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John Campea leaves The Movie Blog

Brendan — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 13:54:33 +0000

As you might already know, for the past few years I have been a loyal reader of John Campea’s The Movie Blog. The site started as a small movie opinion and news blog, but through the creativity and effort of its contributors grew into a community with a steady podcast, video reviews, and enough content to keep anyone busy for weeks.

John just announced through Twitter late last night that he is leaving the Movie Blog, I’m guessing to pursue his newest venture with the AMC Theatre blog. There has been no official announcement yet from the site itself, but my guess is he is leaving the blog in the hands of its current top contributor Rodney Brazeau; either that or the site will be dissolved and Rodney will switch over to his own blog, thestub.ca (really, .ca?).

I wish Campea the best of luck with AMC, now I need to find a new site to get movie news from…

Odd sympatico ad

Brendan — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 17:30:25 +0000

I came across this odd banner for Sympatico Autos when browsing this morning. What always surprises me about these kinds of ads is how little self-awareness these companies must have. I mean, really? No one in MSN/Sympatico’s advertising team has the clarity of mind to notice the cliché they’re headed towards?

Advertising is a reality of a consumer culture, we all know this, but I would have hoped that we would have evolved past this kind of single-entendre marketing.

NOTE: I realize that by posting this, in a way I am drawing attention to the very product I am critiquing, but hopefully if enough people react to ads like these we may eventually see a shift from this kind of marketing, to this kind.

John Campea’s “The Movie Blog”: Model for blogging success?

Brendan — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 00:31:02 +0000

A little bit after finishing high school in about 2003 my brother sent me a link to a small little blog that discussed upcoming movies, reviews and anything else relating to the world of film. At first it was just a link here or there but after a while I found myself coming back on a weekly, then even daily basis. Pretty soon, The Movie Blog, became a part of my daily routine. While I stopped in for movie news and reviews, I also came for the extensive discussions going on in the comments section of every post.

The site’s founder, John Campea doesn’t have a particularly amazing writing style, though it’s good enough- the reason I read is because his opinions on the film industry, Hollywood and sometimes TV are extremely well thought and never feel like they’re coming from a ‘Critic’. Campea acknowledges that we each have our own tastes and in his writing is able to walk the fine line between personal opinion and critical analysis.

The point of this post, however is not to flatter but to look at themovieblog.com as a model for successful blogging. Here is a site that started from a personal passion, grew a great community and established a name for itself by the hard work of its contributors and editor. Since its inception, the Movie Blog has evolved, publishing extensive podcasts, interviews, video reviews, and most recently opinion videos on various topics.

Eventually the Movie Blog was bought out by the Peerflix Media Network, and Campea was able to stay on as main editor of the site, therefore keeping creative as well as benefiting from the sale. Campea has also recently begun working as a Senior Editor of AMC Theatre’s blog, as well as his (second?) feature film titled “The Anniversary”.

Looking at the crazy path that themovieblog.com has been on, I have to wonder what exactly has created the success. I have tried to narrow it down to a small-ish list. Here it is:

Nearly constant blogging- The site posts anywhere between 4-8 blogs per day. I realized there’s some sites that post a lot more but the amount isn’t the only thing that matters.
Insightful, smart topics- The Movie Blog doesn’t post trivial stuff and they don’t relink twelve times a day. Sure, as with any blog there’s a decent amount of links but with enough opinion and content that they nearly go unnoticed. Beyond that, the amount of featured blogs and original content that comes out of here is staggering.
Not afraid of cameras or mics- Video reviews and podcasts add a lot to the site’s personality and general interest in the contributors. There’s a reason I call it John Campea’s Movie Blog instead of ‘XYZ movie blog run by who the hell cares’.
A returning community- Few posts go without 50+ comments, even that is a little low for some. I find this essential for a successful blog, and really the only blogs I revisit are ones I have active comments on. Does anyone out there disagree? Anyone?
Balls- Most of the contributors to the site, mostly Campea himself, are not afraid of posting blogs that they know will get ripped apart by countless readers. Many a time have I shaken my fist at opinions I couldn’t begin to agree with, but it kept me coming back and commenting. It takes a lot to choose the unpopular opinion, but it presents another side to consider and sometimes will surprise you when finally end up agreeing.

So there you have it, a short list of why I think themovieblog.com became successful. Feel free to add or disagree in the comments below.

On Twitter, God has 32,525 Followers.

Brendan — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 18:02:43 +0000

That’s right, on Twitter, God has 32,525 followers. I am not one of them. You would think he would have more, no? I mean the guy who created the world (err- universe?) has fewer followers than that douchey guy from the Hills.

Also, to all you Jehovah’s Witnesses out there, I would suggest getting on the Twitter, I mean with only 144,000 seats in heaven, you’ll need to get on God’s good side! So join now, follow God and claim your chance to be one of the 111,475! (if they aren’t already taken, that is).

Got funny twitter stats? Post them below in the comments.

Vloggers – The new ‘talking heads’

Brendan — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 12:04:28 +0000

The term ‘talking heads’ used to refer to the stationary upper torsos of news anchors and pundits that would deliver unto us the news of the day as well as political opinions. This term is often used to generalize and satire this group for their mundane qualities. Just think of how many different news anchors one sees over a lifetime, all from the chest up, dishing out the very best “panda born at the zoo” or “man eats 37 hot dogs” stories. However, for a while now a new breed of upper torsos have slowly started to adopt the talking heads persona and none of us noticed.

Vloggers (or video bloggers for those unfamiliar with the term*) are to the Internet what the original talking heads are to TV. Why? Mostly because for the short time each week they spend on camera, their head takes up 90% of the frame, and they talk… a lot. Equally as mundane as their predecessors, the topics delivered to us, the viewer, include current events and the funny cat video of the week.

Sure there are some obvious differences between these two groups. Where vloggers create their own content and work out of their apartment, their TV counterparts wear suits and have a catchphrase. Where vloggers have opinions about ‘District 9′ and iPhone applications, their TV counterparts have opinions about, well- things that matter.

Despite the differences, the one thing that defines these talking heads is their banality. Watching two TV anchors banter back and forth first thing in the morning is almost the exact same experience as stumbling on a vlogger monologuing late at night; While in both cases there are words coming out of the speakers- there is a valid concern as to whether those words really mean anything.

It’s not that the use of video to get your opinion out there is unrealistic or that people shouldn’t use this medium to interact with others, it’s just the mass influx of vlogs which mostly consist the daily going-ons of their narrators seem to turn into the same generic white noise we’re already exposed to on an hourly basis. Thus, it seems like vloggers may be doomed to be talking heads along side some of TV’s dullest characters, but it’s not all bad- in about 10 years a self-depricating comedy will do for vlogging what Anchorman did for news casting.

You stay classy, Internet