the films of STANLEY KUBRICK

Stanley Kubrick on the set of “The Shining” (1980).

Danny Lloyd & Stanley Kubrick on the set of “The Shining” (1980).

Stanley Kubrick on the set of “2001: A Space Odyssey” (1968).

Stanley Kubrick on the set of “A Clockwork Orange” (1971).

Peter Sellers & Stanley Kubrick on the set of “Dr. Strangelove (1964).

Stanley Kubrick, Joe Turkel, Jack Nicholson and Kelvin Pike on the set of “The Shining” (1980).

Jack Nicholson on the set of “The Shining” (1980).

Stanley Kubrick on the set of “The Shining” (1980).

Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) in “The Shining” (1980).

In this post I will be discussing my whole progress with the blog. I will be noting down my posts, analytics, followers etc.

• POSTS

When I first began the blog my intention was to discuss each of Stanley Kubrick’s thirteen features.  I’m happy to say that I’m now up to my 11th film which I will be starting to blog at the end of the week.

Here the links to each film:

• “Fear and Desire” (1953)

http://kubricksfilms.tumblr.com/post/18369863758/1st-fear-and-desire-1953

PLUS http://kubricksfilms.tumblr.com/post/18372465758/making-fear-and-desire-1953

• “Killer’s Kiss” (1955)

http://kubricksfilms.tumblr.com/post/18886667747/2nd-killers-kiss-1955

• “The Killing” (1956)

http://kubricksfilms.tumblr.com/post/19499331737/3rd-the-killing-1956

• “Paths of Glory” (1957)

http://kubricksfilms.tumblr.com/post/19824534726/4th-paths-of-glory-1957

• “Spartacus” (1960)

http://kubricksfilms.tumblr.com/post/19992467285/5th-spartacus-1960

• “Lolita” (1962)

http://kubricksfilms.tumblr.com/post/20277231178/6th-lolita-1962

• “Dr. Strangelove” (1964)

http://kubricksfilms.tumblr.com/post/20705539445/7th-dr-strangelove-or-how-i-learned-to-stop

• “2001: A Space Odyssey” (1968)

http://kubricksfilms.tumblr.com/post/21137450789/8th-2001-a-space-odyssey-1968

• “A Clockwork Orange” (1971)

http://kubricksfilms.tumblr.com/post/21563891838/9th-a-clockwork-orange-1971

• “Barry Lyndon” (1975)

http://kubricksfilms.tumblr.com/post/22054320417/10th-barry-lyndon-1975

(The post on “Barry Lyndon” is currently is longest post I’ve done)

Each film I’ve posted gained some attention on Tumblr as I progressed.  The first three films I posted didn’t get attention (but I’m not suprised considering I was only starting on Tumblr) but as I posted numerous photographs of Kubrick, production stills etc., the blog became more and more popular with the more interaction with reblogging, linking each post to my Facebook & Twitter.

TOTAL POSTS = 252 (not incl meta)

I have had a few posts which gained some attention very quickly and to my suprise were reblogged and liked a number of times.

This is one of them:

http://kubricksfilms.tumblr.com/post/20035182836/jack-nicholson-stanley-kubrick-on-the-set-of

This photo of Kubrick & Nicholson on set of “The Shining” (1980) was hit 3925 times and counting.  -  Posted April 2nd

http://kubricksfilms.tumblr.com/post/20694628597/jack-nicholson-on-the-set-of-the-shining-1980

Another of Jack Nicholson on set was hit 1642 times  -  Posted April 8th

http://kubricksfilms.tumblr.com/post/22127184572/great-party-isnt-it

This photo from again “The Shining” was hit 560 times.  -  Posted April 30th

What I learnt from this is that “The Shining” is very popular on Tumblr.  This is evident from my other posts from different films.  I also studied that Tumblr and many social network sites work like a snowball effect.  The more you reblog, like and link etc.  the better chance you have at getting hits.  Tumblr is very good at doing this considering they have a “reblog” option.

ANALYTICS & STATS

When I first started this blog I opened a Google Analytics account.  Here is an overview of the blog:

OVERVIEW

BOUNCE RATE

BROWSER

COUNTRY

SEARCH TERMS/KEYWORDS

PAGE VIEWS

SOCIAL NETWORKS

VISITS

• SOCIAL NETWORKING

After a week or so of opening the blog, I started connecting to other social networking sites.  I linked my own Facebook account to the blog so that any post on Tumblr would show on the News Feed for people to see.  I also connected to Twitter for the first time by opening an account under the blogs name; @kubricksfilms. 

• TWITTER

https://twitter.com/#!/kubricksfilms

Total Followers = 18

Total Posts = 130 posts

• Facebook

My Tumblr box taken from my Facebook timeline

I have also added three widgets to my blog which were;

• Twitter
• Google+
• Facebook ‘Like’ & ‘Post’ button on each of my posts.

ISSUES

Along the way I managed to run into some issues with HTML coding such as importing widgets, CSS etc.  I found a number of tutorials online and some posted on Moodle which really helped solve the issues.

ABOUT PAGE + HISTORY PAGE

The about page and history page contained only a small amount of HTML and CSS coding.  I would have liked to add more to both pages but I was focued on topic of the blog throughout semester.  I did find it a bit challenging at first but again I researched some tutorials on standard CSS coding such as colour, titles, fonts etc.  And used them in the About and History pages. 

The History page was a something I added after my first few posts because I wanted people to see a seperate page for “A Brief History of Kubrick”.  My very first post for the blog was the extact same thing but I knew after more and more posts were being made I thought transferring it to a seperate page would seem more appropriate.

What I Have Learnt

The whole process of this assignment has being brilliant.  I have never made a Tumblr or any blog for that matter before this.  I thought a topic that would be interesting to blog about and something that I love to talk about is Stanley Kubrick.  My glad I chose this topic because I don’t think I would have kept up the progess that I made so far.

The communication between social networking sites is something that I was familiar with before starting the blog and thought that this would be a great opportunity to get my blog out there and connect to other sites.  It worked better than I hoped for.  The reblogging, posting to Twitter and Facebook helped spread the word through friends at work etc.  Many of the, saw the blog on Facebook and either commented on it or talk to me about in person. 

I was over the moon with the followers that started to crop up.  I think after a few film posts, they began to follow out of the blue.  After some time this became a sort of snowball effect with more reblogs and likes etc.

Similar shots taken from “A Clockwork Orange” (1971) & “Barry Lyndon” (1975).

An article on the film that Kubrick always wanted to produce; Napolean

My favourite part from “Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures” (2001). Segment of the production of “Barry Lyndon” (1975). Enjoy.

mrcinema:

Tracy Reed, Stanley Kubrick (in mirror); on the set of “Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb” (1964).

Dave Bowman (inside EVA pod) trying to convince Hal to open the pod bay doors in “2001: A Space Odyssey” (1968). [Thought this image shows a David and Goliath reference].