Welcome...

... to Jurassic Park!

Sorry. I just felt like opening up this blog with a corny film-related joke would be appropriate. Now that that's over with, we can get down to business.

Business?

You know. Um. Talking about my Feelings about film?

I have no idea what you're on about.

Right. Well, the other day I caught myself spamming my Twitter feed with a multi-message diatribe about Sergei Eisenstein's complete dismissal of German Expressionism and I thought, "Surely, there must be a more appropriate platform for this." So that's what this is gonna be.

Uh... huh. Sorry; who are you, exactly?

I'm Leah Bartels. I'm a double major in English and Film, Television & Interactive Media at Brandeis University, and I just turned 21. I am a lover of genre fiction, a born romantic, and a believer in Method acting; just about any opinion I have about anything can be boiled down to a combination of those three truths.

What sorts of experience do you have?

Only what I've gotten to in class. From the practical side, I've taken courses in Screenwriting and Production, and am halfway though a class on Editing; from the analysis side, I've taken everything from American Independent Film to German Cinema to, currently, Hitchcock's Movies. (Expect me to bring up Hitchcock pretty often, at least for the foreseeable future. He's on my mind.)

I've seen Citizen Kane, but not The Godfather; Rear Window but not Casablanca; The Usual Suspects but not Schindler's List. My journey towards becoming The Ultimate Film Buff is still in its infancy, and in many ways that's kind of the point.

Oh, and I've read Jane Espenson's blog from start to finish at least twice. Which definitely counts for something.

So why should I be reading this?

Well... because I'm relevant. That up-and-coming The Social Network generation that's gonna control this industry in a few years? That's me. I'm it. And I think that that's valuable on both sides of the camera.

People are used to looking at literature with a critical eye, because we're told that we should—we take English classes from a very young age. Film, on the other hand, tends to be consumed without ever being considered, and a big part of that is because we aren't taught filmic language in schools. We pay to see movies with popcorn in hand rather than think about them as rich texts to be unraveled. This blog is intended to be, at its heart, a primer for people who don't know anything about film, given by someone who's still straddling that fence.

They're not always going to be in this dorky dialogue style, right?

No, this is a one-time thing. Promise. But I would love it for this blog to be interactive in a more general sense. If there's something you want me to talk about or explain, a movie you think I should see, a rant you can't wait for me to rant, tell me about it. I can't make an "Ask Leah" button in the sidebar, unfortunately, but you guys can feel free to use the comments as heavily and as often as you want.

One more question. Did you seriously name your blog after a Rent lyric?

Shut up Rent is awesome.