According to our WordPress installation, this is Frock Flicks’s 1,000 post! Whether or not that is accurate and if that includes mini-reviews and random things like “we’re not posting on this holiday” posts, so what? This is still kind of impressive for a silly hobby run by three weirdos after our day-jobs, school, doing dishes, cleaning the cat box, making our own damn costumes, and trying to have a life. As we’ve oft-stated, the Frock Flicks media empire doesn’t make a living for any of us, and we’re just happy that your support offsets the ever-increasing web-hosting costs ‘n stuff.
But hey, on this anniversary of sorts, how about a look behind the curtain? We’ve shown some of our daily discussions that go into creating posts, but how about our actual research and writing process? Let’s have a go…
What to Watch?
It starts with a flick, right. But which one — a classic costume movie or a new historical series? An old favorite or should we branch out?
Sometimes, we get jonesing for a particular movie. Or people have been commenting on our Facebook page, asking “why haven’t you reviewed this awesome TV show yet???” Because we can’t find it, that’s why!
Then finally we pick a thing to watch, whew, and it’s cool and…
Oh crap, have to be at the day job at 8am! Coffee, stat!
What to Say About It?
A frock flick has to be really good or really bad enough that we have something to say — or if it’s boring, we’re going to relegate it to the one-line review pile.
A few movies make you feel like this:
But others are kind of meh…
Some shows make you go WTF?
And then there’s the historical costume movies and TV series that make you want those hours of your life back…
Research, We Has Some
We rely on a wide variety of sources when we talk about historical costume in movies and TV.
We may even crack open a book (one with pictures, of course).
Write, Write, Write
The three of us have our own writing methods, but the whole process boils down to this:
After watching a frock flick, we spend a lot of time at the computer.
Because we need A LOT of posts, every weekday, all year long.
We might squeeze in a little frock-flicking while we’re at the office on our lunch break (shhhh, don’t tell!).
We also work most evenings.
And a lot of weekends.
It helps when we’re inspired.
Of course, we might want a kickstart.
But it’s hard to write something new every dang day…
Some posts just flow and are super easy to write. Others are like pulling teeth and sit in our drafts folder for months. Honestly, if it weren’t for Trystan nagging us that there are big gaping holes in our publishing calendar, Sarah and Kendra would probably ignore those pulling-teeth posts forever!
And still, we persevere.
Photos Are the Thing
No blog post is complete without photos — we’re talking about costumes here, after all. But this can take as long as writing. We spend hours per post Googling for high-resolution production stills or screencaps.
If we have a digital version of the frock flick, we can probably make our own screencaps. While this seems like a great idea, it’s even more massively time-consuming — you have to find just the right shot, which basically means rewatching the entire movie again. Oh, and then you have to resize images, rename files, add Alt Text tags, and more.
Getting photos can honestly be the most frustrating part.
Editing, Publishing, All That Jazz
When a blog post is finally done, it’s not really done, because it needs a wee bit of editing by Trystan, our Editor in Chief.
Nobody bothers to edit her stuff. We don’t know why.
Each post is added to the calendar, and let free into the universe, Monday through Friday.
And then we have to schedule a cross-post on Twitter — even more annoying, we have to manually cross-post things to Facebook, because otherwise Facebook will pull a “Page Not Found” preview image if we try to do it ahead of time. Nothing is more fun than trying to post a link on your phone while you’re on the train to work, and the Facebook app keeps crashing…
And all this has happened 1,000 times in the past 3 years. Go us! Want to place bets on how long we can keep it up?
Thank you for some memorable reviews, lol reviews, educational reviews.
There have been literally days when I wished I never got up, then read your posts and suddenly I’m laughing, snarking and happy. The best medicine is FrockFlicks.
Keep it up.
Awww, thanks!!! That’s the best feedback & what makes us keep on going :)
Your hard work, snarking, sarcasm, swearing, and photo-finding is much appreciated. :)
Thank you!!!
Your imdb image made me grrrrrrr, because they shut down their message boards. :((
Heh, well, we still have a tab open with IMDB all the time for fact-checking :)
My main reason for bookmarking IMDb was the message boards. Now that they’re gone, I check in only occasionally.
