FilminFocus.com
Essays and Articles
Behind the Blog: Matt Dentler of Matt Dentler's Blog
Matt Dentler
Tell us about your blog.
My blog is film-driven, for starters, but I do try to pepper it with other interests: music, current events, and more industry-oriented elements of the film world. But, at the end of the day, it is coming from Matt Dentler of SXSW and not Matt Dentler the person. I try to keep my personal life out of it most of the time, but I try to infuse it when it seems appropriate. The blog is really meant to be from the voice of a late-20s guy living in Austin, TX and programming a major American film festival. I try to make the blog appealing to people who may share the interests I have. I think you can divide the posts I publish like this: 1. SXSW news/updates, 2. Film and music news/reviews, 3. Current events and pop culture. And then, personal anecdotes get tossed in each from time to time.
How would you describe your readers? Do you have much contact with the people who read you?
I think my readers are broken up into four categories: 1. My friends and family, 2. My professional colleagues and co-workers, 3. Filmmakers who have submitted to SXSW, 4. Random blog readers who stumble upon it one day, and hopefully return for more. It always surprises me when I come across some stranger who knows my blog, at a film festival or something. I don't have much contact with the people who read my blog, because honestly, I probably have just as many readers around the globe as I do in Austin. My blog isn't that heavily read in Austin, aside from people who already know me.
Tell us how – and why – you started your blog?
Eugene Hernandez of indieWIRE contacted me in April 2004, saying that his site was going to start hosting blogs and he asked if I'd like to be one of the first bloggers. I actually don't know why he thought of me for it. We hardly knew each other at the time. Blogging was never something I thought I'd wind up doing, but I've taken to it rather well, I suppose. I have no plans of leaving the indieWIRE fold and starting my own blog, because I respect the fact that I would not be doing it if Eugene hadn't inspired me. I think I'm one of the few original indieWIRE bloggers that still keeps up with it, three years later.
Describe your blog day – do you work at home? Go to a café? Sit in an office?
As any blogger or blog reader knows, the blogosphere is a fickle yet immense environment. For that reason, I try to blog at least three times a day. You don't wanna lose your audience, because I know we all have Web sites we stop following after they drop the ball. Of course, some days, I publish many more than three entries. I try to publish mostly from home in the mornings and evenings. Often something "blog worthy" will come up during the workday, so I'll blog it from the SXSW offices. Since my blog is first and foremost an avenue to promote SXSW and my job there, I feel it can fit into my daily job at the festival. It's my hope that the more people read my blog, the more awareness they have for SXSW. The majority of my blogging is done with that in mind.
How do you find things to blog about and how do you decide that an entry is worth being in your blog?
Well, my blog exists in the category of "half links, half thinks" as I call it. If I find a news article I love and wanna share, I will link to it and try to frame it as best as possible within the blog. For this, I've just recently started using RSS feeds (I didn't do that for over two years). The other blog entries are more think pieces about something that has come up. 99% of the time, it will be something film industry related, and not something personal. But I do my best to make these think pieces intertwine the person and professional as much as I can. Because, that's why someone is reading a blog in the first place: to get the personal touch.
What is your favorite blog entry?
That's tough. Probably my series of Five Albums Worth Your Dime posts, because for a brief moment in a past life, I was a music critic. And, this is a way to keep doing it, and also justify both buying new albums and receiving free albums.
What was your most popular/controversial blog entry?
Without a doubt, hands down, my two weeks early review of Revenge of the Sith. I happened to catch an early press screening in Austin, and no one said there was an embargo or anything, so I blogged my thoughts. Overnight, it circulated like crazy and according to indieWIRE, almost crashed their site with so much traffic. It was one of the first reviews of that film, so people were hungry and the commenting got out of control.
Is blogging the new path to fame and fortune?
Not for me, probably because I already have a full-time job that I'm very happy with. I really don't even think about ways to make money off the blog. Most of the time.
What separates journalism from blogging?
A real editor. Real advertising. Mainstream respect as a writer. On some days, I wish I had all three. Most days, I'm happy I don't.
Who are the bloggers that you read religiously?
David Hudson and GreenCine Daily is so essential it's almost sick. Other than him, for film stuff: Harry Knowles (AICN was a blog before we had a word for it), Anne Thompson (on Variety.com), Cinematical, Twitch, The Hot Blog, Hollywood Elsewhere, Spoutblog, all the indieWIRE-hosted blogs, and the IFC Blog. For music stuff: Brooklyn Vegan, Gorilla Vs. Bear, Stereogum, Rock Daily (on RollingStone.com), and Pitchfork. For sports stuff: Deadspin and the SI.com bloggers. For pop culture: DListed, The Superficial, Perez Hilton, and Defamer. For straight news, you really can't beat the New York Times online, or The Guardian and BBC.
How has your life changed because of your blog? Has it gone in any new directions because of your newfound prominence?
It's made me bit more impulsive, that's for sure, when it comes to news. I digest news as "is it blog worthy or not?" Which is mildly obnoxious to me, but more so to my friends. But I think the blog has enabled me to share parts of my life and my interests to friends and family around the world. Let's face it: you have to think pretty highly of your own opinions to be a blogger. I'm just hopeful that for every time I've blogged out of vanity, I've also blogged out of necessity.