Monolith Overhaul – Update #2

One last week of overhauling, and I’ll be ready to start posting on the site again. Read on to find out what more I’ve done, and what’s left to do.

STILL IN PROGRESS:

Checking and/or updating all review photos and one-sheet posters

Currently I’m going through all reviews I’ve posted and am adjusting nearly every photo to 450 pixels in width, changing out some photos that aren’t sized correctly (or that I want better images of), and making sure the film posters are sized properly (approximately 200 x 300 pixels) in relation to the typewritten text next to them.

NEXT:

Adding a new gravatar

I’m working on replacing my goofy mug with something that will be compatible with both my movie site and my baseball site.

FINISHED:

Updated the Project 82 page

I finally added a photo to this page—one that I’ve wanted to add since I launched the site over two years ago—and I also added a shield emblem that I created a year ago, which you’ll find at the bottom of that page (and will be used as the Project 82 button mentioned below).

Adjusted the CM button and created two more buttons

I’m sure you’ve noticed that with many review pages, there’s sometimes a small ‘monolith’ button in the upper corner that, when you hover over it with your mouse, tells you that the film reviewed is part of my collection. I enlarged that button by 5 pixels, and created two more buttons that will let you know if the film is a) part of my Project 82 page 〈see the review for Raiders of the Lost Ark for a sample〉, or b) a film I watched on the B-movie horror program Svengoolie.

Updated the Widgets

I updated and re-arranged the widgets at the bottom of the main page, and added a tally of reviews per 0-10 star rating.

Overhauled the Top 5 Lists page

I removed 13 lists which did not include a short paragraph review for each film, or the bonus ‘other three films I kinda liked/kinda didn’t like’ section, both of which I’m now adding to each new Top 5/Dismal 3 list I post. I’ll upgrade those 13 pages and post them again soon. I also split the Favorite 5 and Dismal 3 lists into their own groups, and added the ‘3’ film leader logo to the page.

Removed all unused photos and movie posters from image library

Yes, I did this again.

Cleaned up the one-sheet poster for ‘Malibu Beach’

Every time I post a review, I make sure the accompanying poster is cropped, cleaned, and color-adjusted; with Malibu Beach, I’d forgotten to do that before it was posted, so I went back and removed fold lines and speckles, added some contrast to colors, and trimmed the white border.

Removed borders on all index photos and made sizes consistent

After adding borders to every photo in every index, I decided I didn’t like them, and went back and removed them all. I then switched a few photos for better ones, and adjusted them all to 400 pixels in width.

Removed a listing from the Genre Index, and added a listing to the Sub-Genre Index

Gone from Genre is ‘Martial Arts’, whose films I’ll now add to the Action/Adventure index (whenever I watch any), and added to Sub-Genre is ‘1970s Made-for-TV’, which I now have a list of about thirty movies I hope to watch.

Combined director, actor, and actress indexes

I decided to cut back on my favorite director, actor, and actress pages, and combined the ‘classic’ and ‘modern’ listings into one, while scaling down the list to seven persons each (I still owe one for the actress index). And remember how I mentioned adding Kurt Russell to the actor index in my last update? Well, he’s out again.

Created new pages

New pages that you’ll find on the left side of the main page include: Inside the CM Vault (photos of film items I own), Monolith Retakes (I discuss minor changes I’d make to films that I like), Movie Ticket Memories (looking back at my most favorite and memorable trips to the cinema), Blogathons (a list of all the blogathons I’ve taken part in), and Disasterpiece Theatre (a list of the all the films that appeared on my favorite cheesy movie TV show of the 1980s).

Adjusted and added links to widget on left side of main page

Based on feedback, I changed the A-Z Review Index from several pages to just one, to make it easier to peruse and hunt down titles. I also re-arranged some indexes, and added a few new entries and page links. I also combined a few indexes under the same links.

 

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