Category: I made a thing

  • Movie Pass Adventures: The Ballad of Wallis Island

    Tim Key and Tom basden in The Ballad of Wallis Island.
    Carey Mulligan and Tom Basden in The Ballad of Wallis Island.

    Charming. That’s what this film is. Gentle, but strong. Charming without being precious. It’s not afraid to follow standard movie plots, but it knows how to push them into new spaces. I was worried when I saw the trailer that Tim Key’s stream of consciousness delivery would be grating, but he knows when to pull it back and let his eyes do the acting.

    And the music holds up!

    My first thought for a poster was a Wallace & Gromit redo (Wallis? Wallace? GOLLY I AM CLEVER), but I realized making a fake poster for a sweet movie based on the poster for a different set of sweet movies was redundant. I did get as far as a rough logo, though:

    A partially complete poster for The Ballad of Wallis Island based on the Wallace & Gromit titles.
    I mean, I even found the right font.

    Then I went a different way, and picked a different movie about a very different island.

    A poster for The Ballad of Wallis Island parodying the poster for The Wicker Man.

    Fun fact: this is my 60th movie of the year.

    Fediverse reactions

  • High Quality Promo Time

    I teach digital media at a middle school, and my students make a not-quite-weekly show. I made this promo for our school’s video bulletin. Kids love Ed Wynn, right?

  • Streaming Retro Movie Adventures: My Neighbor Totoro (1988)

    Mei in My Neighbor Totoro

    My students have raved about this movie for decades. Decades! I always thought “I’m sure it’s good, but I’m too old to enjoy it.”

    It’s wonderful. I’m not sure how a movie that starts with almost twenty minutes of people moving into a house is so charming, but it was absolutely captivating. The animation works so well that I found myself thinking “that girl is really good; I wonder if she made other movies.” Not if the voice actor had done more work- if the animated girl had continued her acting career.

    That’s two kid movies in a row that I watched and enjoyed after years of people saying “watch this – you’ll enjoy it.” Maybe it’s time to accept I should finally watch Paddington 2.

    Would you like a confusing poster?

    A poster for My Neighbor Totoro in the style of the first Terminator poster.
    “I’ll be back… with acorns.”

    All my silly posters can be found here: https://letterboxd.com/dogwelder/list/movies-i-watched-in-2025/

    At least, they’ll be there if they don’t get mysteriously pulled.

    Fediverse reactions

  • Streaming Movie Adventures: Frida

    Frida Kahlo's eyes

    The 2024 documentary, not the 2002 movie.

    I think this would have worked better as a book, where they wouldn’t have been afraid to let Frida Kahlo’s art stand on its own. This documentary decided that nearly every image of her work had to be animated and color graded to match every other image, breaking the composition of everything she made. She complains at one point that a French artist wants to display her work with junk he bought in street markets in Mexico; I wonder how she would have felt about her work in this.

    But hey, I got a pretty good poster idea!

    Fediverse reactions

  • He was always so ahead of his time

    A promo for the world famous Jim Henson's Muppet Bagels featuring beloved characters Kermit the Bagel, Miss Bagel, and Fozzie Bagel.

    Waka Waka!

  • One-Third of June

  • I made a dumb thing

    You need to be from a very specific subset of nerds to understand this, let alone appreciate it.

  • Alamo Drafthouse plays some wild stuff.

    A poster for "Alamo Mind Cinema" featuring images and titles of multiple imaginary movies, including Chubby Rain, Simple Jack, Satan's Alley, and Da Derp Dee Derp Da Teetley Derpee Derpee Dumb

    Update:

    Someone pointed out that a movie called “Bitter Harvest” was actually made a few years ago. If you want your poster of imaginary movies to avoid having real counterparts, steal this version instead:

    A poster for "Alamo Mind Cinema" featuring images and titles of multiple imaginary movies, including Chubby Rain, Simple Jack, Satan's Alley, and Da Derp Dee Derp Da Teetley Derpee Derpee Dumb. Bitter Harvest has been replaced by Habeas Corpus.

  • Downtown!

  • SCANDALOUS!

    The cover of Chaste Magazine

    I’m out of practice.

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