Gabriel Bergmoser
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  • About
    • Interviews
    • Bitten By Productions
  • Blog
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  • Non-Fiction
  • Short Stories
  • Screen
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blog

Can't Please Everyone

10/24/2017

4 Comments

 
Picture
​When I first started on Movie Maintenance I was a tiny bit naïve. The podcast seemed to come out of nowhere during a particularly miserable year in which I was struggling to see any viable future for my writing, and I agreed to do it because hey, what else was I up to? I had no idea anybody was listening and less idea that anybody would like what we did.
 
Hearing the early snippets of praise for our work was a bit like a light turning on. Slowly I realised that not only were people enjoying my stuff, but it was quite a few people. The stuff in question might have been essentially pitching fan fiction sequels but at a time when I really needed to feel like I was good at what I did it was hard to care.
 
The first signs of dissatisfaction were pretty subtle. One or two people wanting more collaborating, less lengthy pitches. Someone thinking I talked too much, someone else wanting more rotation with who was pitching any given week. While, being a bit sensitive, I wasn’t thrilled with this, I saw their point and tried to adjust accordingly. But generally speaking I was too focused on all the positive feedback to pay much heed to the negative.
 
Then came the double whammy of the Mad Max and Jessica Jones episodes. In both I loudly denigrated hugely popular properties. One was an unplanned live show that I was called up for when I was already drunk, the other was literally recorded the day after I got back from America, when I was grumpy and jetlagged. While I stand by everything I said in those episodes, I wasn’t my best self for either of them and people noticed. For the first time I found myself on the receiving end of more hate than love and that was officially the end of my honeymoon period with Sanspants Radio. After that I either started getting a lot more vitriol or at least started noticing it more. While the good stuff very much outweighed the bad, from then on I was keenly aware of the fact that there was a large contingent of Sanspants listeners who, despite my best efforts really, really didn’t like me, and had no trouble expressing that, whether it be on Reddit, Twitter, Facebook or iTunes.

If you’re reading this, please note that this is neither a pity party or a search for praise. I used to be pretty sensitive to the bad stuff, now it’s generally white noise. It’s never nice to read anyone saying you ruined a show or are ‘everything that is wrong with the internet’, but the truth is that I’m fortunate enough to be paid for appearing on a podcast that has a listenership of more people than I can even imagine. That very simply would not be the case if we weren’t doing something right.
 
Of course, doing something right for one person does not mean it’s right for the next, and I think one mistake I’ve made with Movie Maintenance is trying to cater to the complainers, compromising what I enjoyed doing to make the show more in line with what I thought people wanted. So we toned down the amount of fan fiction pitches and amped up the fixes of recent, relevant films.
 
The consequence of that decision? Our downloads went down.
 
Of course the instinctive reaction to this is to go into damage control, to try and work out what people want from the show and tweak it to fit with that. But then you remember that doing that is what got you into this position in the first place. And then you realise that you enjoyed the show a lot more when you were doing what you wanted to do instead of what some faceless Reddit commenter wanted. Because doing what we want gives us ownership and ownership allows for passion.
 
Here’s my theory; our passion for Movie Maintenance is what let others be passionate about the show in turn, because it couldn’t help but shine through in everything we did. The problem with passion is that it can divide people. If someone expresses a strong opinion that is contrary to your own, it’s only natural to get defensive. If you’re listening to Movie Maintenance it’s probably a safe assumption that you love film and when you love something it’s never pleasant to hear it ripped to shreds. But in the same way I had to learn that all the hate coming my way was just a few people’s opinions, those who disagree with us need to realise the same. We’re not right about the films we criticise. We’re just expressing an opinion. Often loudly and angrily because hey, that’s how passionate people are. But that doesn’t change the fact that our opinions are no more or less important than anyone else’s.
 
I tried to tone myself down in response to the critics. I tried to change Movie Maintenance to make it into what I thought they wanted. Because at the end of the day I’m only human and I want to be liked. But conversely one thing I know for sure is that we can only ever be the people we are and trying to be otherwise is a pointless and depressing endeavour.
 
I’m always going to click on the bad reviews and snarky Reddit threads. I can’t help myself. But I’ve realised that the benefit of this only goes so far. Being able to hear criticism is healthy, but being able to raise an eyebrow at personal attacks is healthier. Because in the end, your only real option is to do what makes you happy. To paraphrase a pertinent song, you can never please everyone so you might as well please yourself and hope that the rest follows. 

4 Comments
AJ
10/24/2017 03:18:52 pm

Thanks for sharing this Gabe. I've been listening to Movie Maintenance since the beginning (been listening to Sanspants since February 2015) and want to share my thoughts on this subject.

I still enjoy movie maintenance and think you guys put out a lot of fun and interesting shows. I know some people don't like MM crew but I do. It's a nice break from Jackson and the Joels who dominate the other shows.

Something I don’t really like, is that you guys can be very negative about some movies. It’s fine that you don’t enjoy some movies, not everyone should like the same stuff, but it can be off-putting. Like the episode where you talked about Moonlight. You and Carney (I think?) went on and on about how you didn’t like it and at a certain point it just wasn’t fun to listen to the episode anymore.

I skipped a couple of episodes because I knew it would be mostly negative. The X-Men: Apocalypse and GoT season 7 episodes are two examples.

I didn’t just skip them because I loved it, I didn’t care about X-Men and thought GoT Season 7 was fine, it’s just that listening to three people complain for an hour about how something sucks isn’t fun.

I do think you guys have put out some of your strongest episodes this year. I loved the episodes that were about the film industry. The Australian film industry, what makes horror scary and 3 act structure episodes were all amazing. I hope you guys put out more episodes like these.

Keep up the good work and I hope that this comment can be useful.

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Steven Clarke
10/24/2017 04:20:20 pm

Wow thanks for sharing this Gabe, it's a shame so many people take things you guys say to heart. I've been a big fan of yours some Movie Maintainance started missing only 3 or 4 episodes so far, and while I haven't always 100 percent agreed with things a host has said I always engage with and love the episode. Film is all about opinions and if people can't respect the bravery it takes to put yourself out there and share your opinion then screw them. Keep doing what you love Gabe there are certainly heaps of people that love it and can't wait for each new exciting instalment of Movie Maintainance.

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Damian Perry link
9/6/2022 12:57:49 am

Just got your audiobook on Audible and went “wait, that’s the Movie Maintenance guy!” I absolutely loved MM and learned a lot about film from listening to them. I changed my mind on a few movies listening to a more nuanced viewpoint and I am glad you have just gone from success to success. It was a huge help as a media teacher so well done and I am looking forward to listening to the book.

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American gold IRA link
1/30/2025 02:10:08 am

An American Gold IRA is a type of Individual Retirement Account that allows investors to hold physical gold (and other precious metals) as part of their retirement savings. This type of IRA is designed to provide a hedge against inflation and economic uncertainty by adding tangible assets like gold to the retirement portfolio. The gold must meet specific purity requirements and is typically stored in an IRS-approved depository.

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