Today’s Post by Joe Farace
“The whole of life is just like watching a film. Only it’s as though you always get in ten minutes after the big picture has started, and no-one will tell you the plot, so you have to work it out all yourself from the clues.” ―
Recently I’ve been getting some questions from readers of my Movie Club posts on this blog. If you have any questions, click CONTACT and leave them there. If your question is about one of the video reviews on my YouTube channel, you can also leave it under one of the videos. And if you;re not already a subscriber, please find it in your heart to click the Subscribe button. It really helps the YouTube algorithm so people can discover the channel.
Rather that making a Q&A video to answer these questions, I’ve made it into a blog post. Perhaps when the number of my subscribers exceeds—pick a bigger number than 66—I’ll do an updated Q&A video for the channel. So here goes…
Q: When you shoot your Movie Club videos, why aren’t you standing or sitting in front of a giant wall of movies, like all the other movie review YouTubers? Don’t you have as many movies as them?—Jeannie, South Bend, IN
A: Well Jeanie, I probably don’t have as many movies as all those other guys, mainly because I have to pay for all the movies that I have. At this point in my YouTube movie life, no major or even minor labels are sending me free movies to review, although I am certainly open to that. (See bottom of this review.)
The truth is that I don’t really know how many movies that I own. Is it more than 500? Probably. I didn’t know how many books I owned until Mary and I moved to Daisy Hill and the movers counted the number of book boxes they carried. They estimated it was 3200 books but that was more than eleven years ago and I’ve added some and gave away a few since then. They didn’t count the number of videos/discs that were packed. I really don’t know because they are scattered around in various clusters in my movie room. You see the bulk of my Blu-rays and some of my DVDs in the bookshelf above. The rest of my DVDs and all my special edition, Criterion Collection and 4K disks are on the shelving that supports my 65-inch OLED Sony TV.
To answer the second part of your question: I’ve been shooting my movie reviews in my studio because I can leave all the gear set up there and just walk in, turn on the lights, plug in the mic and shoot the video, which I do in one continuous take. Editing takes more time than shooting because I try to make it look good and like I know what I’m doing even though maybe I don’t.
Q: I like your movie review videos but the parts I like best are when you go off on a tangent about a particular actor or director? Thanks. —Bob W., Philadelphia, PA
A: You’re welcome, Bob. I think it goes back to my style of writing. When I used to write lighting equipment reviews for the print edition of Shutterbug magazine, I would also include lighting techniques and tips in the review not just how the equipment worked. The magazine’s former editor, George Schaub, once told me that my lighting reviews were “the gold standard.” It’s my goal to try to make my movie review videos the best they can be but also more personal.
Q: Why don’t you have a big microphone in front of your face with one of those spit, or whatever, protectors in front of you?—Helen, Albuquerque, NM
A: That device is actually called a “pop filter.” A pop filter can be made from foam, stretched fabric or metal screen and is positioned between the person speaking and the microphone to block “plosives,” which are those percussive P and B sounds that cause annoying low frequency bumps. I have a habit of smacking my lips which can also make an annoying sound and I try like heck to edit them out but can’t always. If that bothers you, my apologies.
I use a Rode Videomic Shotgun Microphone with Rycote Lyre Mount that was a Christmas gift from my friend Barry Staver. While designed to be shoe mounted, my pal Cliff Lawson suggested placing the mic close to me to avoid echoes and just out of the frame. The mic is mounted on a lightstand, and I use a long, cheap TRS extension cord from Amazon that’s plugged into a Canon EOS M6 Mark II. Cliff is also responsible for the lighting design.
If you are a film studio, movie distributor or label, I would like to review your new films on this channels. You can send me your movies—in DVD, Blu-ray or 4K Blu-ray format— to review for use in my YouTube videos to: Joe Farace PO BOX 2081 PARKER, CO 80134