Film Blog: Publicising Janapar (Rant Alert)

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We respect and engage with transparency and honesty.

Storytelling has become a huge focus after these last few years of travel — of generating stories to tell. So transparency and honesty will be a cornerstone. There’s nothing I hate more than corporate bullshit or self-aggrandisement. But we’re so numb with it that we’ve almost forgotten anything else exists.

Here are some facts:

No compelling footage arose out of trying to second-guess what subject matter people would want to watch. No popular blog articles came from trying to imitate the content or style of others. No readership for this blog was gathered by obeying a bunch of marketing mantras or social media blueprints. Nobody so far likes or values the story of Janapar because of the PR skill behind it. There isn’t any.

So this is a note to myself — a reminder to remember. There’s an all-too-easy assumption that we should imitate. Follow a formula. Put up a big orthodox publicity front just because we’re going to submit this movie to festivals and compete — whether we like it or not — with movies that have budgets and marketing teams and orthodox publicity fronts.

Film synopses, press releases, back-cover blurbs, all that stuff — what exactly is it? Faceless strings of carefully-chosen words? Don’t people want to hear a human voice? Isn’t that why you’re reading this?

Who said we had to suck up to the expectations of a clique? Are we obliged to look at other films and copy what they did? Did anyone involved in the film’s production set out to copy someone else’s style or format? And, if the answers are ‘nobody’, ‘no’ and ‘no’ — then why become formulaic now?

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2 responses to “Film Blog: Publicising Janapar (Rant Alert)”

  1. Copied styles are never as good as the original. And yes, I’ve already received a couple of stories wherein cyclists have imitated your writing or that of Peter Gostelow.

    1. In a way, that’s kind of flattering for me and Peter…

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