I still have not seen all the films that were on my list this year including “Django Unleashed“, “Les Miserables“, and the two current favorites for Best Picture which are “Silver Linings Playbook” and “The Master.” But I’ll share with you my favorites as well as some that were just okay. I’d love to hear what everyone else thinks!

(Disclaimer: I saw these in the theater in 2012 but some were considered to be 2011 films.)

#1 The Intouchables
Hands down, the very best film I saw this year was “The Intouchables” which I saw twice and would see again. I hadn’t seen a film that touched me like this since “Biutiful” in 2010. This was a French film based on the true story of a wealthy man and his unlikely friendship with his caregiver. Actors, François Cluzet and Omar Sy had so much chemistry that I actually believed this story was unfolding before my eyes rather than being acted out. That’s all I will tell you. I won’t give anything away in this blog but I will tell you that I have high expectations when it comes to film and am not easily amused. Oh, and by the way, if you didn’t see “Biutiful,” it’s an absolute must. Get it. Watch it. Love it.

#2 The Perks of Being a Wallflower

"I'm below average!" celebration

Some describe “Perks” as a coming of age film, but it was pretty heavy for this genre. I’m not one to censor much of what my 14-year-old son watches, but I would think twice about sending him to this one without following up or prefacing the film with some discussion about drugs, drinking, suicide, and sexual abuse. That said, I thought it was a realistic depiction of the dynamics of high school misfits and the challenges that face teens of every generation even though this story took place in the era of “mixed tapes.” What is it they say? The more things change, the more they stay the same? If this movie had hit the mainstream, it could have had some real staying power and become a teen classic. This may remain on my top ten list for years to come.

#3 Killer Joe
Holy chicken legs! I had mistakenly relegated Matthew McConaughy to the good-looking one-trick pony who occasionally got a decent role but this year, he knocked my socks off. His performance as Killer Joe was nothing short of outstanding. I have to warn you that this film was rated NC-17 but frankly, I didn’t find it to be so utterly offensive or violent. I suppose I’ve become desensitized but it wasn’t so bad. Our friendly silver-haired box office attendant had given us fair notice that we could only request a refund within the first 20 minutes of the film, which was really quite comical since there isn’t anything that happens in that 20 minutes that would make you want to leave or even expect that you might get there. Nonetheless, this flick offers comedy, intrigue, suspense, drama, shock, and phenomenal performances all the way around.

#4 Bernie

Danny Buck

#5 Moonrise Kingdom
I’m sure I don’t have to tell you about this one. Moonrise Kingdom is funny, smart, quirky, and downright adorable. I can’t imagine an audience who wouldn’t enjoy this film.

#6 Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
It was a predictable, yet fun little tale of several retirees coming together to live out their days in India at the Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. Enjoyable, worth seeing.

#7 Hello I Must Be Going
A divorcee’s experience of finding her true self and learning what love really is while earning the respect of her doting parents. I enjoyed this story very much. The characters were likable, the sentiment real, and the outcome inspiring. A classic chick-flick best shared with your girlfriends and over a bottle of wine and some Ben & Jerry’s.

#8 Jeff, Who Lives at Home
Not everyone liked this one, but I found it interesting. I like a metaphysical story line with a point. If you’re searching for the meaning of life or just appreciate seeing what typecast actors like Ed Helms can do when given a chance, you’ll enjoy “Jeff, Who Lives at Home.”

#9 Ruby Sparks
Ruby Sparks was a refreshing romantic comedy. Unexpected and new. This was a cute story and one that was told in a way that hasn’t been done a thousand times before. This could go either way for you but I thought it was worth seeing.

#10 Beasts of the Southern Wild
Gosh, what can I say? Beast of the Southern Wild was…well…weird. I enjoyed it but I didn’t always “get” it. I loved the characters and the cinematography. And I sort of loved the story even though, I was not quite sure of the point from time to time. I walked away wishing I was one of those deep hipsters who already understood the hidden meanings and didn’t have to strain my brain to put together the pieces. But all-in-all, I’m not sorry I saw it and would probably watch it again.

#11 Arbitrage
Arbitrage was okay. It was good enough to have seen it but it should have been a made-for-TV movie. This was a typical Richard Gere flick. Even at his age, he’s still eye candy but his movies are predictable and formulaic. Still enjoyable but like I said, good for TV.

