong and it gets even worse still… and then a giant elephant shits on your face? Yeah well… that’s Sympathy for Mr Vengence. A heart breaking, brutal and viciously violent story that leaves you wondering if you should be cheering for the “hero” or not all the way through. FROM MSN MOVIES: “Korean director Park Chan-wook followed up his highly acclaimed Joint Security Area with this tale of a deaf mute named Ryu (Shin Ha-kyun) trying to help his sister (Lim Ji-Eun) get a kidney transplant. Because his blood type is incompatible and no donors are available, he turns to a group of black-market organ dealers who offer to find one in return for one of his and ten million won. The dealers rip him off, so Ryu conspires with his girlfriend, a political activist, to kidnap his former boss’ young daughter and ransom her for the ten million won. But a horrible complication ruins their plans and things begin to spiral out of control as the girl’s father (Song Kang-ho) decides to take matters into his own hands with the help of a sympathetic cop.”

4) Hero

One of the rare films that actually got a North American wide release so I probably shouldn’t even put it on this list… but I know ludicrous numbers of people who haven’t seen it, so here it is. Forget just Asian film… Hero is one of the most beautifully shot films in the history of cinema. Every single solitary frame of this movie is a pure work of art. The use of color is like nothing I have ever seen before. You could watch this film on mute and you’d still have a rich experience watching it. FROM TRIBUTE: “At the height of China’s Warring States period, the country was divided into seven kingdoms: Qin, Zhao, Han Wei, Yan, Chu and Qi. For years, the separate kingdoms fought ruthlessly for supremacy. The Qin King was obsessed with conquering all of China and becoming her first Emperor. He had long been the target of three legendary assassins. To anyone who defeated the assassins, the King promised great power, gold and a private audience with the King himself. For ten years no one came to claim the prize. So when the enigmatic county sheriff, Nameless (Jet Li), came to the palace bearing the legendary weapons of the slain assassins, the King was impatient to hear his story. Sitting in the palace, only ten paces from the King, Nameless told his extraordinary tale. But then something unexpected happened - the King had a different story to tell of how Nameless really came to sit there. In the center of the intrigue sits Nameless and the ruler of the Kingdom, with only ten steps between them. Within those ten steps holds an earth-shattering tale of love, honor and duty, a story that moves beyond the reaches of history.”

5) Battle Royale

This list is in no particular order… but if it was in order, and someone asked me “what is the one Asian film I should go out and grab” the words “Battle Royale” would come out of my lips before they even finished the question. An interesting mixture of social commentary, violence and dilemma tension (where you as an audience member think “what the hell would I do?”). We all always knew those asshole teachers wanted to see us dead! This movie just fucking RULES! There have long been rumors of a North American remake of this gem… I’m open to that… but it stands very little chance at being as good as the original. FROM SPOUT: “In a future where society is on the verge of collapse, the government takes drastic action against the problem of rebellious teenagers in this violent sci-fi opus from Japan. In the year 2002, Japan’s economy has taken a dramatic turn for the worse, and massive unemployment and inflation have thrown most adults into a state of chaos; the nation’s youth culture responds with unprecedented violence, delinquency, and truancy. Desperate to restore order, the Japanese parliament responds by creating the Millennial Reform School Act, in which groups of junior high students are selected at random, sent to an isolated island, and forced to play a rigorous war game, in which all but one of their number are killed. Kitano (Beat Takeshi) is an embittered school instructor who guides the 44 students of the Zentsuji Middle School’s Class B through the deadly game known as “Battle Royale,” as they struggle to survive against the elements and each other.”

Tips to Start movie blog

I remember way back 5 years ago when I was getting ready to launch my own movie blog (The Movie Blog officially launched on July 24th 2003) I did a quick little google search for “movie blogs”. At that time it said it came up with about 11,000 results. I did that exact same search eariler today and found that google was now giving me 17,200,000 results. That’s a growth of just a hair over 1563636%

The popularity of Blogging in general continues to grow exponentially, and movie blogging in particular is something more and more people seem keen on getting involved in. And why not? What’s more fun to talk, debate, speculate and comment on than movies?

Without the slightest bit of exaggeration I can tell you that I get AT LEAST 15-20 emails a week from people telling me about their new movie blog! Some telling me I’ve inspired them to launch one (which is always flattering to hear), most asking me to link to them or at least mention them… and that doesn’t even touch the hundreds of others that start up each week that don’t bother to write me.

