August 24, 2005
film geeks vs. blog geeks
Just got back from the Edinburgh Film Festival earlier today.
The good news is, my friend Dave MacKenzie’s new film, “Asylum” is really, really good. Wow. Sir Ian “Gandalf” McKellan was tremendous.
The film was dark. Very, very dark. Even darker than Dave’s previous film, “Young Adam”.
The other thing I notice about Dave’s filmmaking is, he is a MASTER of sex scenes. Especially the dark and disturbing kind. Anyway, I hope you’ll go see it when it hits your neck of the woods.
[Bonus Link: Preview/trailer thingie for “Asylum” on the Paramount Classics website.]
Besides that, I spent a lot of time schmoozing with the usual suspects. Film geeks and media types.
Two differences I notice between film geeks and blog geeks.
1. Film geeks take a lot of drugs.
I didn’t see any at the party last night, but the Edinburgh Film Festival (or any big media event, really) tends to be awash with them. And there were one or two people around yesterday who were nursing hangovers from “partaking” the night before.
I know bloggers like a drink or two (remember the speakers’ dinner the night before Les Blogs, when Gaby and Jason had their legendary confrontation?). But could you imagine Doc, Scoble or Joi pulling out the mirror & credit card at a blog dinner? Or Loic and Caterina getting really paranoid when the white powder starts running out? It would boggle the mind.
So the Old/Big Media party circuit tends to be awash with drugs. The Blogosphere party circuit, as far as I can tell, seems to be pretty much free of them. Do the math.
2. Film geeks seem far more frustrated and battered by their chosen media than blog geeks.
To use the now-famous metaphor, it’s the difference between pushing a rock up a hill and pushing snowballs down a hill. The film geeks are hostages to fortune, namely, having their projects greenlighted by the guys in Hollywood who sign the cheques. A process that can take years, and thousands of hours in meetings.
The blog geeks don’t have that problem. As I’m fond of saying, “In the blogosphere, the only light is the greenlight”.
Let’s just hope it stays that way.
I’m not dissing the film geeks. But they do seem very locked into an artform that generally gets a lot more out them, than they get out of it. Which is why so many people I meet in that game remind me of the “Vanished” cartoon above.
Dave and I have had many long conversations about this. The fact that has managed to make a career in such a painfully difficult yet nebulous field is no mean feat, indeed. So well done, Mackenzie (Round of Applause).
[OTHER HIGHLIGHTS:]
–Giving a random drawing to Jason Biggs of “American Pie” fame. He was a nice guy, I thought.
–Long conversation with Hannah McGill, a very cool woman, the film critic for The Glasgow Herald. Turns out she’s actually an occasional gapingvoid reader. Small world.
–Coincidentally bumping into Paul and Matt of Salted.com at a diner, and sharing a very pleasant lunch & beers with them before catching my train home. I had no idea they were up for the week. Again, small world [Salted just finished re-designing the Stormhoek blog, so if you’re looking for a blog designer, I can recommend them, no worries.].
"Hugh's Daily Cartoon" Newsletter.
A new cartoon sent out every weekday morning to your inbox [RSS version here.].
A wee chuckle to start your day off right etc.
Film geeks tend to over-intellectualise their tawdry tales. I’ve had the experience of working with a number of them. I pity them in a way because it’s such a dog eat dog medium and success doesn’t necessarily equate with bulging pockets, or fucked up mucuos membranes for that matter. I’ve still never met a blogger who can make a living from blogging exclusively.
When we become what we formerly scorned
I had this very conversation just yesterday, when my friend Ephrat came over at lunchtime with a tailcoat she’d embroidered…
What we need is a champagne based cocaine filled drink that could be a cross-over hit! Come on marketeers!
We could print a lexicon on the label:
Filmie: “I’m working on a major project at the moment!“
Blogger: “I’m working on my technocrati ranking“
Reality: “I’m sitting in my underpants in front of the PC scatching my genitalia, and looking at the sports/pr0n/big brother…“
Yay!
I think the drink you need is a “Death Royale” — Champagne and Liquid Crack (Patron XO Caf
Oooohhh. Death and social disgrace in a Haute-Rapper style bottle. That is special.
How much of this do they sell a year, and who is buying it?
Makes me think of Ferrara’s Snake Eyes or Dangerous Games. Superb movie on the decadence of the Hollywood industrie.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0106660/
nice to be seen