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Lights, camera, blogging

Mike Yamamoto Staff Writer, CNET News.com
Mike Yamamoto is an executive editor for CNET News.com.
Mike Yamamoto
2 min read

The mainstream entertainment press seems to have discovered blogging at this year's Sundance Festival, noting that the phenomenon is appropriate for a venue so closely associated with media independence. Yet it can be argued that Sundance has been steadily losing its rebel reputation as much of the indy film trend has been coopted by the Hollywood establishment.

Sundance

In fact, the likes of Sundance and other brick-and-mortar events are already becoming less relevant to underground filmmaking as grassroots social networks increasingly define society's tastes in entertainment. Although technology has always played an important role in the production of indy films highlighted at Sundance, their successful marketing is no longer entirely dependent on the reviews they get at such events.

Blog community response:

"This notion of turning to the blogosphere to promote books and movies isn't new, but we can expect to see it become more institutionalized as the payoff becomes more evident. Why give your free screening tickets to anybody passing by when you can focus on bloggers with far greater reach and influence?"
--a shel of my former self

"Technorati has divided the blogsphere in three compartments. If you go to homepage, you see news, books and movies. It means that majority of people write and read about this stuff on the blogs."
--Intellections Of A Lesser Mortal

"I started this blog to market a movie that I want to make. This is an effort to use this new method that everyone is talking about. This stuff is inspiring, but does it work? I'll let you know."
--Eight Stories