Many times they write to me to ask for some advice on how to get started, how to run things, how to keep things going and how to grow. Over the years I’ve seen a lot (hundreds) of new movie bloggers start up, only to disappear a few days, weeks or months later, so seeking advice from anyone at all is a pretty good idea.

So I thought I’d put together this little post on 20 tips for starting, maintaining and growing your own movie blog. Many of these tips are transferable to generic blogging, or blogging about other topics, but they are meant specifically for blogging about film. I’m certainly not the world’s biggest expert on blogging, but I have been doing this for a while, so here are some lessons I’ve learned:

1) DO IT BECAUSE YOU LOVE MOVIES
I can’t even begin to tell you how many emails I get from people asking me how they too can blog for a living, or how to get invited to Hollywood studio events and stuff like that. “Hey John, I just launched my new movie blog over at www.GenericMovieBlogThatWontLastMoreThanAMonth.com. Can you tell me how to get on the Studio press invitation list?” Good blogging comes from passion, and passion looks for expression for its own sake. When I started The Movie Blog I had no intention of ever doing it for a living. I just started it because I LOVED to talk about movies. Plain and simple. If you’re motivated by anything other than a passion for what you’re writing about, it’ll show and show quickly.

The other thing is this… the harsh reality is that you will probably never get 500 readers a day. That’s not me trying to be negative, that’s just the reality of the numbers. If you start movie blogging because you want to be famous or rich, you’re going to find yourself very disillusioned pretty fast. BUT, if you blog because you love talking movies, you’ll have found a hobby you’ll love for life!

2) START WITH A FREE BLOGGING PLATFORM
Don’t bother with buying a domain name, buying a hosting service, installing wordpress or some other platform you have to license and install before you get your feet under you. Most people who start a movie blog haven’t ever blogged, or blogged on a specific topic before. You may find it’s a lot more than you can handle… or you may find after doing it for a while that you change your direction and better understand where you actually want to go with it. For those reasons and more, I STRONGLY suggest setting up a free blogging account at either

www.blogger.com
or
www.wordpress.com

Just start your blogging there for a month or two and get an idea of what direction you’re going to go in… find your voice… figure out if you’re going to stick with it more than 2 weeks or not.

I know I know… you already KNOW beyond all shadow of a doubt that YOU’RE going to stick with it and do it for years to come! Yeah well… I’ve heard that before and 99.99% of the time they were wrong and ended up wasting money in getting set up for something they didn’t actually end up doing. Explore the water a little before diving in. It’s a good exercise, it’s free and if you do decide to move to a full domain name and server with a more robust blogging platform, all your posts are movable without much problem so none of your early writing will go to waste.

3) START SMALL. 1-3 POSTS PER DAY
Walk into a gym for the first time and try to bench 200 pounds. You won’t be back in the gym tomorrow. I’ve seen a lot of new movie bloggers burn themselves out quickly because they let their own unrealistic expectations, or their enthusiasm get the better of them and try to post 10 posts a day right out of the gate. Find your voice first. Write just one or two a day to start. As you get comfortable with how you express your thoughts increase it a little… but start slow. I know there is a lot of movie news out there, but pace yourself.

4) DON’T FEEL THE NEED TO ACT LIKE A FULL TIME BLOGGER. DON’T THINK YOU HAVE TO POST 15 TIMES A DAY
99% of bloggers are hobby bloggers. So are you. Even after you start small, don’t get yourself to the point that you’re spending 6 hours a day posting to your site. Quantity doesn’t develop your writing. Quantity also doesn’t build your audience… quality and consistency do.

5) BE CONSISTENT
I have more blogs on my RSS reader that post 2-4 posts a day consistently than I do that have 10 posts or more one day, none the next, 2 the next, none the next… etc. etc. Being consistent with your posting isn’t just good for readers, it’s also good for you as you develop good habits. Yes it’s ok to take a day off from blogging and yes it’s ok to have a day or two where you post a little more or a little less… just make sure as you look over your month that you’ve been consistent in general. Readers like to know what they’re in for if they go back and visit your site today… give them that.

