“The end, as I have learned, may well come before we expect. Don't waste your time living for someone else's idea of "employable." You have a finite amount of time; spend it on your own goals. They are worthy! Anything meaningful to you is worthwhile.”
This is a quote from a recent article written by one of my fellow Easterner writers, Davis Hill. In the article, he addresses how a recent car accident made him realize just how precious life is and that we should always be aiming for our own goals, rather than the goals of others.
It touched me, emotionally and made me realize just how important my own goals in life should be to me. To step up and do what I want to do. And I know that people always say that after they read something emotionally moving, they’ll change their life or look at it in a new way, but never do. Well, I’m not going to let this opportunity pass me by.
As you may or may not know, I’m graduating from college in a week and a half. This opens up all new doors and possibilities for me that I have only ever dreamed of. I’ll of course be looking for job opportunities in my field, in this case film criticism and journalism.
But one thing has been in the back of my mind for the longest time and has become one of my fantasies. To understand what that idea is, I’d suggest you watch this video of Doug Walker, also known by his internet persona, the Nostalgia Critic, review instant Shaquille O’Neal classic “Kazaam.”
Why did I make you watch that? Well, one, because I think it’s very funny, and two, because it gives you a good idea of what I have in the back of my mind: The idea of an internet review show.
While I’ve been at college, focusing my time on studies and projects, I haven’t really had the time to develop this idea in detail. I came up with some basic plans, but nothing too serious. However, now that graduation is upon me and Mr. Hill’s words have inspired me to pursue my own ideas to the best of my ability, I’ve decided to take this review show plan and see what comes from it.
So what exactly would I be doing with this review show? Well, I’d like to be something similar to the review you just watched, but still giving it my own unique spin. You see, part of the thing of internet reviewing is being able to find your own niche to look at. Something that you know inside and out, have immense amounts of passion for, but still being able to know that it’s not perfect and can still point out the flaws (all while having fun with it).
And for me, there is only one particular niche of movies that works for me in that regard: Daikaiju films, also known as Japanese giant monster films.
If there’s one thing that I’ve always loved in this world (aside from my family and friends) it is Godzilla. I can honestly say I would not be deeply invested in movies if it weren’t for Godzilla. and his friends. From an early age, I enjoyed the monster battles and how Godzilla looked. As I grew older and my tastes in films began to change, I watched the many Godzilla films again. To my shock, many of the films still stood up under critical analysis. Now, much like many of my other favorite critically good films, I can enjoy several Godzilla films on multiple levels.
This is something that I’m deeply passionate about, and no amount of people telling me that even the best Godzilla films are terrible compared to films like “Citizen Kane’ and “Casablanca” is going to change that.
As such, I believe that there is enough material within the Godzilla films and other Japanese giant monster movies to make an entertaining yet informative review show. I currently have a list of 85 Japanese giant monster movies that I could review, ranging from great examples of filmmaking to some of the worst piece of filth you’ve ever seen in your life.
Here are some of the ideas I have this review show. Let me know what you think of these ideas and if you can think of any other great ideas for the show:
-In the review, the monsters would talk to tell jokes, and each monster would have its own voice.
-Soda cans with my own custom logo on them, which I would drink during the review.
-The camera would be angled rather than directly facing me, with me looking at the TV.
-During the closing credits, show funny production photos.
-Ask experts on daikaiju filmmaking for some production information about the creation of films.
-When pointing out a films flaws, don’t be afraid to reference other work to add a joke, but mostly stick to well known works.
-Watch both subtitled and dubbed versions of the same film, and if there is a huge difference between the two versions, point it out.
-A Grading System - End the review by giving the film a grade between A+ and F-.
-Have a Highlight of the Film - The best part of the film.
-Possibly hire other actors/actresses for scenes that involve more than one person.
-Try to start every episode with a comedic bit before going into the review.
-Community Involvement - At the end of a review, ask the viewers what they think of the film and if they have any suggestions for films I should review.
I also have a list of characters that I could portray, mostly for comedic effect. One would be the reviewer himself, which would essentially just be an extension of my own personality. Another is a character that never speaks and gets into a lot of trouble, but is kind-hearted and only wants to help others. The last would be a complete opposite of the reviewer character, who is a stuck-up douchebag who is perfect at everything but doesn’t seem to like others.
Lastly, during one of my journalism classes, we created editorial boards in which we collaborated on certain writing assignments. But one thing that stuck out to me was the creation of a values lists: A list of beliefs and morals that the group should always stand for and stick to them as if they were the basic elements of who we are.
This intrigued me so much, that I decided to come up with my own values list for this internet review show, to give me some idea of what I stand for.
1. Be honest.
2 Respect the works of others.
3. Be myself, but be my best self.
4. Make work that I can be proud of, not just what people want to see.
5. When it comes to humor, do what I think is funny.
6. Don’t half-ass anything.
7. ALWAYS be passionate.
8. Show the power of daikaiju films, but don’t be afraid to show the bad.
9. Don’t be afraid to do the same shot many times.
And I believe that’s all I have to say right now. This is something that I’ve wanted to do for a very long time, and I really hope that I can make it enjoyable and entertaining. I believe my three years of film school and two years of journalism school make me very uniquely qualified for this task, and nothing would please me more than to see this idea come to fruition. Maybe even get picked up by people like the Nostalgia Critic and get paid to make these kinds of videos for a living.
I’ll end this off by saying that, if you have any ideas at all about what you think would make this show idea even better, or want to criticize the ideas, characters and values I’ve listed above, then please feel free to do so. Also, it would help me out so much if you shared this blog post around to as many people as you possibly can and tell them to share their thoughts and feelings about my show idea. The more people that see this and the more people that help me make this show idea better, the more likely it will get off the ground.
Please help me live Mr. Hill’s words to the fullest by letting everyone else know about my dream.
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