Keeping Up With the Conversation

Time for a little self-reflection.  Skip this post if you're not interested in the latest Missmediajunkie "state of the blog" installment.

It's been about a year and a half since my massive life change, and I had to significantly reduce my consumption of media.  The impact actually hasn't been as severe as I was expecting, and I've been able to keep up with pretty much everything I consider a priority by cutting back on TV and classics.  With new movies, I just have to wait until they hit VOD/DVD since theater trips are going to remain rare events for me for the foreseeable future.  More importantly, I'm finding it very easy to keep up with the critical conversations around media, through some interesting avenues.

In the past, I'd rush to see a new movie during the first week it was in theaters so I could talk about it with friends and enjoy the media blitz surrounding its release.  When I saw "Inception," for instance, I got to follow various debates and interpretations for weeks on my favorite film sites, read various reaction articles, and watch how it performed form week to week at the box office.  "Inception" was one of the big hits of the summer of 2010 and widely embraced in the popular culture.  There were already jokes and references being made to it within days its premiere.  And all the hype and buzz helped to keep my interest in the film high, and fuel my own enjoyment of it.  If I'd had to wait until the following December, when "Inception" was released on home media, to see the film, I would have missed being part of the wonderful fuss, right?

Well, yes, but it turns out this can be mitigated in a lot of ways.  I couldn't manage a trip for my most anticipated film of the summer: PIXAR's "Inside Out."  So I carefully avoided every article and discussion thread about the movie (still ended up getting spoiled for a few things), and waited until November when it hit VOD.  Like "Inception," this turned out to be one of those films I really, really wanted to see people's reactions to.  So I hit the internet and started digging.  All the podcasts and online reviews for "Inside Out" were waiting for me.  Dozens of interviews, opinion pieces, and supplementary materials were there too.  I didn't have to wait for fans to start creating fanart.  It's everywhere and it's fantastic.  And I'm so glad that reaction videos have become a thing, because after watching a few of them, it felt like it had only been a few days since opening weekend.  Now I'm wondering whether there would be any interest in a website that helps to facilitate this sort of thing.

The one thing I can't replicate, sadly, is being able to participate in those early, breathless discussion threads online through various forums and message boards.  It's still fun to read over them and follow along the timeline of the box office speculation, but it's not the same.  However, I've found that it is a lot easier to have conversations about "Inside Out" with people in real life now, because there's been more time for people to see it.  Only the rabid die-hards like Yours Truly really prioritize the movie theater experience, after all.  Mostly, normal people wait and see movies when it's convenient for them.  Normal people don't follow the Oscar race and treat the winners as recommendations.  Normal people don't have a list of the 75 movies they have left to see for 2015 (which is probably going to be over 100 movies if we're being honest with ourselves).  Alas, I'm never going to be a normal person where movies are concerned.

But that's okay. I can compromise and I can be patient.  I know that by far the most important thing about movie fandom is the movies themselves, and it's been a great year.  I actually have a solid top ten list already based on what I've seen so far, and that hasn't happened in a while.  The fall and holiday season look promising too - heck, my boss just told everybody to go and see "The Martian."  I've gotta keep my priorities straight though.  "Star Wars" and "Spectre" are first in line.

---