With Spring just around the corner there can be no better time to throw open the windows on your blog, let some fresh air in and do a bit of dusting and polishing to make sure it’s looking good.

I’m not talking about anything too technical or time consuming like changing theme here, just some straightforward tasks to help your blog look cleaner and run more smoothly.

Sweep up dead plugins

Have you looked at your plugins lately? I did and I was surprised to find that I had 3 still active that I had actually stopped using months ago, additionally I had several that I had deactivated but not deleted.

I was amazed with the effect when I completely deleted all of these from the Plugins, the load speed of the blog improved dramatically, particularly the Home page which used to hang for an age while the featured panel loaded, simple to do but very effective.

Rearrange your sidebar

The sidebar can be an essential feature of your blog but sometimes can look neglected and tired. Take a look at yours – is it a while since you freshened it up? Have a look at what you are displaying, is it there for a purpose, is it a benefit to your readers and therefore doing something for you?

I would say keep the ads to a minimum but have them in a prominent place, have some options for people to subscribe and follow you and also something to highlight other content on your own blog. Review it regularly and change things around to keep it fresh for returning visitors. Above all don’t clutter it up with useless stuff.

Dust off your ads

Do you have ads on your blog? I like to have a very limited amount as I feel that too many can make the blog look messy and distract from your content. I think it’s vital to let your personality shine through on your blog and making it look to commercial can stop that happening.

Take a little time to analyse whether the ads you display are returning any revenue, there’s no point in having them if not. Mix things up a bit and don’t be afraid to experiment to see what works.

Tidy up your sharing options

All bloggers love to have their content shared so it’s vital to make it easy for readers to do just that. Have a look at the options you use and make sure that you are up to date with changes in the social media world. For instance I still see many blogs which don’t have the option to share to Google+.

I am using DiggDigg at the moment, you can see it floating to the left of the post and below. I had been trying others but since the boys from Buffer took over development they seem to provide the most comprehensive list of options and tempted me back. Make sure that you configure the settings so that Tweets include your own Twitter handle when shared.

Reinforce your SEO

I must admit that I have learned so much about SEO since I started out on the blogging road and my efforts now are I think much better than in the early days. So one job to do this spring is to go back over all the early posts to review the SEO and to make positive changes.

Refurbish your subscription options

You would love to have readers returning to your blog time and time again and to connect with you in all the other social media places you inhabit. You hopefully have some shiny buttons on your blog to let people connect but have you reviewed them lately?

I did and was shocked to see that I only had options to subscribe via e mail and RSS and on Twitter.  Take a look at the top of the sidebar and you will see that you can connect at many more places, make it easy and people are so much more likely to do it, make it hard and they definitely wont.

Polish your profiles

Have a look at your profiles in all these other places too, are they up to date? Could they be improved, review them regularly to make sure they are kept up to date and to keep them fresh.

Remove unloved rubbish

Have a look at the visitor stats on the posts on your blog. Have a fresh look at the earlier content on the blog. Are there posts that are languishing, gathering dust and unloved? Are there some that are now frankly embarrassing? Consider having a tidy up and maybe binning some of the clutter on the blog.

Stand back and admire

OK – you have done all that and hopefully the blog looks cleaner and is working smoothly after all the work you have been doing. Step back and look at your blog with the eyes of a new visitor, if you find that hard then ask another blogger who you trust to do it for you.

Do this regularly and make any changes that you think you need to keep things fresh, keep the blog tidy and move the furniture around with your sidebar and ads to make sure your space looks good.

What do you think? Do you have any tips to add or regular routines that you use to keep your blog fresh and clean? I would love to hear your feedback.

Many thanks for visiting the blog today. I hope you have found this post useful and will share it with world if you’ve enjoyed it. If you would like to see more like this then you can connect with me by way of the options in the sidebar.

SpeedyPC Pro speeds up your computer, improves its stability and boosts performance by attacking all of the common problem areas. Thanks to its complete suite of cleaning and optimization tools, just a few clicks will have your PC operating better than ever.

*Image credits

Wash Me – Sean MacEntee Flickr

It gives me great pleasure to welcome Iggy Pintado as a guest with his article, first posted on his own blog, sharing his experiences of harnessing the power of social media communities.

You can find out more about Iggy and connect with him on Twitter @iggypintado and you can find the original article at his excellent iggypinatdo’s posterous blog.

