Cinema from the Spectrum

Don’t worry, we aren’t going anywhere. Though I’d realized it’s been a very long time since we had last updated the blog, I figured that this might also be a perfect opportunity to explain that after having set up Cinema from the Spectrum back in 2015 as a personal blog for my own musings as Jaime Rebanal’s Film Thoughts – it could easily turn into a source for more reputable film criticism within the online scene.

But yes, it’s been a really long time. Truth be told, it hasn’t always been easy to keep Cinema from the Spectrum as active as it might have seemed at one point, due to the fact that I was balancing much of this at one point with my time in film school and thus I had to pass on the duties of being editor-in-chief over to Austin Shinn, not only because he was an incredible collaborator through the years, but because he has been a very good friend for all this time.

So what exactly is new for us here? As you may have expected, we’re mostly doing this out of our own pocket and a simple love of film. That’s why we might need your help more than ever around now. I know it might not seem the most ideal, but considering where this all would be coming in from, we’re all struggling financially in some way or another. This has never exactly stopped us from what we wanted to do most. But obviously, it’s not the most financially stable option for us either.

As you know, we’ve created a Patreon page sometime ago so that any of you kind readers can gladly chip in, if you’re ever able to. Together with the ad revenue, it’s where we would be able to pay some of our writers for what we do. That being said, we’re going to be publishing our reviews early on Patreon for subscribers at our lowest tier (currently $2 USD/month) before they eventually become public on here. In case you’re interested to help all of us out: feel free to chip in at the link down below because we would greatly appreciate it.

Speaking of more things that are happening with regards to our Patreon: as some of our longest and most dedicated previous followers would have remembered, this site was primarily a one-person operation that was run by myself. So if you look through the archives, a lot of reviews for older films that were often written by me during my high school years still stand. Many of these are not reviews which I stand by today.

For our $5/month Patreon supporters, we are also going to be opening up a series of retrospective film reviews available to be read on there. For the sake of saving up on image storage space, it’s very helpful – but it also gives us more room to share our love of what it is we do beyond what you’re seeing here. I might also note that because this income goes towards maintaining our domain (which costs around $120/year with this current WordPress plan), this would help us greatly so that the cost doesn’t always come out of my credit card. Some of us are in debt, and trying to maintain the site’s longevity will already be a great expense as is, especially when hosting it is one great expense.

That’s not to say retrospective reviews will stop being posted here entirely. A few may even go up for free, but they are primarily going to be posted on Patreon. For our most dedicated readers, if you would like to keep up to date with what we think of said movies – sometimes we post them on our own blogs or newsletters, and most of the time you can keep up to date with our thoughts on Letterboxd too. But some more elaborated reviews, much like what you’re normally seeing on here are going to be found exclusively on there.

However, we are going to be opening up another section entirely on here for the public. We are starting a section for home media reviews, especially as I’m continually collecting Blu-Rays and 4K discs through the days. Because of how expensive many of these discs are, I’m still going to be limiting my coverage primarily to films that I do love – but with how many great new releases are being done by Criterion, Arrow Video, Vinegar Syndrome, Kino Lorber, or Shout! Studios every month, I think it only seems fitting to open a section dedicated to covering these releases. For what it’s worth, our first of these home media reviews will be covering the new Criterion 4K UHD release of Sean Baker’s Anora.

These home media reviews will be posted directly here, and are primarily going to be written by myself. But where will the income be coming in from? If you want to ensure that these become more frequent, remember, you can always subscribe to the Patreon for these and a whole lot more! It would really help especially if you love our writing.

One last thing… You may notice that some of us even have our own individual blogs and newsletters. I particularly would like to shout out our editor-in-chief, @austinshinn‘s own blog A Flickering Life – which you can follow over here:

https://aflickeringlife.wordpress.com/

In addition, if you would like to follow up with what I do on my own, I have a newsletter on Substack dedicated to my own writing that goes beyond what I think fits here. Sure, I primarily write about movies on my Substack, but you can give it a follow over here.

https://cloudsofgaia.substack.com/

That’s it for this little update though. We look forward to hearing more from you in due time, and as Roger Ebert once said, we’ll see you at the movies. Thanks again for reading and supporting Cinema from the Spectrum!