i guess it's just not an issue i'm too passionate about haha! xp
― s1ocki, Friday, 16 May 2008 17:53 (sixteen years ago) link
ya i'm holding onto my staff job with my fingernails.
(as well as thinking about other options just in case...)
― s1ocki, Friday, 16 May 2008 17:54 (sixteen years ago) link
although to be honest my job involves editing & planning, i'm a section editor and not just a staff critic.
which would be a sweet job.
Honestly, I can see why it's an anomaly such things exist.
― Eric H., Friday, 16 May 2008 17:55 (sixteen years ago) link
And I have to hope that's not just schadenfreude talking.
(FT film critic jobs, I mean)
ya. it's really NOT full-time work unless you take 8-16 hours to write a review.
― s1ocki, Friday, 16 May 2008 17:56 (sixteen years ago) link
That's exactly what MDA admitted on his blog. He said it was rare he ever put more than 15 hours in a week on the gig.
It could probably be more if you're the sole critic for a city paper. Chris Hewitt at the St. Paul Pioneer Press handles the duties entirely by himself, to the tune of 8-10 movies a week sometimes.
― Eric H., Friday, 16 May 2008 18:00 (sixteen years ago) link
xp: How about 4 hours?
― Dr Morbius, Friday, 16 May 2008 18:01 (sixteen years ago) link
If I've ever taken longer than an hour or two on a review, it's because my computer is connected to the Internet and it's entirely too easy to get distracted. That said, I'm sure I've had a draft open for 8 hours every now and again, especially when I feel like I have to make the review 1500 words or more for those features, et al.
― Eric H., Friday, 16 May 2008 18:03 (sixteen years ago) link
I'm just perpetually out of practice, tho. When we were doing the Brian De Palma thing and I had to do about half of the reviews myself, I ended up banging out 1000 words pretty quickly.
― Eric H., Friday, 16 May 2008 18:04 (sixteen years ago) link
i write ridiculously fast (and i'm sure it shows!)
― s1ocki, Friday, 16 May 2008 18:05 (sixteen years ago) link
A lot of the reviews I write fast are the ones that my editors like the best, but are also the ones I feel the worst about.
― Eric H., Friday, 16 May 2008 18:08 (sixteen years ago) link
When it comes down to it, even editors at alts are probably fine, thanks, without the writerly BS.
― Eric H., Friday, 16 May 2008 18:09 (sixteen years ago) link
how do you mean?
― s1ocki, Friday, 16 May 2008 18:10 (sixteen years ago) link
I mean, if I give myself enough time, that's when I start making conscious "decisions" (to put it nicely) as a "writer" and adopting weird structural strategies, rather than just getting the damned review out on paper. And then it comes back with one paragraph annotated with a note from the editor saying something like "couldn't you just write 'The dog jumped over the fence.' here?" ... Exaggeration, but you know.
― Eric H., Friday, 16 May 2008 18:12 (sixteen years ago) link
Most of my most liked reviews and essays are the ones I bang out the fastest – the equivalent of a band's B-side or single recorded for commercial reasons.
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Friday, 16 May 2008 18:19 (sixteen years ago) link
Eric OTM about how quickly one can write blurbs for weeklong or daylong features.
Seriously, if you're in practice and in routine (and work for a paper where your editorial staff remind you that sticking to appraisals of the story/script/performances is best), I can't imagine how easy it would be to be a FT blurbslinger.
But also how easy it would be to burn out on it.
― Eric H., Friday, 16 May 2008 18:22 (sixteen years ago) link
Just ask Dickens.
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Friday, 16 May 2008 18:26 (sixteen years ago) link
Like my man Chuck D said What a blogger know?
― James Redd and the Blecchs, Friday, 16 May 2008 18:29 (sixteen years ago) link
I don't even try to write well until I rewrite.
― Dr Morbius, Friday, 16 May 2008 18:41 (sixteen years ago) link
Now that's where I think taking a little extra time isn't a bad thing, because I always hand in my first draft.