Connecting Social Communities FTW – Personal Case Study and 10 Tips

In December last year, my daughter Rachel asked for my help to win a Bride of the Year Facebook contest that required entrants to have their particular picture LIKED on the contest page. As a connector who often gets asked what possible benefit there is in having so many Facebook friends (currently 4,500), Twitter followers (currently 36,000) and Linkedin connections (currently 26,000), I took on the challenge to apply my marketing experience to prove that if utilised effectively, you can derive a benefit from connecting a social community – for the win (FTW).

As you can see from the picture, Rachel won the contest. Her winning picture generated 1,657 likes, taking out the grand prize of an all expenses paid trip to Australia’s Hamilton Island for two. She won as a result of a carefully managed marketing campaign that connected individuals in various social communities to take an action that resulted in her win. This isn’t the story of the campaign – a good cook doesn’t reveal his full recipe. It does provide some tips as to how to connect social communities to achieve a desired result which I hope you find useful!

1. Understand the RULES and OUTCOMES.

The contest rules as defined by MMG Photo + Cinema were very clear: Eligible brides were asked to post a photo on their Facebook contest page. Whoever got more recorded “likes” than all other entrants legitimately by midnight 31st December 2011 would be the winner. The marketing challenge was to get more likes on Rachel’s picture than all other 45+ competitive contestant brides in 4 short weeks in December, ensuring her picture was in a winning position a few hours before the contest close time.

The RULES were very clear. The OUTCOME was simple: She had to win.

2. Consult the PRACTITIONERS (People in the KNOW, not necessarily the “experts)

As much as you think you might know about social media and communities (myself included), I asked for the advice of some the smartest people who plan, play and experiment in social media. I’m not talking about the people who talk the theory. I’m referring to the people who practice what they preach – daily. I got some great advice and support from Mahei Foliaki, Michael Todd, Keith Keller and Annalisa Holmes. These folks are in the social game every day and provided reality checks that I was grateful to be able to cash.

3. Marshall your COMMUNITY.

The people who want to assist you directly are usually those close to you – family and good friends – so start compiling that list first. Next are people you relate to regularly – work colleagues and good acquaintances – they may not ‘know’ you well but they may be willing to take an easy action such as liking a Facebook photo due to your connection. Thirdly, there are interest groups who you have some connection with – school, church, university, clubs, etc – again, if the request is simple and easy, they’re likely to support.

Finally, always apply network theory by asking every simple person to SHARE the request with their own connections at the same time you ask them to take an action. If the action is simple, they’ll be more willing to ask their friends to maximise the reach of the request.

4. Make task easy – LIKE in 2 clicks

The easier the better. The request sent to various individuals and groups was to LIKE Rachel’s posted competition picture. The first step was to click on a link to the photo and once there, to click LIKE on her photo – easy as. To make it easier, the request was usually done on Facebook, the platform they were already on. I found it harder to post as links on other social platforms like Twitter, Google+ and Linkedin as they had to switch what they were doing. However, it didn’t stop us posting there too!

5. Ask nicely … and personally.

I sent a direct Facebook message to many of my Facebook connections as did Rachel. I messaged around 20 connections at a time and sometimes a few more, using their first names in every case. I preferred Facebook messages as it was more personal and direct. Those who chose to opt-out by leaving the message conversation made it easier to send follow-ups to later and prevent potential accusations of spamming. The message was simple and included a direct link:

I hope this short message finds you well. I need a small favour. My beautiful daughter Rachel is getting married next year. She is in a Facebook contest to win a holiday on Australia’s Hamilton island for her honeymoon in a contest that ends on 31st December 2011. Can I please ask for your support to “LIKE” her photo via the link below and SHARE WITH YOUR FRIENDS. She promises to post photos of her trip if she wins!  Cheers and happy holidays, Iggy Pintado

I was ably supported by the communities of supporters like Tessa Gutierez, Mark Simmering and 124 others who shared my message as a Facebook post.

6. Monitor performance along the way.

I monitored Rachel’s progress daily from day one and hourly in the last 24 hours. When the LIKE rate started to slow down, I would send a mix of follow-up messages and interest group posts to get it moving again. As the contest was open to people in other countries, I sent messages to connections in their time zones to maximise their views of the messages. Also, it was important to avoid holiday dates like Christmas and Boxing Day as there was minimal social activity during these times.

