48 Hour Film Project (The Blog Controversy)
This has been a really long weekend, I can tell you. As soon as I walked into The Sky Bar on Saturday night, I knew something was up. People were walking up and introducing themselves to me and saying things like, "You're the guy with the blog.". I had no idea how to take it until someone walked up to me and said,
"I think you may have accidentally put your foot into it with your blog. Watch your back my friend."
Suddenly I knew how Ed Cone and David Hoggard must feel every day. I'm being read!!!!! How cool is that! Of course, with great circulation comes great controversy. My blog has always been my words, my opinions, my way. It never occured to me that anyone anywhere would ever confuse my musings with journalism. The closest I have ever come to anything journalistic (If that's even a word) is the occasional Op-Ed which I model after my Op-Ed hero from way back Brad Rich of the Carteret County News Times. Were it not for folks like him, Lewis Grizzard, and Dave Barry, I am sure I would be much less funny than I currently think I am.
It also never occured to me that I might not be qualified to have an opinion. This may be true, I have never thought of opinions as having to be given only by qualified persons. If that is the case, I am in big trouble, because I give opinion about everything from the weather on up. Much of my opinion ends up here. So I guess what I have here is several years worth of incriminating evidence against myself for giving opinion without license. To this I plead guilty. I don't know what credentials Ebert and Roper have, but they have professional paid for opinions and sometimes I agree with at least one of them. I'm not a paid opinionist, I'm not a journalist, and I'm not even a filmmaker. I'm just an amature boom operator who likes movies. I hope I never implied I was more.
The cool thing about giving opinion is that eventually someone is going to disagree with me. I see this as a good thing. When someone disagrees it means that we are a people free to have opinions, and someone feels strongly enough about something to put it to words. This creates discussion, and discussion more often than not makes us better. Who wouldn't want to be better? The really cool thing is that the other opinion came from a really cool guy who has absolutely no fear about taking risk. I have huge respect for him and his work even if I don't always "get it". He doesn't shoot for me or anyone else to "get it", he's a true artist, and I am proud to post his rebuttal here live from his own webpage.
I think this whole thing may be based on some basic confusion however. There was almost no mainstream media involvement in the 48 Hour Film Project this year. My plan with my blog was to write a somewhat humorous mostly true account of what went on with our team (Team Underexposed) shooting our spy flick. I also planned to link to actual news articles about the 48 Hour Film Project in Greensboro. Of which, I could only find one, and it was written in June. I also reviewed each film, giving my own opinion, and certainly not with the intention of crushing souls. So what happened was people went out looking for real news about it and all they could find was me. That had to be both a confusion and a disappointment.
This said, stay tuned, tomorrow I just might make suggestions!
Comments
You know woody, the only difference between a critic and somone with an opinion is that a critic gets paid. Frankly if you want to say what you want in a forum in which you are to sole contributor of work and effor, jump on it. Just as they have the oppertunity to rebut on their own sites. Personally I wouldn't have posted their gripes and told them what they can do with their bitterness. Remember Woody, you are a former master of all things bitter, dont let meer amateurs gain footing. You may want to start critiquing their critiques.
Posted by: Jefe | August 1, 2005 12:24 PM
Jefe does make a strong argument. :D
Posted by: woody | August 1, 2005 1:04 PM
Woody, it's your blog and you can opinionate if you want to.
There are those blogs that try to be more "journalistic" and "newsworthy". There are also blogs who are written by people who want nothing more than a space to write their feelings, their goals, their daily random thoughts. There are basically as many types of blogs as there are people who are out there writing them. But, personally, I read yours because I know you and I like you and I usually giggle or laugh a little bit. At the very least they generally make me smile.
No, I don't agree with everything you write - but I don't have to. You have never gone out there and said that you are the be-all/end-all of all opinions. You are just you - and your blog represents that. Of all the places that you should be able to post your own words, thoughts, opinions, ramblings, etc. - coherent or not - you should feel most open with your blog. I mean, wasn't that what blogs were originally created for - a web log? (Could be wrong - not completely up on my history lessons, but that's what I always thought.)
I kept a blog for a while - and it was just for me and a few very close friends. Yes, it was out there for others to find. And, in my case I chose not to put my name anywhere on it - that was my choice because the matter of which I was writing was very personal. That being said, I know you have mentioned in an earlier blog that you made a conscious choice to put your real name on your blog - I think that's great.
You have absolutely no reason to regret anything you said. That was how you personally felt about the films that you saw and the experience that you had during the project. Just as I respect your opinion - I respect the opinion of others who are not happy with you right now. But, I just hope they can grow from this experience and learn a little about seeing things from different viewpoints. (As well as learning how to handle a little constructive critiscm and how to take things with a grain of salt.)
And, I do know about putting your all into a project and it getting trashed. I was a musician once - even got paid for it. And, I would put my heart and soul into my performances. But, no one is ever perfect - and even if I played a piece technically perfect, there was still bound to be someone who didn't enjoy it for one reason or another. That's life - move on - either take what people say as something to learn from or choose to ignore it.
There are no absolutes. No one is ever completely right - and no one is ever completely wrong.
Posted by: Leslie | August 1, 2005 7:05 PM
Woody:
I appreciate your comments - classy response and thanks for posting the link to my essay.
BTW, my last name is spelled "van Vuuren".
Jefe:
My response, if you read it, is hardly described as "bitter".
You are welcome to read it and critique it.
Posted by: Stephen van Vuuren | August 1, 2005 11:40 PM
Did someone just try and tell ME the definition of bitter? Oh thats just cute.
Posted by: Jefe | August 2, 2005 9:52 AM
Jefe:
You need to read more carefully. I did not disagree with your definition, but your characterization.
Posted by: Stephen van Vuuren | August 2, 2005 12:12 PM
I agree with what others have said. You have the right to speak your mind, and you do it well. I enjoyed comparing your reviews with my own. It was interesting to see when we agreed and we didn't.
Even when you didn't like something, I think you were still fair and tactful. In fact, most of the time, you were upbeat about the films and encouraging of the filmmakers, which makes the criticism against you even more unbelievable.
In most, if not all, reviews you found something good to say about it. Even if your reviews had been nothing but rants & putdowns you'd still have the right to post them, but instead, your criticism--both the good and the bad--was constructive.
Who knows, in a few cases it might have even been helpful. Afterall, we all learn from our mistakes, and I'm sure every member of our own team would admit that about our own film too. As proud as we are of it, we weren't perfect either.
Maybe next year we will be. ;)
Posted by: Todd Williard | August 2, 2005 6:42 PM