Comments on: Lipsky’s Indiewire List on Why He Loves Theatrical Distro http://trulyfreefilm.hopeforfilm.com/2010/03/lipskys-indiewire-list-on-why-he-loves-theatrical-distro.html A home for my most recent blog posts. For more, please click links directly below. Wed, 08 Feb 2012 16:00:09 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Ryan http://trulyfreefilm.hopeforfilm.com/2010/03/lipskys-indiewire-list-on-why-he-loves-theatrical-distro.html/comment-page-1#comment-2781 Ryan Mon, 22 Mar 2010 20:02:58 +0000 http://hopeforfilm.com/?p=3070#comment-2781 One thing I'd like to touch on is Lipsky's desire to find 'local' film-reviewers. He later goes on to say that he is not in denial about technology. I respect what he's done greatly, and think he's got a lot to offer, but I think he may be a bit out of touch in regard to this point. You would be hard pressed to find people under 30 who look 'locally' for a film review. They are going online, and they are reading reviews by the sites and friends they trust. The internet is all about convenience. Most of the time, it is a site they are using to check movie times, or a site they go to for news (yahoo does both) - or a site they go to because it relates to who they are as individuals (BoingBoing will sometimes post a review of a book and you will see sales spike immediately after) - Either way, the world is increasingly shrinking... I do agree that there need to be more (and stronger) reviewers, but they need to be more niche - not more local. Young people don't care if Roger Ebert gives a movie a thumbs up. If they are an athlete and are reading ESPN on a daily basis for updates - then they are relating more to the films that Bill Simmons is reviewing. And he's an older guy who's not even really reviewing films. Imagine if they had a film review column? If you are into hip-hop music and you to go a hip-hop site for daily updates, you'd be more inclined to read the reviews on that site because, ideally, the readers relate to the reviewer on a daily basis. One thing I’d like to touch on is Lipsky’s desire to find ‘local’ film-reviewers. He later goes on to say that he is not in denial about technology. I respect what he’s done greatly, and think he’s got a lot to offer, but I think he may be a bit out of touch in regard to this point. You would be hard pressed to find people under 30 who look ‘locally’ for a film review. They are going online, and they are reading reviews by the sites and friends they trust. The internet is all about convenience. Most of the time, it is a site they are using to check movie times, or a site they go to for news (yahoo does both) – or a site they go to because it relates to who they are as individuals (BoingBoing will sometimes post a review of a book and you will see sales spike immediately after) – Either way, the world is increasingly shrinking…

I do agree that there need to be more (and stronger) reviewers, but they need to be more niche – not more local. Young people don’t care if Roger Ebert gives a movie a thumbs up. If they are an athlete and are reading ESPN on a daily basis for updates – then they are relating more to the films that Bill Simmons is reviewing. And he’s an older guy who’s not even really reviewing films. Imagine if they had a film review column? If you are into hip-hop music and you to go a hip-hop site for daily updates, you’d be more inclined to read the reviews on that site because, ideally, the readers relate to the reviewer on a daily basis.

]]>