Jon Negroni

Jon is one of the co-founders of InBetweenDrafts and our resident film editor. He also hosts the podcasts Cinemaholics, Mad Men Men, and Film Section. He doesn't sleep, essentially.

Review: ‘The Amazing Spider-Man’

Long story short: It’s no Spider-Man 2.

Short story long:

I love Spider-Man. I went into this move stoked to see Spider-Man do spider…well things, and I wasn’t disappointed. The action was superb and the way everything was set up made the reboot do just that: refresh our perception of Spider-Man.

Unfortunately, the movie suffers one major ill: post-production. The whole time I was watching this movie, I couldn’t get over the lack of cinematic flair. From the first time we see Peter Parker dawn his mask to the Lizard’s transformation, there is just a terrible structure to everything, which is typically what you address in editing.

There’s also an underwhelming attention to pacing, resulting in a final product with the right ingredients, minus a cohesive flow.

I won’t even complain about the web shooters or off-putting glow-lights appearing out of Peter Parker’s wrists. These lore updates are welcome to a worn franchise. The only re-imagining that I had any real issue with was how they dealt with the death of the Uncle Ben (played well by Martin Sheen), arguably the most important character in the Spider-Man mythology for how he prompts Peter Parker into a life of superhero servitude. Unfortunately, the execution of this arc and others was sloppy to a fault.

The love interest, Emma Stone performing admirably as Gwen Stacey, will be most folks’ favorite aspect of this film. The rest of the supporting cast, including a weak-willed Flash Thompson, standard police captain antagonist, and an even less interesting antagonist in the form of “The Lizard,” bring The Amazing Spider-Man down to earth from its web slinging heights.

Grade: C

Extra Credits:

  • Five years is far too short to reboot a film franchise, especially if we’re doing another origin story.
  • The mystery surrounding Peter’s parents doesn’t amount to as much as the marketing would have moviegoers believe. This isn’t necessary a flaw of the film itself, just a missed opportunity.
  • Another key difference that seemed inevitable: No Mary Jane or Harry Osborn, though I doubt that will remain the case with future installments.
  • Amazing Spider-Man certainly excels at core characters, but if I had to put my finger on the key difference between both franchises, it would have to be the absence of any style here compared to the straight-out-of-a-comic-book approach of the Sam Raimi films.
  • Thankfully, they didn’t do a poor job with the Stan Lee cameo.

 

 

Tweeting Influence: Should You Share More Than You Consume?

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What does every truly influential person have in common when it comes to, say, Twitter? If you just look at celebrities, one very obvious trait their profiles all share is that they have vastly more followers than people they follow.

What does that mean?

Well, they share more than they consume.

Sure, it’s their celebrity status that has elevated them to the point where people want to follow them because of their name, not their content, but that does not change the fact that the influential Tweeter in question is sharing content much more than they are consuming it.

In no way am I downplaying the importance of consuming content. That is how we gain the knowledge and insight that foster our creative, industrious minds. There is no reason why my retweeting an insightful article makes me any less influential, but the dirty secret is that retweets and reblogs alone do nothing to make you influential. They just make you a reference.

How else do bloggers, vloggers, and Tweeters rack up followers without being a household name? They’ve figured out how to create content that people like-that people have a demand for.

The next time you are looking for a way to bolster your own influence, whether it be online or even in the workplace, take a good look at how much you share and create, not just how much you consume.

Jon Negroni is the Director of Public Relations, Promotion, and Marketing at Richter10.2 Media Group. For more information regarding Richter10.2, check out our introduction video here.

Social Scoring Is Not Obsolete

ImageIt’s just getting better.

People don’t like Klout. That’s fair. Klout contains an unknown algorithm that no one outside of the company has truly figured out, making Klout’s credibility that much more uncertain.

People don’t like uncertainty.

That said, measuring influence online has to contain some uncertainty, lest we are left with scammers who manipulate the system. I like the fact that my social score can’t be measured against someone who achieved theirs unfairly.

In the meantime, competition is rising with Klout, forcing the brand to innovate and make our social scoring something we love not just because we’re addicted to it (and we definitely are), but because sites like Klout constantly make us better at being influential. Who doesn’t love that?

If you want to beef up your Klout score the fair way, use timely.is. This nifty site schedules post by when your audience is at peak interest and gives pretty awesome statistics on the performance of your tweets or posts.

My gift to you!

