I Have an Opinion on ... the State of IHAO

Recently, I've been watching a lot of movies.  Ok, that isn't very different from normal, as I love watching movies.  But I have been able to tap into my wonderful mother-in-law's Netflix, create my own little section on it, and start watching stuff.  It started as just a way to pass time, then a way to watch TV shows I wanna watch, and finally I bit the bullet and started doing movies.

"Bit the bullet" might sound weird, but I'll try to explain.  I am a man who loves film.  More than just film, I love watching them.  And more than that, I love sharing film.  I like being able to sit in a room with other people and have an experience, a shared experience, with all of them.  I like providing entertainment, commentary, information, and options as a host and a friend.  I like being a trusted source of opinion.  Or an untrusted source.  I like being entertaining.  All of these things together makes "Netflix" almost the antithesis of what I like about film: it is solitary, singled out, and feels almost cheap.

Yes, I understand that is stupid.  I am explaining it because of where I was and ... you know, it actually doesn't matter all that much.  Let me get back on track before I start running around in the tangent wilderness too long.

I love owning and sharing films, and sharing opinions.  Recently I watched a documentary (thanks to Netflix, because I never would have bought it myself) that reminded me how much I love doing that.  How much I really enjoy and want to be a writer and a critic.  I've already been Facebook reviewing any movie I see for the first time and giving it my grade.  But it seems that my friends aren't getting annoyed by it, but are actually asking for it, at least a little.  That is humbling.

So I decided to try to start this up again.

IHAO currently is a very interesting time capsule of years of my life, writing, and creation.  I could very easily delete all the former videos and posts and start fresh ... but I think I would much rather just start again.  Leave that elephant graveyard there for people who want to see me make a fool of myself or some of the few things I'm very proud of.  But I'm going to be breathing new life into IHAO.

I want to be able to have consistent content.  Good bloggies do, anyway.  And I need to have consistent, and understandable, gradings.  That way everyone can know what I am meaning if I give something a B or a B- or a B+.  So I'm going to explain those things in a just a minute or two.

I want to be able to do requests.  I love the challenge.  I think it is amazing, and difficult.  So I plan on doing that as well.

Really, I just want to be successful.  Not monetarily, necessarily.  But I want to be someone who, agree or disagree, you see where I am coming from, and can use what I have to say to help form your own opinions.  If you think I'm always wrong (the Hendricks Effect) then I'm still proving to be a good source of critique.

Anyway, enough babbling.  As new stuff rolls out here, you will get little bits of commentary from me, and I will answer it and explain it.  But first and foremost, grading.

I, Jessel, work very hard to separate my subjective opinions on what I am reviewing from an objective understanding of the skill behind it.  I actually very much pride myself in my perceived ability to do so.  I like being able to know the difference between "best" and "favorite."  And I grade accordingly.

A means that I believe the film succeeds in every (or almost every) way from writing to directing to the dude holding the boom mic.
B means that I can see some flaws in acting or directing, or somewhere there is something that isn't good, but the movie is still pretty well made.
C means that I believe the movie is run of the mill, not good or bad, with a lot of mistakes, but a good amount of good stuff, too.
D means that all the stupid or bad filmmaking or acting or writing or whatever gets in the way too much of the film actually being anything I would call a good movie, but it isn't the worst thing in the world.
F means that the movie just absolutely fails technically in every (or almost every) regard.

Those are my objective grades.  But I like to include my subjective thoughts as well.  So I use + and - to designate that.  The more pluses, the more extreme I either like it or want to make it understood I like it.  The more minuses, the more I actively disliked watching the film.  There can be A films I dislike and F films I love.  And that's why I chose to grade like this.

I hope that helps.  Because you'll be seeing a lot more from me in the coming days.  Some will be reblogged/rewritten reviews I posted on Facebook.  Most will be new.  Hopefully you'll all enjoy what I have coming, because I'm going to work hard on it.  I think.

~ Jessel