In doing so, Rachel jumped from 31st place in the first week of the contest to 9th place by the start of the third week. She was in the top 5 with a week to go and hit the lead two days before the contest end time.

7. Get ready for plot twists.

The contest organisers were also clear that they could change the rules along the way. With two weeks to go, they culled the number of contestants to the top 10. In another twist, they allowed 35+ brides who didn’t make the final cut to allocate their LIKES to anyone in the top 10. Fortunately, Rachel was always pleasant and friendly with all the contestants throughout. It helped that she LIKED all the other contestants pictures and added them as friends on Facebook prior to their elimination. The plan now called for a closer monitoring of LIKE allocations by the other contestants and the real possibility of having to get more LIKES than planned.

8. Keep an eye on the competition (but don’t let it obsess you)

Due to the plot twist, closer monitoring of the final 10 competitors was required. In week three, I started a simple spreadsheet recording LIKES every few hours by finalists PLUS allocations from the other 35+ brides. By tracking performance, you could assess what tactics they were using via comments left on their posts.

9. Stay awake until the very end.

The contest deadline was midnight on 31st December 2011, New Years Eve. Although there was little one could do if there were any massive LIKES or LIKE allocations made in the last few hours, there were some tactics planned as contingencies just in case. It’s a little like watching final bidding on an eBay item – you must watch until the very end.

10. Say THANK YOU.

The day after she won the contest (New Years Day), I personally messaged all the people I knew who LIKED her photo. I posted my thanks on all my social platforms to maximise the message. I re-posted her thank you picture at the top of this post. So many people were grateful for the thanks and delighted by the part they played in being part of the success.

So again, I’d like to thank EVERY ONE of the 1,657 people who took the time to be part of Rachel’s success and for validating that you can connect social communities for benefit.

Many thanks from me to Iggy for allowing me to share his excellent article and of course congratulations to Rachel! Please do let us know what you think and share any other tips that you might have.

Many thanks for visiting the blog, if you like this post I hope you will share it with your communities. If you would to see more like this then you can Subscribe, Follow, Like and Add to your Circles using the options in the sidebar.

*Rachel’s image by permission of Iggy Pintado

Do you ever think about what lies outside of our beautiful planet? I love all that astronomical and cosmological stuff (Many thanks to @ProfBrianCox and his wonderful TV programmes for that!) and I do think that sometimes looking outside of the world around us can help to give a better perspective on some of the small stuff that we all worry about in our lives.

“My life has been full of terrible misfortunes most of which never happened”.  ~Michel de Montaigne

So here are 10 things about our amazing Universe to remind you of where fit in the grand scheme of things. Even if they don’t make your day feel any better I hope you learn something new to give you pause for thought.

There are estimated to be 10 billion, billion stars in the observable Universe, that’s just the bit we have been able to see so far! If you would like to see that in real numbers it’s 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000. Our nearest star is the Sun so the number of planets and moons is even larger than that. Kind of makes you feel small and insignificant really.

Our Solar System is located in the Milky Way galaxy, which has a diameter of about 100,000 light-years and contains about 200 billion stars. To put that distance into some sort of perspective a light year is the distance that light would travel in a vacuum in a year or approximately 6 Trillion miles so 100,000 light years is a long, long way.

You may feel quite still at the moment but depending where you are on Earth you could be travelling at anything up to 1,230 kilometers per hour with the rotation of the Earth, add on the 107,000 kilometers per hour as the Earth revolves around the Sun and you are fair whizzing along, hope I haven’t made you feel dizzy.

Imagine for a moment that the history of the Universe were squeezed into just one year. The first humans would have appeared at 11:39pm on the 31st of December, the Greek philosophers would have arrived 5 seconds before midnight and everything since the discovery of America by Columbus in the last second before midnight.

You could theoretically fit all of the human race in the volume of a sugar cube. That apparently is due to the fact that an atom has a lot of empty space into it so if all that was squeezed out there wouldn’t be much left. We are all just a load of fresh air really :-)

There could (again theoretically) be somewhere in the Universe where there is a copy of me writing this post and you reading it! I couldn’t begin to start explaining the quantum theory behind this but I recommend you read this excellent and entertaining article from Marcus Chown if you would like to learn more.

