A Thank You to CinemaSlants Readers

I started this little project back in March or so, as the abysmally named "The Super Duper Über Movie Fan Club." Why did I choose that title? Because I thought I was clever, and this blog was intended to be no more than a diversion from studying for finals that quarter at school. That's right. This all started as a means of procrastination. In that first night I wrote two reviews for Green Zone and Shutter Island, and I did not expect the site to last very long.

I started with a small group of readers (6th floor Siebert Hall at Ohio State, represent!) but soon, against every odd in the entire universe, more trickled in. However, my readers still mostly consisted of people I knew, and this continued for a while, even while I kept one of the worst blog titles in the history of the Internet.

Then, in August, I wrote a little blog post on the end of At the Movies. Did I expect anything to come of that? Heck no. 'Twas just something to write because I felt the show was long an important part of the culture of film criticism. Then one morning I woke to find the post had a comment which claimed they found the post through the Twitter account of none other than Roger Ebert. After throwing a fit comparable to a little girl in the 60's seeing the Beatles I ventured onto Twitter myself and found that, indeed, Roger Ebert had linked to my site.

The Tweet
The Post

Forget the fact that he nearly doubled my all-time hit total in a single day. This was almost more important to me on a personal level. This means that Roger Ebert, the most famous film critic in the world and a man I admire to no end, had found my website one way or another and actually read something I had written. That was my happiest day in the short history of writing this blog.

In September, I finally awoke from my idiotic slumber and changed the name of my blog from the Super Duper Blah Blah Blah to CinemaSlants, a shorter, more Google-able name. I remain fully satisfied with this current name, unlike the last Web-Site-That-Must-Not-Be-Named. Soon after I decided to invest in a domain name, and thus CinemaSlants.com was born.

In terms of sheer hits, my most successful day came just a couple days ago, when my Rejects of 2010 post was featured on the IMDb home page. While this did not pack the same emotional punch as the Ebert link, in the end it brought an avalanche of new visitors to my site that I hope stick around for a while. I realize the vast majority of them won't, but I don't care. Along with the new visitors came a number of (mostly) smart, reasonable comments which allowed me to visualize a site where I bring in a group of loyal readers who want to have intelligent discussions about film and such. Oh, what a world that would be.

My writing has no doubt improved since the beginning, as when I look back at some of my earlier posts/reviews I come to the edge of gagging. I realize that only recently have I begun to really nail down my voice as a writer, but I am still far from perfect. I have yet to be fully satisfied by anything I have written. Never have I said to myself "Why, Matt you sly dog! You've really done it this time!" I'm always looking for ways to get better, and I have no doubt if I'm still doing this in another year my posts around this time will seem atrocious.

Either way, I could not be more thankful for what this site has become since I began. Am I the most popular thing on the Internet? No, and nor should I be. At the moment, despite the occasional jumps in activity thanks to an Ebert or Internet Movie Database, I still remain some kid with a blog. However, I'm going to keep on going until someone stops me, and I sincerely hope we keep moving on upward for the foreseeable future.

If you have ever looked at this site, thank you. If you have ever commented on this site, thank you. If you are a devoted reader of this site, a thousand times thank you, and to all future readers of this site, thank you. I feel I accomplished a lot on 2010, and now we move into what will surely be an exciting 2011. For me, this is no longer a means of procrastination. This has become a passion.

Thanks again,

Matt Kraus