I dislike the term ‘Fanboy’…
I don’t normally write posts that relate to me personally, but I feel this one has been a long time coming and as I’m sort of in the middle of a redesign (which will make it’s debut in about a month… possibly) I’ve been attempting to refine what Solace is about. It’s not come from any outside prodding in particular but rather myself reading back through and dissecting a lot of my writing to date.
I think it’s stemmed from a Bafta discussion I attended back in March titled “The role of the film critic in the digital age”. At one point during the debate they asked if anyone in the room ran a film blog, I raised my hand thinking there would be a couple of us. There wasn’t. I stood and was bombarded with questions from the audience and the panel (which consisted of some people I highly respect including Peter Bradshaw from the guardian and Nick James editor of Sight & Sound), I don’t even really remember what I said, I think I had some form of space-odyssey style trip and passed out as people and critics beamed passed me as streaks of colour.
The one small piece of the whole debacle I do remember is that I was asked “Do you consider what you do to be criticism?”… honestly I don’t remember what I said in reply, I think I might have mumbled something about ’starting discussions’… and then just trailed off. Since then it’s been playing on my mind, not only the criticism debate, but also just Solace’s role in general, and what If anything I can do to keep Solace on track and also possibly step up my game…
I try to keep up with all the developments in the movie world but only report on 1 or 2 every day as there’s just too much going on for me to cover it and there’s a million sites that do the job with much greater depth than Solace ever could. I decided when I started what it was just going to be the stuff I was interested in, if other people wanted to get involved and write about their cinematic interests they can happily have their say. I also don’t really think of what we do here on the site as criticism, since I only really write small news items, and it’s only really ever the things that catch my eye. When I do write reviews it’s generally only for the films that initiated a strong reaction from me… I either loved it… or hated it.
In justification for my lack of criticism, I’ve been using what my friend Mike calls ‘The Gary Glitter defence’ (after a Twitter discussion of me talking up the merits of ‘The Fast & the Furious 3′ …ahh the shame) which is that if I’m guilty of anything… it’s loving too much. I just love movies, so if there’s something I don’t like… I tend not to talk about it.
All I really want to do here on the site is talk about the movies I enjoy, talk about the films that are currently in production that I find interesting and get some discussion going with other people who love film as much as I do. I’m considering all kinds of things for the redesign.. message boards, a better comments system, user submitted articles…all kinds of stuff including hopefully just a step-up in output of news items but am debating with myself whether or not any of it adds anything of worth to the site…
So what do you guys think?
Keep writing about what matters to you. There are plenty of all-encompassing news sites, but not enough people sorting out the wheat from the chaff.
Is there something in the “internet” air just now? I’m having a little crisis of faith you could call it and I’m starting to refine a lot more of what I do and cut back to why I started Filmstalker in the first place. I think I’ve strayed a little and started writing about too much and therefore diluting my voice.
The term fanboy is rubbish, because it can be applied to anyone and can be twisted to leave anyone out. It’s such a vulgar and outdated term these days. It has made it’s way into common language and, like some of those who use it, lost its meaning on the way.
I’ll be sad to see this design go though, I love the colour scheme…I get hypnotised by watching the bright white cursor move against the black background as I type!
If you do redesign, can you fix that mistake on the banner with the word ‘CINEMA’ sitting next to a VHS cassette? The Devil is in the details, you know.
Personally, I think people come to blogs for a certain spin on dry movie ‘news’. If you keep it consitent people will come back. No need to be an authority on anything other than your own opinions.
Hah.. thanks MrLerone, the reason for the VHS was that when I started Solace It was to do more reviews of older stuff, vhs crap and movies on dvd… but this kind of evoloved and changed as i’ve gone along… but yes it’s probably going to change.
@Richard Brunton: I don’t know what i’m going to do about the colour scheme too, I like it because it makes solace stand out from the crowd to an extent but i’ve also had some complaints from people of the older generation that it’s not quite as legible as it could be… I’m working on it…
Although this is a contradiction because I am actually commenting right now, I’m hardly ever interested in comments on sites. I read Solace and other movie blogs because of the writing of the individual producing that site. Like you said, there’s so much movie news out there and I think the role of blogs is to act as filters: so you find a blog where the author is interested into the same kind of stuff as you and you keep coming back because you know they’ll filter out the crap and give you something easy to digest. If you want a barrage of noise and forum inanity you can go give AICN a whirl.
Tom, just keep yourself happy and write what you are passionate about. It been great to see this site bloom for you and it always nice to throw our listeners at your (our first official listener) direction.
I th ink everyone’s already hit on it. I think the biggest seller of movie websites like ours is that they’re all independent voices and we all have our own tastes and I think that’s what people are looking for!
Personally, I don’t think it’s so much about the movies themselves but about the conversations they spark. I honestly don’t think people talk about movies enough. They go, they watch, they’ll talk for a minute and that’s it. Whatever happened to long discussion over coffee? Discussing the merits of “Fast and Furious 3″ (which I also had a blast watching)? That’s why I turn to movie blogs and I think that’s what others are looking for too.
I got a little carried away there. Sorry.
I agree with it all! The interest of reading a blog is in that person’s opinions and how alike.. or dislike…. they are to your own. Personal and uncensored. Your recipe for the perfect chocolate cake.
So may I suggest you organise posts by mapping them chronologically, as well as favourability - i.e. top favourite 20 tags.
/vv
I hate blogs.
Most of the time, they are written by people who think that their mundane life can be of an interest to the rest of the world. Vanity and Ego is what drives them I reckon.
Solace is anything but a blog. I read Solace because in Solace’s opinions I trust. And I genuinely laugh too at some of Solace’s outbursts. I don’t want lists of forthcoming releases, instead I want to read intelligent and fiercely uncensored opinions and reviews that cut through the marketing crap.
I love Solace.
First!
Oh. Wrong site.
I generally like blogs myself, and have a few chosen favourites.
But it is a fact that with the unrestrictiveness of editorial on the net, people left right and centre are promoting themselves as ‘internet journalists’ without the experience. I’ve had a run-in with a few myself, and they tend, and I’m generalising here, to run before they can walk and in the process stumble over the facts. Internet ‘readers’ are getting more and more cynical everyday, so it is very important, on a site like solace, to build credibility and dependability.
And stick by your guns.