Recent research has shown that there about 10 billion stars with planets in our galaxy alone in the “habitable zone” – the distance from the star where solid planets can be found – many of which could in theory be capable of supporting life.

The farthest man made object in space is Voyager 1 which was launched in 1977 with a mission to study the outer Solar System. It’s flown past Jupiter and Saturn and is still going strong. Voyager 1 has so far travelled the equivalent of 119 journeys between the Earth and the Sun and is still sending back information to earth. It will need to fly for another 40,000 years before it reaches the nearest star system to our own.

Each Voyager space probe carries a gold-plated audio-visual disc in the event that either spacecraft is ever found by intelligent life-forms from other planetary systems. The discs carry photos of the Earth and its lifeforms, a range of scientific information, spoken greetings  and a medley, “Sounds of Earth”, that includes the sounds of whales, a baby crying, waves breaking on a shore, and a collection of Earth music, including works by Mozart and Chuck Berry’s Johnny B. Goode.

The disc also contains pictorial and mathematical instructions as to how to play it – that could be really handy if any of the ‘youth of today’ find it and wonder what to do with it in this digital age!

If an alien ever visits earth the respective strength of our gravity compared to their own planet might mean that they could leap amazing distances and heights, keep that in mind when you are watching the Olympics!

I know that all of this won’t pay the bills but I hope that sometimes thinking on a grander scale will make you smile at yourself when you are sweating on some of the trivial stuff that we concern ourselves with – it works for me!

“Worry often gives a small thing a big shadow”.  ~Swedish Proverb

Perhaps the world would be a better place with less conflict, aggression and greed if the Human Race could take a look outside of our own small world and remember how lucky we are to exist in this vast Universe and in this brief moment in time.

Please do let me know what you think, are we sometimes just too insular and should we think on the larger scale sometimes?

Many thanks for visiting the Top 10 Blog, I hope you will share this post with the Universe if you have enjoyed it :-)

*Image credits

Earth man – Idea go / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Sounds of earth Disc – Wikipedia

I have a confession! As I approach the second anniversary of the start of my social media journey I am no longer enjoying the experience.

There – I feel much better now. They say confession is good for the soul which is a good start but now I want to go further and make changes which will regain my social media soul and transport me back to the early days when it was all just so much fun.

What has led to this sad situation? I have been trying to be all things to all men (and women) spreading my time too thinly in wanting to be involved in every new community in case I miss out on something. As a consequence I am spending all of my time chasing my tail and have lost the wonder and excitement of discovering and connecting with new people.

Friends old and new are ignored as I strive to reach an intangible goal that I don’t even understand. Content remains unwritten and the blog languishes with only the occasional morsel to retain my loyal readers interest.

Let’s be honest – it’s all become a bit of chore and I have just been going through the motions recently.

So on the cusp of this New Year I find myself at a cross roads, I could take the easier and negative route and just give in or I could take a step along the positive path and take some actions to rekindle the joy I used to feel. I have always been a positive type so I choose the latter and have drawn up a list of 10 golden rules to follow to keep me on the straight and narrow in 2012.

We all have different reasons for blogging – my motivation is to have an enjoyable hobby, meeting and engaging with fun and interesting people along the way, enjoying the journey and seeing where the adventure leads. I therefore feel I need need this radical overhaul and while you may not feel the same way I hope you will find something here too keep you on the right track whatever your destination.

Keep a balance

My number 1 rule! By this I mean have some balance in my life and maintain a healthy perspective to all of my social media activities. I am not and never will be a ‘social media professional’ but at times I have been thinking as if I was and taking it all far too seriously.

I don’t use one of those fancy smart mobile devices so tend to pop onto the computer in between doing other stuff to see what’s going on. From now on I will jump in when I have time but if real life is getting in the way I’m not going to worry about it. My online world will be for enjoyment and connecting with good people and not for adding pressure to my life!

Ignore the scores

There are so many ways to measure ‘success’ and ‘influence’ in the social media world and it’s very tempting to pay too much attention to them. I started out measuring my success by the quality of my relationships rather than the number of followers, likes and so on and that’s the way it is going to be again.

So no more Klout score or Empire Avenue share price worries for me – maybe these types of measurements have their place but I do think that too much emphasis can be put on them. To me they have just become a time waster and a distraction so I am going to ignore them and concentrate instead on just enjoying the ride and building relationships again.

