Hello!
My name is Jóhannes Hrafn and I am a student at Menntaskólinn við Hamrahlíð. My interests lie in music, theatre and film - therefore I chose to start this film blog as part of my final project in English. I aim to review and analyze movies I like, both old and new.
The idea to create a film blog came to me over a year ago when Mark, my English teacher, asked me if I was interested in writing about films as part of the final project course in English. In the course, students work independently on a project that they choose in cooperation with their teacher. I liked the idea of being able to express my love of film in a productive way. I decided that a blog would be a good medium to publish my writing as I am very interested in web design and the ways it can elevate the text on the page as it is more visual and interactive than an essay. Being able to portray my ideas visually was fitting for the subject of film which is very visual by its nature. Another benefit of this was to be able to link my sources and quotes directly in the text via hyperlinks. Lastly, writing for blogs has the added benefit of allowing me to be personal in my opinions which is fitting for reviews and critiques. I started setting up the website early in the semester. I chose to use Weebly, a platform that makes it easy to create and design websites, primarily used by small business owners such as restaurants. Weebly offers a variety of pre-made templates which I was able to tailor to my needs. Plugins such as video players and slideshows are easy to apply. Over the course of the semester, I continued to tinker with visual elements and design until I was happy with the result. My goal was to create a minimalist website that would not distract readers from the text. A simple theme draws attention to the most important things: the text and pictures. I am a big advocate of equal representation in films and TV shows and I wanted to be able to write about that. I decided I would not be constricting myself to reviews as I also wanted to write critiques of specific issues in films. I had recently seen Blade Runner 2049 and while I thoroughly enjoyed the film, I was rather disappointed in it depictions of women and persecuted minorities. I chose to critique this aspect of the film and I think it turned out to be a more interesting read than a review would have been. I wanted to write one final review but unfortunately was not able to. I saw many great films and TV shows this year that I wanted to write about. These include but are not limited to: Annihilation, The Florida Project, The Handmaid’s Tale, 6 Balloons, Anomalisa and Children of Men. I had plans to create a list of my favorite LGBT+ films which would have included: Paris is Burning, A Fantastic Woman , 120 Beats per Minute, Tangerine and of course, Call Me By Your Name. I am very satisfied with the end result and I am very grateful to have been able to work on this blog on my own terms. |