30Jul09
So. Where were we? Right, I was saying that I'd "been dreaming up a new format and, if all goes according to plan, it'll be rolling out slowly in two phases." Well, plans change. In this case, for the better. Way better.
Thanks to The Auteurs - and really, this is best part; the Daily and The Auteurs are a perfect fit, don't you think? - both phases of this latest incarnation are rolling out in tandem, and rather quickly, too: as of today, here and now.
The gist: #1, what used to be collected as "Shorts" will now be sent out as tweets and, as you can see, I've already started right here: @theauteurs - and #2, the contextualization, curating, filtering, commenting, whatever you'd like to call it, will be going on in once-a-day summaries posted here in The Notebook and called, for clarity's sake, "The Auteurs Daily."
You may have questions. I've anticipated a few in a sort of mini-FAQ below.
Twitter!? What, seriously? Have you fallen off the deep end?
Not at all. I'll be the first to admit that I've been a dedicated Twitter disparager in the past. When I first heard the concept explained and watched it in action at SXSW in 2007, I thought it was about the silliest use of connectivity imaginable. Obviously (well, obviously to millions by now), I was dead wrong.
One of the problems with the Daily for the past while now is that it'd become bloated and ungainly; too much quotage, too much overlap (particularly in the roundups of reviews for entries on individual films) and just plain too much for a busy cinephile to wade through and then distinguish between the need-to-know and the nice-to-know. The 140-character limit is a wonderful disciplinarian.
But cutting through the fat is only the half of it; timeliness is the other. Once I began using Twitter on my own, I realized that holding items for a batch of "Shorts" no longer made sense; I began to hate having to let you, dear Reader, know about this or that until I was ready to post the whole roundup. Now I'll be able to recommend a click the moment I deem it worth your time, whether you're at your desk or glancing at your handheld.
So news, must-reads, viewing tips and all those other dandy items will be coming at you in a form that is both more useful and more immediate.
Okay, so you like Twitter. I don't. Now what?
You can still keep up that stream of ex-"Shorts." You don't have to sign up anywhere or join anything. @theauteurs can be read like any other blog or web page; you can even subscribe to the RSS feed. And soon, we'll have those tweets tweeting right here on the page you're reading right now, too. You don't even have to think of it as an ongoing string of tweets. [Update, 3/8: The full news feed is now going on @theauteursdaily (RSS feed); major stories (just a few a day) and The Auteurs-specific announcements are still happening @theauteurs !]
Fine, but some of us have lives. I'm not sure I want to be catching up with dozens of "tweets" day in and day out.
I hear you. And my guess is that you're one of the readers for whom the Daily had become unwieldy lately, too. That's where the second part, the flip side of this new version of the Daily, comes in. At some point during each day, having monitored the buzz, I'll post a couple of quick paragraphs, a briefing of sorts on what your basic self-respecting cinephile would probably want to know about.
Wait, wait. One of the things I liked about the "old" Daily was all that "coverage of the coverage" that went on during the big festivals and so on.
And that'll still be happening. Cannes is a prime example. During such intense storms of cinephilic activity (and festivals, of course, aren't the only instances; remember when Ingmar Bergman and Michelangelo Antonioni died within hours of each other?), I will double up and post previews, review roundups, indexes, commentary and so on.
I may be warming up to this.
Give it time. It'll evolve. Every new format presents challenges, to be sure, but unforeseen opportunities as well. Overall, I'm aiming for the same number of news items as before, only with less unnecessary repetition and bulk. Let's see how it goes. Comment when you can and be sure to tell your friends and loved ones about the Daily's return at The Auteurs.
By the way, how was your holiday?
Lovely, thanks. And you know, you'd think July would be a rather slow month, but for anyone who was off and away for most of it, there's actually quite a lot to catch up with, particularly new issues of Film Comment, featuring Amy Taubin's conversation with Lucrecia Martel, Thom Anderson on Lorna's Silence and reports from this year's edition of Cannes (Amy Taubin, Gavin Smith and Richard Peña); Sight & Sound, with Michael Atkinson on our ongoing fascination with Depression-era gangsters and Ian Christie on the restoration of The Red Shoes; Filmmaker, with this year's list of "25 Faces of Independent Film"; the Brooklyn Rail, featuring Jonas Mekas and Keith Sanborn on Hollis Frampton; and the whopping 51st issue of Senses of Cinema, featuring, among many other essays, a package previewing the ongoing (and already controversial) Melbourne International Film Festival (through August 9).
Meantime, that image comes from Andrei Zvyagintsev's The Return (2003).
Comments
Matthew Flanagan
on Thu 30 Jul at 10:10 AM
Very pleased that you’re back, Mr. Hudson! The twitformat should work pretty well for this – looking forward to see how it pans out…
nick wrigley
on Thu 30 Jul at 10:35 AM
Y’know, I dreamt that this should happen — and it has! Well done all involved! Very exciting.