Be real

It’s very tempting to automate stuff to find and share content but it’s not something I’ve ever been comfortable with.  I could see some value in Triberr for a while and have connected with some good people there but I did find that having a stream of content presented to me, sometimes from people I didn’t really know, with a pressure to share meant that the spontaneity and random nature of Twitter was missing. I’m sure it works well for some but it’s not for me.

The same goes for scheduling. I can see the benefits and I am happy to have a Buffer button on the blog for you to use but I would like to send my Tweets and shares out into the ether myself, it just seems more fun that way. I like people to know that when I’m active online that I am actually there.

So it’s back to popping into lists, subscribing to great blogs and just seeing what’s going on to find content to share. If I miss something so be it, that’s the nature of life and it’s trying to be in too many places which has taken the fun out of it.

Tweet with integrity

I am going to get back to sharing a Tweet for the best reason of all – because I like what it says or has a link to great content. Too often in the past I have shared something to try to impress or because I felt that I might upset someone if I didn’t.

I am all for Retweeting something as a way of thanking someone for their friendship or support but I must to admit to putting Tweets into my stream which I knew in my heart were rubbish to try to impress someone who is ‘influential’.

I have some wonderful online friends who would be perceived as such but it’s not their influence that I admire – it’s their personalities, friendship and support that mean a lot to me so in future ‘influence’ is bottom of the list.

Read – don’t skim

I have realised that I have got into the habit of not reading posts properly, I tend to skim them to see if they are the type of thing I would like to share but haven’t felt that I had the time to actually read them in detail.

So a little more time spent taking in the content I am reading will allow me to better understand it and as a consequence to be able to ;

Share with enthusiasm

Don’t just Tweet – if content is good then I am going to take a little more time to share it around in other places too. Not indiscriminately though, a little thought needs to go into choosing which community will appreciate it.

Interact and engage

So many ways to do this but so little time!! Thank someone for sharing, ask a question, send a compliment, add a comment or just say Hi. These are all fantastic things to do to get more out of the social media experience and to connect to and build relationships with some wonderful people.

Stop checking those stats

Is it just me? Do you feel the need to check stats repeatedly? Maybe it’s just the OCD side of my nature coming out but I find myself wanting to look at Adsense, Analytics, subscribers and all those other ways to measure far too often. It’s not as if they have changed very much since I last looked!

It’s such a waste of time and can be demotivating if too much emphasis is put on the results. It’s become part of the social media disease that’s been afflicting me so it must go. Once a week will do just to keep an eye on things and to identify any trends I need to know about.

Hit that ‘Publish’ button again

I used to add 2 to 3 posts to the blog each week with new ideas springing up all the time. More recently, while I have been chasing other things it has been more like 2 to 3 monthly. Not good enough I say, what’s the point in having a blog if it’s withering on the vine?

Time will be set aside to write more again (Oh dear – I’ll have to think of something witty to say!!) and I will start building those relationships again so that I can invite some more wonderful guests to appear on the blog.

Be bold!

It’s so boring producing the same old type of content or even worse, no content on the blog or Tweeting out the same old stuff all the time. I need to be more adventurous again coming up with new ideas even if that risks falling flat on my face or making a fool of myself. Where’s the fun in playing safe all the time!

I need to have a more proactive approach to relationship building too reaching out to new people to connect with without fear of rejection.

If it’s not adding to the enjoyment then don’t do it!

The more observant of may have noticed that this makes 11 (I told you I was going to be bold!!) but I think this one needs to be set alongside all of the first 10 as my overriding social media rule.

So there you have my new social media philosophy. Having written it all down now I am sure it’s the right way to go for me. Two years ago I hadn’t heard of this amazing social media community and have had a wonderful time immersing myself in it. The direction of the journey had however veered on to the wrong road for me and I feel it’s important to recognise that and do something about it.

Now over to you! What do you think? Do you feel that you are on the right road or do you think that, like me, you have been sucked into a world that you no longer enjoy?

Do you think I am misguided and missing out on some wonderful opportunities by taking a more simple uncomplicated approach? I would love to hear your thoughts.

Many thanks for visiting The Top 10 Blog today, if you have enjoyed this post I hope you will share it with the world.

Wishing you all the best for 2012

*Image credits

Statistics – graur codrin / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Clock – Salvatore Vuono / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Opportunity Road Sign – scottchan / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

What a delight to be able to welcome back the lovely Steph Spiro as a guest on the blog with her compilation of the best films about films.

