UPDATES

UPDATE 21/1/23: I am reaching the end of level 4 and the only work I have left to do is a horror-themed as-live radio show that I hope to do on Monday afternoon. Then I won’t have to go to college for the rest of the week, and the following week is a week off so the lecturers can mark our assessments. That gives me nearly two weeks off, so the blog is going to be priority #1.

Since I’ve been working on a lot of audio projects, it has given me more experience with recording and editing and has lit a fire under me. I have now decided to begin working on videos for my upcoming YouTube channel. I will need to look into copyright issues with using video clips from horror movies, but judging by some of the horror channels I follow, I shouldn’t have too many problems as long as I don’t use audio, which I won’t. I wonder how Watchmojo, CinemaSins, Screen Junkies, and DeadMeat do it.

As for my 250 horror movie watch… I haven’t watched anything yet. I have more free time to make a start, so I’m not worried… yet.

UPDATE 31/12/23: First of all, happy new year! Many spooky returns and all that. I hope everyone had a good holiday period. I’ve been on Christmas break from college; I’m back on Thursday. Even though it’s been the holidays, I’ve still been working away on my assessments, like I don’t have any hobbies. When you get to my age (I turned 37 on Christmas Eve),  you have to enjoy what you’re learning in order to do it; otherwise, what’s the point? Editing together all the audio my group and I recorded before Christmas has been fun for me, especially since the tone is comedic. I love the idea of finishing everything early.

Secondly, I mentioned in the last update that I had set myself a challenge to get to 750 horror movies watched. Well…

I love the feeling of following through on a challenge and completing it.

Next year (or starting tomorrow), I will be challenging myself to get to 1,000. Not only that, but I want to reach 3,000 films watched in total this time next year. Not including the 250 horror movies, that will be 300 movies of other genres. So, 550 movies in 365 days. Honestly, piece of piss. That’s 115 days where I don’t have to watch a horror movie and 65 days where I don’t have to watch a movie at all. It also helps that I’ve always been a binge-watcher. I will use this as an opportunity to get around to foreign-language and classic films. I have many lists, including the filmographies of specific directors and actors.

Roll on 2024 and happy new year to all!

UPDATE 16/12/23: I’m now three months into my course and working on the final units for my classes. Level 4 ends on the 2nd February and level 5 begins on the 5th—which will involve mostly screen work apparently. The screen lecturer has been on leave, which is why we’ve only been learning audio. I’m currently working on three radio shows and finishing up a 2-minute radio spot. I’ve even been working at home, which means I’ll finish with plenty of time to spare. The college breaks for Christmas on the 20th, so I’ll have two weeks to play catch up here and with my horror watching.

I made a challenge for myself to get to 750 horror movies by the end of the year (it was originally going to be 1,000, but since it was at around August when I started, it seemed impractical so I lowered it to a more realistic number.) I was at 660 when I started. As of writing this, I still have 27 to go, with only 15 days left. I am currently watching one now so I’m getting back on track. That’s today’s task. I’m also going to work on writing some articles since I haven’t posted anything in a month.

UPDATE 30/9/23: So I’m 4 weeks into my college course, which I am really enjoying so far. It is difficult being surrounded by teenagers when I’m not used to it, but nothing that takes the enjoyment out of it. I realise that I haven’t mentioned what I am studying; Broadcast Media. I am learning to be a filmmaker. The course covers various areas of the creative industries such as screen, radio, and podcasting, but you can progress into just screen production, which I plan to do. So far we have been learning audio and will be doing our own 20-minute (non-live) radio show. We are doing it in pairs and my partner and I will be doing a horror-themed show (I’ve been lucky enough to find a couple of horror fans within my class.) I am hoping that I will be able to learn how to do a podcast as an extension of the blog; something I’ve been wanting to do for a while. I will be using this opportunity, and the college resources, to make my own short film, which I am excited about. This isn’t stopping me from working on the blog; I just need to find a good balance. I have college three days a week (1 full day and 2 half days), so I still have four days free. I won’t be doing “My Thoughts While Watching…” for a while as it’s too time consuming. I will try and get back into reviews and horror tropes, along with a few other things that I have planned. Especially with it being so close to Halloween.

UPDATE 24/7/23: I’m aware that I haven’t been that active on the blog, and that’s for two specific reasons. First of all, I have a friend coming to visit at the end of the month, so I have a lot of prep to do in terms of tidying. Secondly, there are going to be some big changes for me personally. In September I will be attending college at the age of 36, which I am genuinely looking forward to. So preparing for that has taken up a lot of my time recently. I’m trying to post more content, and have been prepping articles to be written in what spare time I have left. Don’t worry, I haven’t abandoned anything. I still genuinely enjoy doing this and will continue to do so for as long as I can.

UPDATE 17/4/23: A few days ago I published a short post about the splitting up horror trope. I’m planning on doing a series of these, both short and in-depth. I have plenty of material to work with and I find it to be an interesting topic to share my opinions on. I’m also planning on doing a series of A-Z movie reviews with various themes, but that’s way into the future. It will require a lot of movie watching, a lot of which might be for the first time, so I can’t just put something together from memory. I’ll try and tackle it one theme at a time to speed things up. For now, I’m in the planning stages.

UPDATE 3/2/23: This week I have been working on revamping the site. So far I’ve added descriptions to the categories; which has taken a lot longer than I expected because I’ve had to research a few things (ie. the actors, directors, countries etc.). I will continue to look at other improvements I can make when I’m done with that task.

UPDATE 26/1/23: I am back to working on the “My Thoughts While Watching…”, as seen in the new instalment I posted today. I will also be working on a series called “Original vs. Remake”, where I’ll be comparing horror movies and their remakes. I have a lot of them planned, some of which I haven’t watched yet, but they are definitely coming. I also recently posted a movie review, with a few more scheduled to follow. I’m trying to finish as many incomplete posts as possible.

UPDATE 29/11/22: So there have been some inconsistencies in my posting schedule. I bombarded the site with “My Thoughts While Watching…”, then I just stopped, with my last one being on Halloween. The reason for this is that I have been working on my large horror history (for the last three years), and that has been my main focus lately. I would like to get back to working on MTWWs. I have plenty of content and notes, so I’m going to strive to do one either once a week or once a fortnight, depending on how long it takes me to do one. I have many other things that I’m working on, mainly lists that are half finished, so I’ll try and get those done too. It’s also worth noting that I’m currently doing an Open University course on creative writing, so that is also occupying my time. I work on my blog every day in some capacity; it’s the first page I open when I turn on my laptop. It’s usually my first priority, but since I’m easily distracted, it takes me longer to complete a post. I have plenty of unfinished ones that I have stopped working on to move onto another one. Don’t worry, I haven’t abandoned my writing; I’m just an expert at starting and stopping before finishing one piece at a time. That’s why my mum used to call me “half a job Linsey.”