OWF’s Martyn Conterio is back with another quick report from a screening he attended yesterday. This time there’s no embargo as an excuse for why there isn’t a full write up. Just plain laziness, rather sleep than write-up about the movie, kind of attitude.
Should I fire him?
I saw it at the IMAX this evening…I actually felt sick after it…not just because of the awful dialogue…but if Cameron thinks a film that looks like an Xbox game is the future of cinema…then he’s mental. The swooshing camera and blurry photography made me sick…something I haven’t felt in a cinema since I saw Irreversible.
Anyway I’ve told him to get his ass together and write up a full report. But it’s the weekend, so you might have to wait a while. Until then The Playlist have about as detailed a look at the footage as you’re probably going to find.
7 Comments
Talk about unprofessional. Did you actually just ask your audience if you should fire a staff member. Jesus. If I was Martyn I would quit on principle alone. Unbelievable.
Obviously I was joking Chase!
Besides I couldn’t really fire him, nobody gets paid around here. lol.
Obviously? You know sarcasm doesn’t translate too well online lol.
And why the hell doesn’t anyone get paid? So that’s worse than sweat shop rates in Bangladesh…doesn’t seem right.
Pay them with what, exactly?
Pay them with quid, dollars, euro idk lol.
Here are my thoughts on this…and I’m going to say this all very honestly but as gently as I can. I’ve followed this site the past few years. The problem that this posting has just truly reminded me of is that if OWF is to become a reputable, credible authority on movie news and reviews, you’ve got to start cutting the egos out of this.
For instance, some of the more popular films get reviews by more than one blogger. Why? I remember Public Enemies had three different reviews when it came out. Why would anyone spend the time to read three different reviews FROM THE SAME SITE on a movie they are about to see or just saw. People want to know what OWF thought about a film – as a collective – not how Matt Holmes or whoever else thought about it, individually. We need to trust OWF as a group, as an editorial force before we ever care or trust its individual bloggers.
Speaking of the bloggers. I don’t mean to get too offensive here at all, really. But let’s be honest. Almost every review or post is riddled with very noticeable grammatical errors and pretty ugly cliches. I’m not some literary snob here at all, I’m just expressing a general reluctance to enjoy something that isn’t written well or cared for. Which, I’m sure you can agree is the majority of your postings – mostly because neither you or your bloggers have much time to truly polish anything, for good reason. But more on the bloggers here. Let’s stop with the dysfunctional jokes about this site and between you and your staff. It’s very very unprofessional for us to know about how difficult of a time you have with your writers/reviewers/bloggers and how (even jokingly) you think about firing them. Matt, this is your company. It is your responsibility that everything gets read and approved by you before posted. So we shouldn’t ever have situations where you jokingly complain about a lazily written post, and we can all tell it’s all just very passive aggressive anyway.
I remember months ago when one of your bloggers wrote an article about the “rape” of heath ledger’s legacy when they went forward with completing his final film after his death. Honestly the most awful garbage any of us have read in recent memory I’m sure. But it was still posted, a lot of obvious outrage followed, and you apologized saying you hadn’t approved it. Well don’t let it on your site unless you approve! And if you’re sleeping, then it waits until the morning! And if your staff isn’t getting paid, then find incentives for them to produce quality and timely work!
Just ideas. But yes. Despite my complaints, I do appreciate the job you and your staff do. I’m really only voicing these issues because it seems we all frequently observe the negative issues you constantly deal with, and that frustrates and concerns us – as fans and as film lovers. I hope these notes could be of help perhaps.
Sam, I’d agree with the grammatical errors and too many multiple reviews. But I can tell you this: the content is updated frequently enough that I will keep coming back. And the extras such as daily vids and top 10/100s are nice. I would suggest more top 100s…people love that stuff. Quite honestly, I would want to write for this site if it did pay something for my time. There are just a few sites I use for film:
http://www.boxofficemojo.com/ For the numbers.
http://www.themoviebox.net/trailers/ For the trailers.
http://www.classiccinemaonline.com/1/ For Classic Film viewing.
http://www.ovguide.com/ For recent to current viewing.
And of course, http://www.obsessedwithfilm.com/ for all my movie news.
Keep up the good work Matt, and just cut out the fat so to speak. Then you will have a truly top movie news site. You really are only a few steps away.