Can Your Heart Stand the Shocking Facts?

(required field) Productions

22 Apr 2025 • 8 min read

(The shocking facts about this newsletter and its “value statement”?)

When I started reading about running a newsletter, I kept encountering the term “value statement.” Simply put, it’s “why?” Why should someone read this newsletter? What’s in it for them?

Here’s some sample value statements from newsletters I subscribe to:

The most impactful stories of the day, expertly curated and explained.

Never miss the stories that matter. Bookend your day with top headlines and expert analysis.

Thoughtfully curated links from a noisy web.

The most wisdom per word of any newsletter on the web. Each issue contains 3 short ideas from [newsletter author], 2 quotes from other people, and 1 question for you.

Get Insight on Entertainment, Media, & Culture — We serve up the latest news and trends that shape the future of business.

These value statements are snappy and informative, from successful, widely read newsletters. You read these and right away know what you’re getting into.

Currently, (required field) Transmissions has more of a tag line than a value statement:

Creativity. Technology. Occasionally monsters. With jokes.

It, too, is snappy. And accurate. But not really informative. So what would be a good value statement for (required field) Transmissions?

Beats me.

I’ve been trying to figure it out. And when I started diving into just what this newsletter is, that's when it happened. That’s when I discovered the shocking facts.

Let me show what I’ve unearthed so far. And then I have a question for you.

Right after the news.

What’s going on?

If you go to the website for the recent A Night of Horror film festival, you’ll find this paragraph, which was a surprise and a delight:

YOUR PARASITE AND YOU a hilarious “how to” video about coping with an alien parasite, from US animator Jamie Gower, won “Best Animated Short”.

Your Parasite and You also just played at the BoneBat "Comedy of Horrors" Film Fest 2025. Two observations from attending that event:
1. It was the smoothest, best run, and calmest film festival I’ve ever been to.
2. Horror fans are incredibly nice people.
And finally, YPAY has been selected for the film festival at Crypticon Seattle, “The Largest Gathering Of Fans Of The Macabre in The Pacific Northwest.” It’s an impressive event coming up in a few weeks on 2-4 May. YPAY will be in North West Block 1, playing 7-9p on Friday 2 May.
There’s another burst of festival notifications coming in May, and then festival season will be over for YPaY. Are you interested in an online premiere in late summer/early autumn? Let me know in the comments.

(Okay, maybe these facts aren't that shocking, but I couldn't resist using a Plan 9 from Outer Space quote as the title.)

In the distant past (about 2.5 years ago, with is a geological epoch in Internet Time), this newsletter started as an accompaniment to a podcast Mari and I did together, The Four Weeks of Halloween. Many of you have been with us since those early days, you wonderfuls.

Then this became a community newsletter for all the various project under the (required field) Productions banner. That expanded the “mission" of the newsletter, and the expanded the newsletter itself.

What’s going on?
With the continuing decay of social media, I wanted to set up an alternate source for news about projects coming out of (required field) Productions. As you can see, sometimes there’s a lot of news. Sometimes there’s very little.
The main essay (& opening intro)
This came from two impulses:
- The (rf)P newsletter needed a little more for the slow news weeks
- I wanted to express some ideas that have been bouncing around in my head that I felt weren't addressed elsewhere
Fun facts to know and share
This section started as an “everybody's doing it, I just want to be popular” kind of thing. Then I quickly discovered that curation of the links, keeping an eye out for new links, and then arraying them each week was fun.
Over to you
A newsletter can have a one-sided “writer writes, reader reads” feel, so I always try to hand it over to you at the end. Some weeks are more of a handoff than others, and I’m always happy when I can make this section work.

When I first started writing about creativity, filmmaking, and project management, I quickly discovered that I was making “you” statements – here’s how you should approach this issue, here’s something you should do. And then I realized that it was madness and hubris to feel I’m in a position to tell anybody to do anything.

That’s when I remembered what I almost titled this newsletter: It Worked for Me. I can stand behind that. So that’s what I want to do here. Share what I’ve experienced, and what I did that helped me, and let you make the call on whether it’s something you find valuable.

So I made a simple change in my writing: I switched the pronoun “you” to “I.” Here’s what I encountered, here’s what I did about it. It’s probably the only time when using “I” is actually less egotistic that “you.” I don’t feel qualified to tell you want to do with your life. I do feel qualified to tell you what worked in mine. And then you can choose to try it or not.

I bump into articles all the time about “where to get ideas,” and "how to decide what to write about,” and "how to generate content.” This strikes me as madness. For me the best newsletters, like the best art, the best anything, come from a kind of hunger. A hunger to express, to create, to explain, to comfort, to change things, etc.

So I don’t want to post “content.” If I don’t have anything to say, I won’t say it. Anything you see here, I put here because I think it could have value to you. I’m not saying every issue will change your life, but my goal is that every issue helps a little.

I’m not going to lie to you, Marge: this newsletter takes a lot of time to produce. And I spend that time engrossed, challenged, and delighted. I have actually giggled while working on the newsletter. But my video production has slowed way down. In a weird way, this newsletter about (required field) Productions is now the main output of (required field) Productions.

Which is neither good nor bad, really. As I said, making this is engrossing, challenging, and delightful.

The only piece missing is reach. You are part of a small, select (and greatly appreciated) readership. It would be even more fun, and in many ways, easier to produce this newsletter if we had more readers join us.

So I’ve set a modest goal: I’d like to have 100 subscribers by 1 Jan 2026. If the readership is still below 100 by the end of the calendar year, I will need to reexamine if it is still the best use of the (required field) Productions resources.

You have a huge influence on what happens here

Obviously, the onus on getting more subscribers rests solidly on me. There are many actions I have yet to take on that front, so I’m optimistic.

And for you, there is one advantage of this small number: you are a huge slice of the pie chart of (required field) Transmissions subscribers. So is there something you’d like to see more of? Something you’d like to see less of? Does a weekly cadence work for you? How about every other week? Monthly?

Also: if you invite your friends to subscribe, then your voice and your interests will be even greater. You could be the start of an entire audience bloc. Want more analysis of the 1982 remake of The Thing, for instance? Just get all your John Carpenter-fan friends to sign up. I’ll be happy to discuss the theories I’ve heard about Keith David’s earring!

As always, feel free to let me know what you’re thinking in the comments. And to kick things off, I’ve got a quick poll for you. It’s waiting, appropriately enough, in the “Over to you” section.

So sad to see this go. But frankly, no one has ever surpassed the majesty of the Mr. Bulwer-Lytton’s original.

As Eddie Izzard once said: “Britain and the US — two countries separated by the Atlantic Ocean."

More ideas per second of anything you’ll see this year. (And thanks to Bonnie for letting us know about this amazingness!)

A half-billion connections — in one cubic millimeter!

Over to you

Speaking of your mighty influence, here’s a quick ranking poll. If you could spare a minute, your input would be a huge help. (Clicking on the image below will take you to the poll):

And like I said, sometimes I giggle writing this newsletter. Also, I’m always grateful that you read it.

Until we talk again, I remain,

Your pal,

Jamie

What’s going on?

Some shocking facts about this newsletter

This newsletter is an evolving improvisation

This newsletter is several sub-newsletters

This newsletter is one person’s experience

This newsletter is not “content”

This newsletter is on a countdown

You have a huge influence on what happens here

Fun facts to know and share

Over to you