Have you watched a short film today?

I thought I’d switch things up in this week’s edition of The Post.  Normally, I like to feature independent film projects from around the world.

By the way, click here for tons of shorts, features, documentaries, trailers and more.

Today, I’d like to focus on Movie Bloggers.  Every morning, I wake up and immediately visit 3 movie sites:

1. Collider
2. /Film
3. Joblo

These are my favorite sites for the latest movie news, trailers and reviews.  I love these sites because they don’t just report the news and move on, they react and offer opinions.  Many of them are in line with my own.  When something big breaks, you know these sites are going to go further than just copying and pasting a press release.  Just look at how many Star Wars articles they posted in the last week.  Tons of analysis.  Great reads.

XTRA | Star Wars Episode 7 Story Round Up

However, the internet is full of bloggers who are passionate about movies and post thousands of incredible articles every day.  I visit them too and if you love movies, you should check them out.  In today’s edition of The Post, I’d like to share some of my favorites as well as a couple places where you can discover new movie blogs to bookmark.

THE LARGE ASSOCIATION OF MOVIE BLOGS

The Large Association of Movie Blogs (LAMB) is a massive database of movie blogs.  I’ve written about this site a few times and happen to be LAMB #457.

The Lamb is a community that opens the door to thousands of great blogs about movies.  The site also runs a yearly blogging awards feature appropriately called The Lammys. Recently, they completely redesigned the site to make it even easier to find movie blogs you’ll enjoy.

TOTAL FILM

A few years ago, Total Film published two articles you’ll be sure to love if you’re a fan of movie blogs:

600 Movie Blogs You Might Have Missed.

Another 600 Movie Blogs You Might Have Missed.

WHICH MOVIE BLOGS DO YOU VISIT?

SOMETIMES…  I SPEND A COUPLE HOURS ANIMATING THINGS…
I’M NOT THAT GOOD AT IT BUT IT’S FUN!

When I took a break from blogging over the summer, one of the ideas I wanted to implement was animated logos.  I’ve been working in television for nearly 7 years now and I’m heavily influenced by graphics, promos and marketing I see on a regular basis.  There’s something amazing about a well designed score bug during an event that makes me smile.

XTRA | A movie blog with a television style presentation?

First, I created a new logo for this site and then animated it.  The result was this:

I’m a big fan of the logo but I think I have a lot to learn about animation.  I had fun creating it though and it’s not hideous…  Right?

Recently, I found myself with a little spare time so I decided to take on another animation project.  I created the screenwriting banner above a long time ago and I’ve always wondered what it would look like in motion.  I took a shot and I think I came pretty close.

These types of animations always depend on the little details.  For example: My ‘S’ flames don’t give off any light.  I don’t know how to do that.  To create the animation I used Adobe After Effects and relied on products I purchased from Video Copilot.  Specifically Action Essentials 2 which is rammed with tons of pre matted effects.  Honestly, all I really did was drag a few elements on top of my font and tinkered a bit with timing and sound effects.

I don’t know when I’ll attempt another one but keep your eye on The Athletic Nerd YouTube Channel for more.

I created The Post on September 23, 2011 as a way to promote other artists and filmmakers on The Athletic Nerd.  Since then, I’ve published over 50 editions of The Post promoting hundreds of projects.  After 50 posts, I’m happy to report a couple statistics I’m going to obliterate this year:

- Over 50 Short Films have been featured.

- There are dozens of trailers for feature length films and documentaries

- There are also more than 15 Documentaries, interviews and behind the scenes footage.

- Finally, over 50 Web Sites featuring independent filmmakers, screenwriters, artists and movie links.

In addition to those projects, I’ve also featured several clips, web series and pitches from crowd funding sites like Kickstarter and Indiegogo.

I love publishing new editions of The Post.  It’s especially easy when my inbox is full of wonderful projects from around the world.

DO YOU HAVE A PROJECT YOU WOULD LIKE TO PROMOTE?

