Cinecast Mailbag (7/25)
[Cinecast #23 will be available Tuesday morning. With our new two-shows-a-week format (more on this below, and in our next show), we'll be updating the Mailbag here every Monday, Wednesday and Thursday. Sorry for the delay since our last installment. We were both out of town with limited web access for the second weekend in a row.]
"Podcasting is soooo over": According to an article that appeared Friday on Yahoo Finance, your Cinecast co-hosts -- and other "newly minted iTunes microstars" -- are dreaming if they hope to turn a profit from their podcast. Yahoo's Greg Lindsay writes: "[F]or podcasters like the cohosts of Cinecast (podcasting's answer to Siskel & Ebert), who have 50,000 subscribers already, a living wage for each is just $2 per subscriber away. And the number of subscribers will only go up, right?" Wrong, writes Lindsay. "An unknown number of those Apple-made microstars will convince themselves that they hold a first-mover advantage in an untapped medium and that there is at least a modest living to be made from a popular weekly podcast that maybe, just maybe, could become a bona fide media brand. Eventually they'll fail, and they'll fail faster than ever before." Ouch. Anybody want to make a bid on "Cinecaster" the Cinecast yacht we just made a down payment on? Read the rest of Lindsay's article here.
Crashing Wedding Crashers: Adam and I were surprised to receive a couple of e-mails last week that accused us of giving too much away in our review of "Wedding Crashers" (Cinecast #22). Matt Singer from NYC wrote:
"I was somewhat distressed by the review of WEDDING CRASHERS simply because you guys seemed to give away a bit too much of the plot and the jokes for my liking. You certainly didn't "spoil" anything in the typical sense, but at certain points I had to take off my headphones to keep from knowing all the "best" lines or the particulars of Vaughn and Wilson's relationship."Listener Omar Awad went even further, threatening to unsubscribe to Cinecast and writing "next time I want somebody to spoil a movie for me, I'll listen to your podcast again."
"Wedding Crashers" isn't "The Crying Game" or "The Sixth Sense," so I don't think it occurred to either of us that it was possible to spoil the movie. And what's ironic is that we actually edited something out of our "Wedding Crashers" conversation that did reveal what I considered to be a genuine surprise in the film ... a cameo that appears late in the film. In the future, we will try to speak more generally about the plot, and try to restrain ourselves from sharing a movie's best lines (though, certainly, "Crashers" has far more funny lines than the 4 or 5 we divulged). Apologies to anyone else who felt like we spoiled the experience of watching the movie.
8 Comments:
guys, dont worry you didnt ruin the movie at all, just made me want to see it again. at last count, ive seen it 5 times. :)
There are some movies that really only do have "the best lines" going for them. You've seen the trailers for comedies that give away everything that might have been worth seeing...
That being said, I'm not sure why anyone listens to a review of a movie and expects to come out of it unspoiled. I mean, you could say "see it!" or "don't!" but that's hardly interesting conversation.
Please please ignore those comments! I'm so sick of reading and listening to reviews that sidestep important points just so they dont give anything away... thats why I love your show! You can't possibly give a true review of a movie without discussing major plot points... (WILL FARREL HAS A CAMEO, HA get over it) If you're reviewing a movie that I really dont want to know the story to, I will simply not listen to it until I've seen the movie. ITS A PODCAST! Its not like its on the radio and we will only be able to listen to it at a certain time. Please talk about movies fully... This could be just one more thing that distinguishes your show from the rest!
I think it's possible to reveal a movie without giving too much away. For me, when Will Ferrell appeared in Wedding Crashers, it was like Kevin Spacey in Seven. Sure, I would still like the movie had I known that going in, but the surprise was awesome, and I'm glad I didn't know he was in it before I saw the movie.
Hell, I wish you guys would get into more detail, but then again, I often see movies I want to catch the weekend they come out.
It's not like people can't wait to listen to these shows--they only go as far as they want them too, unlike radio.
Adam and Sam,
Interesting article on podcasting. I can see Mr. Cuban's point. However, there may be an oppurtunity to utilize a podcast as "sticky content" to drive users to your website. In this scenario, the real money maker would be the products you sell on the cinecastshow website (i.e. movies, movie posters, autographed memoribilia, etc). I think the qualifier that is missing from the article is that podcasting under the traditional "advertising supported" media paradigm will be unlikely to be a business, but it be a business in a new paradigm. I figure there's got to be another way. Thanks and keep up the good work, love the show.
BJP in Jersey
very interesting article. did we ever really think that corporate radio and media companies wouldn't jump on podcasting? personally, i enjoy broadcasts like NPR and college radio, those stations that operate aside from the clear channel takeover. cinecast, in a reductionist way, falls under this "independent" category for me. if anything, you will be rewarded by listeners who really care what they listen to and are more likely to make sure that you two are able to keep doing what you are doing...but not without a critical ear. thanks for your time and efforts in this venture and i wish you continued success as podcasting mushrooms into an even more accessible new medium.
I don't think giving jokes away is bad. I actually wrote in to wonder why you guys didn't mentions WF's cameo appearance. Anyone who doesn't apreciate the quality show that you put on doesn't deserve to be allowed to listen to cinecast. I thoroughly enjoy your show, and will fight anyone who criticizes something as stupid as giving away jokes again. Keep doing what you're doing, the show is superb.
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