I began the #52PickUp series as a way to get in touch with my roots – into why I wanted to be a filmmaker – and so, I designed this neat way to revisit the movies that shaped my tastes and in actuality; me. I thought it would be fun to see how these films would hold up against my current interests. Truth be told, it was fun…

 

…For a little while.

 

Firstly, I had noticed that the view counts weren’t what I expected them to be– not that view counts were all that I cared about, but when some of the posts still have yet to receive a single read… it can be rather disheartening.

I began to fall behind on these weekly posts late last year due to moving and adjusting to California life– but mostly, because my interest waned. I had hoped that these would open up a conversation “in the comments below,” yet it only kept me away from the real people around me with which I could converse– and away from the other more pertinent projects. I felt as though the #52PickUp didn’t reflect my writing ability properly as I would often half-ass the post just to get it up on time.

 

In all honesty, I lost focus of what the series was meant to represent: the history of my love of movies. Soon the process made its burden known, often by adding an additional two to three hours of work for a series that – let’s face it – wasn’t going anywhere in the first place.

 

So less than half way through the series’ second year, I’ve decided to end the #52PickUp posts. But fear not the few of you who read along regularly, there is a silver lining to this end. A rebirth.

 

The series will continue to live on within our Podcast, Not Quite Hollywood. Each week this year, I’ve been discussing every entry in the series at the end of the episode. Frankly, this show takes a lot of time to record and edit itself: roughly three to six hours out of my week, every week.

 

The redundancy of this cross promotion was made clear when I looked to find ways in which to streamline my workflow so I could focus more on My Cancer Story and rewrites of my screenplays. It’s funny that the push to make #52PickUp a part of the podcast in order to get eyes on the actual posts only revealed the series could have more of an immediacy on that very podcast instead.

 

So subscribe to Not Quite Hollywood on iTunes or listen directly from the links within the blog posts for each episode.

 

I’ve already tagged the last two episodes as #52PickUp as well because in them I discuss Bio-Dome and Alien: Resurrection on episodes 58 and 59 respectively. You know what? The best way to illustrate my frustration is with finishing the post for Bio-Dome. Good luck.

 

I will also do another retrospective complete with the collection of logos like the one from 2016.

 

Until next episode: stay frosty, you elegant creatures. (Most people will never get this far, so feel special if you do).

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-Jamie (@GuyOnAWire)