Michael Regina, the guy behind the RorschachsJournal and TheVeidtMethod websites, contacted me in response to my editorials about his sites. In the interest of fairness, here is his letter, unedited and without comment.
An open letter to Devin Faraci concerning ‘THE DEVIN’S ADVOCATE: THE VIRAL MARKETING IS MUTATING’ (http://www.chud.com/index.php?type=news&id=10986) posted July 10th, 2007.
Being the authentic cinema editorial writer that you claim to be, I would have expected an email or phone call regarding the viral marketing sites Rorschachsjournal.com and TheVeidtMethod.com, at least to get a first hand account about what they are, and what I hope they can be in the future. Having failed to even attempt to reach me (my phone number and many email addresses are spread far and wide for any reasonably intelligent person to find), I would hold off on making snap judgments on just what my thought processes are on any project.
Having failed to completely corroborate your so-called data you continue to drag my name across your site, perhaps in some vein effort to stay on top of growing fan hype around the Watchmen. If my attempts at creating the be-all fansite for the Watchmen, much as I have done with in creating and/or working on such genre projects like The Lord of the Rings, King Kong, The Da Vinci Code and Doctor Who, bothers you so much, why not do something about it and create your own, why do you have to shit on people? I am using the viral technique as I find it one of the best ways to get fan reaction and attention.
Perhaps between peddling such cinematic works of art like the new ‘Captivity’ film and selling out by adding pseudo porn ads seen on your site, you forgot that the internet has, and always will be, a free tool for anyone to use. I created the Watchmen sites to generate fan interest, much like I did with TheOneRing.net, and if the studios are interested, then all the better. Where do you get off assuming I am attempting to beg for recognition from Warner Bros. or (God forbid, since you seem to have that all covered) attempt to bring never-before seen news about the film.
I am not placing ads on the site, nor am I demanding money to do so, I have actually spent money for this project without any thought of recompense. This is a project I am doing simply because I WANT to, remember doing things simply because you are a fan? The marketing company I run, Type40 Marketing is a legitimate business with paying customers, however that has nothing to do with the Watchmen sites.
Once again, you are incorrect regarding the Superman project, since you completely failed to check your facts, and blatantly created false accusations about me. The Superman issue was a case of gross miscommunication between an over enthusiastic Warner Bros. intern and ourselves. In an attempt to learn the process of getting ‘video blogs’ from the studio onto a fansite, the intern made false comments regarding our chances at running the site ourselves. When that failed to materialize, I called them on it. The matter has long been dead and again I call into question your reasons into bringing it up, a second time I might add, are you afraid Warners will forget about it and you so eloquently want to remind them?
Again, where do you get off even putting this project down? Does it offend you in some way? Did I step on some toes in my (oh so misguided) attempts at working on a movie project without your valued opinion, approval or input? Where do you even think you are the only authority to report on movie projects, talk about movies or comic books, or even, heaven help me, attempt to write editorials, even concerning things you have no knowledge about?
I demand an apology from Devin Faraci and in fact the entire CHUD.com team, as I am certain in the past they have not hesitated in posting stories from any of the sites I have helped create or written for.
Rest assured you will no longer be seeing any stories on any of my sites linking back to chud.com, the only source for movie ‘news’, indeed.
– Michael Regina