6) READ OTHER ESTABLISHED MOIVE BLOGS
If you want to be a better hockey player, you look at NHL players. If you want to be a better scientist, you read the works of scientists. If you want to develop as a movie blogger, then read movie bloggers who have been doing it a while… and NOT just The Movie Blog. I have no less than 15 movie BLOGS (not news site… I have lots of those too though) on my RSS reader and bookmarks that I read almost every day. I don’t read them to get the news (I like to get my news from NEWS sites) but rather because I like their blogging and have lots I can learn from them. Some good movie blog sites you should be reading:

www.screenrant.com
www.twitchfilm.com
www.slashfilm.com
www.firstshowing.net
www.cinematical.com (they’re also a news site, but more a blog)
www.incontention.com
www.filmjunk.com
www.thedocumentaryblog.com
www.filmschoolrejects.com
www.rowthree.com
www.obsessedwithfilm.com

There are many others, these are just a sample. Don’t bother trying to write a movie blog if you’re not actively reading other good movie blogs

7) STAY UP TO DATE ON WHAT’S HAPPENING IN THE MOVIE WORLD - READ MULTIPLE MOVIE NEWS SITES
Blogging and news reporting are different things (I’ll get to that in a minute). Keep up to date with what is going on in the movie world by reading multiple movie news sites. Different outlets have different sources and focus on different things. I’ve seen too many movie blogs that always seem to talk about stories from the same site over and over and over. Diversify your sources a little. You don’t need to read 40 sites… but try to have at least 4 or 5 solid ones that you get most of your news from. Some really good movie news sites that I personally like to read are:

www.comingsoon.net
www.iesb.net
www.variety.com
movies.yahoo.com
www.thehollywoodreporter.com

There are many others and you should find ones that suit you best.

8) TALK ABOUT THE THINGS THAT INTEREST YOU
Remember what I said earlier? If you write without passion, it shows. If you really don’t care all that much about the fact that Pauley Shore just signed a deal to co-write 3 indie comedies in Japan over the next 3 years… then why write about it? Your lack of interest will come off to your readers in about 5 seconds. Don’t write just for the sake of writing. There are 50 new movie news items everyday… you’re a blogger, not a reporter. Find the things that you are interested in… for good or bad reasons. The things you have an opinion on. Focus your writing and your valuable (and limited) time to writing on these things. Writing on stuff you couldn’t care less about (unless you’re passionate about not caring less) won’t help your writing, won’t entertain your readers, won’t start any discussion and won’t help your site. Remember, quality and consistency over quantity.

9) UNDERSTAND THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A MOVIE BLOGGER AND A NEWS REPORTER
Repeat after me: “Just because I write a movie blog dose not mean I’m a journalist”
Even some of the best movie bloggers forget that sometimes. As a blogger, you are a guy standing at the digital water cooler with other like minded people just talking movies. The pure, simple joy of yacking about the things you love and hate in the world of movies. You are NOT a movie expert. You are NOT a journalist… so don’t pretend to be or even try to be one. You don’t research stories, you don’t track down leads. Sure, some bloggers do a LITTLE of this, but it’s not the work of real journalists who will spend days, or even weeks doing nothing but researching, reading and chasing down one single story. They’re trained for that… don’t belittle what they do by being presumptuous enough to act like you do the same thing. You’re a blogger.

10) FOCUS ON ONE KIND OF FILM RATHER THAN TRY TO EQUALLY TALK ABOUT ALL OF THEM
By “kind” of film I don’t mean “genre”. I’m not talking about comedies or dramas or thrillers. I mean “kind” in a more generic sense. Do you want to focus on Hollywood films? Indie films? Asian and foreign films? Retro films? Documentaries? Don’t try to be all things to all people. Here at The Movie Blog, I still write about indie films, Asian, Documentaries and the like… but the clear focus of the stuff I write about is Hollywood films. Twitchfilm will still comment on some bigger Hollywood films, but their clear focus is Asian and Foreign films. Know your focus. Talk about other things that interest you here and there… but keep your direction clear.

11) ENCOURAGE DISCUSSION
Ask your readers for input. End some of your posts with open questions. Encourage people to jump in the comments area or your forums and give input. Blogs work best when they are truly interactive that way. Blogs are meant to be conversational in nature… take advantage of that. Respond to comments as often as you can (granted, that part gets more difficult the more popular your site becomes) not just because it’s good etiquette but also because it’s a lot of fun. Without conversation, blogging gets stale pretty damn fast.

