A Letter from the Editor

Dear Smash Cut Readers:

First of all, thank you for somehow finding this tiny website. Just that in itself speaks thousands to me. No matter how you got here, I would like to quickly tell you a little about this website that means so much to me.

In August 2013, I began a radio show at my college station called “Indecent Disclosure” with these two awesome people Megan and Tom. On this show we talked and ranted about “film, TV, music, and everything pop culture,” as I’d say at the top of every show. We’d, sometimes hilariously, give our reviews and opinions on just that, everything pop culture. Eventually I decided that it would be beneficial for us to start a blog to have some tangible evidence of our occasional hilarity. Thus, wtsrindecent.wordpress.com was born. It actually did really well. I thank that in part to the incredible year film and TV had and to the terrible year that celebrities like Lindsey Lohan and Amanda Bynes had. I think the biggest testament to our success was on Oscar night when our little blog for our little radio show on our little station was flooded with over 1000 views.

I was having the time of my life writing, editing, and creating that blog. However, sometime the month after the Oscars I realized that I couldn’t take Indecent with me after I eventually graduated. So, with the blessing of my co-hosts, I set off to make something of my own. I spent much of March and April 2014 researching, budgeting, and working on what would eventually become this website. I had no money, no plan, and no experience in embarking on this type of endeavor, but I persisted. Finally when I became happy with a skeleton of a product, I had to come up with a name. It just so happens that the weekend I decided to rewatch Sam Mendes’ American Beauty (a film that has so unceremoniously and undeservedly been shunned by critics) was the fateful weekend that I would decide on the name for this site.

The semester before starting Smash Cut I took class entitled “Global Animated Film” with Professor Frances Hannold. At the beginning of each class (at least roughly, the man was slightly crazy), we would have a quiz about a book entitled “Cinematic Elements”. This book taught us about the techniques of filmmaking. One of these techniques was a smash cut. When one shot abruptly cuts to another with some visual or audio disruption. American Beauty starts off with one. So the name was chosen. With an equivalent to a micro budget and help from some very generous friends, smashcutreviews.com was launched on May 1st, 2014.

Now, the reason I’m writing this letter is to give you my motivation behind this website. There are two parts to it. A selfish reason and a charitable reason. First, the selfish reason is that I needed an outlet for my various rantings and observations of the industry. I had friends who I would speak to in massively long texts about show biz awards, films, and TV and people at radio who would talk incessantly about that new indie dream pop band that was only playing secret shows in New York. However, I never had a place that I could display my full thoughts with an actual audience who cared. Thus, this website. However, the charitable reason is that I realized that if I didn’t have a place to air my feelings, other people didn’t either. Thus, this website.

What do I hope to gain? Fame, money, a stable living? Yes, that would all be great, but if I could create a place where writers like myself could talk freely about their passions and give their opinions without censorship, then I would be ten times happier. That’s what I hope Smash is and will continue to be. A place for writers to write, film geeks to geek out, and cinephiles to rant. I love this website. I’m proud of this website. I think it’s the first thing that I’ve done that I could truly say that I made and that I’m proud to display. I hope you all take this opportunity to do the same.

With the warmest of regards,

Karl Delossantos, Founder and Editor-in-Chief

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