Prologue

I love consuming media.

Film, television, movies, you name it. There's something about entertainment media that's really special to me. It's something that I was best able to put to words a few years ago on a trip to Disney World after seeing their live show Fantasmic. People call Disney World the most magical place on Earth, and I started to understand it that night as I really felt like there was something magical about that show.

I felt that magic, in a way, was real. I felt that the way we share our thoughts, ideas, and emotions was the most incredible thing in the world, and seeing the artistry and creativity that went into the show was an unforgettable experience. The incredible special effects (all executed live on stage) combined with creative practical ideas and swelling, emotional story beats that helped to share the emotions and thoughts of the people who made it with me and the hundreds of people in the audience that night. There was a connection between all of us created by that show. That, I felt, was magic.

I went to school for media production, and while I don't think I'm clever or creative enough to actually be a talented filmmaker I still learned a lot about and gained a lot of love for the craft of telling stories. When watching a film or playing a video game, I think a lot about how it was made, both practically (the camera setups and special effects in a movie, the programming and playtesting in a game) and creatively (the story structure, the narrative focus, the aesthetic design). I spend a lot of time watching video essays from people like Lindsay Ellis, Dan Olson (Folding Ideas), and Mark Brown (Game Maker's Toolkit) that talk about media in both broad strokes and fine details to understand more about what makes them work or not work. I like to experience media through this kind of lens.

As a consequence, some friends have told me I'm not very fun to watch movies with anymore.

But thinking about media on a critical level is probably what I love to do the most. I've spent so much time through the years listening to other people talk, and I think it's finally time I try to say some things of my own. I want to develop my own ability to think about stories and critically look at media so that I can have more to say of my own rather than just repeating what other people have said.

On this blog, I'm going to be writing about the movies I see, the television I watch, the books I read, and the video games I play. I probably won't have the most insightful things to say about all of them, and sometimes I may just talk about my own personal experience with them, but I hope that by writing about these things I'll understand them better (and hopefully help other people to learn a few things as well).

Stories, experiences, and media are things of magic. Think of this as your Hogwarts acceptance letter.