12) DON’T BE AFRID TO BAN PROBLEM USERS
This is an important lesson I learnd from Leo Laporte. There are a lot of trolls and flamers out there who just love to ruin good conversation, so don’t be afraid to ban certain users who make your comments section a hostile environment to participate in. Commentors set the atmosphere of your site almost as much as you do. Don’t be worried about traffic… there are 99 good conversation people for every 1 troll… ultimately your comments section will be a better and more inviting place for new readers if you moderate. It’s YOUR site, you decide what the rules of your comments area should be… but keep in mind the enjoyment of other readers who will come to your site. Rightly or wrongly, new readers will associate the environment of your comments area with your site as a whole. It may suck to lose 1 or 2 readers, especially when you’re just starting… but TRUST ME, the long term pay off is well worth it. Your rules will be different than everyone else’s, because your site is unique.

I suggest you create a clearly laid out “Rules for Commenting” page that sets out your guidelines for participation in your forums. You can see mine here.

13) WRITE ORIGINAL CONTENT
Most of your posts will probably be about recent movie news items, and that fine, but every other movie website out there will have the exact same posts as you do. One of the things that will make your site more engaging and increase your chances of a first time visitor becoming a regular visitor is writing original articles that aren’t just based on current news items. These take more time and more energy to write, but I find they’re more satisfying to write too and well worth the effort. Some examples of original articles that I’ve done in the past are:

The Cause of George Lucas’ Fall - And How He Can Rise Again

How Do You Handle Rude People In A Movie Theater?

How To (And Not To) Pick A DVD With Your Girlfriend

Actors With One Movie That Fooled You Into Thinking They Could Act

An Open Letter To Michael Bay Re: Transformers 2

12 Movies To Get You Started Into Asian Film

8 Life Lessons From Star Wars All Kids Should Learn

Economics Of The Movie Theater - Where The Money Goes and Why It Costs Us So Much

10 Common Sense Money Saving Tips For Movie Fans

Why Commercials Before Movies Is Worse Than Piracy

4 Rules Before Making A Remake

Original content is great for several reasons. First of all is starts great discussion. Secondly it gets the attention of other webmasters. Thirdly it usually gets you really writing about something you have a strong opinion on. There are even more reasons, but you get the idea.

14) IT’S A BLOG, SO MAKE IT PERSONAL
I really believe that as a blog, your site should be as much about YOU as it is about the movies you’re talking about. YOUR thoughts, YOUR experiences, YOUR opinions. You’re not meant to be an impersonal movie news site. Blogs by nature are personal things. Don’t be afraid to share bits of yourself with your readers and engage them every chance you have. The news is the same on every single site out there… YOU are the most unique thing about your site. Leverage that. Some will say to me sometimes that Blogs shouldn’t be personal at all… to them I say “Then you have no idea what a blog is”

15) START A PODCAST EARLY
When we started The Movie Blog Podcast almost 4 years ago, most people hadn’t even heard of the term before. Now, podcasting is insanely popular and very EASY to do. Remember how I just said to make your movie blog as personal as possible? Well podcasts are a great way to do that. It’s YOUR voice. It’s a wonderful way for your personality to come through and for your readers/listeners to get to know you. Podcasting has never been easier. With free podcasting services like:

Studio Odeo
GCast

You can be up and running in no time at all. It’s VERY fun, VERY easy and very effective too. There’s no reason not to start podcasting as soon as possible once you launch your site.

16) DON’T WORRY ABOUT THE LOOK OF YOUR SITE RIGHT AWAY
You can spend 3x as much time, energy and effort trying to nail the “look” of your site than you do on the content of it. The old saying is true… “CONTENT IS KING”. Find a decent template or theme to start with and just go with that for now. You have LOTS of time to think about the look and design of your sight. You can slowly evolve it as you go. Invest the majority of your creative efforts towards your writing and your content. The look will come… and then you’ll change it 100 times. Don’t sweat it right now. Get started, get writing and let the rest evolve over time. Hell… just look at how successful Ain’t It Cool News is, and that’s the most ass ugly site on the net! Content first… then look.

17) LEARN THAT IMDB IS YOUR FRIEND
The Internet Movie Data Base is the single best movie information resource site on the web and has several applications for those of us who run movie blogs:

a) Links to the appropriate IMDB pages give readers quick access to more information regarding an actor or movie. When you mention a movie or actor, try to link to their respective IMDB pages when applicable.

b) Doing simple checks on IMDB rounds out your articles more and gives you tons of info in just one page

c) Whenever you’re about to write a post on a particular actor, or reference them in some meaningful way, ALWAYS check their individual IMDB page. It’ll help you avoid little embarrassing mistakes like saying “Matthew McConaughey has never acted in a thriller before” when a quick IMDB check would have reminded you about “Frailty”.