If you love your movies be sure to pay a visit to Steph’s first guest post Top 10 Dream Films: Reality? Never!. You can find out more about Steph and connect with her on Twitter by way of the bio at the end of the post.

 I’m Ready For My Close-up: The Top 10 Films About Film

This season we’ve been lucky enough to experience an influx of beautiful films about films, from Hugo to The Artist to My Week With Marilyn, and beyond.  Not to mention the otherworldly film special effect of kids acting with humanity and grace in Super 8 (newly out on DVD).  

Hugo and The Artist are two of the very best. Hugo is Scorsese’s story of a young boy running the inner mechanism of a clock tower in a Parisian train station.  The lonely boy with the big blue eyes finds a message in an automaton that leads him on a path to fix a broken film director.  It’s utterly magical and immersive (best use of natural 3D ever) and it brings you inside the feeling of love: love of Paris, love of memory, love of movies, love of love. 

The cinematic world constructed in Hugo is astoundingly detailed and painstakingly crafted by master film-enthusiast Martin Scorsese.  You don’t just watch it; you fall in.  It becomes an entire world in depth, a realer than real labyrinth winding through the back walls of a train station the way celluloid winds through a projector.  The audience is bathed in projector light, — lit like moonlight, like magic.  Together, we dream.  

The Artist is a film about the Hollywood transition from silent to sound.  The entire film is silent and it’s absolutely bewitching. In one scene a girl mimics an embrace, snuggling up to an empty dinner jacket in one of the loveliest moments I’ve seen in contemporary film.  

Remember this feeling?  Sitting in the dark, totally enraptured?  

Considering the recent (and extraordinary) filmic love letters to film out now, I’ve started to think of my Top 10 films about films, and I’ve created my own personal list (in no particular order).  Let’s go to the movies!

1. Singin’ in the Rain

No film-about-film list is ever complete without Singin’ in the Rain.  It’s a classic.  And if you haven’t seen it, then log in to Netflix now and move it to the top of your queue immediately.  You’re missing out on a grand musical about the film industry shift from silent to sound (just like The Artist), with some of the most insanely choreographed numbers of all time.

2. Sunset Boulevard

We mustn’t underestimate faded old silent film actress Norma Desmond, or we may end up face down in a pool.  Sunset Boulevard begins with the voice-over of a dead screenwriter.  It’s a classic noir-meets-Hollywood film about an actress who is resolutely and undeniably ready for her close-up.

3. The Player

The Player is Robert Altman’s genius (and noir-ish/comedy) film about a sleazy Hollywood executive, stalked by an unidentified and perturbed screenwriter.

4. Cinema Paradiso

Cinema Paradiso is a swoony film about film and a child’s love affair with the movies… sans cinematic kisses.

5. Fellini’s 8 ½

8 ½ is a spectacular film about a director stepping through reality into dream and back again.  It’s one of the most amazing films about film because it turns the camera inward and projects, sending streams of light deep inside the movie house abyss of the human soul.

6. Sullivan’s Travels

Sullivan’s Travels is an ode to comedy, a film about a director of screwball gems like Hey Hey in the Hayloft, determined to make a serious, socially conscious film.  He goes on a quest to discover what it’s really like on the streets, and in the process he meets-cute with Veronica Lake and uncovers the real meaning of loss… and laughter (with a little sex in it).

7. The Stuntman

Peter O’Toole is Eli, the mysterious omniscient director.  After the death of his original stunt guy, Eli catches a fleeing convict, takes him through Alice’s magic mirror via “Eli’s killer crane,” and turns the skittish jailbird into a very confused stuntman.

8. Adaptation/Barton Fink

Ah, films about screenwriters!  Adaptation follows Charlie Kaufman and his fictional twin brother into the world of book-to-film adaptation, as Charlie struggles to adapt a “sprawling New Yorker” novel, The Orchid Thief, and instead writes himself and the author of the book (Susan Orlean) into the story.  Very meta-mesmerizing.  Barton Fink follows a playwright into an abandoned hotel as he attempts to write a Hollywood screenplay.  Arguably the best film ever by the Coen Brothers.

