Tampa Film Fan

you can’t please all of the people all of the time

“I was expecting to see some movie reviews on here and not just whether you like it or loved it. Very disappointing considering how much I’ve heard about your site. I’m sure the filmmakers whose movies you dissed would appreciate some constructive criticism too, and not just an empty synopsis.” — comment posted on a recent post about the Gasparilla Film Festival

Dear Commenter: I wish I could write in-depth reviews of every movie I see. That’s impossible, however, because after working full time (and then some) at a regular job (unrelated to blogging), commuting an hour a day, taking care of family members with chronic illnesses and the routine tasks/chores/errands of day-to-day life, I barely have time to post on my blogs at all.

I’ll have to win the lottery and become a full-time blogger before I’m able to write reviews of the numerous short films I see every month.

I understand your point about filmmakers wanting constructive criticism, but I disagree with your assessment of my saying “liked it, didn’t love it” as my having “dissed” them. Any filmmaker who exhibits his or her work publicly will hear much stronger words than that occasionally, if not often.

I’m sorry to hear that you were disappointed, but I appreciate your feedback.

tampa bay association of black journalists presents multimedia reporting panel discussion on march 8

Received via Facebook:

The Tampa Bay Association of Black Journalists is presenting its second annual session focused on multimedia reporting on March 8, featuring members who have done extensive work translating their newspaper or TV work into online platforms.

As we all work to try and understand these new media platforms, sometimes the most fun comes from getting together and swapping ideas on what it all means. And fellow bloggers, feel free to post this on your blog somewheres…

The Tampa Bay Association of Black Journalists’ website is www.tbabj.com. Please remember, however, that you’re welcome even if you’re not a journalist. Or from the Tampa Bay area. Or black.

Hope to see you there.

(cross-posted at www.sticksoffire.com and www.tampabookbuzz.com)

…and hello 2008

It’s the fifth day of 2008 and I’ve already broken several of my new year’s resolutions. How about you?

Most of my resolutions can be summarized in one word: MORE.

I want to watch more movies, attend more local film events, meet more people. Get better at small talk for when I meet those people. Be healthier, happier, richer, nicer. Write more often. Be a better writer, better friend, better person. Laugh more, play more, enjoy life more, get out of the house more. Watch more movies — have I mentioned that one yet? It’s pretty high on the list.

THANK YOU all for being bored/crazy/interested enough to visit this blog. I appreciate all your email: the updates (whether your own event or something you saw in the paper and wanted to make sure I knew about), the questions (it’s a terrific ego boost that anyone wants my opinion), the invitations (wish I could say yes to them all), the jokes, the constructive criticism, the corrections, the holiday/birthday/get-well wishes, the suggestions and everything else.

I even appreciate the crazy person who posted an illegible rant — calling me a bitch, no less — on one of my social networking homepages. A lot of my blogger and online writer friends get hate mail, death threats, insulting/crazy emails, stalkers, marriage proposals, etc. (And book deals, speaking invitations, media attention…) I’m not eager to attract any crazies, but I’m relieved to finally have my first online insult out of the way. Hopefully my blogger badge will arrive in the mail soon.

Here’s to a happy, movie-filled 2008 for us all!

revenge of the nerds, indeed

Let’s hear it for nerdy women! (Don’t panic, nerdy men. We still like you.)

Congratulations to The Park Bench, “a gathering place for nerdy women and nerdy men of discerning taste“ for not only posting a great list of 50 Nerdy Things To Do Before You Die, but for also being mentioned in the USA Today blog Pop Candy.

I “know” Ms. Park Bench — in a MySpace-friend-once-removed sort of way — because she’s the friend of a friend. When my friend told me today about the USA Today mention, I told him that the next time he spoke to Ms. PB to please tell her that I said congratulations and that I’m insanely jealous of her, but I mean that in a good way.

