1. Remember that people think of the 1980’s when you say a movie is old. That means about 30 years ago. By the time movies really got into sound in 1930, they had already been around for 40 years. My point is that the term “old” shouldn’t be used when describing a film. It’s confusing and unnecessary.
  2. The Jazz Singer was not the first sound film despite what classroom textbooks say.
  3. Never read the book before the movie. It only ruins the film for you. Not because the book is better because sometimes it’s worse, but because books encourage you to form your own incarnation of the material. That means you will likely reject or at least have difficulty accepting the film, which is somebody else’s vision shared with you.
  4. If you want to see a movie, never watch the trailers or read the full reviews. Pick trusted sources and if they say it’s worth your time, see it. Anything else starts your imagination and leads you toward issues with the film.
  5. EDIT: Having since come out as being a transsexual, and thus a lesbian, I completely get my reaction to watching this movie now. I watched Debbie Does Dallas on February 10th, 2010. Why do they think that heterosexual men want to see so much penis? People always seem to wonder why heterosexual men like woman on woman action of any sorts. It’s because they are both what we are attracted to and they are having sex. That means the whole thing is arousing instead of having a naked man and his shlong around to leave us limp.  I would rather imagine myself with two women than to see another man with one woman. Maybe it’s just me.
  6. Keep track of the films you watch and when you watch them. The information is invaluable for many reasons including the ability to visualize where the holes in your cinematic knowledge are located. If you can make a note of your thoughts about them, then that’s even better.
  7. If you are going to blog about film, do what you can to engage with other bloggers rather than trying to be nothing more than a broadcaster. There is only so much you can do, but the relationships you forge make the process very rewarding.
  8. Always respond to comments. People take being stonewalled very poorly and aren’t forgiving. This applies to receiving @ replies on Twitter as well or any social network you employ.
  9. If you are going to setup a Twitter account, do not start off by following enormous numbers of people to get a certain percentage back before culling the number way below your followers in order to look impressive. Early on I was followed by a beauty queen who was doing this and found a few days later that I was unfollowed and she had rigged her numbers to make herself look good. The point is to engage and form meaningful connections. Remember, you want discussion around your posts, not simply page views.
  10. Another Twitter faux pas is being spammy. This can take the form of tweeting many times about the same post you have written or misusing automated tweets. A good example of the first would be tweeting all the time about your current and past posts. It sounds good until one of your followers tries to use something like Flipboard and cannot quickly and easily find your latest post.
  11. If it is possible, use images from the film in your posts. Film is an audio-visual medium that doesn’t flatten into words accurately. You want people to be able to get an idea of what kind of movie you are writing about.
  12. You can’t claim to love film if you have only seen ones from a particular period or place. That’s a love of a particular period or place. A love for film means you want to see a short from 1910, an experimental film from the 1970s, a Deanna Durbin film from the 1930s, and a movie that was just released. It means you spend time trying to find films from Cambodia because you haven’t seen one from there yet. It means the whole of cinema is your playground.
  13. Know when to stop writing and say: If anyone else has any advice to add or disagrees with my “words of wisdom”, please comment.