#12 This Must Be The Place
Please go see this one so you can explain to me what on earth it was supposed to be about. Sean Penn always does a role justice and he will not let you down in This Must Be The Place. However, there’s something about his character that’s not quite right, but I’m not sure what it is.

Always love Helena Bonham Carter.

On a side note, I have a love/hate relationship with my Apple TV which is quite schizophrenic when it comes to streaming Netflix. But these are some that I watched this year from years past that if you haven’t seen, and you like the movies I liked above, you probably will enjoy. Check out Romantics Anonymous, Toast, and Billy Elliot when you get a chance.

Please share your thoughts and make some recommendations for me as well! Can’t wait to hear about your “picks!”

The Amazing Cape-rs modeling their creations.

Director Cake is a superhero who saves the world from smushed birthday cake.

The goal of the Amazing Cape-rs workshop was to get these writers to condense their superhero ideas into one symbol to be used on a cape which they got to create and take home. It was exciting to see their little wheels turning and impressive to see what they came up with!

This is illustrates how the brainstorm narrows down to a symbol.

Magnificent Mega Math Master (aka M4) saves the world from boring math problems!

Wake Up Woman is a superhero who makes sure every kid gets breakfast!

Pineapple Genova saves pineapples from rotting!

Brandie Marsden, owner of V.Vegaz Style in the Loop

Left to right: Elizabeth Barnes, Heather Reed, Julie Kolberg, Jane Calkins

We had so much fun working on this and we are really proud of the way it turned out. We will definitely be at it again!

In front of V. Vegaz Style in the Delmar Loop

I used to tell people who were afraid of public speaking to just know their subject matter and talk about what they know.  ”It’s easy,” I’d say.  ”Nothing to be nervous about if you really know your stuff.  Remember, your audience probably doesn’t know squat about what you’re yammering on about so you at least know more than they do.”

That’s mostly true, at least in a training situation.  If you can make things light and fun and make people smile and offer enough nuggets of new information to keep them interested, you’ll seem worthy of their attention and you’ll keep them engaged.

Well, that was a long time ago and other than presenting to students at Webster University, I haven’t done any public speaking since 2004.  Until Thursday morning, that is.  I had been invited to speak at the IABCstl Social Media Seminar.  Someone had heard through the grapevine that I might know a thing or two about social media and sent me a note asking if I’d be interested.  While I assured them I was no guru, I was terribly flattered, not to mention excited about the possibilities and connections I could make while I’m finding my way up the ranks of who’s who in digital media.

With everything else going on in my life, putting together my presentation was placed on the back burner and I was hoping the Universe would kindly drop some inspiration in my lap. These people would already know some of what I know and I would need to knock their socks off.  Needless to say, I found said inspiration and stayed up until 1AM the night prior, plotting out every detail of my talk, visualizing each transition, and imagining the audience participating and hanging on my every word (because I’m just that fascinating.) ha ha.

Other than the openers, I was up first for which I was very grateful–this way, no one else could say what I was going to say before I could say it.  I was feeling confident and raring to go!  But then, just like that, I was thrown for a loop when the woman who introduced me, said almost everything about me that I had planned on saying myself in my opening slide.  So, I’m standing there, briefly panicking, my head swimming with alternate transitions I could use and I froze. The room went completely silent as I stared at my notes blankly wondering if I could just disappear and then a little miracle happened.  There was an interruption.  Never thought I’d be thankful for a problem with the sound system.  My mic was broadcasting in the other room.  Even with the horror of now two rooms of people hearing me fumble, it couldn’t have come at a better time.  This little break lightened the room, made things seem more casual and gave me a second to compose myself and remember that I do know what I’m doing and to just talk.

As I formally, and somewhat awkwardly made it through the first portion of my presentation, things really started to take shape as soon as I was able to talk about cats!  Yes, I was talking about social media, but thanks to my work with Nestle Purina, all three incredible examples of extraordinary consumer engagement I brought with me were about Fancy Feast and the cats who tweet and blog about it.  I was back!  I was finally truly back in my element, making people smile (because who doesn’t love a cat), and talking about what I know.  Yes, I know cats.  But I also know social.

I found it remarkable how much more engaged the audience became when pets were involved in the conversation.  It’s no wonder 90% of the Internet is cats!  They are natural ice breakers.  As soon as a cute kitten appears, the pressure is off and the air is a little bit more breathable.  What?  You hate my speech?  Here’s a kitten!  Now you’ve forgotten my rocky start, haven’t you?!  Works every time.  And I do believe people did forget.  I had even forgotten.  I had forgotten what I had written on all those slide notes and remembered how to relate to a crowd.   I won’t say I rocked it, but I did just fine and the people were interested and entertained.