-Jon

Image courtesy of wired.com

A Different Way to Approach Feedback and Criticism

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Too often we fall into the trap of measuring the value of what we create based on others’ perceptions. I do this when I write a blog post and eagerly wait to read the feedback and see what people think. I consider it success when something I create is popular and accepted.

That’s doing it backwards.

If I am creating content that is inherently mine, then I shouldn’t be terribly disappointed if someone else doesn’t value something that isn’t inherently theirs. That means I can celebrate doubly when something I write or create has been accepted and shared by someone else.

It means that I’m becoming more insightful, gaining more empathy, and learning from what I’ve done correctly.

Once you’ve made something to the best of your ability, you’ve created good content. Use feedback  to measure how influential and insightful you are, not how good you are at what you love to do. That’s what criticism is for.

Of course, your content connecting with someone else is a huge indicator of how valuable it is, but at the same time, something superficial and soulless can do the exact same thing.

Like what you read? Connect with me further via twitter @JonNegroni. I’ll follow back if you seem like a real person. You can also subscribe to this blog by clicking the “follow” button in the top-left corner.

Don’t forget to check out THE JON REPORT every day, updated at 8am for a list of today’s main headlines as selected by my editorial team (me) 

New Infographic Highlights The Strengths of Hiring Millennials

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A new infographic courtesy of UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School has given employers another reason to take a close look at what millennials can contribute to the workforce. As Forbes puts it, this new research data gives us a reason to shed previous stereotypes of millennials that focus on them being apathetic.

The research gives us new light into just how large the millennial demographic is, how many will be in the workforce and just how ambitious and diverse these young professionals are.

Gen Y In the Workplace Via MBA@UNC

Jon Negroni is the Director of Public Relations, Promotion, and Marketing at Richter10.2 Media Group. For more information regarding Richter10.2, check out our introduction video here.

Are Too Many People Going to College?

There are several different opinions that vary on this issue.

Yes: too many people are going to college and racking up debt for themselves while the government is subsidizing their expenses.

No: college is an essential aspect of someone’s life and a gateway to a meaningful career. To keep it affordable, we need government intervention to increase and for tuition rates to go down.

My opinion is a less callous “yes.” I’ve seen time and again that people are going to college with no goals or idea what they’re going to do. While plenty figure out what they want to do halfway through college, a stunning amount wait until their senior year to finalize their major, adding more student loans to finance their extra years.

We then have college students graduating with degrees that have no clout in today’s marketplace, which in turn make them unemployable. They either get a job they didn’t need a degree for, get a job in something entirely different from what they got a degree for, don’t get a job, or try to get a master’s, hoping that will improve their chances (but may just add up their debt.)

We have a major problem here. Education has shifted from being a privilege to a right. While education should be had by all, there are too many instances where we take it for granted and are thus spoiled into thinking that college or grad school is job security. It isn’t.

Job security is a personal responsibility. The person with the ambition to excel will find a way to get a job, even if that’s not what they expected. I’ve never met an extremely ambitious person who couldn’t get a job. While there are plenty of exceptions (especially when it comes to age as a factor), I hold that we are trying to fix a very complex problem with simplistic solutions that cause even more problems.

There is absolutely a place for programs that help underprivileged young adults find a way into college. Anyone who has the ambition and drive to go out and make a career deserves the privilege of education. That’s not what I’m nitpicking.

The issue is culture. We treat college like it’s just more high school. What I mean is that we have a substantial amount of young adults that view college as something they’re  “supposed” to do. That is so wrong. College should be wanted, craved, and desired. Instead, we use it as a way to prolong adolescence, and we’re seeing the results of that across the board.

Is there a solution? I don’t really know, and it’s important for me to keep in mind that this is my own observation based on my own experiences, conversations, and what I’ve read. Obviously, many other people will disagree based on their own observations. When it comes down to it, we’ll see who’s right eventually.

JN

10 Qualities of a Good Writer

Keep in mind that there’s always exceptions to the rule, but these are qualities found in most good writers.

10. Punctuality: the writer is timely and fulfills commitments.

9. Magnanimity: the writer gives credit where it’s due.

8. Credibility: the writer is persuasive.

7. Industry: the writer never stops writing.

6. Opportunistic: the writer sees value in almost everything.

5. Passion: the writer is a master of emotion.

4. Discernment: the writer understands his/her audience.

3. Receptive: the writer reads.

2. Perception: the writer is always forward-thinking.

1. Obsession: the writer is annoying, even to himself/herself.

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