2 posts tagged “work”
…Just added a new promo to the MTV News MySpace page…
Hip-Hop’s Greatest Groups: The Preview
MTV’s Brain Trust sits down once again — this time to debate the best acts with at least two MCs. Watch the action unfold beginning Monday at MTVNews.com.
Getting paid to be on MySpace
Ok, so it’s not that glamorous. However, it makes me wonder how many other people out there are like me - where a pretty hefty chunk of their day is spent updating their company’s MySpace page, researching trends within myspace, reading/approving comments, etc.
Four years ago when I first signed up and created my own profile, I certainly never predicted I would one day be paid (as part of the rest of my job) to “play” on MySpace. In fact, part of the reason I was hired at MTV News was because I was so adamant about us having a presence within MySpace.
You would think managing/updating a MySpace page would be easy, but in fact it’s actually not and is often a bit of a pain in my behind. However, it is rewarding to work with Jane and Alex, managing editors here, who contribute their blog entries, promo decisions, and support the growth of our friends and budding community. The MTV News MySpace page started out like any other - it’s a free account and I tweaked it/”pimped” it out like any other regular user.
For the longest time, no one could search for our page, which kept our friend #s low. We now have over 4,000 friends, which in contrast to other pages isn’t a whole lot - however considering we have no budget for promotion within MySpace, and it being more a labor of love than anything else, I am proud of what has been achieved so far. It would be nice if there was a tangible way to track how many clickthroughs we get from our MySpace page to the story/video links on MTVNews.com, but that’s another story.
For now, it’s just nice to see all the friend requests in my inbox, even if it is a pain at times to deal with. The people who add us are a combo of MTV fans, fans of the specific artists we promote on the page, bands seeking promo/love, various small time promotional companies, record labels, and people with general curiosity. As much as people & the press say that MTV is behind the times (and in a lot of ways, they are right), it’s pretty ignorant to ignore the fact that there is still a huge audience watching, and as long as I work for this company I will do my best to nurture our community within MySpace, other social networking portals, and wherever else we are welcomed.
As far as my personal MySpace profile goes, it would be a lie to say that my activity level on it has not suffered. I definitely don’t blog within there/post bulletins as much as I used to. I check out my friends bulletins/blogs and respond to their messages, but in general my page has become kind of a dud. Oh well. I only have so much energy and I get enough MySpace at work.
… Chris Webber is from my hometown. My mom loves The Sacramento Kings. So, here’s a link to the Chris Webber news package my coworker Monty produced and that I built for the Overdrive News channel. “The Pistons star talks about his African-American artifacts, how hip-hop influenced his game and what he jams to in the locker room.”
There you go mom, go crazy.
Some links I clicked today (well, this morning)
MTV and NPR adapt to changing demographics - The MTV wigitizing/joost collab/embed decisions are not news to me, but I found the contrast with NPR’s changes interesting.
Viacom Turns on YouTube, now Greets Joost with Open Arms - In case you didn’t know.
surveillance infrastructure - MySpace using content-recognition software
Excerpt - “As media companies struggle to reclaim control over their movies, television shows and music in a world of online file-sharing software, they have found an ally in software of another kind. The new technological weapon is content-recognition software, which makes it possible to identify copyrighted material, even, for example, from blurry video clips. The technology could address what the entertainment industry sees as one of its biggest problems — songs and videos being posted on the Web without permission.
Last week, Vance Ikezoye, the chief executive of Audible Magic in Los Gatos, Calif., demonstrated the technology by downloading a two-minute clip from YouTube and feeding it into his company’s new video-recognition system. The clip — drained of color, with dialogue dubbed in Chinese — appeared to have been recorded with a camcorder in a dark movie theater before it was uploaded to the Web, so the image quality was poor. Still, Mr. Ikezoye’s filtering software quickly identified it as the sword-training scene that begins 49 minutes and 37 seconds into the Miramax film “Kill Bill: Vol. 2.””
Why I am Tired and Sick
I had a three day weekend like most of you, but I spent the entire time working on my short film. These last three days have been my least favorite part of the whole experience, because we are now dealing with the audio. Oh god, I hate it! I can’t wait for it to be over. Important lesson - I do not have any talent at scoring. Good to know. Next time, I will put this in the hands of someone who actually knows what they are doing. I work with Rich Sancho at MTV, who besides being a rock star on the job is also a scoring genius in his spare time, so perhaps next time I will ask him for assistance in this area. …Because I think it’s pretty clear at this point that I really suck at it.
Title update - It is no longer called “Lily’s Evening”. The new title is “Proximity”. I will have a youtube link up either tonight or tomorrow, so stay tuned.
I was so stressed out this weekend I somehow became sick from the stress, and now I have a runny nose and a ginormous head ache. I also got in an argument with my creative partner on this project and stormed out last night. *sigh* I am such a drama queen.
However, Proximity will be finished this week, and despite this minor obstacle I have really enjoyed the process. I hadn’t made a short film in two years so this was a long time coming. I am still submitting it to The Lot, I mean I know it’s past the deadline but hey - I have seen some of the submissions on their website… I think in comparision Jennifer and I have a fairly good shot.
What needs to Happen… soon.
It’s very difficult to find that healthy, delicate balance between work, your creative projects, time with friends, general personal upkeep/chores, and maintaining your sanity.
After I am done with this short film I am going to take the time to sit down and prioritize the gajillion things I need and want to do.
