Posted by MysterioAICN at 24-205-50-1.gln-eres.charterpipeline.net on March 23, 2004 at 02:37:57:
In Reply to: Fair enough... posted by Championship_Vinyl on March 22, 2004 at 11:37:49:
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: The Talk-Backers are an entirely different story, and I concede that I sometimes hold Harry responsible for them. Point taken.
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Oh, here we go! Grab a cup o' joe and then come on back!
Okay, settle in while I set a few things straight.
The Talk-Back section has always been AICN's most endearing feature, like it or not. It's the most commonly recognized feature on the site, and although talk-backs may have not have originated with AICN, they certainly became more popular among other web-sites and whatnot as the site grew and grew.
The site really hit it big back when Harry was covering the very first Quentin Tarantino fest back in Austin. He'd give a nightly re-cap and rundown of Quentin's multi-day fest. Quentin having read the site prior eventually hooked up with Harry and congratulated him on the site and how much he dug it and what he was doing with it. He even threw Harry a quote to which he had on his site for the longest time which read something along the lines of, "Harry, you are the Wolf Blitzer of the internet." And this was at the height of Quentin's popularity, around the period of 'Pulp Fiction' if memory serves me correct. So you figure at the time movie-geeks held Tarantino like a rock god, and once word got out on how much he loved Harry's site, BOOM! the site began taking off like gangbusters and the media took notice as well. Because at that time when Quentin spoke, everyone seemed to listen. So if you've always hated the site and it's popularity, you've got Quentin partially to blame.
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: At the same time, as a VA release date approaches, Harry flip-flops on whether or not he supports your flicks on a weekly basis.
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Not true. I'm pretty certain that he's dug all of Kevin's films. Maybe some more so than others, but I don't think he's hated any film that Kevin has done so far and I know he definately supports Kevin's filmmaking ventures and is curious to what future projects he's up to. Same goes for Quentin. Same for Rodriguez. But why does he mainly always support and publicize these cats films more than others? Well maybe it's because around that time these guys were all bursting onto the indie film scene and becoming household names around the time AICN was beginning to find it's niche and footing into the virtual world of film fandom. And quite simply, these guys were the most exciting things coming out of Hollywood at the time and were always worth talking about. Spielberg doing AMISTAD at the time - who cares. What's Quentin's next film after PULP FICTION - nearly everyone seemed to care.
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I remember there being a handful of the "higher profile" AICN reviewers on the set of J&SBSB, and I can only honestly remember a single one of them consistently reporting anything but negatives... and he one who was given "full access," as it were.
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That would be me, sir. "Mysterio" was my pen-name on the site back when I was a bit more prolific, than I've unfortunately been as of late. But this is one of several unfortunate misconceptions I've had to answer for during my coverage on JAY AND SILENT BOB STRIKE BACK.
Flat-out and simply-put - I was the ONLY guy writing for AICN at the time that was on-set - period. And yes, by the good grace of Kevin and all of those "more-kind-than-they-really-needed-to-be-to-me-folks-working-on-the-film", I was granted "all-access". Neither Harry nor Moriarty ever once visited the set, although Knowles did kind of crash the mid-way wrap party for the film and talk a bit about that one night on the site.
But having been a fan of Kevin's films and wanting to put my money where my mouth was I was willing to walk a mile - and then some - in their shoes. Besides, I also figured it would educate me and give me more of an insight into what they go through in bringing together and making a film. Because let's face it folks, it's a lot easier to bash a film than it is to make one, and whether the film's good or bad, I've got a helluva a lot of respect for the folks that put their blood, sweat and tears into making something that everyone hopes is good and no filmmaker or crew goes out with the intention of truely making a bad film. This I believe.
So this whole thing with me and Kevin and AICN all came about simply between Kevin and I discussing what would have been just a simple interview for AICN and as luck would have it, the stars aligned themselves at just the right moment and a synergetic moment of sorts occured. Once Kevin had decided that the flick would be set in Hollywood and shooting some 90% of it in LA, I suggested the idea to Kevin and Harry of, "How about doing a weekly behind-the-scenes diary of sorts" on what would have presumeably been the last Askewniverse film.
Once Kevin seemed keen on the idea and my willingness to do it, I contacted Harry and asked him if anyone had ever done something this extensive for the site before. He said, "no," and then that's when I said "YES!" and tossed the idea to Harry on having me do this in conjunction with AICN (since that was the site I was mainly writing for at the time). Harry excitedly was like (to paraphrase), "Fuck yeah! That would be totally fuckin' cool! Do it! I love Kevin's films! I'll post whatever reports and stuff you give me." So why did Harry go for it? Probably for the same reason we all frequent this board, Newaskew, and AICN - we're all just a bunch of spoiler lovin' motherfuckers who want to know something, anything about what Kevin's up to next - including Harry.
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When Harry would then do introductions and commentary to these on-set reviews, his attitude would vary according to what the reviewers' opinion was. Granted, I can only speak in past tense about AICN, because I haven't visited the site in a long time, so these days, things could also very well be different than I remember.
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I disagree. Although he did publicly turn around his opinion on GODZILLA when it was later released. But with me and particulary Kevin's films, this I never recall him ever doing. You can find all of my set reports archived by Ming on this site somewhere and even over at Newsaskew where I believe they may be directly linked backed to AICN. Because, I'll even say it, AICN's search engine kind of sucks. It's like looking for a needle in a haystack!
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: I dunno, I understand that this is the internet and all, and armchair, Simpsons-comic-book-guy critics abound, but I've always seen Harry as their king.
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So who's their Queen then?
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: But if you'd like us (myself included) to ease up on Harry, I gladly bow to your request.
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Look if you've got an opinion of Harry, you're enititled. It's obviously based on something you've noticed in particular about him that's maybe rubbed you the wrong way. Just make sure you've weighed in all the facts before coming down on the guy and assassinating his character based on him allowing a talk-back forum on his site. It's fun, but at the same time it can be pretty brutal at as well. Everyone's suffered their fair share of slings and arrows in there, Kevin, Harry and even myself included. So if you don't like to get burned, just stay the hell out of the kitchen.
-Mike
aka, AICN's "Mysterio"