8 Things That Cultivated My Love For Films

 

I've hit 200 blogs written here on A Blog By B, Thank you!!! to everyone who has ever read a blog of mine. I'm sure if you've read enough articles you know I love my movies, and I am a very nostalgic person. Since this is my 200th blog, I decided to write a more personal blog and discuss a few things that have made me the movie buff, nostalgic individual I am today. I didn't get this way overnight, so with that here are 7 things in my life that have cultivated my love for film.

HBO First Look

I have always, always been fascinated by filmmaking and the entire process of it. HBO use to produce a half hour series, First Look which looking back was more promotion of a film than a true peek behind the scenes. What they did share in episodes always intrigued me and made me appreciate at a young age the magic of moviemaking and all the work that goes into big productions.

Regular Cable TV

Through good old cable TV and shows like Dinner And A Movie, I was introduced to films like The Breakfast Club, Top Gun, and Day's Of Thunder. One of my stop and watch it movies Gleaming The Cube I first saw on the USA network and they would repeatedly play it in the summer.

Columbia Video

I was somewhere between 6 or 7 when my grandmother joined Columbia House and ordered several VHS tapes, a decent amount for me. Just like that I saw movies like Stand By Me for the first time, had copies of childhood favorites like Problem Child 1 and 2 and Don't Tell Mom The Babysitters Dead. New releases at the time Stay Tuned I wore those tapes out. I think my grandmother had that membership for a good 5 years, and I added a lot of films to the library during that time. In fact I'm one of the few people on this planet who still have a VCR and I've held on to many of those VHS tapes to this day.

Encore

Back in the 90's Encore was an upstart cable channel, and it kind of catered to the movie buff in all of us. I know it did for me for sure. Encore is where I first saw films like Fast Forward. D.A.R.Y.L. Breakin 2: Electric Boogaloo, Just One Of The Guys, Short Circuit. Something I shouldn't have been watching in Stripes, Cherry 2000, the first Vacation film.

Along with those films, Encore also is where I first saw the original Karate Kid, one of my personal favorites Last Dragon, and Ghostbusters. All of these were heavy hitter films that to this day have a impact on my life and my personality. 

What I really enjoyed about Encore and this was before the internet was that it was very informational. Encore would have short breaks where a host would provide behind the scenes information on the next movie about to play. From how the character of Sho'nuff came to be in The Last Dragon. Who wrote the script for Karate Kid, Eddie Murphy turning down the role of Winston in Ghostbusters. The station was just a treasure trove of movie knowledge that I ate up to add to my repository of useless facts.

VCR

When I was about 7, it was either my uncle or a older cousin showed me how to use a VCR, and the concept of blank tapes and recording. From there I was off to the races, recording sitcoms, cartoons, movies, wrestling events, even music videos. I got the timing down to when to hit record to a science, and thought a set of blank tapes were a gold mine. Like I mentioned previously I still have a VCR and just like the movies I obtained, my blank tapes full of random things I've recorded are still safe in my vault.

DVD's

Man when DVD's and DVD players became more affordable and started to take over from VHS I was in awe. Besides the clarity of movies the special features often drew me in. I use to really enjoy watching deleted scenes and offering my own opinions on why it should have been in the movie or I could see why it was cut. Next to the deleted scenes my favorite special feature was the commentary. While it could be distracting hearing filmmakers discuss the thought process behind how the movie got greenlight, made, challenges etc. I was a sponge for.

Movie Theaters

It's an expensive hobby (but honestly what hobbies aren't these days?), but going to the movies is something I have loved since I was a kid and still love today. The 1989 Batman film is the first movie I vividly remember seeing in theaters, with Karate Kid III and Ghostbusters II  being the first movies I remember seeing at a Drive-In a few weeks later, I was only 3 years old at the time by the way. I just love getting my popcorn and sitting in a theater getting immersed into the world and the characters. It's even better when it's a movie that was made specifically for the movie theater experience.

The first movie I saw coming out the pandemic was Spider-Man: No Way Home in 2021, just sitting in the leather chairs and eating my very buttery popcorn. I just felt home and thought to myself, man I really missed this. I still get annoyed if I'm running behind and miss a trailer even though I can clearly catch it online. The movie theater experience is a huge contributor to me being a movie buff.

 

Relatives

I grew up like a lot of people my age spending a lot of time at grandma's house. I had older cousins who were between 5-8 years older than me that were also always at grandma house. As they got older and aged out of certain toys or films, they would leave them behind. I would find them and take them in like a lost pet. So old VHS tapes my cousins left behind were my introductions to shows like Captain Power: Soldiers Of The Future and Masters Of The Universe. They also would let me watch movies with them I was a tad too young for, but they were coming of age and understood the films. So movies like Juice, or the Child's Play films I watched with my older cousins.

 We use to stay up late and watch music videos replay on The Box (if you know you know), watch Nick At Nite or get snacks from the store and have "parties" watching TV. Looking back this is the biggest influence on my love of certain properties and why I'm so nostalgic towards the 90's. It always reminds of the good times I just wanted to hang with my older cousins.