Gotta love that girl power. (Please note that the Pop Candy blogger is also a woman.) Call us whatever you want — nerdy women, geek girls, fangrrls or just regular ole amazing women. Just don’t call us while Battlestar Galactica is on.

p.s. For those of you keeping score at home, I’ve done 1 1/2 of the 50 things. In all fairness, I should say that I scored 1 1/2 out of 50:

• #19, part-time and/or freelance (half point)
• #27, sort of. Wasn’t underground (was at a SlayerCon), wasn’t the entire musical, but I do have the soundtrack and listen to the same two songs every morning on the way to work, singing along at the top of my lungs (half point)
• #38, sort of. Don’t ask. (half point)

I almost did #49, if that counts for anything. #8 and #21 are my top goals for 2008.

happy holidays

Was kidnapped by Santa and am being forced to work in elves’ workshop. Cobbling shoes is hard work. Constant supply of cookies and milk help somewhat.

Hope to escape soon.

is thanksgiving over already?

We’ve all heard and read the stories about people getting sleepy after eating turkey. It seems that merely buying a turkey puts one to sleep as well. Either that or someone slipped something in my tea, ‘cos I’ve slept about fourteen hours a day since Tuesday. I’d be asleep right now if it wasn’t for pesky things like work, bills, laundry and email.

Friends and family were ignored, calls and emails went unreturned, deadlines were missed, pies from scratch became frozen pies from the grocery stores, and so on. I managed to read one book (Darkness Falls – liked it alot — review pending) and watched the Law and Order marathon on TV.

Hope you had a nice Thanksgiving too.

no wonder kate’s blog gets more traffic than mine

How to drive traffic to this blog…mmm, let’s think for a moment….

Provide celebrity gossip and insider news…nope, that would require knowing celebs and paying sources for info and probably not living in Tampa (no offense to local celebs intended).

Use all the marketing ideas rolling around in my brain to form an actual, official marketing plan and then implement said marketing plan? Ugh, too much work, too much time.

Hmmm…posting sexy photos of scantily-clad women should draw traffic…but I once chastised a fellow blogger for doing that exact same thing…plus I don’t have any photos like that of myself…not to mention that I wouldn’t post them even if I had some…what to do, what to do…

Eureka!! My friend Kate — activist, wild woman, writer and former Tampa blogger who is currently causing trouble and raising consciousness in Colorado — rebutted a blog commenter’s accusation of pudginess by posting this photo of herself on her blog yesterday. You go, girl!

Enjoy! And check back often. You never know when the local film news and other assorted ramblings here will be interrupted by a post like this. Really, it’s in your best interest to read this blog every day. Would I lie to you?

good manners and basic intelligence are important online, just like in the real world

The people who really need to read this never will, I’m sure, because they probably only visited this site long enough to find my email address. But I need to vent or I will explode — and hey, my blog, my rules — so here goes:

1. When you, filmmaker or aspiring filmmaker, email me for my suggestions and help regarding filmmaking contacts in the Tampa Bay area;

and when I email you back to tell you I’m sick and recovering from surgery and it will be a few more days before I reply;

and then when I do reply — still sick, mind you — several days later with a long, detailed email giving you all sorts of useful info, including FIFTEEN (15) DIFFERENT WEBSITE ADDRESSES AND FOUR (4) DIFFERENT CONTACT NAMES AND EMAIL ADDRESSES;

for you NOT to acknowledge my email and/or to NOT say thank you is RUDE. C’mon, hit “reply” and type “thank you” and then click “send.” That’s all I’m asking for. And I’m pretty sure you got my email because I know you contacted one of the people whose contact info I gave you.

I never before thought this sort of thing mattered to me, but apparently it does, because you, Certain Filmmaker (and I use that term loosely) Who Shall Remain Nameless (consider yourself lucky on that one), have annoyed me. You’re an ungrateful ass and I hope your film tanks.

Moving on….

2. If you read a casting call notice posted here, read the whole thing before firing off an email to me. I understand that you’re excited about possibly being in a film, and I understand that people sometimes make mistakes, but if you take a deep breath and read the entire post, you’ll see that the contact info for the filmmaker and/or film studio is listed in the post. If you email me asking to be in my film and telling me how great my film sounds and how you’ll be perfect for the part, I can’t help you. Not my film. Not my casting call. Not my film studio. Not my casting call. I’m just the conduit for this information, which is why my post will say something like “email joe.filmmaker(at)greatfilm.com for more info.” You’ll have to read the script if you get the part, so practicing your reading here will come in handy.

