billy.soistmann.com

Happy New Year!

I am not a big fan of New Year’s Resolutions. They seem hokey and forced, and most don’t last more than a week. However, I tend to make goals for myself throughout the year, and the beginning of the year is no exception. So on the first day of the year, I’d like to lay out some goals for myself for the following 12 months. Writing things down always helps, so why not use this space to set some things in stone. In a year, I’m sure some of my thoughts will have changed, so it will be interesting to take a look back at this post.

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In the past year, I’ve started to really focus on my writing. Although I had dabbled in blogging before, in January last year I started a WordPress.com blog and wrote for a while on it. Then in March I was contacted by Matthew Snider at Atomic Popcorn and asked to write news articles on that site. I was thrilled and wrote daily film news over there. After my trip to Germany in May/June I decided to focus on movie reviews instead. After starting in July, I was recognized as press in Philadelphia and have been fortunate enough to be invited to press screenings. I have continued writing movie reviews for the site although recently I’ve written less and less. In September I began writing a weekly home video column for Cinedork, which I haven’t written in weeks. And while I’ve been extremely busy for the past month, that is no reason to neglect writing.

So one of my priorities this year is to get into the habit of writing as much as I possibly can. But I’ll need specifics if I’m going to get anywhere. My first step was creating this home page at the end of November. I really envisioned a place where I could compile everything I write, primarily for my own benefit. So I went back and added links to my previous film reviews. Then, when I would write new movie review for Atomic Popcorn, I would put the teaser here and link to the full article. I also tweaked the CSS to my liking and created a movie review table. Then I neglected this site as well. Well now I’m back with a new idea for how I can do this. Of course it’s not perfect, but we’ll see how it goes.

This year will be a period of transition for me. In June I’ll be graduating from high school and starting college during the fall. I’m not sure where yet, but hopefully either Harvard, NYU, Chicago, USC, Shimer, Calvin, American, or Rensselaer. And while I’ll definitely have more time than I currently do to devote towards my own enterprises, why wait until then to focus on what I want to focus on?

So, let’s have some details. Here are my rules, starting right now:

• I will review every single new film I see. (“New” meaning playing in theaters.) Some of these reviews will be for Atomic Popcorn, so I will post the first paragraph and link. Others will be published in full here. I’m still sorting out how that will all work.
• I will write a Home Video article for Cinedork every Tuesday. I may or may not post a link here, I’m not sure yet.
• I will refrain from posting news stories because most film blog news is insanely redundant, bordering on plagiarism. If I have any scoops (I doubt it.) or I think something isn’t being covered enough, I’ll post it here but that’s it.
• I will focus on opinion pieces and features instead. By this I mean that I may talk about a news story and add something to the discussion, or comment on a recent event, quote, article, etc. Features, by my definition, are longer, more interesting articles such as Top 10 lists, retrospectives, what have you; basically they are special, hopefully weekly articles.

So, that is what I will be using this space for. Hopefully you’ll enjoy the content and come back. Please don’t hesitate to give me suggestions.

href="http://billy.soistmann.com/2010/11/22/hello-world/512px-helloworld-svg/"> src="http://billy.soistmann.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/512px-HelloWorld.svg_.png"
alt="" width="410" height="205" />So, I guess I should
re-introduce myself. I’m Billy Soistmann. I’m a high school
student, aspiring filmmaker, and writer. You can find out more
about me at About
Me (get it?). A while ago I decided to start a movie
blog. I called it Billy’s Movie
Blog. I wrote over there for a while, and got some decent
traffic, but decided to neglect my site in order to write for a
wonderful site called Atomic Popcorn.
I’ve had a great time writing for them, and I am forever indebted
to them for getting me on the press list. I have also improved my
writing skills and am comfortable with writing reviews on a regular
basis. And although it has been awesome, I want to focus on getting
more control over the content I create. That’s why I’ve created
what you’re looking at now. Welcome to billy.soistmann.com. Yes, I
realize that the name is a bit narcissistic, but what else am
I gonna call it? This is a place where I will post movie reviews,
news, features, opinion pieces, and other more blog-ish stuff. And
although this is partially for my own use to aggregate all of my
content, hopefully it will find an audience of its own. Now, I am
going to continue writing for Atomic Popcorn (at least a movie
review per week) and I also write a DVD and Blu-ray column for
Cinedork. As I do
not wish to post anything twice, articles written for those sites
will be linked to here. If you see a post here that sends you
to another web site, please click through. So if you’re looking for
intelligent thoughts on movies from just a regular guy, this is
your place. Relax, read some reviews, and start discussing. I want
reactions to what I write, I don’t want to just shout into space.
If you think I’m wrong, go ahead and tell me. Hopefully this can be
a place where we can discuss everything movies. I will begin
writing here very shortly, but for now go ahead and check out all
of my older movie reviews, which I will be re-posting here for
completeness.

Hey there early person! Please be patient and check back very soon for the official launch of billy.soistmann.com.