About

Who are you?

I’m a guy who likes writing, and at some point I got into the habit of writing reviews regularly. Films, music, books… Films more than anything. I will write something about nearly every film I watch and you can catch this at my letterboxd.

Some of those reviews find their way here, but not all. If they do, they may be tweaked or expanded on. On Letterboxd I’m (typically) a bit more relaxed. On the whole, I’m quite casual. I like to keep it organic, so if I feel like writing an essay, I will, but if I just want to rant or throw a sentence at the screen, I’ll do that instead.

I also like editing, which often takes the form of:

Fanediting – what is it?

Basically, a fanedit is an unofficial cut of a film. The Star Wars franchise probably boasts the most famous examples with edits like The Phantom Edit, Adywan’s Star Wars: Revisited and Harmy’s “despecialised” editions of the original trilogy. In some very (very) rare cases, fanedits have been granted official release on home media.

Fanediting can vary from “fixing” a film, to full-blown multi-film mashups, to restoration projects. It can involve re-scoring, foley work, colour correction, incorporation of new visual FX etc… pretty much anything.

You can find more info on Fanedit.org. Editor’s have to go through an approval process before their work can be listed on IFDB.

Are fanedits legal?

Fanediting just about falls under fair use, but it’s not something that can be easily policed. Suffice to say, if you’re making one or asking for access to one, you should own a legally purchased copy of the source material. No exceptions. And making any sort of money from it is an absolute no-no.

I saw one of your edits! Can I leave a review?

Most definitely! A review at the edit’s official IFDB page is always welcome, but if you’d like to just leave some thoughts in a comment on the post, that’s fine too :). If you happen to have your own blog/site and want to leave a review there? Even better.

What’s your rating system?

So I’ll admit that I’m not hugely consistent with this, but generally I score using a five star system, using increments of .25 (so 4.25 would be four and a quarter stars out of five; 4.5 would be four and a half stars out of five, etc.).

However, occassionally I will throw something out there like “3.9”. Which probably means there’s something niggling that keeps me pushing it to a 4, but 3.75 feels too harsh. These things happen, you know?

What do you watch?

I just like film. I’m interested in its history and enjoy all kinds of flicks from the last hundred years. My favourite decades for films are the 1950s and the 1970s. I can enjoy something that’s shooting for the stars and can also kick back to a schlock fest. I like to be made to think, but I also like to laugh. I love practical FX and so I’m a bit of a sucker for things like old, campy Harryhausen flicks.

What do you read?

Again, open to all sorts. But I have a leaning towards classics and golden-age science fiction. I love to seek out and read the origins of a concept or established trope.

What do you listen to?

A lot of different things, with a leaning towards classic rock, progressive rock and various off-shoots of folk. More than anything I just like music being music and making an effort to do something different. Even prog can get stuck in its ways and forget to progress.