As 2009 comes to a close over here in Southern California, we thought it'd be a good time to highlight some of our favorites entries from our blog during the past year.  We covered a wide range of Media-and-Entertainment topics over the year, and listed below are some of our favorites.  We hope everyone has a happy and safe New Year, and we'll see ya on the other side!

In January, David Halver wrote a wonderful piece on his First Close Encounter with Movie Magic, that had a lot to do with ALIEN.  Also in January I wrote of one of my favorite films -- Hitchcock's NORTH BY NORTHWEST, and how it offers a master class in film editing.

February saw the last installment of an interesting and informative production-diary series by Zach Baliva for the film MY NAME IS JERRY, starring Doug Jones. And this Last Installment has an interview with Doug, including a video of him dancing.  Also in February Jess covered the benefits of lots of white space in you screenplay in Embrace The Space.

In March, Dan Margules started his ongoing series Film School On A Silver Platter, which covers the educational benefits of DVD bonus material for advancing your filmmaking education.

In April, Amanda scored an Interview with Destin Creeton of SHORT TERM 12, the Sundance Film Festival's Jury Prize winner in Short Filmmaking.  In that month, Dan also asked and answered, What Does A Producer Do?

In May, Amanda Curry covered Smart Filmmaking and Fundraising, an interview and case study from an independent film, and Audrey Brown covered the benefits of Being A Production Diplomat. 

In June, Stacy discussed the merits of Business Cards in promoting your career at networking events, including some creative tips for getting noticed.  Audrey lamented, What To Do When Someone Else Makes Your Movie? and Dan looked Back at One of Farrah Fawcett's Finest Films.

July saw Audry advising Why You Should Make Your Movie Now and had Dave McClave discussing Scriptless Footage Management.  In July we also kicked off an extensive series on Comic-Con beginning with Audrey's piece on Why Comic-Con Matters.

In August, David gave us a 3-Step Guide to Field Production and we kicked off weekly installments of Audrey's Independent Film Release Report and Script-Sales Report.  Also in August, Dan Had Lunch With Cameron Diaz.

In September, David put forth that DTE Recorders Change the Production Process Forever and Alex Vance kicked off his wonderful series on writing and not being blocked called The Not Writer.

In October, Dan gave us Three Movies That Reminded Me I Wanted To Write and The Indie Success Story of 2009 (PARANORMAL ACTIVITY, duh).

And more recently in November and December, we saw An Editorial Commentary (about the movie GO and its director, Doug Liman), The Mythical Golden Rules of Screenplay Formatting, and Same But Different on the importance of story structure.

We've had a great time in 2009 writing about what we love, and we look forward to more of it in the new year!