What I Learned From Watching 600+ Films Last Year

If you saw Wednesday’s blog post here, you’ll know that I watched 645 films in 2015. Yep, that was a lot of films. I don’t plan on doing the same in 2016 (less watching, more filming is the idea).

Here are a few things that I learned from watching that many films:

I am not good at watching horror movies by myself. I get freaked out easily, particularly by monster movies. Movies with human villains scare me much less.
I can make it through virtually any film. But even I have my limits (Looking at you, Icetastrophe).
I can watch the same movie multiple times, even in the same week or month.
I have really varied taste in films. Which explains why I have screenplays in a number of genres.
I prefer smart comedy to slapstick but can enjoy both.
There are a ton of really great indie films out there if you’re willing to go looking.
There are a lot of really crappy indie films out there, too.
I can watch films that have low visual quality (either because of my internet connection or because of the streaming format), but bad sound kills it every time.
I love rom-coms. Particularly smart ones.
I love strong female characters, but I also love strong male characters. I think I just like strong characters in general.
I want to write and make films more than ever.
Watching movies while working means you miss a lot. But it also means you can watch things more than once and pick up new things each time.

So those are the most prominent lessons I learned this year. I’m sure there were others. I’ll update this list periodically to add more as I think of them!