|
|
Susan "Sam" Shockley and Patrick Barney
Co-hosts of "His & Her Movie View"
Patrick Barney, always a movie "Nut", was participating in movie making at American University in the '60's. During that time, an informal group of avid movie goers (English teachers) got together to discuss movie making in depth, which he suspects later became the American Film Institute. A bachelor no more, he went back to being a mere movie "nut" seeing 3 or 4 movies a week,(his personal best is 6 feature length films in one day). That is until he met Sam who gave him a run for his money in the movie viewing department.
Susan "Sam" Shockley, an expert in the hotel business, transferred here, to Washington, DC from Phoenix, Arizona to head the Government and Military Division for the 3,400 hotels in the Best Western System. Since she and Patrick married one year earlier, she brought him along with her, and again they watched movies, until one day in 1993. At Reston Cable 8, while Sam was being interviewed about her government work, she asked the General Manager if they had any Movie Reviewers. He said "No, but we are looking for movie reviewers" and invited the duo to host a movie show. So 15 years and 500+ shows, they are still at it.
Sam and Pat made the show their own by actually talking to each other about their experience at each movie, giving the Male and Female perspective. They feel that movies are perceived very differently by men and women so why not have a man and a woman offer their thoughts. They try to be fair to a movie, not just saying, "Oh, it is terrible. Sam loves happy endings and disagrees with critics that feel a happy ending makes a movie "predictable". Often times, as husbands and wives do, they argue and the audience fell in love with them. The format includes 4 to 5 movies each show, with alternating hosts introducing the movies and the other host following up giving their opinion. That is what is supposed to happen. Sam is forever forgetting to introduce the clip and NO ONE in the audience would ever get any real information if Patrick were not there to guide them. They became one of the founding members of the Washington, DC Area Film Critics Association (WAFCA) in 2002.
The show moved to Fairfax, Channel 10 years ago and the dynamic duo has aired over 500 half-hour shows. They are recognized in restaurants, at the airport and at the theater. They have a movie website hisandhermovieview.com where they put it in writing. You can tell by looking at them that she, Sam, never misses an opportunity to eat buttered popcorn and he never met a "Raisinet" he didn't like. They are fat and happy and doing what they love. Visit them at Cox, channel 10 in Fairfax, Monday nights at 9:30 pm for a chuckle and maybe, just maybe you'll get some insight into the magic of the movies.
In 2009 the duo made two decisions. First, they founded the RainMaker Media Foundation, Inc. for education, preservation and promotion projects in the film, TV & internet media. Their first project is the Northern Virginia Film Festival to be held in October of 2009. Second, to become “REEL” Baby Boomers. They intend to use their website to illustrate that Baby Boomers are; over 50, have money to spend and want Hollywood to stop marginalizing their needs & wants. Their website now has a “Boomer Movie Blog”.
|
|
