On September 1st, 2015 I decided that I wanted to start a blog. At the time, I was gaining more and more interest in films through classes that I had been taking and involvement in certain organizations such as The Seattle International Film Festival and the University of Washington Film Club. I found an affinity for film and it's many art forms on the big screen. In my past, I was always involved in the arts world through music.
As an avid violin player in multiple groups, I learned to love music and its many uses for creating social connections among cultures. Eventually, I started to connect my music experience with analyzing the film medium. Around this same time, I decided that I wanted to try out my hand at a radio station on the UW campus. Rainy Dawg Radio was looking for volunteers and I applied the previous year but was unable to get into the group. Originally I expected to run a show on indie music, but there were a lot of other shows already that revolved around the genre. I settled on using my film experience to create a show about movie music. Thus, Sounds on Screen was formed as a one-hour show on Rainy Dawg Radio. Over time, I loved doing the show so much that I expanded the show to a two-hour format, sometimes including special guests. This brainchild of mine continued to be a fun space for me to express myself and introduce audiences to new music used in film.
During Sounds on Screen, I was looking for ways to try and gain more audience. I valued the show and wanted as many people that could to hear it. I chose to create Firstflix as a way to get people more interested in film. Firstflix started as a review site with Straight Outta Compton as the first featured review. Since then, the site has grown from being just a review site to featuring many segments ranging from Sounds on Screen (an analysis of one film's soundtrack) to What to Watch (ten recommended films for each week). As time went on, I started to get onto a routine of blogging three times a day. The routine created structure for the site and will hopefully help audiences to find the segments they like at the times they like.
At times, I struggle with deciding on whether or not to continue the site. Monetarily, the site is worthless with a small audience. Maybe one day, it will gain enough money to afford its own domain from Weebly. The numbers right now are $23.00 in one year. Once we reach $100, I plan on instantly buying a domain. You can help with that goal by donating on the site, but I do not expect readers to donate unless they are truly passionate about the site and want to see it grow. I believe that if you are passionate about something you should continue to do it until you no longer have that passion. For now I remain passionate about Firstflix, and I hope that you will find a similar passion with film that I have. So for now, keep on watching and reading until you find that passion!
-Zach Williams
As an avid violin player in multiple groups, I learned to love music and its many uses for creating social connections among cultures. Eventually, I started to connect my music experience with analyzing the film medium. Around this same time, I decided that I wanted to try out my hand at a radio station on the UW campus. Rainy Dawg Radio was looking for volunteers and I applied the previous year but was unable to get into the group. Originally I expected to run a show on indie music, but there were a lot of other shows already that revolved around the genre. I settled on using my film experience to create a show about movie music. Thus, Sounds on Screen was formed as a one-hour show on Rainy Dawg Radio. Over time, I loved doing the show so much that I expanded the show to a two-hour format, sometimes including special guests. This brainchild of mine continued to be a fun space for me to express myself and introduce audiences to new music used in film.
During Sounds on Screen, I was looking for ways to try and gain more audience. I valued the show and wanted as many people that could to hear it. I chose to create Firstflix as a way to get people more interested in film. Firstflix started as a review site with Straight Outta Compton as the first featured review. Since then, the site has grown from being just a review site to featuring many segments ranging from Sounds on Screen (an analysis of one film's soundtrack) to What to Watch (ten recommended films for each week). As time went on, I started to get onto a routine of blogging three times a day. The routine created structure for the site and will hopefully help audiences to find the segments they like at the times they like.
At times, I struggle with deciding on whether or not to continue the site. Monetarily, the site is worthless with a small audience. Maybe one day, it will gain enough money to afford its own domain from Weebly. The numbers right now are $23.00 in one year. Once we reach $100, I plan on instantly buying a domain. You can help with that goal by donating on the site, but I do not expect readers to donate unless they are truly passionate about the site and want to see it grow. I believe that if you are passionate about something you should continue to do it until you no longer have that passion. For now I remain passionate about Firstflix, and I hope that you will find a similar passion with film that I have. So for now, keep on watching and reading until you find that passion!
-Zach Williams
