The featurette format is a good idea I think - the best movie blog so far was the Kong is King production diaries that ran weekly for over a year. It became essential viewing for me, but by the end I knew the movie so well I never bothered to go see it.

colin kennedy
My instant reaction to this is that Kong is King was not the best movie blog in the world then. I am totally on the side of being transparent about the process, but I am also at pains not to divulge too much of the plot of the film. I'd very much like for everyone who reads the blog to become engaged to get to know the character of Hallam Foe, as far as that is possible. But I think I would be remiss if I said that I'd also very much like the result of peoples engagement with this aspect of the production to be them going to the cinema and seeing the very thing we've been discussing and working so hard on for so long. Otherwise the whole point of making the film from the point of view of being an artist, an investor, a devotee, a director, a producer, a writer, an editor... is surely for nothing.

We are in the business of making things for an audience and they are considered at every juncture of the process, so if they don't want to go and see it, particularly as a result of something we did during production (like ruining the plot) then we haven't done our jobs properly. So I sincerely hope that isn't the case with this blog and if there is any aspect of this that anyone feels kind of does that I would love to hear their views and will make amends so that it doesn't harm anyone elses response to the film.

I will also go to similar pains to make sure the featurettes for the tele are similarly responsible. At the moment the idea is more about the journey of the people involved in the process than the specifics of the plot - kind of a no brainer in theory but harder to resolve in practice than one would first expect.

Colin, As a reader of this blog, I personally think you have done a great job of balancing the desire to be transparent as to the process without giving away so much that it destroys any desire to actually see the finished project. Quite the opposite in fact. I think you have created a sense of wonder about what actually did go on in front of the cameras while all of this backstage (or whatever you film folk call it) stuff was going on. And thank you for being so adept at doing so!

I never read film reviews - I am refering to the quick and dirty columns that appear in such print media as local newspapers - because all they do is give away the entire plot and all interesting plot twists with only a brief comment on the film's merit which is largely based on the writer's own personal film-viewing tastes. And! all too often, overly-aggressive movie previews make you feel as if you've just watched the movie so why bother? So you are right to be cautious, but I for one think you've served us blog readers well. The Foe blog has indeed been about the making of the film, not about the film itself. Well done and thanks!

colin kennedy
I'm very flattered, thank you.

If anyone totally disagrees with Anna though then do drop me a line. ck

Colin, I think you've done a good job striking a balance and providing enough information to entertain and entice without giving away the store. I have not read the book (though I've ordered it from Amazon and plan to read it -- see you're selling books, too!), and I'm intrigued about the plot based on the information I've seen here and on the myspace pages.

colin kennedy
Wicked!

Let me clarify. I thought the Kong is King blog was excellent because of the detailed education it gave on numerous technical processes and human input from actors, director and production staff about the experince of such an extended shoot.

You're absolutely right not to give away the plot in your featurettes - that would be crazy. In the case of King Kong though, the plot was hardly a secret in the first place and your response has made me reflect that the reason I didn't see the movie was perhaps more due to the length of my involvement via the blog. The 18 months or so that it ran is too long and something that your featurettes will not suffer from.

colin kennedy
The featurettes are going to be for broadcast initially, so they will probably be exclusive to Film Four Channel. The blog will have a selection of making of anecdotes and interviews from cast and crew. I have a lot of images to share with everyone and am currently trying to figure out the best way to do it so that we don't have this lag that you experienced with Kong. We're having a lot of chat about 'timing' at the moment.

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