I’m delighted that I stumbled onto Frock Flicks. It fulfills a deep need in me to snark about movie and tv costuming without unduly annoying my normal friends.
I bless the day I discovered Frock Flicks. It fulfills my need to be bitchy about movie and TV historical costuming without unduly annoying my normal friends. Congratulations on your big, uh, “M” moment.
Yay! Thank you!
As a writer and editor, this speaks to me on a visceral level.
I appreciate everything you fabulous, clever, beautiful ladies do on behalf of us your loyal subj–err, readers.
Frock on!
*MWAH*
Ah, this post is hilarious! The gifs really made me smile (not just like sitting with solid face and sending smilies and comments like “hahah you’re so funny, pissed my pnats off” and stuff) :D
ROTFLMAO for reals!!!
Thank you for all you do! Your blog fills me with delight and so much snark! I appreciate all the hard work you put into it!
Yay! Thanks!
I really, really appreciate you guys! I’ve always loved period films, but am still a historical costuming noob. Thanks to you guys, I’m entertained, much more educated, and inspired to learn how to sew my own outfits (I have sewing machine and am slowly making progress…).
Anyways, thank you and keep up the great work :)
Ditto for me!
Glad to help inspire!
Every Sunday I sit down to write my little blog and think, “This won’t take long”. And every Sunday I’m proved wrong. You’d think that after 5 years I might have got a handle on this, but no.
Which is just my way of saying that I’ve got some idea of the amount of time and effort that must go into producing 5 posts every week. It’s awesome, and much appreciated!
*fist bump*
We love you and thank you for throwing yourself on so many grenades for us!
You’re welcome!!!
Go you Frock Flicks People! I look forward to every new post as a lifeline to preserve my fragile sanity in an increasingly insane world.
I’m so glad we can provide the service!
so many great comments, I would echo just about all of them. I love this blog. I look forward to reading it over morning coffee every day. Sometimes when I’m tired or just in need of cheering up I read through old blogs. I am the only female in my household except the dog and she just isn’t all that into costume flicks so it really nice to be able to take part in or simply follow conversations about the stories I love while the guys around me are talking about the endless tide of superhero flicks pouring out of Hollywood at the moment.
You all do a wonderful job and it is very much appreciated by lots of people all over this crazy world of ours.
Dawww, I’m all verklempt now <3
I love FF! I am sooooo glad I discovered it. You screencap so I don’t have to!
LOL, you’re welcome!
It takes me forever to read one of y’all’s posts because after every point I have to stop and talk back to my screen as if I’m having a conversation with whichever of you wrote it, which is a testament to how engaging your writing it.
That’s also why it takes me like 4 hours to listen to one of your podcasts. And yes, I know I’m crazy.
Hah, that’s awesome! Thanks!
You ladies can use my costume pictures I’ve collected on Facebook.
We’d love to — send us a link :)
This site has not only given me great recs for stuff to watch, but also a new appreciation of what I do/have watched. It’s educational, clever, and great fun. How long can you keep it up? Hopefully for a very long time!
If I was some sorta secret billionaire (spoilers, sadly I am not), I’d love to fund y’all to be able to do this full time (if you’d wanna, that is). With that fictional billionaire-ness, I’d also need some sort of Frock Flicks Museum (that you could tour online visually, of course) of shit historical costume, including a whole exhibit on the Great Hairpin Shortage, because that never fails to make me laugh/cringe.
I love your fantasy billionaire world! Sign me up!
I knew there were kitties involved in the making of this somehow!
Even is one of them should stop the coffee… Or the catnip.
Forever thankful I found Frockflicks: Love, Love, LOVE the podcasts, and the daily post after a hard day at work is always welcome.
Discovered plenty of films and series I didn’t even know existed, and I always appreciate the research.
Thanks for all the hard work and may the Snark be with you!
