Media Journaling: Track Your Favorite Films, Books & Shows

1. Introduction: If you find yourself inspired by the things you watch, read, or listen to, media journaling is a great way to track your favorites and document your obsessions. Hi, I'm Abby C. I'm a multidisciplinary artist, author, and educator. I've been documenting my life and travels for over 15 years in counting, filling numerous journals with my experiences. Welcome to my class Media Journal. Track your favorite films, books, and shows. In this class, we'll geek out on our favorite media, whether that's a TV show that you're currently obsessed with, a book that transformed your way of thinking or an album that is currently on repeat. I'll share with you my process on how I record these in my journal, as well as ideas and inspiration to get you started with media journaling. If you're new to journaling, I suggest taking my first Skillshare class, everyday journaling, five creative ways to document your life, to get acquainted with the basics. Let's get started. 2. What is a Media Journal?: A media journal is a personal space where you can track, reflect on, and creatively document the media that you consume. It does more than simply logging what you've watched or read. It's a way to capture your thoughts, emotions, and inspirations, helping you understand what resonates with you and why. In a way, it is a form of memory keeping. While platforms like Good Reads or letterbox, let you rate and review media online, a personal media journal creates space for something more intentional and reflective made by you, just for you. A media journal can be as simple or as creative as you want it to be. Usually, my most used tools are a photo printer, some stickers, stamps and stationery, a pen, and, of course, a journal. You might include what you've watched or read, along with some quick thoughts, favorite moments, or personal reflections. It can also become a creative practice using visuals, colors, or layouts to highlight the media itself. Ultimately, it's a way to engage more intentionally with the media you consume and turn it into something tangible that you can look back on. 3. Your Project: For our class project, I'd love for you to share a page or spread featuring your favorite book, film or TV show, or music. You can use any materials that you like as long as it highlights your favorite media. You can also do a combination of all of these types of media and compile them into your own specific journal page or spread. I would love to see your work so I could provide more feedback and offer more ideas and inspiration. When you're ready to upload your class project, head over to the Projects and Resources tab and click on the Submit Project button. First, upload a cover image for your journal spread. It can also be the final work that you have. You can also add in some text if you wanted to ask certain questions or wanted to explain a little bit more about your journal spread. Once you're done, click Publish. Make sure to submit your work, and I'm looking forward to seeing your journal spreads and provide some feedback. 4. Media Journaling: Books: Oh. For media journaling, we are starting off with printing. So I like using my photo printer because it's compact enough and I'm able to print usually two book covers at the same time. So here is a sample of what we're doing today for the books part. I'm using an A five journal, and I figured this would be a nice way to track three books in one page, depending on the size of the book cover or how long or how meaty your review is, this could definitely vary. I find that three titles are more than enough for a page. If I have a smaller cover, maybe I would do four of them. But I think three is pretty much a good reasonable number because then if you would do it on the opposite page, you could also have like six in one spread. Also, it depends on how much you read, but here is an example of how you can document it through an A five size like this. So I have some clear stamps right here. I also have supplementary stationary. I really like adding other elements to the review page because for a while, they could look very templated and they look very wordy. So I just added, like, little details like this number one fan, clear stamp because this Daisy Jones in the six is actually music themed. So I am working around the color ways that you see here with the book covers, but that's totally optional. I think just adding little context of it being like a book review page is a good idea already in itself. And for every cover you're seeing here, I try to write the basic information. You have title, author, rating, review. You can definitely add things like genre or date published, if it's information that is important to you. I also like to add ratings, which you'll see a lot in the examples I'm providing. But ratings are totally optional. I think it's just a way for you to figure out whether or not you would find a title or a book that would resonate with you based on the previous ratings you had on certain genres, for example. I also like to just add a short sentence and kind of summarize my thoughts on the book. Not necessarily spoiler free, but just enough to kind of drug my memory when I was reading it. Another thing you can add is your reading period. Like, let's say you read this throughout one week and you wanted to track how fast you were reading. I personally don't track it because I try to enjoy the fact that I'm able to read. So it's really fully customizable. I also find myself just adding stickers as I go, especially for something with the size, an A five size can be daunting because you have a lot of space to fill up. But one thing I also want to share is you don't really have to fill up every single empty space on the page. You can simply just add as you go, as you can see here and make sense of whatever space is available. Because honestly, if you have extra space, it's always a good idea to maybe write more or it's a good thing to remember, Oh, next time maybe I could actually add another book cover there and have four or five books in a page if you don't find yourself having too much to say, and that's totally fine. One thing I also try to tap