On June 3, 2019, ScreenAge Wasteland officially launched. So…
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO US!!!
To celebrate our 7th anniversary, most of the SAW team will be revealing their 100 Favorite Movies for the remainder of the month. Every two days, beginning June 5, a different member will reveal their 100, explain how they assembled their list, and why certain movies made the cut.
Now, let’s talk about ScreenAge Wasteland’s humble origins, where the site is today, and what we hope to achieve in the near future.
HOW ARE WE SEVEN ALREADY?!
I don’t think any of us expected ScreenAge Wasteland to still be kicking seven years later, but man, it doesn’t even feel like that many years have already passed by the site. When we started, we were really just throwing anything we had at the site and hoping something stuck.
The older we got, the better our writing became and the more professional the site started to look. We’re now getting offered exclusive interviews and screeners, which leads nicely into something we haven’t really talked about on the site yet.
YOUTUBE EXPANSION
Our YouTube presence went through an evolution earlier this year. Our main channel, @ScreenAgeWasteland, was rebranded as ScreenAge Wasteland Podcasts. It is now our home for all the ScreenAge Podcasts on YouTube, from The Canon: An Essential Movies Watchlist and Poll Position to our YouTube exclusive pods Wasteland After Dark and Wasteland Wrap. I implore you to check out the channel if you haven’t already, subscribe, and share!
So, with podcasts taking over our main channel, we decided to launch two new channels: @ScreenAgeReviews and @ScreenAgeExclusives. The former will be the future home of video reviews from Billy Dhalgren and other Wasteland contributors, while the latter houses all of our video interviews.
For instance, check out the recent interview Jacob did with the producer of the new Knight Rider docuseries:
OKAY, NOW TELL US HOW YOU REALLY FEEL
Of course, ScreenAge Wasteland would be a ghost town if it weren’t for our fearless commenters, our screenagers, our Wasteoids, our—dare I say it—friends.
Some of you guys are new and some have been with us since we first began this journey. SAW is what it is because of this community. It’s a place where everybody knows your name and movie preferences. We’re one big family. cue obligatory Fast & Furious sip from a Corona.
For any of our readers who haven’t made the jump to commenting, now is the perfect time to set up a Disqus account and introduce yourself to us by telling us your favorite movie. I promise we don’t bite. Well, Sailor might, but that’s only because he hasn’t had his morning Vodquil yet.
THANK-YOU!
And just as the commenters are an integral part of ScreenAge Wasteland, a website is nothing without content. That’s why we want to give a huge thank you to everyone who has ever contributed content to the site over the past seven years. Your personality and opinions have helped give SAW a unique voice in this growing wasteland we call home.
All of our writers volunteer their time for the site. We’d love to pay them with more than just compliments for their work, but unfortunately, that is not possible at this time.
However, we can give their other non-SAW-related projects a shoutout!
If you love Romona Comet‘s romantic-comedy reviews every Tuesday, then you need to check out her website The Rom Com Catalog, which is devoted purely to the genre.
Bob Cram has written two horror-centric books: 31 Days, 31 Horror Movies vol. 1 and The Monster War. You can find both of them on Amazon in Kindle and paperback formats.
Valerie Morreale has been a guest on multiple episodes of the horror podcast Watch If You Dare.
Raf Stitt and Jacob Holmes are the faces of ScreenAge Podcasts. Despite juggling (basically) two podcasts each for the Wasteland, they also found time to host their own podcast, Movies in Black & White, which explores cinema’s relationship to race.
Dhalgren launched his own YouTube channel, @KungPewVideo, where the video store never died. Every Thursday, he drops a new video reviewing the sort of films that once ruled late-night cable and dusty rental shelves.
A LOOK AHEAD
The goal is to keep growing ScreenAge Wasteland. One area we’re looking at beefing up our presence on is Letterboxd. You can already find us there @sawasteland, so give us a follow!
As for content, we have a few theme months in the works, some new collab rankings, and some, of course, a generous helping of lists. And the written version of the SAW Canon returns with Vault Seven next week!
NOW LET’S CELEBRATE!
It’s time to head down to the comments and get this party started! We hope to see old and familiar faces drop in (even if it’s just for a quick hi and to confirm you’re still around)!
Please feel free to tag any of your Disqus friends that you think would also love to be a part of ScreenAge Wasteland. This is a community that is open to anyone and everyone who wants to come together and talk about what we all love: movies.
We’ll see you in the trenches, screenagers! Take care.
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