indieWIRE’s Film Blog Panel Discussion 12/16/05

Greetings! Welcome to The Film Panel Notetaker, my new blog dedicated to all the notes I ever took while attending film panel discussions. This promises to be a fun and informative blog for people who couldn't make it to the discussions themselves, or for those who weren’t taking any notes.

For my inaugural posting, I have included my notes from indieWIRE’s panel discussion on film blogs. How fitting! Portions of these notes were contributed by Arin Crumley, co-director of “Four-Eyed Monsters.”

In the coming weeks, I’ll post notes from panel discussions I attended in the past, and I’ll also post notes from panel discussions I’ll attend soon. I will also be welcoming Guest Notetakers for panel discussions that I am not able to attend myself. If you attended any of the panel discussions mentioned in my blot, please leave any of your own notes that I may have missed in the ‘comments’ section.

My blog is currently housed on Myspace, however I may switch to another blog service soon. I will keep you informed of any changes. In the mean time, please sit back, relax, and enjoy my first posting.


The Film Panel Notetaker’s notes from
indieWIRE’s Film Blog Panel Discussion
December 16, 2005

About the Panel
indieWIRE’s monthly series at the AppleStore - SoHo presented “some of its favorite film bloggers to discuss their corner of the blogosphere. As film blogs become more andmore popular, meet the people behind these blogs that cover indie, foreign and Hollywood films.” The panel was moderated by indieWIRE Editor in Chief (and blogger) Eugene Hernandez.

Click here to read Steve Rosen’s article on a look back at the year in film blogs on indieWIRE.


Revelations
* = The Film Panel Notetaker’s personal note.

Many of tonight’s film bloggers shared that they are not proponents of the so-called “corporate”-style blogs, ie. The Carpet Bagger, The Envelope, The Red Carpet (all awards-related off-shoot blogs of bigger newspapers such as the LA Times.) They referred to these blogs as columns disguised as blogs.

Corporate-style blogs were worked into the discussion of Film Journalists/Critics vs. Film Bloggers. Many of the panelists mentioned that sometimes they are not taken seriously as journalists. Bloggers sometimes cannot get press access to premiers & parties, because most studio publicists worry that blogs do not attract enough traffic/readership.

The publicists may also worry that a blog is too immediate and they kind of want the delay that normal press has.

* I consider myself to be a guerilla indie film publicist, and therefore am actually highly attracted to film blogs, because while they may not attract a wide readership, they certainly do target a specific audience. It seems to me that people who read film blogs, are cinephiles, and will most likely go see a film that is mentioned on a blog.

Karina Longworth of Cinematical said she spends about an hour and a half each day just trying get passes to screenings, premiers, parties, etc., for her crew of film bloggers. They don’t usually get invited to press junkets. The studios make it difficult for them. She would like to be invited to more parties.

S.T. VanAirsdale of The Reeler said that some publicists are warming up to bloggers. He also welcomes anyone getting him a one-on-one interview with Jennifer Aniston and other celebs.

Many of the panelists really like film critic Dave Kehr’s film review blog.

In addition to tonight’s panelists, other film blogs were mentioned, including:
cinecultist
grainy hendricks
twitch
cineflicker
GreenCine Daily
artflickchick
artfagcity

Tonight’s panel discussion was filmed by IFC.

The Panelists
Eugene Hernandez [Moderator]: Indiewire & Eugonline blog
- Eugene put Arin Crumley and Susan Buice, co-directors of “Four-Eyed Monsters” on the spot and had them stand up to talk about their video podcast/video blog.

Karina Longworth: Cinematical
- Cinematical has 10 regular writers, and about 18 altogether.
- It is owned by Weblogs.com, which is now owned by AOL.
- Getting press access from publicists is not easy. [See notes in Revelations.]
- Writes 1,000-word reviews.
Scott Macaulay: Filmmaker Magazine Blog
- Scott doesn’t like to write “generic” features in his blog. He writes savvy, personal, insightful and opinionated pieces connected to films and something going on in the world.
- Breaking news is virtually impossible for Filmmaker Magazine to cover itself, because it’s a seasonal publication, but is easier to report in blogs, because blogs are up-to-the-minute.

Alison Willmore: IFC News
- Writes about movies she finds interesting.

Andrew Grant: Like Anna Karina's Sweater
- Tries to stay away from films being covered elsewhere.
- Started a DVD distribution company for the films he writes about.

Aaron Dobbs: Out of Focus
- Also writes about TV
* [Not sure if this is on Out of Focus, or elsewhere.]

S.T. VanAirsdale: The Reeler
- Used to work for New York Daily News celebrity column/magazine, which he left behind to start his blog.
- Moving to Movie City News next month, which is very business-oriented.
- Likes celebrity-focused pieces on his blog. [See notes in Revelations.]
- He has a journalist background and degree. His blog gets quotes from the people he is talking about. He said he hits the streets, and in general he seems to get his story.

Michael Koresky: Reverseblog: The Reverse Shot blog
- Reverse Blog is an extension of Reverse Shot, which was founded by Jeff Reichert, director of Marketing & Publicity at Magnolia Pictures.
- Michael likes to write about films taken for granted, new films at festivals, etc.

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