Ryan McNeil
Help a man out this fine May morning.
A month or two ago, I started a weekly series on this site where I write about various classic films by boiling them down to a single shot (the “Freeze Frame” series). I’ve enjoyed the way it has gotten me out of my comfort zone and nudged me towards writing about a different class of film on a regular basis.
Unfortunately, not much of my readership shares in that enjoyment. The posts are consistently my lowest-read entry of the week: lower than these link round-ups, lower than the watchlist entries on Saturdays, lower than whatever trailer I decide to post every week.
The only reason why I bring this up is that taking the time to skim a film every week, capture a few screengrabs, and then edit it down to one shot takes quite a bit of time…more time than my average post to be sure, and almost as much time as a full review. I bring it up because I feel silly doing THAT much work for a series that doesn’t much interest y’all.
Just to be clear, I realize that people read my site via feeds and readers that don’t register in my traffic. However in comparison to all my other posts – which also get read through feeds and readers – there’s a dramatic dip. Also, I’m not talking about this in terms of comments, since there are lots of instances where I’ll read someone else’s work and neglect to comment. This all just examining trends.
Perhaps, it comes down to the fact that I’ve been choosing classics, and that’s not your bag.
If that’s the case, I might try opening it up to modern films and see if that sparks a bit more interest.
What say you folks?
Leave a comment with your thoughts – for or against -and I can hone the series a bit with your help.
In the meantime, get your weekend off to a good start with the help of these fine folks.
For your listening and reading enjoyment, I give you…
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Down in the Caribbean, the boys of TUMP went on a virtual journey to Cannes. I hold out hope that one day all three will take an actual journey to Toronto, but there appears to be just as much chance of The Blue Jays winning The World Series.
My favorite movie-loving young’ns are back. Kurt Halfyard finally exposed his children to the awesomeness that is JAWS, and got their reactions on video.
As we get closer and closer to THE MAN OF STEEL, many are turning their attention to Superman. At Wide Screen World, Rich Watson has a theory that in order for the film to truly succeed, it must step out of the long shadow cast by Christopher Reeve.
Another instance where I’m linking to someone on back-to-back weeks. This time around Jessica at Velvet Cafe was prompted to watch CAFÉ DE FLORE after her daughter had an eventful day. Her recounting of the events and how that slanted her take on the film is writing at its most beautiful.
BEHIND THE CANDELABRA did better on HBO than many thought it might, and as a Soderbergh fan, I couldn’t be happier. If the man is in fact retiring, what a note to go out on. Jake Cole reviewed the film for Movie Mezzanine – go give it a read.
Over the last year and a half, I’ve found that the combination of TCM and a PVR to be a godsend for catching up with classic film. Over at Journeys, Kristen has done some grunt work for us and circled twelve titles in the programme for June that one should make a point of seeing (Though she did forget to highlight CLOSE-UP)
Speaking of Soderbergh, Alex Withrow used the occasion to pull together a list of the man’s top ten features (Sidebar: my own top ten would look rather different).
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For the Tweet of The Week, I turn to my new friend Kerry who comes away from BEHIND THE CANDELABRA with a clever observation…
[blackbirdpie url=”https://twitter.com/querrry/status/338852703683899392″]
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Enjoy!
Hmm, I’d suggest doing films that were shot by Roger Deakins. Maybe something with Wally Pfister, Emmanuel Lubezki and Janusz Kaminski as well.
Thanks Anna! I’ll chalk that up as one vote for “Skew Newer”.
You could always take a vacay to Jamaica and we could bum out on a beach… just make sure you and Linds packs a trunks. 🙂
Thanks for the link man.
As it relates to your Best Shot post… I dunno. I like Anna’s idea of making it about cinematographers more than a single film, since a single shot can be more about the actual photography than anything else. However, that seems like a lot more work and I doubt the reward (page view wise) wouldn’t be much better given the fact that people aren’t into the Freeze Frame already.
Here’s my question. How popular is your favourite shot posts that you do at the end of each year vs. the Freeze Frame?
We’ll get down there someday I’m sure.
If I were to highlight a cinematographer, it’d be tough for me to keep it to one shot. It could become a gallery-style post, but I doubt I could crank those out once a week. Not a bad idea though, so thanks for that.
The year-end Hey Man, Nice Shot posts (now in their third great year!) are *far* more popular than any one of my “Freeze Frame” posts…actually probably more popular than all of the “Freeze Frame” posts combined. Part of that comes from the fact that they are cross-posted to Row Three so I get a bit of spillover traffic, part of it is because they tap into the whole ‘year in review’ mindset everyone finds themself in come December.
Long story short, no comparison.
As unfortunate as it is, older flicks don’t really get the kind of traffic that you’d be looking for.
I’d love to see something by any of those four names Anna listed though.
Thanks again for the plug on that other site – I owe you one.
You’re right about classics not bringing in the sort of traffic that more modern films do, but three things about that equation leave me scratching my head:
1. My blind spot posts are super popular, and at three-quarters of them have been pre-1970. ‘Course, they come with their own little circle of participants.
2. I was specifically asked to write about more classics. I wonder if it’s a case of the diners ordering a burger and then letting it sit on the plate, going stone-cold.
3. I know a good handful of bloggers who are specifically into the classics. If anything, I’d hope that they would peek their head out of the gopher hole every Thursday.
Good point though. I’ll continue mulling over the whole series and see if I can’t hone it a bit more.
No problem, man, I just hope a few of those hits become consistent readers.
Thanks for the link.
You could recreate a screenshot using something funny, like, I dunno… Pez… or turn the screenshot into a caption contest, or a Photoshopping contest.
I’m a little bit anti-game/contest, but it’s not a terrible idea. I’ll keep it in mind.
Personally I side with the classics. I’ve opened up all of your Freeze Frame posts when I’ve come across them on Feedly, whereas I occasionally skip some of your other posts (no offence – I just follow far too many feeds).
I know I’m in the minority, but I’m not that interested in reading too far into or over-discussing the latest releases unless they’re particularly noteworthy or controversial. I much prefer to mine the wealth of excellent films already available from the last hundred-odd years of cinema.
But that’s just me.
Thanks David – I’m pretty proud to hear that you dig the series.
I know what you mean about not wanting to read the umpteenth review on something like MAN OF STEEL as I’m sort of in the same boat. At least with those though, I’ll get curious onlookers dropping by through links at IMDb or Criticwire. The classics are a tougher sell.
I’m going to keep it going for now, especially knowing that there are people like you clicking through to take a look at the angle I’m coming at the selected films from.
Cheesr mate.
My two cents: unless you’re trying to make a living on your blog, getting money for advertising and clicks, you don’t need to worry about statistics and shouldn’t let it affect what you blog about. I hate when bloggers go into a “need to listen to the customers/market” thinking mode. Stay true to yourself!
Oh, and thank you immensely for the link love and the very kind words!
“Worry” is a strange word. I only voice it because I wonder if it’s worth the effort. Between picking the film, skimming the scenes, and formatting all those screengrabs…a lot of time is spent on something that may or may not be catching on.
And you’re very welcome – thank YOU for writing something so soulful.
On matters such as these I tend to side with Jessica’s viewpoint. To quote the great Russell Hammond: “Write what you want.”
Nick, you had me at “Hello”