EXTRA CRITICUM

Juggling has its place. But for artists the risks are great.

The other day I had to have a conversation I've had many times before. And yet, as I answered the phone I dreaded the call because in this instance it was coming from an old friend, an actor I've worked with many times, someone I love and enjoy and have nothing but good will toward. Still, he was calling to tell me that another project, one he sees as somehow bigger or more career-enhancing would potentially disrupt his participation in a collaboration with me that was already underway. 

They Tell Us to Say Yes to Everything. But Should We?

He was asking for compromise, for me to adjust our production schedule to allow him to say yes to both rather than no to the other project.

We've all been there. You're working on what you're working on when out of the blue some shiny new opportunity presents itself, seductively calling to you to drop what you've been doing and turn your attention to this other thing, this newer thing, this shinier thing which you start to suspect may just be the ticket you've been waiting for: that one transformative project. The catalyst for taking your career to a whole other level.

The only problem with this thinking is that careers don't work that way. 

The Myth of that One Golden Opportunity... it's a myth.

Has anyone in the publishing or media industry ever asked Amazon to include quotes from actual reviews by critics?

A friend recently sent me a link to the Amazon streaming page for my first feature film, All the Rage. At first I was surprised by the choice of image they'd selected. But it didn't take me long to notice that out of 5 stars my film is listed as having earned only 3.5

And, look, 3.5 stars ain't bad... unless you know that in most newspaper reviews the film got 5.

So in that context, I'm thinking: What happened?

Of course we know what happened. Not unlike a Roberts Supreme Court decision, the facts on the ground may not have changed one bit. Only the referees are different. Amazon merely posts the average of all the consumer posted reviews to the site. 

Consumer-Only Reviews Support the Amazon Narrative. Amazon is God.

From one perspective—the business interests of a platform eager to remind us of its own hegemony—the choice is sound. No need to look beyond the feedback posted directly to Amazon by consumers just like you. Because as long as there's never a need to leave the site to help choose your next purchase, it gets just a little more awkward to argue with the fundamental Bezos belief: There is nothing for you beyond the walls of the kingdom.

But You Want Help Picking the Best Movie to Watch. And Consumer-Only Aggregates Are Not Very Helpful at All.