Collaborations

Along with the usual fare of reviews, from time to time I also get together with some like-minded fellow bloggers to collaborate on special feature posts on whatever topics take our fancy at a time. Here is a list of all such collaborations that have appeared on Take The Short View to date.

With John Hood

John Hood is the founder and editor-in-chief of the excellent Generation Star Wars blog. A lifelong passion for the creative arts was ignited when John’s parents took him to see Star Wars. Shortly afterwards he was bought an Hitachi portable tape recorder as a Christmas gift… Following graduation John worked for the BBC, Reuters and Dow Jones in various capacities: from breaking news to foley artist working with acting legend Sir Christopher Lee. He has talked to undergraduates at the University of Exeter regarding media career paths, leveraging social media, and provided help and advice during a storytelling workshop.

John told us all about his Christmas top ten in a special post in 2013. You can follow John on Twitter at @johnhood.

Collaborations with John include:

A brave new (media) world
Andrew Lewin and John Hood discuss some of the new developments in media consumption – from binge viewing to 3D, Blu-ray to streaming media, and the effect of social media on how we watch what we watch.
March 22, 2013

Remakes and reboots: is Hollywood in decline?
Almost everything seems to be a sequel or a follow-up or a prequel or a series or a franchise or a reboot or a remake. When something wholly new and original actually does show up in the cinemas it doesn’t seem to stand a chance against these marketing behemoths. Can this really be good for creativity or for the long-time health of the industry?
December 21, 2013

“Spoilers, Sweetie!” (Part 1 of 3)
“Spoilers, Sweetie!” (Part 2 of 3)
“Spoilers, Sweetie!” (Part 3 of 3)
A collaboration so long that it took three extra-long posts to present it! Does finding out about some major plot twist or dramatic event in advance of seeing the show in question end up ruining it beyond repair? Or is it no big deal really and everyone should just get over it? To put it simply: are you a spoilerphobe or a spoilerphile?
June 3-17, 2014

Am I a Good Man? – A Doctor Who Series 8 retrospective
John and Andrew take a look back over the 2014 run of Doctor Who, comparing notes about each episode of series 8 in turn with the benefit of distance and hindsight before girding themselves to debate the big question of the year: was it a triumphant hit or a disastrous miss?
December 22, 2014

Home, the long way round – A Doctor Who Series 9 retrospective
In what’s become an annual tradition, John and Andrew take a look back over the 2015 run of Doctor Who which this time includes not one but two Christmas specials bookending the endeavour. We once again compare notes about each episode in turn with the benefit of distance, perspective and hindsight before declaring our favourite (and least favourite) stories of the last 14 months.
February 13, 2016

Star Wars: The Spoilers Awaken
Having been somewhat constrained in the writing of our original Star Wars: The Force Awakens reviews by the need to tip-toe around ensuring that we didn’t reveal any spoilers, there was a lot we couldn’t say when the film hit the cinemas in December 2015. But fast forward five months and with the film available on DVD, Blu-ray and streaming services it’s time to throw the shutters wide open and go for a full no-holds-barred second look at JJ Abram’s reinvention of the franchise. And suitably, we found just the right date to publish our ruminations…
May 4, 2016

The Empire Strikes Back Hits 40!
The 40th anniversary of the premiere of <emStar Wars: The Empire Strikes Back was cause for celebration and a new collaboration with John about our memories of the film, the first time we saw it, and some fun times playing with the huge quantities of <emStar Wars merchandise.
May 12, 2020 – posted on Generation Star Wars