Email me at jason@17west.ca and be sure to include links to your project/website. (Note: I don’t review submissions)

Check out The Post archives here.

Don’t forget to check out my exclusive interviews as well!

I’ve been working in television for years and I absolutely adore my job.

On a daily basis, I’m surrounded by promotion, marketing, graphics and more crucial elements needed to pull off successful live shows.

I applied one big television lesson when this blog first began three years ago.  In our shows, every segment is packaged with unique graphics and specific formats.  That was the birth of the 620×300 pixel banners I designed to kick start every post I write.  I wanted readers to be able to scroll and instantly recognize the types of posts they liked to read.

These banners have evolved as my knowledge of Photoshop increased but lately, I’ve been heavily influenced by new graphics I see during sporting events.  I’m also a big fan of CNN show packaging and the design of their promos.

I want to raise the bar when it comes to how I package this blog.  So I’ve attempted techniques I’ve never tried before.  So far, I’ve come up with some pretty interesting stuff.  Then I thought about animating some of them.  This was my first attempt:

It’s amazing how much you can learn about After Effects and Photoshop when you see something on television and give it a shot.

Beyond graphics, I want to start making better use of the promotional tools at my disposal.  So I reworked the amount of ADs I display, I’ve created new ones and I’ve got a better strategy for inter-linking my posts.

Television shows can make statements like “Coming up next…”  Why can’t blogs?

That idea was the genesis of my new posting schedule.  Instead of posting 6 new articles a week, I’ll be posting 3.  On one hand, it gives me more opportunities to work on my screenwriting.  On the other, it’s an opportunity to structure this blog a little better so post topics don’t seem so random.

Later, I also hope to include more custom graphics within specific posts.  We just got a new camera and I’m very excited to snap some new images and see what I can do with them in Photoshop.  I’m hoping that more and more posts will have supporting graphics throughout the content and not just a title graphic.

All of this has been fairly easy to implement thus far, I just hope the result is a better blog that looks good.  I suppose my main concern is overdoing it.  I don’t want the graphics to become a distraction after all.  We’ll see.

A COMMERCIAL BREAK FOR BLOGS

Earlier, I talked about how working in television has influenced my blogging past time. While I was taking time away from this site, I started thinking about ways to implement the things I’ve learned in the TV world. Obviously, you can’t make a blog a television show but there are certain fundamentals that you can apply.

Like a commercial break? Clicked is a new feature on The Athletic Nerd that will promote posts either from this blog or other interesting places around the web.

In order to make this work, I had to increase the number of posts per page to 7. (Up from 5) I did this so I could update the ‘Clicked’ post and it would stay on the front page for two weeks.

The plan is to continually update the post and raise it to the top to effectively promote the best content I can come up with/find.

Have a site or a post you’d like to see featured on either The Post or Clicked? Email me at jason@17west.ca

It’s good to be back.

MOVIES, SCREENWRITING & INDEPENDENT FILM BLOG

I’m back!

109 days is a long time but it flew by.  It was way back on May 29th, when I decided to take the summer off from this blog.  I did it so I could focus on screenwriting, enjoy a busy summer dominated by the London 2012 Olympics at work and get married.

Well, I finished my screenplay, I had a blast editing Olympic highlights and I’m officially a married man.  Mission accomplished.  I also managed to take a few weeks to relax and recharge.

Today, I’m thrilled to relaunch The Athletic Nerd.  It also happens to be this site’s anniversary and the official start of my 4th year of movie blogging.  I still can’t believe how fast time flies.  The fact is, I love writing about movies, screenwriting and independent film.

There are a bunch of big changes in store that I’ll detail in a separate post but for now, I’m just happy to be posting new content again.

Thanks to all my readers who didn’t forget this site existed.  I hope Year Four raises the bar.  For those of you who are new to this site, I hope you enjoy the posts.  Please bookmark the crap out of this site!

It’s good to be back.
Jason.