― Eric H., Friday, 16 May 2008 18:45 (sixteen years ago) link
I've read too much Henry James to let anyone look over my shoulder.
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Friday, 16 May 2008 18:48 (sixteen years ago) link
I think I went to the dictionary at least once in the midst of Eric's last Disney DVD review.
― Dr Morbius, Friday, 16 May 2008 19:05 (sixteen years ago) link
haha!
― s1ocki, Friday, 16 May 2008 19:14 (sixteen years ago) link
-- Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Friday, May 16, 2008 6:19 PM (55 minutes ago) Bookmark Link
ya!
i think it really helps you as a writer to have to write lots of short fast things.
― s1ocki, Friday, 16 May 2008 19:15 (sixteen years ago) link
Writing short is harder, for sure.
― Dr Morbius, Friday, 16 May 2008 19:15 (sixteen years ago) link
Which word, MREs?
― Eric H., Friday, 16 May 2008 19:26 (sixteen years ago) link
I think the only word I ever really stumped Ed on may have been crepuscular.
― Eric H., Friday, 16 May 2008 19:27 (sixteen years ago) link
Ya, writing those 225 blurbs for City Pages was always a big chore. Those I would also send in as first drafts (at $30 a pop, I was not about to waste too much time on that), and frequently what I saw in print didn't even remotely resemble what I had submitted.
― Eric H., Friday, 16 May 2008 19:28 (sixteen years ago) link
The trick is to squeeze the snark-per-syllable (SPS) count betwixt the synopsis.
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Friday, 16 May 2008 19:30 (sixteen years ago) link
And as for speed, I guess I dunno. This was probably one of the quickest reviews I've turned out as of late, and I think it's also one of the laziest.
― Eric H., Friday, 16 May 2008 19:32 (sixteen years ago) link
I really have come to hate being on the Disney beat.
I don't remember, it wasn't "MREs." I'm hoping to stump Ed with refs to the Don Adams sitcom in my Get Smart review.
The Disney beat? Did you lose a bet?
― Dr Morbius, Friday, 16 May 2008 19:34 (sixteen years ago) link
xp Aristocats: OK, that'll do, I had to look up croque-monsieur!
(I saw that in '70 btw)
― Dr Morbius, Friday, 16 May 2008 19:37 (sixteen years ago) link
Ed must be hoping I'll crack (or, instead, write a review as tersely bitchy as the one I wrote about Bambi).
― Eric H., Friday, 16 May 2008 19:38 (sixteen years ago) link
Haha, for that reference, I can thank the Food Network.
Eric, you could so get laid with that Evil Disney Misogyny stuff... if only...
― Dr Morbius, Friday, 16 May 2008 19:41 (sixteen years ago) link
Keep that sort of talk on the gay thread, dude.
― Eric H., Friday, 16 May 2008 19:43 (sixteen years ago) link
Dennis Lim's eye-popper, new content on Thursdays:
http://www.movingimagesource.us/
― Dr Morbius, Friday, 6 June 2008 18:52 (fifteen years ago) link
AV Club...which means that i'm going to see the Strangers
― Tape Store, Friday, 6 June 2008 18:59 (fifteen years ago) link
I'm reading Howard Hampton's book and realizing that he's probably better in small doses. This thing is mildly infuriating so far.
― admrl, Tuesday, 17 June 2008 18:55 (fifteen years ago) link
^^^OTM. I had the exact same experience with that book. The dude is a poor man's Greil Marcus.
― C0L1N B..., Tuesday, 17 June 2008 18:55 (fifteen years ago) link
So...do I give up? I paid real money for this thing, but I only have so much time and so many books to read!
― admrl, Tuesday, 17 June 2008 19:11 (fifteen years ago) link
I love writing short things, since most of the time I don't have that much to say about anything.
― jaymc, Tuesday, 17 June 2008 19:12 (fifteen years ago) link
In which case, you might try publishing that post!
― admrl, Tuesday, 17 June 2008 19:19 (fifteen years ago) link