Focus Features

The Chutry Experiment is a space for me to discuss any film and media topics that happen to catch my interest. Quite often it functions as a public research journal where I can discuss ideas related to my scholarship with others who have similar interests. My scholarly research can be somewhat eclectic, so every once in a while, my blog's focus will shift wildly from science-fiction television to documentary to and then to viral political videos. I also try to write reviews of most of the independent and documentary films that I see, in part because when I started the blog that seemed like an important niche that I could help to fill.

How would you describe your readers? Do you have much contact with the people who read you?

Many of my regular readers are professors of film or media studies. I'd imagine that most of my other readers are other film bloggers, find industry workers, and entertainment journalists. They are likely people who are invested in being involved in a wider conversation about film and media topics. In the book I'm writing, I've been trying to connect the practices of film blogging to what Charles Acland describes inScreen Traffic as the "felt internationalism" of the moviegoing audience. Acland proposes the idea that movie audiences, especially those who try to attend a movie when it first opens, are trying to participate in something larger than themselves. I think that many film bloggers are informed by that same impulse.

I'm in contact with quite a few of my readers, many through comments and email, but I've met a number of my readers at academic conferences and film festivals. And I've even had the opportunity to collaborate with professors at other universities on projects on the strength of connections that I've made on the blog.

Tell us how — and why — you started your blog?

I originally started the blog on Blogger, one of many free blogging services, back in 2003, and writing online was genuinely an experiment, as the name of my blog suggests. I started it because, at the time, I felt somewhat alienated from academic writing and wanted to find new forms of expression that might be somewhat more oriented towards a wider public. Initially, I wrote a lot about politics and my concerns about the war in Iraq, but as I continued to write, I found that the blog helped me recognize my interests more clearly, and ultimately I've become a little more specialized.

Describe your blog day — do you work at home? Go to a café? Sit in an office?

I don't really have a "blog day." The work that I do at The Chutry Experiment supplements other work that I'm doing, whether research for my book or teaching preparation. When I'm busy during the school year, I can go several days without posting. But in the summer and on days when I don't teach, I often have the kind of flexible schedule that allows me to write without worrying about other obligations. Often I'll find that it's helpful for me to write a quick blog post in the morning in order to build momentum for working on other things. But I'll also write posts as I'm winding down for the night.

How do you find things to blog about and how do you decide that an entry is worth being in your blog?

It varies quite a bit, actually. Because the blog serves in part as a kind of research journal, I'm somewhat indiscriminate about what I blog, simply because I've discovered that I will often discover a deeper interest in a topic after I've written a few entries on it. Often, I'll find topics by skimming my RSS feeds or by reading the headlines in the film sections of major newspapers. I'm always searching for things that my readers might find interesting.

For a while I tried to write a review of every movie that I saw in theaters, but that has become pretty unmanageable, and because there is a limited selection of independent and foreign films in theaters here in Fayetteville, I haven't been as inspired to keep up that habit. But when I attend a festival such as Full Frame or Silverdocs, I'll try to write reviews of as many films as I can.

What is your favorite blog entry?

I don't know that I have a favorite entry. I really think about blogging as a process, as a way for me to work through ideas or questions that I find important. That being said, I think my review of Michael Tucker's Gunner Palace helped me to find my voice as a reviewer and also made vividly clear to me that I wanted to do more research on documentary. If I have favorite entries, it's often because they are about films that I love or memories of specific screenings. My review of the Jem Cohen film, Chain is one example of that.

What was your most popular/controversial blog entry?

I don't know that I've launched any huge controversies on my blog, but judging by the comments, there were a couple of entries that provoked some discussion. I wrote an entry a couple of years ago about the Sci-Fi Channel miniseries, The Lost Room, that turned into an impromptu discussion board, which I didn't really intend. More recently, my entry onExpelled generated quite a bit of traffic and some discussion.

Is blogging the new path to fame and fortune?

Maybe for some people. I don't even run advertising on my blog, and if I did, I doubt that I would even be able to generate enough revenue to pay for the coffee that fuels it. Plus, if I were writing for monetary rewards, I think it would turn blogging into an obligation and I don't think I'd enjoy it as much.

What separates journalism from blogging?

This is a really difficult question. Many of my good friends are journalists, and I recognize the value of good investigative journalism and hate to see so many lay-offs in the newspaper industry. I think that blogging generally functions as a form of commentary and analysis while journalists tend to be more involved in the process of digging around, checking facts, and getting quotations. That being said, many bloggers now perform that function while a number of newspapers have incorporated blogging functions, so it will become increasingly difficult to sustain hard distinctions between the two.

Who are the bloggers that you read religiously?

David Hudson's GreenCine Daily is absolutely a must read. It's an invaluable resource for anyone who cares about film culture. Girish Shambu is one of my favorite bloggers, someone who writes thoughtfully about film while also managing to foster some great conversations. I always learn quite a bit about documentary from reading A.J. Schnack and Agnes Varnum. Henry Jenkins' blog on fan cultures, Confessions of an Aca-Fan is invariably interesting, as is Steven Shaviro's The Pinocchio Theory. And, of course, Karina Longworth and the other bloggers at Spout.com are quite good. Anne Thompson's blog is also always informative. I could list many, many others.

How has your life changed because of your blog? Has it gone in any new directions because of your newfound prominence?

I've never really thought about my blog as prominent. But the attention I have received from writing here has helped to establish and deepen some of the scholarly and professional networks that have helped my career. And I'm convinced that writing for my blog has helped me to become more self-aware as a writer and a teacher. Writing for such a thoughtful audience has forced me to sharpen my own writing and to think more critically about film and media topics.