Ext. Peruvian Jungle - Day
Through the shadows and vines, a new approach to From Director Steven Spielberg emerges...
What’s all this then?
From Director Steven Spielberg began life in 2011 as a Tumblr blog. Back then, I imagined it as a sort of online archive designed to hold old reviews, interviews, features, and videos about the iconic filmmaker. This is not really that.
Around 2017, it grew into something bigger. I was writing as much of my own content as I was curating other peoples’ and wanted a place to store it. So From Director Steven Spielberg became a fully-fledged, hosted website. But this isn’t really that either.
This is very much its own thing and a companion to rather than a replacement for the Tumblr blog and website (which, by the way, aren’t going anywhere).
It’s partly inspired by the continued decline of Twitter, which has historically been (but is no longer) a good source of conversation and exposure for me, and partly by a long-time love of the more intimate engagement you get through newsletters. Twitter feels like a scream in a cavernous town hall; a newsletter is a cosy chat in a country pub.
So what’ll be in it?
Well, I’m still working that out, to be honest. Like I said, it won’t be the Tumblr blog, but it will have elements of it. I loved and still love that online archive idea. I’m a collector at heart and like Marcus Brody in Last Crusade, I’m never happier than when I’m doddering about getting lost in my own museum.
So, there’ll be interesting old articles, interviews and videos from Spielberg’s career dug up from the depths of the internet.
It won’t be the website either, but it will have elements of that too. Nobody loves writing at length about Spielberg quite as much as I do, but even I think there’s a limit. Newsletters are not the right format for 3,000-word articles about how he represents history through totemic objects. But, perhaps it’s a good place for bitesize insight into topics like that.
So, there’ll be little nuggets of information designed to whet your appetite for more in-depth reading elsewhere.
There’ll also be thoughts about Spielberg’s upcoming projects, recommendations of the best books and documentaries about him, and looks at key influences on his career. A little bit of everything. A Spielbergian smorgasbord. A newsletter about Steven Spielberg, basically.
Sound good?
Well, how about a little taste of what’s to come?
In 2017 and 2018, leading up to the releases of The Post and Ready Player One, I put together an epic, 100-post Twitter Moment. In each Tweet, I include a shot from a Spielberg film and a little analysis to sit alongside it.
The aim - as with everything I do on From Director Steven Spielberg - was to shine a light on some lesser-known Spielberg films and images, and provide a insight into his themes and style.
Five years on though, Twitter has basically abandoned the once-useful Moments functionality, and the thread sits in the further reaches of my profile gathering dust. So I decided to do something about it.
Reaching back behind the Twitter sofa, I rescued the thread from anonymity and repackaged it as an ‘ebook’ (well, a fancy PDF) that can be downloaded and read by clicking here. The first volume collects 50 of the 100 shots; the other 50 will follow in due course.
So, hit the link to delve into the great master’s great mastery, and if you fancy more, subscribe to get a little fix of Spielberg each month.