Assuming anyone even notices DVD Diggers, I’d guess there’s a betting pool out there as to whether the column would even show up this week. My DVD column earlier in the week, DVD Blend, is currently being retooled so it didn’t show up this week. My office has become available to me again, so I’m in the process of moving back into it, which means my PC is in about half a dozen pieces right now, so recording and editing a podcast this week was out too. Other than trying to catch up the several weeks worth of DVD reviews I need to get done, my presence has been pretty minimal at Cinema Blend this week, but there’s more reasons for it than just technical issues.
The Dangers of (writing for) the Internet
Several of us here at Cinema Blend have been going through a bit of a funk lately. It’s odd. You probably could clock my depression cycle down to the second. For some reason, every so often (I’ve never actually bothered to time it out) I get depressed because of my writing. “Why?”, you ask. “You’re doing what you love. You get to see lots of movies and write about them. Surely you must love life.” Well, not always. And don’t call me Shirley.
You see, writing for the internet is different from writing for a magazine or a newspaper. With those printed forms of press you know what your circulation is. You know several hundred or thousand people buy the rag and then potentially read your work. The internet doesn’t quite work the same way. When you write for a web site, you put your heart into what you write and then put it out there into the ether. Maybe people read it. Maybe people don’t. Sure, we have tracking software that tells us how many hits we get, but that doesn’t really mean they all read what I’ve written. Maybe they came to the page because they’re dedicated fans of my work and want to lap up every letter I put out there. Or maybe they ran a Google search for “Asian strippers with a Shatner fetish” and ended up at our site, which they looked at disappointingly for a fleeting second and not seeing any Asian Shatner porn, closed the page.
It doesn’t help that people are inherently lazy either. Sure they may come to read what you wrote, but you’ll never know it. Rip apart their favorite movies, make intentionally offensive statements, and even ask flat out for people to write in, it doesn’t matter. People will read because that’s passive. Giving feedback or writing letters is too active for most people’s interests. It takes up too much time. This is obvious in the contests we run here. Ask people to send an e-mail and we get three to four times more entries than if we ask people to do something. I guarantee we could give away all three
Lord of the Rings extended editions and we’d only get a few entries if we asked people to send in a picture of a white tree, but we’d get tons of entries if we gave away
Waterbabies by only asking people to send an e-mail with
WIZARD OF OZ RIP-OFF in the subject line. People are lazy, and the internet caters to that. It doesn’t, however, do wonders for one’s self esteem.
What also doesn’t help is the lack of honor or respect that exists between sites like ours. The internet is still fairly new, and every one of us that write for decently sized websites do it because we love movies, and we see the internet as the logical evolution of news and movie reviews. Magazines with monthly distribution can’t touch websites. By the time they put news out it could be three or four weeks old. But for some reason we can’t rally together as websites and show our power. Instead we have to berate each other with comments about the opinions of
the fat redhead who thinks everything is cool or
the hobbit named writer. Sadly, Cinema Blend is just as guilty as anyone else in this regard, and although I like to think we have good relationships with other websites out there, we’ve also publicly fought with those same websites under different circumstances. Despite what the old saying tells you, there is no honor among thieves, and there is no respect among writers.
What this all boils down to is that you have to have utmost confidence in your own work, and do this for the satisfaction of knowing you are a great writer. You can’t do it because you need other people’s approval. You never know how many others are reading, and of those who are reading, you never know how they feel about what you’re writing. Hell, most of the time my own real world friends and family don’t read my work, and that includes people who know me in the real world and comment on our message boards. Every once in a while I’ll get a “hey, I listened to your podcast and it’s not bad” or “I don’t agree with your review of High Tension”. When I do, I treat those few comments like something more precious than gold. Agree or disagree, it’s nice to know someone’s reading. The rest of the time I just have to appreciate my own work, and when that fails every so often get depressed and then get over it. Fortunately I know I’m not alone in that cycle. As my depression fades, inevitably another CB writer's depression starts, and there continues the eternal circle of life.
me to prove my deepest fears wrong.
Don’t Judge A DVD By It’s Cover
Now onto something actually DVD related...
I’m not usually one to judge DVD packaging too harshly. I know there are some people who look at each DVD announcement with anticipation, only to be crushed that the producers merely used poster art for the cover, or that they didn’t use poster art. Actually, I’ve never figured out quite what would make those people happy. Sure I’ve had instances where I wished different art had been used (like last year’s
Garden State DVD) but it’s never been anything that’s affected my decision to purchase a DVD.
Lately studios seem to be putting more money into DVD covers to dazzle them up with things you can’t see in a press release. Shimmering foil effects and raised textures are two big techniques that seem to come out on a regular basis. I can’t remember the last time I bought a Fox DVD that didn’t have a slipcover just to take advantage of those things.
However, in the midst of your usual digipacks, there are a few releases that really stand out, or seem to be missing the boat entirely. In this time where
The Evil Dead is being released in a recreation of the actual
Book of the Dead (something they are also getting ready to do with
The Evil Dead II) studios need to up their game and bring a more attractive package to the consumers. Here are a few recently announced titles that I think are missing their opportunities.
The Muppet Show - Season One - It’s The Muppet Show! So why is the packaging made up to look like Kermit’s torso? I can only assume Buena Vista plans on having future seasons display the torsos of other prominent Muppets (if I had to guess: Fozzie, Piggy, Gonzo, and Animal). But this is the Muppet
Show. Where are the curtains? Why aren’t we seeing the theater? Most people would argue that’s a much more iconic image for The Muppet Show instead of Kermit’s plush chest. This is one case where I actually dislike the artwork for this DVD. Not that it’ll keep me from buying the set, after all I’m a Muppet fan. The fight Josh and I will have about who gets to review this one will be heard around the world. I just wish the artwork was more representative of the show, instead of individual muppets.
The Simpsons - Season Six - I’ve been pretty happy with “The Simpsons” cases until now. With the couch gag being a part of every show’s opening, showing a different gag as the cover of each case made sense. For some reason though, now Fox has decided to change things up. The sixth season doesn’t feature the family on the couch. Instead it’s shaped like Homer’s head. Like the Muppet case I’m guessing future seasons would be shaped like other character’s heads (Marge, Bart, Lisa, and Maggie at the least, although with sixteen seasons and counting Fox can either highlight a wide variety of characters or change the packaging up again). The response to this different packaging has not been positive from what I’ve been reading, although personally I like it. I do agree though - if this is the route Fox wanted to go with the packaging, they should have started it from the start instead of changing packaging after the sets started coming out. For some people, sets not matching will keep them from buying this (and possibly future) seasons. I still feel it’s what's inside that counts - hilarious episodes of “The Simpsons”.
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - There’s actually nothing wrong with the cover art for
Hitchhiker’s. In fact, it’s pretty much just an augmented version of the poster for the movie. However, if Buena Vista had taken the initiative and made the case look like the actual “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”
that would have been something. I mean, let’s be honest -
Hitchhiker’s really only has a limited audience it appeals to. It’s not a movie for the masses, and it wasn’t made that way. The people who want to see the movie, and are most likely to buy it on DVD, really would appreciate a themed case. Unfortunately that seems like the type of thing they might try in the future, making this edition a bare-bones release and then putting out a Guide themed release in the future with bonus materials. As much as I’d like to give studios the benefit of the doubt, that seems exactly like the type of thing they’d pull, doesn’t it? Regardless of the case, I bet the menu system is themed like the Guide’s menus from the movie.
