Eric Ingrum's Project Blog

I mentioned a little bit ago that I’m working on a film noir site. I don’t have a name or branding or anything yet, but my concept is to go on a film noir journey and write about it in an easily digestible way. I’ve further refined that idea a little bit.

I’m going to try to watch a few movies a day and write an entry I won’t publish yet for each. When I have a bunch of them I can refine them a bit and start putting them online. Make them a little readable first. I like the experience of figuring out something right along with the writer, but I also need to know enough to deconstruct a topic. If I get a pile of these entries in draft form I can really work on my own writing skills and try to make them as good as possible. Give people a reason to actually read any of this stuff!

I think I’m going to do one film a week. I’d like the site to have a couple posts every week, but I don’t want to actually put out a big heavy post more than once. I just feel like that’s more content that people want to read. I’ve written so much less in this project blog since the proliferation of Twitter. I’ve gotten good at condensing ideas in short bursts, and I think collectively the internet is changing. People don’t want to read really long things. This will give me a chance to play with that form more, but I don’t want to overindulge.

See what I’m talking about? Look how long and boring this entry is already! Aren’t you bored? You’re bored.

I thought I could do the big entry a week, and then a few smaller posts through the week. Stuff that makes the site a bit more modern. Focus a little more on that accessibility. Maybe three posts a week – the main one on a film, and then two on tangential stuff. A post explaining a film noir concept or going into some motif. A post about something more modern. A neo-noir film post, a post about noir style or something being used somewhere else. A post about some of the books I’m reading to try to understand noir. Maybe I’ll eventually get into pulp novels or Jazz. L.A. Noire. Really fresh stuff.

I thought this would also be a good tie in for Double Feature. I could mention that every time it’s relevant and maybe cross post some content. I always liked the idea of advertising alternatives. How do I bring Double Feature to a wider audience without just blasting out ads? I used to write about alternate reality games (ARGs) all the time as one way to do that. As much as I don’t like Gawker, I think they have a good model. Gizmodo, Kotaku, Jezebel, Lifehacker. Let’s have a bunch of sites about different things. They’ve created this sort of empire.

I always wanted the Double Feature site to post about more than just the weekly podcast. When I redid the website I built in the ability to post blog entries, but it never seemed like a good fit for us. Now I have another outlet, and maybe even space for more in the future.

This noir thing is going to be fun. I love having a specific topic with room to write about broader things. There’s a lot of ideas already floating around in my head, and I’m really excited to write about them all.