I’m beginning to have second thoughts about blogging this film. I know that the conventional wisdom right now is that you need to grow your audience from before you start shooting. Apparently, if you don’t do this, you’re an idiot. So you have a blog and a twitter and you spread the word about your film.
I have to admit that this blog, with barely any posts, got more hits than my regular blog, which I’ve been writing for a year now. Obviously, there’s an excitement about a new film that just doesn’t exist for a blog that randomly talks about movies. A film is a film, after all.
But doesn’t a blog detract from making a film special? If I put up all my thoughts on this film before they it’s shot, is that going to make it more or less special? I like to be surprised by a film when I see it. I need to know a little bit about it. I read about films at all the festivals. I watch the trailers. I decide if I want to see it. But if you read too much, it not only kills the experience of watching it, it starts to kill the desire to go and see it in the first place. A trailer that looks great the first time can start to show its tricks after repeated viewings, and make you suspicious about what they’re covering up. I don’t go to a film thinking, “Oh yeah, that’s that shot they were talking about on their blog.”
The other thing is this film is a thriller, with twists and turns. How much can I talk about this without giving it all away?
I have all sorts of new ideas about how I want to get certain shots, and how I’m going to design the sets, but I’m very protective about those ideas until they happen. It’s not just that I don’t want someone stealing my great ideas, it’s also that I’m completely paranoid about someone stumbling on the idea themselves. I don’t want to help them out. They can see my film and then copy it all they want.
And I don’t need some random commenter chiming in on my new great idea with something like, “oh yeah, Tsui Hark did it like that in GREEN SNAKE,” or “that’s a dumb idea.” Stuff like that takes the wind right out of your sails.
It’s a nice feeling when you sit in a theater and don’t know everything about a film, even in today’s promotion-saturated world. Sure, you should know that you’re going to see a comedy or a drama or horror or whatever. And maybe you do need a little criticism to prepare you for your initial viewing, someone to provide some context for a foreign film, for example.
I’m not going to post anything bad anyway. I hardly tell my friends what’s going on for fear of cursing it. I can tell you now that we’re waiting for a star, but I can’t tell you who. Nikki Finke sure doesn’t give a shit about me, so how much promotion is this really going to get me? Is it really worth doing? I’ve got a lot of work to do.
