The Making of "Shaun Berk's 10 Movie Recommendations"

For over five years now, I know I can't believe it either, I have been writing "Shaun Berk's 10 Movie Recommendations" on a weekly basis. I write this every so often to show of what I call my "unwritten rules" which change some but not much. I will talk about what goes into my thought process of my ten selections. So if you are interested, continue to read but if you're not just wait for the actual blog that gives my recommendations. I will understand.

1. The rule that has always been in place are that none of my selections can have the same actors, director, and writer. Granted I have made mistakes that are not noticed until after the fact but imdb.com helps me in this process. Even if an actor makes some one second cameo or is an extra in a movie, that is the only movie with that actor or actress I will feature. I also do not have movies where that actor or actress directs, writes, or produces in the movie. This also goes for a director. However, I don't really pay attention to studio companies like MGM, United Artists, among others when selecting the movies. One exception to the rule is Disney but for the most part I don't look at production companies.

2. As people have read through the years, one thing that varies with all ten of my movies is with the year of the film. The rule I have for that is that five of my selections are from the 1970s and below. One of the absolute requirements in these five is that one of them must be from the 30s or below. I also limit the 60s/70s selections to two a week and why I do that I have no idea. The next five selections are the 1980s and above and the only requirement I give myself their is that one of the selections must be from at least 2009 or above. When it is year 2012, and no I don't believe in the prophecies everyone is talking about, then the requirement is 2010 or above. People probably notice that every week I have a short film. Part of the reason for that is to save time and quite honestly they are usually the older short films which may be cartoons, education propaganda, and some of the comedy shorts from then. Sometimes I use newer ones and every once in a while I do one older short and one newer short but that does not happen often.

3. One of the things my weekly blog lacks is themes because I'm just not a thematic kind of guy. In fact, I try to have the same theme every week which is diversity. I have already explained how the actors, directors, and the writers differ which plays into it. I have also explained that I try to spread the selections out with year. Another thing I try to keep different is things like plot and sometimes have to make a decision on if two movies are too similar. I never really look at limitation of genre as I don't mind if I have ten comedies, which is very unlikely, as long as they are each diverse. One example here is that if I am using THE GODFATHER, then I will not use GOODFELLAS. Even the Cagney gangster classics from MGM would likely not be used in that particular edition. From Godfather, might come something as different as TOY STORY and that is how I like it.

4. Probably one of the most extreme rules I make for myself are mentions of mostly people. I don't care if someone eats at McDonalds in all ten of my movie selections. However, if in the first movie someone mentions Adolf Hitler, then none of the other nine movies can mention him, feature the character or have a picture of Hitler. Some names I have ruled to let go and I feel are too common which include God, Jesus Christ, and even Santa Claus but the character cannot be used more than once so no PASSION OF THE CHRIST and LAST TEMPTATION OF CHRIST in the same edition. I have also come to regard the pictures of Abraham Lincoln and George Washington to be common images but I do not want to hear that names in more than one movie. One exception is someone saying the "Lincoln Monument" and I let that go. Also, if they are in the White House, I tend to allow past presidents photos to slide. This also goes for music in the movie so the film score composer cannot be used more than once. Also, if I hear a song sung by Madonna, then no other movies can feature or mention Madonna. One exception is if someone sings a song in the movie but the main singer did not write the song, I may let that slide. I pay close attention to soundtrack on imdb.com and on the end credits. I also pay attention to the people being thanked in the movies at the end credits which also plays into my rules. One exception to song rules comes in December for Christmas Carols so I let go JINGLE BELLS being played in more than one movie.

5. I have a few sources for where my selections come from. Obviously I have my own movie library. I also go to my local library a lot. Netflix is also a great source and one of my best friends. I have a Roku player for my room which I can view instant Netflix as well as an app that shows old public domain movies. I also just found an app that shows free independent films which could really come into play. Also, one thing I did was I put all the movies from the American Film Institute's top 100 movies in a big tin can. Also included in that are movies from the book the 1000 MOVIES YOU MUST SEE BEFORE YOU DIE which my dad bought me for Christmas one year. He also got me a book on 501 directors which the directors are put in their and I seek one of their movies. I also went through Facebook friends to see if they have any movies on their profile and put their names in it and if I have a new Facebook friend that is one of the first things I look at in the profile. I draw from there about four at a time every couple weeks or so. I also have something called the Random Myspace Profile selection process where I randomly choose my friends and look to choose a movie on their profiles until I get to ten. I then add to that ten movies that come from my tin can with the AFI, 1001, etc. The next thing is how my choose for Netflix. With that, I pay attention to the award shows that go on and then I'll look for past work of the winner even on something like Best Cinematography. Also, Comcast On-Demand is a great source for me and do more random selections from there and instant Netflix.

6. This is not really a rule but just an FYI and reminder. The title is not called the ten best movies nor is it "Shaun Berk's 10 Favorite Movies". One of the things I want to do it try to accommodate to everybody's movie taste in some ways so I try to give a good enough summary so the reader can make that decision. I want the guys to have their action film, the girls to have their "chick flick", the families to have their film to watch with the kids. Those don't necessarily always happen but I know I am not going to impress everyone. Also, some of the selections may be for some kind of historical purpose like a first movie of someone or just something that is so bad that it is good, however it comes about where I try to explain why it may be good to view the movie.

I can't really think of anymore to say now so I'll just give some closing statements. I enjoy doing this every week and sometimes even surprise myself on the way these turn out with my selections. I want to thank everyone who has supported me through the years. I also want to thank filmarcade.net for allowing me to post on their site. Other sites have offered to post what I do but want me to change my format to make it more thematic and until someone offers me money I will not change the way I do this because this is what I like. I don't want to do the ten best sports movies or the ten best mafia movies, I just want ten different selections. I know any normal human being would be driven to insanity with what I do but I'm not very normal. I have a portable dvd player that I take everywhere and frequent coffee shops, most notably the Blue Bottle to watch my movies. Thanks for reading this and I hope you don't think I'm insane or have no life because I still do a lot, I just like watching movies. Check out what I released last Saturday if you have not yet.