There are a thousand other applications for IMDB information usage. Get acquainted with it if you’re not already and make it your most valuable online resource, not just as a blog writer, but also as a film fan.

18) LEARN THAT ROTTEN TOMATOES AND META CRITIC ARE YOUR FRIENDS
When writing a movie blog, it’s not only valuable to clearly communicate your thoughts and opinions, but also understand the context into which you’re communicating them. Sites like Rotten Tomatoes and Meta Critic are NOT the be all and end all of declaring a movie good or bad, but they do give you insight as to what the general consensus is about a particular movie. This information should NEVER change your opinion, but rather help you better express your opinion in the light of the prevailing thoughts other people have regarding your subject.

19) IF YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND FILM IS SUBJECTIVE, DON’T WRITE A SINGLE WORD UNTIL YOU DO
There is nothing more annoying then some guy who thinks he is the defacto knowledge depository for film. You know the type… they’re basically the guys from High Fidelity, except about movies. If you disagree with their assessment of a film, you just don’t know what you’re talking about. I HATE those guys. Don’t get me wrong, you should have an opinion (see next point) and stand by it if you believe in it… but…

You have to understand that film is art, and as art, different people will look at it, experiences it, engage it and ultimately have different reactions to it. 15 people can stand in front of a piece of art and see 15 different things even though they’re looking at the exact same piece. Have an opinion, debate other opinions, but understand that in the end, it’s all subjective and just because you think one thing about a movie doesn’t mean another person is an idiot for not sharing the same opinion or having the same experience as you did. Until you have a grasp of that one key truth, do us all a favor and don’t start your blog until you do.

20) DON’T BE SPINELESS! HAVE AN OPINION AND EXPRESS IT REGARDLESS IF IT’S POPULAR OR NOT
As I mentioned earlier, every bit of movie news you talk about on your site is also being talked about on about 17 million other movie sites and blogs around the web. The single most important thing that makes your site unique from theirs is not your design or your pretty graphics or your oh so cleaver slogan… no… the most unique thing about your site is…

is cars are better in summer!

Not only have I starred in several TV shows and one kick-ass movie, I've now bought a popular car blog (and with it, a devoted writer group!).

So, starting tomorrow, we'll redirect the traffic from this site over to my main site. The issue initially was "Will people who are looking for car information want information on me, Summer Glau?" After looking in the mirror, I decided yes. I'm so shiny! Not only that, but if they were looking for car information, they were so very disappointed. Unless there were links to pics of me, then they might have been somewhat happy.

Anyway, I like dancing, sci-fi and fans devoted solely to me. The new site will require pop-ups, registration and an HTML-only newsletter. Once we collect your IP address, we'll sign you up automatically. If any of this causes you trouble, remember: I can kill you with my brain.

Sweetly,
RiverSummer

volvo

So we're reading the blokes at autoblog who wrote: Sinking Swede? Ford devalues Volvo. First of all, way to hurt Volvo's feelings. Leave it to an airplane dude to be so cold and callous (but, nice hair). Second, eh, we'd devalue them, too.

So, what we're getting at is -- a new Friday game! That's right. This new game is What Vehicle is (manufacturer) Going To Kill Off Next?

Up this week (in alphabetical order): Volvo

Volvo's Lineup (with sales for 2007):

S40: 18,215 -26.3%
S60: 18,521 -28.2%
S80: 12,354 125.%
V50: 2,856 -31.2%
V70: 3,769 -32.7%
XC70: 12,630 -3.9%
XC90: 31,358 -5.7%
C30: 2,103 100%
C70: 4,548 15.4%

So, who is in the running? Well, maybe the S40, S60, V50 and V70. Let's boot out the V70 because it's going to be all new for 2008 (the current V70 was very long in the tooth... but the new V70 gets frakkin' horrible gas mileage... holy cow must Volvo engineers be feeling mighty low at this point). So, we have the S40, S60 and V50. Let's also boot the S60 because Volvo is rumored to be making the XC60, so maybe that means an upgrade for the regular S60 as well.

So now we're down to the wee S40/V50. We recall reading Volvo is interested in a 5-door version of the C30 (which is a horrible mistake), we think the next Volvo to get the axe will be: V50.

Long live the Volvo V50.