Golden Globes 2021: a Notion Template

I've been wanting to write about Notion for a long time, but I never thought that my first time mentioning the app was going to be by sharing one of my own templates! So without further ado, click on the link below to download the template for free!

Even though I'm calling this a template, since anyone can duplicate it into your own Notion system, this works more as a guide than a template, since all the content is already there ready to be used.

I've been using Notion for a while now to track all my content consumption, like movies I've watched, tv-series I'm currently watching, books I'm reading or want to read, music I'm want to listen to, even video games I'm playing. Especially now having a weekly newsletter where I share recommendations (learn more about it), it's very important for me to have all this content centered in one place.

A few days ago I had an idea to build a page (and database) containing all the films and tv series nominated for the 2021 Golden Globes, and after, in a way that it was easy for me to not only filter through the different categories, but also have an easy way to track which of those movies (or series) I had already seen and what was still on my watchlist.

As I started to put all the work in, I got so excited with what that simple idea was turning into, that I knew I had to share it with more people, after all, I couldn't be the only person excited about Notion and Movies with the same intensity, right?

So here are a few screenshots explaining the basics of the template.

« 1 » This is the home page, where you'll get a quick explanation of how the system works, and links to the specific pages for Film and TV Series:

« 2 » When you click on "Film Nominees", you'll access the database with all the films nominated in all the categories, organized alphabetically by title. Here you're able to quickly mark a film as "watched" and give a rating from 1 to 5 stars:

« 3 » Each film is its own clickable page where you can go a little further, adding a date when you watched (optional), watch the trailer, find a link to learn more about the specific film, as well as a dedicated space for you to write down a few personal comments:

« 4 » Back to the home page, clicking on "Film Watchlist" will bring you to a side by side view for a quick glance of the films that you've already seen and what's still on your watchlist. Once you mark a film as "watched", it automatically moves to the proper column, changing its view to the film poster instead of just the title:

« 5 » And finally, as a bonus, you can access a separate page will all your Favorite Films, which means the ones that you rated as 3 stars or more. That way you can look back and remember your favorite films from the award season!

All of the pages under TV Series works exactly the same, but with related content to the TV categories.

If you download and use this template, please share your thoughts and any feedback with me through the comments section below, on Twitter, or by sending me an email.

If you love movies, like me, consider subscribing to Shuffle Sundays, my weekly Newsletter with personal recommendations of things to watch, read, listen to, and even play. All directly to your inbox for you to consume at your own pace. Click here to learn more!

This is a labor of love (for Movies and for Notion), but you can always Buy Me A Coffee if you want to support my work 🤗

Song Exploder and the Magic Behind The Scenes

Over the last decade working as a freelance photographer, one of my favorite things to shoot was the behind the scenes of creative people working on their medium. From musicians to architects, to filmmakers, I’m always fascinated by their thought processes and love witnessing art being created right there in front of me. As much as I enjoy photographing many other things, that was always a sweet spot for me.

Mars Motel @ Virtue and Vice Studios | 2018 | © Leo Mascaro

Mars Motel @ Virtue and Vice Studios | 2018 | © Leo Mascaro

 

With that in mind, it’s easy to understand why Song Exploder was meant to become one of the most inspiring things I would watch this year. Song Exploder (the Netflix show) is based on the Podcast of the same name with the premise of “A podcast where musicians take apart their songs, and piece by piece, tell the story of how they were made.” — I think you know where this is going, right?

 
 

After having listened to a lot of episodes and binge-watching the first season of the tv show, it’s pretty obvious to me that they both act as perfect companions, in the sense that it’s impossible to choose one format over the other. The beauty of the podcast is relying on your ears to put all the pieces together and imagine the whole situation in front of you. At the same time, the advantage of the tv show is being able to see everything that they’re talking about translated into (incredibly produced) imagery. At the end of each episode (in both formats) the song is played in its full version for the first time and, like magic, it’s like you can finally connect all the pieces and from that moment on, you will never listen to that song the same way anymore. And while in the podcast you get to close your eyes and pay full attention to the song, in the tv show we are gifted with an incredible visual experience (unique to each episode) of the song and lyrics, like this one from Lin-Manuel Miranda’s “Wait for It”:

 

This is an excerpt from the Netflix show "Song Exploder" in which the musicians talk about the certain songs, and how it came about. In this episode Lin-Manuel Miranda talks about the song "Wait for it" from the smash hit musical "Hamilton". and this animation plays in the end with the entire song. Executive Producers: Hrishikesh Hirway, Morgan Neville Executive Producer: Caitrin Rogers Co-Executive Producer: Dominic Musacchio Editor: Lee Rosch Post Producer: Will Mavronicolas Assistant Editors: Richard Andrews Madison Cazares Production Co: Tremolo Productions My role was to create the animation segments for the Li-Manuel Miranda's episode for "Song Exploder"