Landing on Letterboxd for the second time. How I am using this niche film lovers social network.
For those who do not know it Letterboxd is hybrid social media site combined with the archival ability to log films you watched. You get to like, log and review films. This is a place for film lovers wherever they watch films. Though the name LetterBoxd refers to a cinema ratio it is a welcoming place for those who watch films online or on DVD as well as those who in these times can manage to get to the cinema. I first joined LetterBoxd in xx but gave up on it as it just seemed a chore to log films. More importantly, I thought why I should be fattening up the data pile of the owners of LetterBoxd. Also, at the time I did not think of it as social media site. Flash forward to 2020, I am following some people on Twitter and Letterboxd is name checked more and more. @WilliamScurry was one such person. I thought, I am going to have another look at Letterboxd. How would I prevent myself plunging back in then out again? Strategy was to take a Pro membership of LetterBoxd. Figuring that if I pay for it then I will use it more. The Pro Version comes with a data visualisation of your film watching which encourages the archival side of me to log the films not only ones seen this year but also from as far back as the nineties. I still have paper diaries filled with entries for films I have seen over the years.
How am I using LetterBoxed second time around. My archival side means I am logging all the films that I have seen. This is the side of LetterBoxd that is not social but solitary. Logging is as task I do for myself. Jealously, I see other accounts where they have logged thousands of films. Maybe having a profile bulging with hundreds if not thousands of films logged is some sort of bragging right. Going a step further, some films, I add a film review. A few reviews I write native on Letterboxd but most others are films I reviewed here on Medium. When this happens I put a section of the review on Letterboxd with a link to the full review. I Tweet about films, this supplies material for my Letterboxd films reviews. In this case I cut and paste my Twitter review into Letterboxd. Then there are those films I log that are logged and unloved with no review.
Looking at how others interact I am struck by how users review films. There are those who post a one-line review and those that post a long form review. The one-line reviews remind that Letterboxd is not always a place to review films but is instead like a social media site. Posting a one line review means users can consume quickly and react to a provocative one liner. LetterBoxd displays the number of followers you have. Myself, I welcome new followers but when I look at the profile of other LetterBoxd profiles, I am looking at the quality of film reviews they post not the number of followers.
Second time around, I am enjoying LetterBoxd, another ten months to go before my Pro Version runs out. Then I will decide whether to hang around but the signs are good that I will.
My profile on LetterBoxd https://letterboxd.com/theconformist/
