Where's tha party at?

So for this week's capstone blog, I have to decide who I want to invite to my capstone presentation on campus. Hm, I know that Dr. B. is on mine and everyone's list, so I knocked one out of the park with that. Secondly, I think I'll invite Eileen Hendrickson, the theatre professor because she always has a lot of encouraging things to say to me, and I find her so completely amusing anyway. Thirdly, I think I'll send an invite to Dr. Mitchell because in my screenwriting class, she's the one who gave me the balls to think that I can write, and I am forever thankful to her for that.

I hope that they would want to come see me...but as everyone knows, I am the BEST powerpoint presenter in the world, so I will rock my presentation HARD.

Oh Project

This project is the worst thing ever. Not really, but with everything else in my life going on it's just one more thing to add on the list. Luckily, I have a great team that tries really hard and does a great job. We're also really funny.

I started editing today. I've got a solid three minutes pieced together the way I like them, but...I need more diversity. Funny seeing as how that's what the entire thing is about. We're going to get more interviews next week and I'm hoping that will help eat some of the time and make it more compelling. Oh how I talk like a producer.

I may want to reshoot our interview with Joselyn, but I'm not sure yet seeing as how I like what she said and the way she said it, and I don't want to lose the sponteneity of her answers. Decisions, decisions...I guess I'll poll the group and see what they say since its their project too.

I'm really excited seeing as how I think I can put this together completely as a video essay...a feat I have always wanted to conquer before I left college...we'll see how it goes. I may cave by next week and voice tracj something, but we'll see how long I can hold out.

That's all that is going on with the project. Time to get back to relay for life.

What's Up Primetime?

Watching prime time television has never really appealed to me because as a younger person I was never home for prime time and then would be in bed by 10:30, so I never became accustomed to sitting in front of the TV for hours. The last time I looked forward to primetime television was whenever I was about eight years old and would rush home from the barn to watch T.G.I.F. on ABC. That’s back in the day when Full House, Family Matters, and Step by Step made up my favorite part of the block. I also had strong feelings for the Cosby show, but that’s a whole other story there.
I decided that the best prime time that I could stand to watch would be Sunday night on FOX. Starting out with the Simpsons at 8:00, I watched Lisa make up her own heritage as a Native American and then watch it wackily spin out of control as she spins a web of lies and is asked to do a presentation on “her people” at city hall. Then, Bart is granted a driver’s license because of a heroic act and then is romanced by a character voiced by Natalie Portman. Hilarity ensues. Obviously, with the outrageous satire on the America family that FOX does with all of its cartoons such as King of the Hill, Family Guy, and American Dad, there is a touch of something true in everything that is commented on, but it pushes the issue so far that it becomes humorous.
Looking at this viewing experience from Jean Baudrillard’s perspective with the “hyper reality” it’s not so much applicable to cartoons. Whereas with the bad animation and the outrageous plots going on under my nose, I know that this experience is not real and basically will never happen to me. Whereas watching a show like CSI or House, a viewer watches situations like that and then it affects their real life. For instance, prosecutors are finding it harder and harder to convict criminals because of the “CSI Effect” which points out that people think that DNA evidence should be used in all cases and by not using some of the tactics seen on TV, it plants reasonable doubt into the juror’s minds and then they do not convict the guilty people.
Going along with that, in an interview with Joshua Meyrowitz conducted by Barbara Osbourn, Meyrowitz says that “TV takes public events and transforms them into dramas that are played out in the privacy of our living rooms, kitchens and bedrooms.” This theory applies well to cartoons because social satires like South Park, The Simpsons, Family Guy, etc. take on world issues and comment on them mockingly which subjects children who may not have even known about them before to giving them a point of view on the situation without all the facts. However, I must say that I usually agree with what is said in the cartoons because they look at it from a bigger picture and place it into a situation where we can see the irony in the situations. Meyrowitz goes on to say that “[p]arents used to be the channel through which children learned about the outside world. They could decide what to tell their children and when to tell it to them. Since children learn to read in stages, books provide a kind of natural screening process, where adults can decide what to tell and not tell children of different reading abilities. Television destroyed the system that segregated adult from child knowledge and separated information into year-by-year slices for children of different ages. Instead, it presents the same information directly to children of all ages, without going through adult filters.”
By presenting a lot of issues through adult cartoons, many children are more prone to being exposed to them seeing as how they have an early timeslot starting at 8pm. Although television programs now come with rating systems, I must comment on the lack of parenting that goes into

Job Search

So, I've been trying to look for jobs and do all that good stuff so I can actually pay back my loans whenever they hit me up in 7 months, but searching online is harder than I thought. I've looked at monster.com, careerbuilder.com and something else .com that my roommate showed me, but I was very diappointed in the quality of stuff I was getting. For instance, Leanne and I got all excited about an entry level marketing job in Pittsburgh, but luckily Stevi let us know that we would be the clipboard people in the mall if we talked to those people. Rats.

I've started to just individually target places and check on their websites for job listings. Yesterday, I applied at WQED in Pittsburgh for an Accounts Executive job. We'll see how that goes. I'm just sending out resumes to jobs that I don't even know if I'm qualified for, but that's all that seems to be out there. I don't know. Feed me when you see me on the side of the road, please.

E-Portfolio

Looking at the fact I have to do an E-Portfolio and do one SOON, I guess it's time to consider what should top my little list here.

First off, I need a complete slate with all my contact info and maybe a cute little logo that I should make up. I'm going to brand myself and thus make me more identifiable. Then I suppose it depends on what I'm sending it out for, if its radio, I'll put radio stuff on top, like an air check of my morning show, some news erading, and a resume tape from remotes and a regular shift.

Then I need to add writing samples, maybe some video of a show I rpoduced, and my resume.

It needs to be simple, straight to the point and give them just enough to know that they want me and not bore those future employers to death.

The job search continues...and I'm freaking out.

Idol vs. Stars

I don't regularly watch American Idol, and I have NEVER graced my eyes with the presence of Dancing with the Stars, but I heard news this week that made me interested in their ratings. It seems that Idol wants to steal some ratings away from Stars' first clicks by leaking over about five minutes. Other shows have done this in the past to try to win more time slots, but nothing to this magnitude.

Idol on Tuesday had a littleover 29 million viewers, while it dropped down to 27 million on Wednesday. Now here's the thing, Stars pales in comparison with "only" 21 million viewers, but I feel a personal vendetta here from Fox against its ABC competitor. It wants to shove the fact that its the number one rated viewer choose the winner show and that it can steal viewers away. Stupid You bet it is, but not if you're the person geting the extra advetising that would come with Idol leaking over.So maybe its not such a bad move after all.