Off to dream some more about multiregion Blu-ray now…
Red Devil
on Thu 30 Jul at 10:45 AM
I’m not so pleased. I use twitter, but theauteurs already crowds out other tweets in my timeline. Can we please have some control on which tweets we wish to follow. As I fear that my timeline is going to be saturated from now on. Which means I’ll be unfollowing @theauteurs
Joe Bowman
on Thu 30 Jul at 12:00 PM
Welcome back, David.
Darren Hughes
on Thu 30 Jul at 12:36 PM
Excellent news, David. I’m definitely one of those readers who’d become overwhelmed by the sheer amount of content you’d been posting, and I think this is a fantastic solution.
Keith Uhlich
on Thu 30 Jul at 12:50 PM
Great to have you back, David. I just posted about your return on The House, so I hope it brings you plenty of readers, old and new.
Rumsey Taylor
on Thu 30 Jul at 01:22 PM
Very glad you’ve returned David! My morning routine is now, and thankfully, back to normal.
Tony Dayoub
on Thu 30 Jul at 01:28 PM
Very, very glad to have you back, sir. Hope to see your wonderful column continue to grow and evolve at this new venue.
Jurgen Fauth
on Thu 30 Jul at 01:29 PM
Sounds great! Glad to have you back, David.
Ali Arikan
on Thu 30 Jul at 01:32 PM
Terrific to see you back, David. I’ve bookmarked The Auteurs Daily, and also started following you. And I am also following you on Twitter. *rimshot
David Ehrenstein
on Thu 30 Jul at 01:36 PM
TWEETING IS FOR THE BIRDS!!!!!!!
Edward Copeland
on Thu 30 Jul at 01:38 PM
Glad to see your absence was much shorter than anticipated.
Nick Dawson
on Thu 30 Jul at 02:14 PM
Great to have you back, David!
Andrew Grant
on Thu 30 Jul at 02:15 PM
Fantastic news, David! Congrats!
Chuck Tryon
on Thu 30 Jul at 02:16 PM
Hey, this is awesome, and as a semi-dedicated Twitterer, I think the short, immediate format may work well for the link sharing you’ve done in the “shorts” posts.
David Hudson
on Thu 30 Jul at 02:20 PM
Many thanks for all the kind words, all, and yes, thanks, too, for the less-than-enthusiastic comments. Seriously.
Red Devil, I understand the frustrations of an overcrowded timeline; you might consider going ahead and unfollowing theauteurs but subscribing to the RSS feed or simply bookmarking that page and reading it at your leisure. And again, we plan to have that feed fed to The Notebook (or perhaps elsewhere on the site) so that might be another option.
ryan werner
on Thu 30 Jul at 02:51 PM
So happy that this is back. I was lost without it. THE BEST NEWS OF THE DAY!
Michael Hawley
on Thu 30 Jul at 02:51 PM
Three cheers and welcome back, David. I had just finished reading the Venice line-up and was despairing over how I was going to follow it without The Daily. Then lo and behold — this link on indiewire! The Auteurs is the perfect place for what you do. I’m not too crazy about the Twitter thing, but then I’m a Luddite who’s never even sent a text message. Will look forward to when the Tweets are incorporated into this page.
KarstenM
on Thu 30 Jul at 03:16 PM
Magnificent news obviously, for all of us who’ve been avid readers since the GreenCine days (look how I made 2008 seem so long ago). But I have to congratulate The Auteurs as well, on scooping a significant resource – and putting one more brick in that cinephile house I’ve been (quietly) enjoying more and more.
Cheers to the future!
Maya
on Thu 30 Jul at 03:30 PM
Oh lord, he’s talking to himself now. Heh. And I love it. Welcome back, David. Wonderful new look to the Daily.
efe
on Thu 30 Jul at 03:34 PM
Welcome to the team, David. This is going to be awesome!
Cinebeats
on Thu 30 Jul at 03:54 PM
I’m so glad you’ve found a new place to hang your hat, David! You’ve obviously been missed.
Doug Cummings
on Thu 30 Jul at 04:40 PM
Couldn’t be more excited about this.
IA
on Thu 30 Jul at 04:51 PM
It’s wonderful to have you back—without your work the web became a much less fruitful place. I was never bothered by “the bloat” of the Daily, thinking it churlish to complain about an embarrassment of riches. I’ll wish the old format but will follow the new one.
Nitesh Rohit
on Thu 30 Jul at 04:52 PM
Delighted, and can’t wait to read the daily.
HarryTuttle
on Thu 30 Jul at 05:01 PM
David Hudson’s cornucopian offering deserves it’s own feed, and even it’s own section on the website. Don’t be cheap. It doesn’t make sense to mix together the instant news of The Daily with the longer essays The Notebook attempts to maintain. Two different content, two different format, two different reading habits.
In fact, and this is something I missed in its previous instances, it should be possible to subscribe to The Daily’s overwhelming avalanche of info by the menu, to suit every type of readers according to what kind of news they want to follow.
