Blogs are one of today’s most popular forms of online communication. Technorati, a social media search engine, currently tracks 97.7 million blogs, with more than 175,000 new ones being created daily.

According to Bloggers: A Portrait of the Internet’s New Storytellers, a July 2006 report published by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, 54% of bloggers are under 30 years of age, with an equal number of males and females engaged in blog-related activities.

Although Statistics Canada has yet to publish data on Canadians’ blogging habits, it is likely that a sizeable segment of the estimated 16.8 million or 68% of Canadian adults who reported using the Internet for non-business purposes during 2005 (e.g., for e-mail, general browsing, chatting, or using a messenger) also peruse and/or maintain blogs.

During the nascent stage of blogging in the early 2000s, the pursuit was generally regarded as just another online venue for individuals to share their life experiences, opinions, hobbies, and/or pastimes. However, over the past few years, blogging has undergone a fundamental transformation, as its communicative powers have been more fully appreciated by the wider society.

The expanding power and prestige of blogs is reflected by the number of corporations that have recently jumped aboard the ‘blog bandwagon.’ According to a June 2006 survey conducted by JupiterResearch, nearly 70% of large corporations had already implemented or intended to implement corporate blogs by the end of the year.

Given the growing popularity of blogs, it is hardly surprising that blogs, and production blogs in particular, have caught the eye of Canada’s film and television industries.

There are no hard and fast rules governing production blogs. The content and character of any individual blog varies according to a number of factors, including: the nature of the project, the perceived importance of the blog to the project’s overall marketing/promotion strategy, the web proficiency of the blog’s creator(s), the personality of the blogger(s), and the time available to devote to blogging.

Some blogs consist solely of text posts, while others also incorporate photos and/or video clips. Oftentimes, production blogs are also integrated into a larger website.

Production blogs need not be the cyberspace equivalent of a Cecile B. DeMille extravaganza in order to attract visitors. Even a relatively modest investment of time, energy, and money can yield substantial returns.

Ontario-based writer/producer Steve Schnier’s The Ebay Movie production blog (//ebay-movie.blogspot.com) is a case in point. The Ebay Movie blog chronicles the events related to the making and distribution of the motion picture, a hodgepodge of snippets from 1920s 16mm home movies, along with tidbits from other assorted vintage films. Schnier’s blog consists of text posts intermingled with links to short video clips of the actual movie which are available on YouTube.

Beyond reading other blogs, Schnier relates that he did little preplanning before launching The Ebay Movie blog. Once it was created, he promoted the new blog via chat rooms, film-related websites, and other blogs.

Using the production blog in tandem with the other Internet-based tools, Schnier has managed to attract widespread attention for his film, from both new and traditional media outlets. For example, mainstream media coverage of the film has thus far included a Toronto Star article, mentions in several magazines, and a visit from Bravo! ‘Online blogging,’ Schnier asserts, ‘gives you power equal to the biggest PR machine.’

Schnier is not the only member of Canada’s film and television community to join the blogosphere’s ranks. Toronto-based Whizbang Films and Rhombus Media recently established a behind-the-scenes production blog for their feature film Passchendaele. Meanwhile, Ron Moore, executive producer of Battlestar Galactica, the Vancouver-shot series for the Sci Fi Channel, maintains a blog on the show’s Scifi.com website (//blog.scifi.com/battlestar/).

The importance of blogs and other new technologies to the promotion and marketing of Canadian feature films was underscored in the March 2007 Telefilm Canada report Engaging the Audience: A National Marketing Initiative for English-language Feature Films. The report is based on a July 2006 ‘marketing immersion’ session with industry stakeholders held in Toronto.

‘The penetration and power of the Internet and the development of new content delivery systems can no longer be treated as sidebars in the discussion of how to improve the audience success of Canadian feature films,’ it reads. Among other recommendations, the report urges Canadian producers, distributors and exhibitors to ‘Use the Web!’

Like crafting a successful feature film or television series, crafting a successful production blog requires a commitment of time, talent and thought, as well as a modicum of technical skill. As The Ebay Movie production blog and its associated online content demonstrates, using the web can yield significant promotional and marketing rewards for a filmmaker.