into when it comes to reviews is not only the critic part, but something about the writing format. So, for example, Daisy Jones in the six is narrated through interviews and articles and not like the usual fiction titles. And I love that particular aspect of the book, and that is giving me a little nudge to be like, Oh, next time, if I see book formats like this, then I would definitely pick it up because it's something I really enjoy reading. And it's something I'm comfortable with. Like, I love reading articles. I love reading interviews. Apart from the narrative, if there was something that resonated with you, one thing that fully resonated with me while reading Daisy Jones was I got into I really love music. I got into Fleetwood Mac. I got super obsessed with this rabbit hole of 70s music. And I think that really gave me a lot of direction with, again, the genres I like and the types of books that I tend to read. So that's something that has given me, new information on my reading habits as of recent. Another thing I also want to mention is, you know, it could be the season for reading. Let's say, when you finish this book instead of writing the exact date, you can just mention, like you were traveling. Like, I was traveling when I was reading this book called The Wedding People, and it was nice to be able to have a book on hand when you're traveling because it kind of keeps you company. You can get kind of lost in another world while you're taking the train or, like, exploring a new city. And usually I have better memory of my trip and what I read because they go hand in hand. And that's something I also wrote here because that was the instant memory for me like, Oh, yeah, I was reading this in the winter. So I remember this was probably the first book I read for the year. So context tools like that are really good in order for you to figure out certain touch points on when you read this book, how were you feeling? What did it give you afterwards? Like, did it leave you feeling wanting more, or did you just, you know, sometimes you don't have to say that you fully enjoyed it, maybe you didn't enjoy it, and that could be something of note so that next time you won't pick up a title that just it's not in your radar of reading, and that's totally fine. It's a great way really to explore not only what you read and how you read, but also the things that you get attracted to, for example, the types of fiction story. Sometimes it's just hard to imagine certain ones or, like, I don't personally read fantasy, so I tend to gravitate towards fiction, more contemporary fiction and women led character. So that's the majority of titles I read. That's a recent discovery that I've had, and I think it's a good one to take note of so that when I pull out titles or potential books I want to read, I know which ones would be on my TBR or my to be Red list. So here is the final page of my books. 5. Media Journaling: Films/TV: Oh. Here's how I document a film, for example, in a media journal, we're going to be using this ASIC size notebook. I printed out a poster of the film, and I'm using some relevant stickers. I think the fun part about media journaling and logging about a film that you watch or a TV show, I would say film and TV show have the same format. Is that based on the story, I try to pull out themes that would feel relevant, for example, for Moonrise Kingdom. It was very camp themed. It had this, like, vintage flare. It is one of my favorite movies by Wes Anderson. So I had an excuse to take out these cam stickers, and I like that they're small, so they don't take up that much space, but enough to kind of complement the movie poster and also the entire theme of what I'm going for for this particular page. So when it comes to movies or TV shows, sometimes I get really chatty and I fill up maybe like two pages. But if I want something that's pretty much straight to the point, I just go for, like, a one page spread, as you see here. I really enjoy this particular clear Stamp set because it's film related. So there's one that has movie rating, and it's a great way to kind of constantly put it on your page and use it as a marker to know whether or not you liked the movie that you watched. As you can see, I'm slowly setting everything up before I start writing. I find that my collection of smaller side stickers always work because it helps me add just a little bit of context and information for the pages. This is optional, but I also like just putting a date. For example, I watched it on this date, and I am starting with the basic info that is in every film page, I would say, is this can be fully customizable to you. I like writing the title in, the director and the genre. Throughout the years, I also notice a certain genre that I've just been gravitating towards. So that's really important for me. The rating. You don't also have to always put the rating, but I like putting a rating just because I want to channel my inner movie credit, and, of course, the review. So the bigger partial of the page is reserved for the review, I would say, like 50% of the page. I am going here with a different ink for the actual information. I think it just adds a little bit more contrast to the black that I used earlier, and it's I think like an orangy color from one of my fountain pen inks in my collection. For the reviews, I try to be as candid as possible. Like, something that I always start with is if I watch this for the first time or it's a rewatch? Is it an annual rewatch? For example, Moonrise Kingdom is one of my annual rewatch films of choice. I also take my time out to kind of write in some things that I found interesting that lasted with me after watching the movie. There are some scenes here that I really like. I also would say that if you like particular moments, you can write it here if you want to write about certain scenes. I don't think you should be worried too much about spoiling the film because technically, when you do video journaling, it's for you and how you feel about it. But this is, like, a very broad summary of how I would say the film lasted with me. So, for example, I really like the correspondence of the main characters, Sam and Susie. It's a very