I must admit that 90% of what was linked didn’t directly interest me, whether because the promotion of commercial movies didn’t meet my taste, or because I don’t need to be informed of every last one Hollywood obituaries…
It would be sensible to consider for this 3rd implementation to build a structure appropriate to this wealth of info, and entirely customizable. Maybe Twitter is the answer, only if you give each entry type it’s own feed. It won’t make a difference to people who follow all of them. It will relieve people who try to actually read more than headlines.
I am sure TheAuteurs prefer to boost their Twitter account by keeping a single centralised account, but it doesn’t make sense for readers. Maybe Twitter should allow sub-accounts for this purpose.
Anyway welcome and good luck.
Dave McDougall
on Thu 30 Jul at 05:04 PM
Happy to have you back, happier still that it’s at The Auteurs!
Joseph "Jon" Lanthier
on Thu 30 Jul at 05:21 PM
Well, that was mercifully quick. As one of the few truly pure cinematic journalists you’re a perfect fit for The Auteurs — let the fun commence.
David Cairns
on Thu 30 Jul at 05:24 PM
Thrilling! And a great honour to be between the same covers with you!
Ignatiy Vishnevetsky
on Thu 30 Jul at 06:19 PM
Oh man oh man oh man.
Nicole B
on Thu 30 Jul at 07:03 PM
“I must admit that 90% of what was linked didn’t directly interest me, whether because the promotion of commercial movies didn’t meet my taste, or because I don’t need to be informed of every last one Hollywood obituaries…”
Glad to know we can count on Harry Tuttle to rain on everyone’s parade. I guess once in a while we need to be tempered with tough love?
Welcome back, David! I, for one, was devouring at least 70% percent of what you posted, both in The Daily and Greencine :)
Fernando F. Croce
on Thu 30 Jul at 08:17 PM
Wonderful news, David! Welcome back :-)
David Hudson
on Thu 30 Jul at 09:42 PM
David (Cairns), it’s a great honor for me to be here among all the contributing writers at The Auteurs – and no, I’m not just saying that.
HarryTuttle, the suggestions of a separate section on the site and possibly even separate Twitter accounts for different sorts of news are definitely worth consideration – and we will, as we get a feel for how this is working, who’s interested in what, and so on. And no, I’m not just saying that, either. Thanks!
HarryTuttle
on Thu 30 Jul at 10:04 PM
I confess that my taste is narrower than DH’s and suddenly it rains on everyone…
P.S. there will be a quizz on 70% of the past 3 years of Daily.
Aaron Wiederspahn
on Thu 30 Jul at 10:10 PM
Absolutely terrific news. Thanks for for all the work in continuing to make The Auteurs a great place for those who love cinema.
Seanax
on Thu 30 Jul at 10:31 PM
Glad to see you back, David. I’ve yet to get twitterpated, but I look forward to your offerings on The Auteurs.
Jonathan Kiefer
on Fri 31 Jul at 02:31 AM
Very glad you’re here, David!
Jonathan Rosenbaum
on Fri 31 Jul at 03:44 AM
Welcome back, David! You’ve been sorely missed.
Laurent
on Fri 31 Jul at 09:00 AM
Glad you’re back David!
I’ll have to find which of the several formats work for me (follow you on Twitter, Twitter rss on iGoogle, or there). Let’s see.
I tend to agree with HarryTuttle that having your own space and style is one thing we want.
Jefferson Hendricks
on Fri 31 Jul at 01:39 PM
It’s exciting to have you back in any format, David. I look forward to seeing how the site evolves.
Jeff Hendricks
Bob Westal
on Fri 31 Jul at 06:02 PM
Allow me to join the chorus of joy. Great to have you back, Mr. Hudson.
James van Maanen
on Sun 02 Aug at 08:07 PM
It’s taken three whole days for me to find out about Mr. Hudson’s welcome return. And while I am inclined to go with Mr.Tuttle’s view (above), I’ll give it some time. Change is always initially a bummer, especially for older folk. But it’s funny how quickly one can adjust. And, anyway, the main thing is: He’s baaaaack!
Nelson K
on Mon 03 Aug at 10:22 PM
Good to have you back in the mix, David!
thomas groh
on Mon 03 Aug at 10:32 PM
hey, just returned from my own holiday and just got the good news – GREAT to have you back, david. and your plans sound VERY promising.
looking forward to my daily dose(s)!
Matt L
on Tue 04 Aug at 03:17 AM
Yah, David is back. I’m looking forward to the new format[s].
Andrei Alupului
on Wed 12 Aug at 06:17 AM
A bit late commenting at this point, but this is fantastic news; welcome back.
profoblivion
on Thu 13 Aug at 01:36 PM
Hey David -
I’m glad to see you back to work. I was a daily visitor to The Daily - it was a ritual to me, as it was when you were at GreenCine.
I’m sure we’ll all adapt just fine to the new format, although I had no complaints with the old format. I just signed on to Twitter, but only because you’re posting there.
Good luck with this latest incarnation. I had expected your own blog to appear, but this is definitely the place for you.
Aleksandre
on Fri 21 Aug at 07:37 PM
Just goes to show. You can’t keep a total hack down.