Posts (page 2)
Ok I did have a background image and it seems to have disappeared. Go figure. I'll get this if it kills me.
I battled my ineptitudes for a solid week. Below are the fruits of my labor in Photoshop. Not very impressive but a herculean effort none the less.
On the battered meter this measured at about a 9.9.
Jen Epstein] SITEMAP
Department of Communication, Master of Arts in Media Studies
New School University
[April 8, 2008]
Objective of this Web Site:To reflect on the process of being a graduate student of Media Studies at the New School. Through a weekly blog, that details the experiences of my courses and the impact on my private life and sense of self through humor and blatant honesty.
1 Daily or Weekly Blog: Observations of Classes, Musings On My Private Life (what's left of it).
2 Ideas for projects: Process
2.1 Treatments
2.2 Storyboards
2.3 Lighting Plans
2.4 Production schedules
2.5 Thesis proposals
3 External Link to Discussion Board
3.1 Section of website where other New School students can respond to my blog comment on ideas for projects, share their common experiences, create an open dialogue.
4 Media
4.1 Rough Cuts
4.2 Audio Tracks for film projects, Narration, Music, V/O
5 Vices
Favorite list of prescription medications, brands of beer- to help numb the pain of responses to said projects- (Sorry Just Kidding).
Notaro and Feig's websites are easy navigate, however, Burroughs website is clearly more successful in this arena. Burroughs has a clear objective, to market his new book, promote his tour and share little crumbs from a nebulous, yet intriguing background that draw audiences, primariliy survivors of dysfunction, in and craving for more. The graphic content, clean yet intricate, is highlighted by a gorgeous montage of archival images taken from childhood photo albums and scrapbooks, he uses primary colors for the back ground carefully chosen not too be jarring to the viewer and contrast well.
Finally, the audio and media content of Burrough's website is effective. A well known recording artist sings an anthem to Augusten that dissects his pain and pays homage to his new book A wolf at the Table. Burroughs uses a video insert to thank his fans for sending in e mails requesting updates on his dog Bentley who recently overcame a health scare. The site also features interviews, a detailed biography and an address to contact Burroughs publicist to book speaking engagements. Then of course and most importantly, there is Burroughs blog which would make anyone who has ever faced any kind of adversity and was then able to look back and laugh, embrace Burroughs with an undying sense of love and loyalty.
Lamott who is also a favorite of mine, does not maintain a website, but she does blog frequently. her blogs are funny intuitive, sensitive and promote subjects that pretty much anyone can relate to. The construction of my website will be successful if Lamott's sensibilties shine through in the textual content.
Other then the 200 some odd pages of theory, I'm asked to absorb per week in my first semester as a graduate student at the New School, in my spare, (and I use the word loosely) time I voraciously consume the language, pain, and clever musings of what I consider to be four of the finest non fiction writers on the planet: Augusten Burroughs, Paul Feig, Laurie Notaro, and Anne Lamott. I wish to model my website in the same honest and skillful way which they tell their stories.
What I appreciate most about these writers is that they have no qualms about expressing their ineptitudes, mistakes and social faux paus to their readers. They do this through their books, but also in their blog and for the three out of four of them that maintain websites, expose their spastic endearing qualities through URL technology. It is with this type of grace and humor that I wish to tell my personal story of floundering to success through moments of (yes you guessed it Virgil) feeling battered in order to get through graduate school. It will be cathartic for me to continue to blog for the next two years, and hopefully other students at the New School who also wear their "nerdiness" and self doubt on their sleeves will join me in a call to arms and blog back.
In addition to maintaining a blog, or what I would call online journal entries, I'll use my website not to showcase my work but to illustrate the process and along with that, the pain. This website will be composed of treatments, storyboards, production schedules, ideas for a thesis (if I'm actually insane enough to continue to work at a job more than 40 hours a week and take on such a huge endeavor), and maybe, just maybe, I'll post rough cuts from student film projects. Then of course I'll swallow a Xanax before I read the comments of any of my faithful viewers, that is assuming I have any faithful viewers.
Finally, What I would hope to accomplish with this website is what my four favorite heroes listed above do so well, talk about their private lives. I do still have some semblance of a social life since starting graduate school, but not much, and life is quite topsy turvy. I would like to speak honestly, perhaps a little too honestly for some readers, about how this topsy turviness will evolve and change over the next two years. One possible entry, I'll call it a Laurie Notarism, because she would definitely write something like this, would be...
January 2nd 2009,
Late for class this morning because I could not find a clean bra, it was buried under the pyramid-like structure of dust bunnies that had formed on the floor of my closet because I had not cleaned my apartment in two months. Too busy to clean because I'm writing my thesis. Too broke to clean because I'm writing my thesis.I was forced to wear the white one that had turned grey when I threw it in with the color wash. Who has time to do two separate washes! It had lost all it's elasticity and the way I was flopping around in there I would have been better off wearing no bra at all.
And that's not an exaggeration, Notaro really would write that, and now as you know so would I.
The architecture of Notaro and Feig's websites are very simple. Feig boasts that he has no use for "new fangled, java script". He deftly uses clip art, instead of photos, simple fonts, and primarily monochromatic tones. It is his blog about his tour to promote one of his film projects that screams of his personality. Though his site hasn't been updated recently, Feig maintains two sections on his website that have cult appeal and keep avid followers of his work like me coming back for more. One section is "How to be Paul Feig" which are just funny little quips about Feig's likes and dislikes, hobbies favorite films etc. The other is discussion of his short lived but brilliant NBC sitcom Freaks and Geeks.
Notaro's URL for her website http:// www.idiotgirls.com, modeled after her book The Idiot Girl's Club, is what draws viewers in. She also uses archival photos, but it is the updates about her Nana getting a new hearing aid and uproarious responses to aspiring journalists on how to become a writer, that are particularly close to my heart.
The architecture of Burroughs website is cleaner, more graphic conscious, and it just has to be said more marketable. This really isn't surprising considering that he worked in advertising for close to a decade before he became a full time writer, and I suspect that his publicist and his partner Denis who shoots the photos for his book jackets also have a hand in dictating the construction of his site.
It's 2AM so too be continued.
