Oh, we love it: cinema dates, 'Which movie should we watch on Netflix?' discussions or days on the couch that fly by because you're watching six episodes of 'Game of Thrones' again. had to look one after the other. Many of us are cinephiles and series junkies, some even make films of all genres or series heroes and anti-heroes such as Tyrion Lannister, Piper Chapman or Walter White the topic of their blogs.
One more to go...
For a guy who "wasn't even born when the first Simpsons episode was broadcast", Florian started his series career in a very classic way: He was hooked on the British coming-of-age series 'Skins', and what followed was the discovery of further series highlights including binge watching, i.e. binge-watching, one episode after the other.
At that time he still lived in Upper Swabia on Lake Constance, today Berlin is the new home of the 22-year-old, who is currently finishing his bachelor's degree in English and journalism here at the Free University. To some extent it was 'Skins' and the lives, suffering and loves of the series characters that created a place of longing in his head that he - like many students - was looking for in the capital.
What series can do to you and how they reflect reality - these are the topics that Florian is dedicated to on his blog floffimedia.de. Series fans won't find just program announcements here. “For me it’s never really about the work itself, but rather about the view of the world that it conveys,” explains Florian.
If he feels like watching a series marathon today, he watches the modern classics when it comes to sex, crime, drugs and corruption: 'Mad Men', 'Orange Is the New Black', 'House of Cards', 'True Detective' or 'Sherlock'. Last year he discovered the hacker series 'Mr. Robot' for himself. “Here, real code flickers across the screen. The production relies heavily on authenticity – something that my generation strongly desires,” says Florian.
He also followed one of the most successful series of recent years particularly intensively: For each episode of the final seasons of 'Breaking Bad', he published a post in which he tried to "read social issues from the material and analyze the dramaturgical tricks “. Maybe the next season of the Breaking Bad spin-off 'Better Call Saul' will inspire him equally. Either way: With so many new series launches in 2016, he certainly won't run out of blogging material any time soon.
I want to believe
With the cult series 'The X-Files' and the strange cases of FBI agents Dana Scully and Fox Mulder, Florian began a passion that continues to this day. The 30-year-old has since taken down the “I want to believe” poster, but his preference for moving images remained. “Disappearing into another world for 90 minutes – that can work just as well with art house as with a simple action film,” says Florian. When the Berlin sociology student is not writing his master's thesis, he is busy as editor-in-chief of the blog filmverliebt.de, discussing series and films or taking care of the organization. To this day, the blog, which was launched in 2013, is a learning by doing project that is fun but also time-consuming, explains Florian. Ten editors are now contributing. Nobody has any training in journalism or studied film studies, but everyone has an unmistakable passion for a certain genre. Here you can find reviews from the latest cinema blockbusters to niche fantasy series.
Florian himself is particularly enthusiastic about science fiction films, which is why he can hardly wait for December 16, 2016. Then the first of several planned films in the 'Star Wars Anthology' will be released in cinemas.
According to Florian, a lot of things can only get better in terms of series production this year, after the series year 2015 wasn't as strong for him as 2014, when 'The Leftovers', 'Fargo' and 'True Detective' were released - for him, "serial art on an extraordinary level". The sixth season of 'Game of Thrones' is sure to provide thrills, as it is not preceded by a novel this time and will therefore provide enormous surprises. And maybe Florian will also dig out his old “I want to believe” poster again, because the classic mystery series 'The X-Files' will be re-released in 2016.
To pickle or not to pickle?
2016 could be Robert's year: On the one hand, the blogger wants to finish his journalism studies at Magdeburg-Stendal University, and on the other hand, a film that he is eagerly awaiting is coming to cinemas in March: 'Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice'. “If the film gives me a Batman without a throat cancer commemorative voice and doesn't completely embellish the references to Frank Miller's graphic novel 'The Dark Knight Returns', I'll certainly have a lot of fun at the cinema,” said the student with the sharp tongue. His criticism always shows the passionate film reviewer for whom watching and, above all, discussing new material is a great passion. This is also what defines his blog, where he has been discussing everything between independent films and blockbusters since 2011 - without mincing his words. A striking example is his review of the German film 'Kartoffelsalat - Don't Ask', which was released in 2015, which he described as “really garbled entertainment to get you excited, tearing up and tearing your hair out because of the shitty, shitty shittiness of the amateurish end product” - which he shared with many other critics agreed, even if not in the choice of words.
Where does the penchant for cinephilia come from? Maybe from the many film afternoons with his mother as a child, the countless visits to the cinema that followed, or from the internship at the cinema in his hometown of Genthin. In any case, the Magdeburg native would like to turn his passion into a career. The blog and a film column in a Magdeburg city magazine are a good start
