Looking Forward

I just wanted to start this out by saying thank you. To everyone who has ever looked at my blog, read a word of what I wrote, or spent any time at all scrolling through this blog, I say thank you.

I started this blog as a homework assignment about a year and a half ago as part of my Online Journalism class. I picked a beat that I liked writing about (film, duh) and every week for an entire semester I had to come up with pieces and interviews utilizing different multimedia for a grade. At first, I was nervous, because for the first time my writing would be out there on the internet on a platform some place other than my Tumblr, where I was previously publishing any reviews or writing I had come up with. On the other hand, I figured that seeing as this was a homework assignment, no one would really see it other than my professor and potentially some of my classmates, so what the hell.

It was soon after actually making and designing the page, however, I began wanting to post more, and share this with others. The rest is history. By the end of the semester, I had people telling me this was something I should really keep up with. I get messages from people when I don't post in awhile , and the page has daily visitors from outside the U.S. Since starting, the blog has been viewed over 20,000 times, and while that number may not seem as impressive when compared to other pages or blogs, to me it's amazing, because I could have never imagined my homework assignment could interest that many people in my writing.

I'm still as passionate as I was writing those reviews for a grade. This blog has really done great things for my writing, outside of sharpening my skills and my voice and building my audience. I had the opportunity to interview one of my favorite writers, Nathaniel Rogers of The Film Experience, and landed a weekly column at Rowan's Newspaper (also entitled "Jon On Film"), which has been doing well according to my editors and friends of min who read the paper.

So again, I want to say thank you to everyone for all of the support, and the kind words I've received since starting. However, I am looking to make some creative changes with the blog in terms of content.

Those of you that know me well know film criticism is my passion; I could analyze and dissect films for hours on end. However, I'm extremely passionate about discussing music and television as well, something I've never really worked on or explored, but have always had a desire to. I also tend to write about developments in the entertainment industry as a whole on my Tumblr, but I would be very interested in publicizing on here. So while the blog would still be called 'Jon On Film', the content would include much much more than just movie news/reviews.

Part of why I feel this is necessary is not only because film news/criticism is so limited (which would explain why I've been posting less frequently lately, sorry!) but because this would give me a chance to build my portfolio, sharpen my voice even more and become a more versatile writer.

I think it's important, not only for me, but to the people who read this blog and to those who don't, who knows! Maybe this is the next step into building an even bigger audience. I'm not sure, but it's worth a shot.

I'm also open to suggestions! If there's an album, Tv show or movie or event in entertainment you want to hear my opinion on, don't hesitate to tell me. The blog's official Facebook page can be seen here (don't forget to like it if you haven't already!), and for those of you who follow my Tumblr, my inbox there is a good spot to reach me at also.

Cheers!