I loved being back out there in public as the respected, knowledgeable professional that my cats know I am.

My Support Staff

It may be as simple as a “thank you,” retweet, or “like” but I always feel like I’ve made someone’s day when they acknowledge that I “spoke” to them.  That’s the point, right?  It’s social media! While I don’t believe that corporations are people, I think sometimes consumers forget that there is actually a person back there behind the curtain.  But who’s fault is that?  If  the impression you are leaving with them is that you have a bot responding to key words or that your legal department crafted the response, can you really expect to have meaningful engagement? One of the biggest mistakes I see corporations make is forgetting to be human in the social-sphere.  As a consumer, nothing turns me off more than a scripted, vague response on FB or a formal-sounding Tweet.  I want to know that there’s a thinking, breathing person behind those words and I want others to feel the same way when I am on the corporate end of the conversation.

I guess the way I look at it is that Facebook is your brand’s personality and Twitter is what your brand has to say. You just need to have a human behind the brand personality and voice who can identify with your customers on a human level that reflects what you stand for.

While I won’t give away any brand secrets, I have worked with more than 20 brands and sometimes you can’t help but play favorites.  I have the most fun with @FancyFeast!  I’m that person behind the handle who is engaging, retweeting, finding inspiration in others and rewarding loyalty.  Not to mention, my cats–all three of them–are in LOVE with this food.

Sometimes, I respond to a tweet and nothing happens but more often than not, something magical happens.  I’ve seen “I’m famous! @FancyFeast just retweeted me!” or “And just like that, @FancyFeast has my business for life” just for a simple congratulations tweet at them.  These are the things that make it worth the dedication and late night or early morning hours I put in.

Very recently, I was kissed by the magic of one simple retweet.  You may or may not be familiar with the Fancy Feast Love Story ad campaign, but it’s a smashing success.  We received a tweet from social media guru, Jacob Young aka @YoungSocialMe simply stating: “Ok. I’m not a cat owner. Probably never will be. But I sure am now a fan of Fancy Feast. http://t.co/fYCWiUzk @FancyFeast”.  No, this guy’s not our target market.  But, nonetheless, I opted to retweet his comments.  Why? Because every person that tweets @ me/us is still a person.  While his comment was directed at his entire following, he mentioned us by handle which means he intended for us to see his tweet.  He was a human being paying us a compliment.  From one human to another, I acknowledged his comment, just as I would if he were a person standing in front of me who had said the same thing.  Okay, maybe not just like that…in person, I may not have retweeted him.

I didn’t think much of it and he responded “lolol” which could have meant a number of things–maybe he thought it was silly for me to retweet his comment.  He is, afterall, a well-respected, nationally-known, social media influencer and I’m small potatoes having fun with my handful of brands trying to make a name for myself in St. Louis. I brushed it off and went on my merry way until 5 days later, we received another tweet from @YoungSocialMe.  ”@FancyFeast and Me http://shar.es/rde2P Here is another shout out to the peeps at Fancy Feast. Again. Great Job guys.”  He had written us up in his blog! Wow!  He felt that this was his most memorable Twitter interaction of late.  This!  This simple retweet followed by “lolol” made the most impact on him!  I could not be more flattered.

You hear it all the time.  In face to face customer service accounts…that it was the smile, the acknowledgement, the human-element, so to speak, that makes a difference.  Well, the social-sphere is no different…it’s the little things.  Though, he may never be a cat person, he will always be a Fancy Feast one and that’s the difference the simple click of a button can make.  Jacob Young has over 33,000 followers and he just mentioned us in a positive light to all of them twice in one week!  That’s the power of thinking human.  Thank you, @YoungSocialMe!

To read what Jacob had to say:

Continue reading on Examiner.com @FancyFeast and Me – Chicago Social Media | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/social-media-in-chicago/fancyfeast-and-me#ixzz1sOksLYVF

What could be more romantic than sharing your nuptials with the ones you love in the midst of the rolling hills of Missouri wine country?  At least that’s what I was tasked with proving.

That morning was a bit gloomy but nothing to be alarmed about, so it seemed. We arrived plenty early and set up cameras at two locations, one in the spa where we would meet the bridal party and one in the reception area.