And finally…

3. If you send me your casting call info and you include your email address, great. If that email address is actually checked by a living person instead of either a trained monkey or an automated email reply system, even better.

That way, when I reply to Overexcited Wannabe Actor from example #2 to tell him/her to email you instead because I’m not having a casting call because I’m not making a film;

and when I then forward you the email I sent to Overexcited Wannabe Actor as a courtesy to you, so you’ll know of his/her interest,

you WON’T email me asking for my bio/details so I can be considered for the casting call.

And, if on the odd chance that you send me that email anyway, when I write you back explaining all of the above, you won’t then SEND ME ANOTHER EMAIL ASKING FOR MY BIO/DETAILS SO I CAN BE CONSIDERED FOR THE CASTING CALL.

If you do send me that nonsensical email twice, I hope your email address is set up with some sort of automated email reply that goes to everyone, because if it’s a trained monkey, you’ve overpaid. And if it’s a real person replying to those emails, then…I’m speechless, give me a minute please…then…I hope that person isn’t also in charge of your film’s budget.

Exhale….ok, I feel better now. Although I think I’m still gonna have to dive into a bowlful of peanut butter and chocolate ice cream to make today disappear and get my heart rate to slow down. I expect I’ll be back to normal tomorrow. Or not. Whatever.

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It’s been an odd week.

Earlier this month I returned to my Real Job after a six-week absence and managed to work an entire four days before getting sick and being told by the doctor to stay home. So I missed four days of work. I came back on Monday and have worked four days this week. Today will be the fifth day of working, as long as I can break the four day cycle that has come into existence. I’m a little worried that I’m gonna get hit by a truck before I make it safely into the office this morning.

And it’s pretty weird that it was more difficult for me to catch up this week after only four days than it was originally to catch up after six weeks. I don’t get it.

It’s also been a week of coincidences.

**On Sunday I posted here about Cary Elwes not looking the same as he did in The Princess Bride and then a couple of days later, the blog Talking Moviezzz writes about the 20th anniversary of The Princess Bride. Twenty years already!! I guess that explains what I wrote about.

**On Monday, I posted here about Brittany Snow being honored by the Gasparilla Film Festival in February and then the next day local film critic Steve Persall posted the same news on his blog. That’s not the coincidence, because news is news and multiple blogs will write on the same topic or share the same info. No, the co-inky-dink is that Persall posted the exact photo of Snow that I came thisclose to posting here. After looking at several photos, I narrowed it down to two pics…thought long and hard…couldn’t decide…realized I was spending way too much time deciding….and posted one. And Persall posted the other one.

**The writers and readers of a local blog I write for are getting together tonight. And so are the writers and readers of a local website I write for. Tonight.

Months and months — years? — of sitting at home and now I have two events to attend in the same night. I know, I know, spend some time at one event and some time at the other…easy solution, quit my whining. That’s what I’m going to do. It’s just that both of these get-togethers are events where I want to spend every minute there, to be the first one to arrive and the last one to leave.

Unless there’s some incredible time manipulation/cloning/virtual reality device invented and perfected by 5 p.m. today, I’m planning to go here first for a couple of hours and then head here.

**Speaking of writing for local websites, my FANGRRL column over at CrazedFanBoy.com last week was about the fall TV season so far. I griped a little bit about how disappointed I’ve been in NBC’s new show Bionic Woman. So guess what happened next? (Hint: it involves a coincidence.) Yesterday local media critic Eric Deggans posted on his blog his analysis of what is wrong with Bionic Woman.

I told you it was an odd week. If only I could use this new superpower of mine for the good of humanity. Or at least my own personal gain.

I’ll give it a try:

I am officially posting, here and now, that no one in the world will go hungry ever again and that Britney Spears will always wear underwear. (This is the “good for humanity” part, but I must confess that both of these would make me happy and Spears really needs some undies.)

Also, I will win the biggest lottery jackpot in history, be able to eat whatever I want without gaining a pound, and age gracefully. (This, of course, is the “personal gain” portion, although you could make the argument that some of this might also benefit humanity.)

I’ll let you know how it goes.

take a look at the new calendar of events page

I’m trying something new with the Calendar of Events page. Let me know what you think.