This is the beginning of a beautiful friendship

Indeed, it's outright cliche to use a line from Casablanca to title my first--indeed any--post [Edit: 1.18.08 I have now seen Casablanca. It was quite excellent]. Anyhow, with all the extra time i've had on my hands during this Christmas break i've done very little. Yet in the span of one week i've managed to watch six DVDs (three of them rentals), one movie on television, and two films in theaters. And suddenly it occurred to me: Sure, i've not studied film theory for years. For a while i'll probably sound like a moron as i learn how to avoid common pitfalls (whilst falling into them). Yet, if i find it to be something enjoyable, and there's a chance for a career in it--here's looking at you, EW--then gee, why not?

And so, despite my obvious lack of qualification, i am going to write film reviews.

In case you are curious about the title i've chosen for this page, beta movement is a sort of optical illusion that people experience when seeing static images with similar qualities. For example, a picture with a man on the left side of the image, and a picture with a man on the right side of the image, if shown in quick succession, may result in the mind bridging the gap between positions. Thus, despite the fact that you never saw the man in transit, you may report to an inquiring mind that you watched the man move from the left side of the image to the right--and that you saw him in between, where he never actually was. As you might imagine, this concept in rather important as far as moving pictures go, especially in older days of film in which slow fps meant that the film depended on people's minds to fill in the gaps--sometimes seconds long--between frames. For a very simple example, please feel free to examine the title animation.

I'm probably going to get a Netflix subscription for while i'm in college. I will also probably look into getting a job at Blockbuster for over breaks. That said, you can be sure that i'll find a way to provide a reasonably constant string of reviews, though perhaps not nearly as frequently as over the next few weeks while i'm at home.

So sit back, grab some popcorn, and let beta movement bridge the gap between my writing and actual talent.