There were several picturesque scenes outdoors where onlookers could gather and chairs could be assembled. But there was also a quaint little chapel to use in the case of inclement weather.  Our beautiful bride had her heart set on marrying her beau on a tiny island in the middle of a pond connected only by a bridge to the “mainland.”

But as the morning went on, Mother Nature whispered clues of her own plans that were not necessarily in alignment with this island adventure. The sun was shining and then it wasn’t.  The rain was drizzling and then it wasn’t.  The wind was blowing and then it wasn’t.  In the midst of trying to shoot the bridal party coiffure, I was growing more and more concerned about shooting an outdoor wedding on a day like today. Selfishly, not so much concerned about the bride’s dreams or even the winery’s goals, but about protecting my equipment from a liquid demise.

As the sun disappeared behind the black clouds that rolled in, much to my relief, the bride made the call to move the ceremony into the tiny chapel.  This would mean standing room only for the large number of guests she had invited and for me it would mean sharing the tiny balcony with attendees leaving little room for camera equipment–but at least it would be dry and that was the important thing.

I left the bridal party and raced to the reception hall to collect the second set of equipment and haul it to the chapel.  Maneuvering equipment up a narrow spiral staircase is a challenge in and of itself. But finding a good camera angle in a space too small for a tripod was another hurdle altogether. These, I thought, were the lessons I would take with me throughout my career.  These are the things you don’t learn in school and the ones that would make me a stronger person and induct me into the professional world of videography.

But just as quickly as the clouds swept the sky, they dissipated leaving everyone hopeful once more for the scenic outdoor venue as originally planned.  Throughout the rest of the afternoon, the sun was teasing us peeking in and out of clouds like a game of hide and seek. All within the same shot, it looked as though we had filmed the same bride on two different days…maybe even two different seasons.  For me, it was nearly impossible to white-balance and for the bride, well, you can only imagine the stress. The raw outdoor footage looks as though someone was flickering on and off the lights with a switch. It was a bride’s (and a videographer’s) nightmare.

Finally, a decision was reached to marry outdoors in front of the chapel–just in case.  The wind was picking up but the sun was shining and relatively, this was the ideal scenario.  A lovely ceremony, a blissful bride, and dry equipment.  Finally!

However, back at the ranch…this day in particular, my 13-year-old son was home alone while his father was working and I was two hours away at a shoot.  I had received a few phone calls from him but when you’re on a shoot and your phone buzzes in your pocket right smack in the middle of the “I do’s”, you just don’t answer.  When the ceremony broke and it was time for a location change, I made a quick call home to hear my terrified son on the other end of the line begging for instructions on what to do when the tornado sirens are blaring.  In my 40 years on the planet, I had heard many-a-siren with no worries.  So I simply told him to stay in his bedroom (on the second floor of the house no less) and assured him that tornadoes do not touch down in the city.

As the reception grew dim and my crew grew weary, we packed it up and headed for home, but we were not out of the woods yet–literally nor figuratively. About half-way there, the radio signal was interrupted with an urgent storm warning instructing people in most counties between St. Louis and Ste. Gen, MO to get off the road and take shelter. Being a city girl, with a crew of urban-dwellers, I opted to stay on the highway out of sheer exhaustion.  All we wanted to do after that day was put our feet up and enjoy some of our winery “souvenirs.”

The radio interruptions did not cease and the winds were so strong I could barely stay on the road.  At this point, we decided to heed the warnings and pull off the road.  It was only 15 minutes and really, if this was as serious as it sounded, did we really want to risk our lives for the sake saving a little time?  As we sat in the gas station parking lot trying to determine if we should move inside and out of the car, we listened intently to the automated voice on the radio warning the people of the CITY OF ST. LOUIS to take shelter immediately.  My heart sank into my stomach thinking of my irresponsible instructions to my son and worse than that, my poor parenting.  A mother’s guilt never ends.

As we approached home, weaving around trees and branches and other sundry items in the road, we began to realize that this was the most serious storm St. Louis city had seen in quite some time.  Luckily, my husband worked close to home and was able to break away in time to help my son take appropriate shelter.  For this was the day that I now remember as the day the tornado took out Lambert Airport four miles from my front door rather than the day I shot my first promotional video.

In the end, I’m pleased with the footage we were able to recover from this disastrous day.  Enjoy this 30 second snippet!