 9. Boogie Nights/Ed Wood

I grouped Boogie Nights and Ed Wood together because they’re both about B movies. They range from the glittery roller-clad depths of a 70s porn industry disco lair to the black-and-white backlit world of the maniacal Depp grin.  Both films are essential and beautifully shot (directed by Paul Thomas Anderson and Tim Burton, respectively) about darker niche filmmaking, using richly interwoven narrative, and in the case of Ed Wood, a heartbreakingly faded Bela Lugosi.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9siMXbuc5o&feature=fvst[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrVUtd4EyWA[/youtube]

10. The Five Obstructions

I suppose this last pick is a bit of a dark horse, but anyone who loves the creative process will thoroughly enjoy this beautiful documentary.  Director Lars Von Trier challenges his mentor, Jorgen Leth (suffering from a creative block), to remake his 1967 film, The Perfect Human, five different times, each time with newly introduced “rules” for recreating the film.  The result is unexpectedly touching and wildly innovative.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YPmRMipnSM[/youtube]

**Honorable Mention:

Afterlife

Afterlife seems like an unlikely pick, but it’s actually one of the most beautiful films I’ve ever seen about the lasting visual power of a memory.  Our chosen stories are very cinematic.  We’re all stars of our own movies, and our life narrative is the strongest and most affective film of all.  In Afterlife, when people die, they’re allowed to pick one memory to take with them to the afterlife.  That memory is reconstructed and acted out in a theatrical setting and immortalized on film, strapped to the soul of the dying person as the last bit of their life that is extracted and kept forever.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DN9sr5wVkik[/youtube]

Chaplin

Chaplin is a moving and underrated biopic about Charlie Chaplin, featuring a masterful performance by Robert Downey Jr. as the silent film star.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBh_5F3aXTI[/youtube]

Get Shorty

It’s impossible not to fall in love with this sharp mobster-meets-Hollywood hybrid!  In Get Shorty, Travolta’s mobster, Chili Palmer, decides he’d rather be in the movie ‘biz when he finds himself in La La Land to collect a debt.   

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EoTEFOPwH9s[/youtube]

Venice/Venice & Day for Night

Venice/Venice is a classic and shamefully little-seen film about “love, romance… and the movies.”  Enough said.  Day for Night is Truffaut’s love letter to film, about a director finishing a film.  Both are excellent, Netflix-worthy queue-toppers.    

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGmP5iKgOPQ[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSqfhjt-Gg8[/youtube]

Mulholland Drive

Mulholland drive is tough to pin down as specifically ‘a film about film’ (which is why it didn’t make the actual list).  It’s a film that kind of writhes wildly in a Hollywood setting, and who can forget the Naomi Watts audition scene?  It’s epic and that scene alone is worth the honorable mention.  This film transports the viewer to a dark place of pure feeling the way only the best films can.  

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96R9MG0DxLc[/youtube]

Living In Oblivion

The only reason Living In Oblivion is listed as an honorable mention is because I listed it in my last Top10 blog as one of the 10 best dream films.  In fact, this is one of the most versatile and extraordinary films about independent cinema ever.  It unfolds in three parts: the first two episodes/acts are anxiety dreams about the making of a film, and the third and final act is a film about an anxiety dream.  Just watching Katherine Keener read her lines repeatedly, slightly tweaking them every time, take after take, is worth the add to your Netflix queue.  

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjoJjWvKiUY[/youtube]

Bowfinger

Alright, I know.  But give Bowfinger another shot.  Steve Martin’s film about the making of an alien invasion movie called Chubby Rain (that’s right… aliens invade the atmosphere disguised as chubby raindrops) starring a ragtag crew of misfits is terribly clever and wildly underrated.  And Eddie Murphy’s performance(s) are comic genius.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVGlKrziG5E[/youtube]

Inside Daisy Clover

Inside Daisy Clover, about a waif-turned-Hollywood sensation  (played expertly and with such precocity and sadness by young Natalie Wood) is strangely beguiling.  It’s also the first time we see Natalie Wood and Robert Redford together onscreen.  


[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IoAPSd-u1X8[/youtube]

And lastly, a finale: a couple of magnificent movie scenes (about movies):

The Purple Rose of Cairo 

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXi6xsq_dYs[/youtube]

And Sherlock Jr

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4LRqP0uaLM[/youtube]

Many thanks go to Steph for such an amazingly comprehensive post. Do you have any favourites of your own that you think should be included? If you would like to connect with Steph please click on the bio below.

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