‘You want to build good relationships with people’ – Media Interview with Dan Jolin, freelance film journalist and editor of Senet magazine

Interested in finding out how to catch the eye of a film journalist? Dan Jolin, freelance film journalist and editor of Senet magazine, has been working in the industry for over two decades, with stints as  reviews and features editor at both Total Film and Empire magazine. 

Read on for his thoughts on the relationship between film PRs and journalists, some of the best recent film campaigns, and the most likely ways to get coverage.

How do you balance your freelance work with editing and overseeing the quarterly Senet magazine?

As Senet has grown and become more successful, it’s necessarily taken up more and more of my time, but I now manage to keep a balance of about 50/50 between my Senet responsibilities and maintaining my freelance work (including the book writing). It requires a lot of plate-spinning, but it keeps me on my toes! 

Essentially it’s scheduling and trying to keep to it. For example, with the books I’m writing at the moment, I set myself deadlines within the overall deadlines. Knowing I have to get this chapter written by this point, and that chapter written by that point, gives me a useful structure.

When working with PRs, what are the most useful ways that they can assist you and what are some of your pet peeves?

When I was still at Empire, so much of the job involved working with PRs, and I enjoyed all the fun negotiations that you have around that, and the genuinely fun interactions. Since going freelance, my interactions with PRs have lessened, while (being editor of the quarterly board-game magazine Senet) in the board-game world, I’m primarily dealing with marketing departments of the publishing companies, and the creative talent directly.

Any journalist would probably say there’s a lot of emails that just go in the bin because they’re not relevant. In terms of calibrating your approach, so that you’re not being irrelevant to a journalist or wasting your time, make sure you have some knowledge of what the publication covers. For example, in Senet magazine, we don’t cover jigsaw puzzles. A puzzle is not a game. We cover games that contain puzzles, but a jigsaw puzzle is not something we would cover, and that would be obvious from reading the magazine.

How does the relationship work with film PRs and getting access to screenings and interviews with actors – how could it be improved?

When you’re dealing with people at the upper levels in Hollywood, for example, then it can be quite daunting. I worry about ignoring emails from PRs but frankly, I have been ignored by a lot of PRs over the years. You do have to follow up, get on the phone, talk to them and don’t be scared of them.

I think there’s a degree of appreciation between journalists and film PRs and publicists. You have your guidelines of what you need to get out of an interview, and they have theirs, and you just have to be honest about it. This is what we want the coverage to be, this is what we need from them, this is the amount of time that we need to do it, and this is the sort of access that is required. You might compromise a little but if it’s not aligning, then it’s not going to work.

You want to build good relationships with people. Getting face to face with them whenever possible, if you’ve got the budget and depending on where they are, is preferable. Connecting as one human being to another human being really helps when it comes to having those more difficult conversations.

What are some of the best recent film campaigns you’ve seen? Which ones missed the mark, in your opinion? 

What did a really good job was ‘Longlegs’. It was really enticing and creepy and weird. I didn’t have any idea what the film was about but I wanted to know more. I wanted to see what was happening here. It had a really good, powerful vibe and I think they used TikTok very well. I say this because my 15-year-old, who was then 14 years old, came up and said ‘I’ve got to see this film’. Unfortunately, he was too young to go and see it! I also say it’s really good because when I finally saw the film, I was disappointed! Overall though, a very impressive campaign.

When is it best for PRs to contact you and what way do you prefer?

Email is absolutely fine. That’s in my work-brain space. I am on social media in a professional capacity, but I’m much more likely to miss DMs or communications like that, because I’m not really engaging with it in my work brain-space.

I don’t like getting work emails during the weekend, especially from PRs. I guess the logic is because then on Monday morning it will be at the top of my inbox. But actually it’s going to be halfway down my inbox due to all the other emails that I’ve got.

Back in the day, I had a work phone and I would say, ‘Ring me anytime,’ because I knew it would be a work call and during work hours. However, I’m less inclined to say to people to call me now as some people still consider evenings to be work hours, but these days I don’t and I’m usually done before then.

In terms of timing, then probably not Monday morning as everyone is getting in contact then. I would say drip feed emails during the week so they’re there in the morning when I do my little daily check. If it’s a personally directed email, then I always try to respond within 24 hours.