It’s true, cats are crucial to the operation ;-)
And the kitties probably feel you are doing this just for them to have something to do between looking cute, remembering that they were a Goddess in Pharoahic Egypt – Baster -, looking cute, figuring how to get more catnip, treats & food, looking adorably cute, demanding attention/food, looking adorably cute….😇🐅🍸🐅🐅🐅🍸
On another note, are you ladies going to do Feud: Bette and Joan? The costume story so far has been fabulous, but I need to get your take.
I’ve been recording it but haven’t had a chance to watch Feud yet. Not sure if I’ll write about it tho, bec honestly, Tom & Lorenzo are knocking it out of the park — http://tomandlorenzo.com/tag/feud-bette-and-joan/ — They do such detailed recaps of more modern costume series (they also did The Crown) & they’re doing it full-time with advance screeners of the shows, I feel like we can’t compete.
What they don’t know about, however, is pre-World War II fashion history, so while they gushed about Outlander, for example, & talked about the use of color & detail in the costumes, they couldn’t tell a francaise from an anglaise to save their lives. That’s where we come in :)
I’m a T-Lo regular and have been reading their takes on Feud, as well as those of the GFY (Go Fug Yourself) gals, but that’s not enough. I need you ladies to chime in as well to round out my own opinions.
Awww, thanks! That’s good to hear. I do plan on watching bec. I loves me some high Hollywood glam, & if I feel like there’s anything I can add that hasn’t been said, I’ll blog about it.
Also, being of a “certain age,” I love seeing how current costumers, hairstylists, and makeup artists attempt to recreate the decades I’ve actually lived through.
I love you three so much – there are days when a quick sneak look at Frock Flicks during a rough day is the only thing that keeps me from losing it completely. My co-workers would thank you if they knew.
LOL! Thanks :)
Ya’ll are great keep up the amazing work!
Thank you!
Love you guys Sooooooooooooooooo much. Thanks for doing this. Really, truly. I second Jill that this site is going a long way towards salvaging my movie-watching relationships with my friends and significant other because I have a place to read the snark I’m thinking while I watch!
It’s nice to know that you put so much love, hard work, and effort into your articles :). Snark Week is especially fun to read. *sigh* If only snarking could be done year-round. It’s deliciously funny when you tell it like it is. One reason I found my way here was because I discovered people who felt the same way I did about those awful “Tudors” costumes, not to mention the bad writing and casting on the show. Don’t get me started on “Reign.” I could write an entire BOOK SERIES on how bad that show was.
If you have problems choosing historical costume movies/tv shows to write about, why not check that list of films/tv shows that you have on here? You know, the one that has movies/tv shows you haven’t seen or worked on yet? That way, if you’re at an indecision, you can narrow down the field. I think if you want a funny one to write about on an “off” day, you could always watch “My Fair Lady.” That one always made me laugh.
By the way, if you want some more “historical” Star Trek stuff to look at, watch the 2-part “Time’s Arrow.” The costumes for the 1890s are amazing on there. There’s also a brief scene in “Next Generation” where Barclay is doing a play with Dr. Crusher on the holodeck, and she’s wearing this gorgeous 1670s gown.
There’s another episode…well, I’m not sure you could really call it “historical” clothing. It’s my mother’s fave. The episode is about where the Enterprise (TNG) rescues 300 colonists from a planet whose star is going to go nova. What’s weird about these people is, they flew to the colony in a spaceship, but after they arrived, they embraced a simple, agrarian lifestyle, and lived like Irish peasants from the 1800s. Not sure if the clothing is accurate, but the costume designer DEFINITELY drew on 19th century Irish clothes. The only reason the Enterprise even knew these people were in trouble was because some old emergency beacon from the original colony ship had been turned on and was sending out an SOS signal.
It’s times like that when “Star Trek” can surprise you.
This reminds me of my own blogging process.
Thanks for the laugh!
And thanks for all the memories! You guys are fantastic and one of the very few blogs I follow regularly (i.e. of about two total).
Thank you for all your wonderful posts and hard work. It’s really appreciated. Great article.
Thank you for your work! I love reading Frock Flicks!
I quote you ladies so much that even my husband has started saying, “Ugh, are those metal grommets?”
Love you guys! Please keep going for (at least) another 1,000 posts. Thank you for all you do. :-)