coming of age movie, which really, like, dictated a lot of my film preferences moving forward. This is one of the first Wes Anderson films I watched. And until now, I still find myself gravitating towards the visuals of this film, the colors that they chose, even the typography and the humor that is presented throughout the film. So this is something that I definitely wrote down. And summarized in this short review. I would count this as short because usually I would write longer ones, especially if I want to debrief on certain topics, but I like to keep it short and sweet. It also allows with the consistency of doing it more frequently if I write it like this. Of course, I needed to shade in the movie rating. I like how this has a very engaging part of it, where you can, color it in and add it in. And once that's done, this is a little bit of addition, like adding a little bit more stickers wherever there's extra space. And that's pretty much how I do my film or TV show pages. 6. Media Journaling: Music: If you like music like me or listen to a lot of podcasts, this music tracking page is also a good way to take note of what you're currently listening. I find that for music, I listen to a wide range of genres, and today we're highlighting one of my favorite albums, it's the Crux by Joe, and it's one of the recent ones that I really, really got obsessed with and would just play the album on repeat like nonstop no skips. So since this is a tinier you know, album covers square. I wanted to paste in a photo of Joe Kiri as well. And I'm using the passport size. A passport size is also a great way to track these types of, you know, music, albums. If you attend concerts, it would also be nice to kind of track it within the same media journal if you're into that. I personally love just logging this because it's a way for me to identify. Okay, what genre was I heavily into? What types of lyrics or songs really resonate with me? And I also want to mention this star Sticker. I just got it from an office supply store, but I tend to use it a lot because it's just fun to add for every type of media that I'm documenting. And then for this clear stamp, I'm using one that is music theme, which I think is super in them for this particular journal page that we're working on. Since the colors of the album have, like, blue and red, I figured using a red stamad ink would be a nice touch instead of the usual black. I also will say that journaling with this format doesn't require you to put a lot of stationery down, which I think is great, and you don't have to feel the need to want to fill it up with a lot of stickers, washi tapes, at most just enough to kind of surround the page, but because we are mostly channeling a lot of our writing here, it's really a lot of self reflection and thinking about why this particular media resonated with you, why these songs have been on your radar, or maybe some things like what got you into this kind of genre. I also picked up this really small stamp that has a musical note on it, musical notes. It was super cute, so I figured that would be a nice touch as well for this particular page. I want to say that it took me a while to document about music. I think the first time I did media journaling was really books, and then it moved to TV shows and films. Music, I think it's tricky because there are a lot of things that you can definitely write about. Info wise, we're starting with the artist album and release. It could be the release date or month. If I don't know if I wrote a genre, but that's also definitely something worth looking into. In the end, these types of info would be useful for you to look back on and just kind of track your behavior if you wanted to know what types of music you were listening to. And I think something that has been an information I really learn from is that certain times of year, I tend to listen to more upbeat music. So some months, it's a bit more mellow. I think for summer, I'm always listening to something very in the top. And then around winter, I am listening to something a bit more, you know, melancholic to kind of tie in with the season. But this one I was listening to non stop in the winter up until, like, early spring. I think there's just usually like a series of experiences where I get really hyperfixated on certain albums, and I will listen to them non stop. And this was definitely one of them. Another thing I like to add more context into the journal page that I'm writing is I would watch a lot of commentaries or interviews about the musician. Like, why did they decide to write this song? What were the core themes? Like, I love that this album doesn't just focus on romance. It focuses a lot on family, friendships, and your relationship with yourself. I just really enjoyed the upbeat sounds. It rended me a lot of the Beatles, which is one of my favorite bands of all time. So I also set aside the bottom part to write my favorite tracks from the album. So that's also something worth pointing out, whereas, like, in books, you can't really I guess you can pull out, like chapters, but since with music, a podcast can also be like, if you have some favorite podcast episodes from that particular podcast, it's good to note them down if you want to replay them in the future. So that's something I added in as well here. It's not much pace, but I think it's enough to kind of put down the information I need, and here's the final page. 7. Final Thoughts: You've made it to the end of the class. Great job, and thank you so much for spending your time with me. I hope you enjoyed media journaling together. Now that I've shared ideas on how to track your favorite media, I encourage you to incorporate it into your journaling practice. In the meantime, if you're looking for more ideas and inspiration, I have a PDF and the Projects and Resources tab where you can access some media journal pages I've worked on throughout the years, and in the project gallery, I also have an entry featuring the media journal pages we worked on together for this class. Make sure to share your projects in the project gallery. And if you enjoy this class, please consider leaving this class a review. Keep documenting and always be creating. Bye.