Well, after  a longer-than expected ‘break’, I finally can return my mind to the usual business of migration and new content, and other things. I’m glad to say that I’ve completed all but the last part of my super secret project for this other puppeteer: although there is some stuff to do, it’s all about waiting for feedback and then minor modifications.

I would have posted sooner, since I did indeed finish early yesterday; but I got distracted. Yes, again!

See, over the weekend I attended an UNIMA Australia committee meeting, where I reported some thoughts on the website. (Being webmaster and all, it’s pretty appropriate of me to do so) June last year we relaunched it with brand new functionality and design. But after spending a lot of time researching and redeveloping for both Puppets in Melbourne and School of Puppetry - and some advice for Gary Friedman too - I had some ’second’ thoughts on the UNIMA design. It’s an improvement on what was there before, but I think it needs to be much much easier to use.

Part of it was a clumsy attempt at dealing with a lot of menu options. Because the site is for two purposes -  the members and the general public - it becomes large and unweildy quite quickly. You have to have options for the members to do their stuff, like update their profiles and look at scholarship info… but you also have to provide the basics for non-members, like a directory of puppeteers and an online membership form. I didn’t want a long vertical navigation, so I opted for splitting nav. into two: a menu along the top, and an even tinier menu at top right, using mini icons. Not the best of solutions, because no one can figure out what those icons do.

The long and short of it is that I proposed to the committee to implement a long term plan by which we deconstruct what the site is for, how best to present the info within, and create an even better design. It’s also my opportunity to kill Joomla, a program that we use to run the site, because it’s difficult to maintain and impossible for me to hand over to any future webmaster without them being a pro web designer.

Anyway, the last day or so I got particularly inspired with a design idea which I just had to draft while it was in my head. My problem: I can never say no to inspiration when it comes calling.

… Incidentally, the main UNIMA Int website (www.unima.org) is getting a makeover. I recommend you go and visit, and then see if you can find the survey they have going about what needs improving (it’s gone around via email, so I don’t know if it’s online too). PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE send feedback. Cause the site is very very very … very … crap. They need all the help they can get.

Er, no, not really.

Something has been in the back of my mind all this week, and that is ‘the hollywood movie boycott’. I often read about people planning on boycotting certain movies due to the star’s particularly ‘wrong’ attitudes towards something. Whether it’s against the star’s religious stance (Scientology), politics (pro-war), science (anti-science really) or whatever - people often mention boycotting the movie as a sign of protest and a way of reducing the star’s income. I suppose by reducing their billion-dollars to a measly million, it’s suppose to get the star to rethink their position.

But this is an extremely sucky position to take. It’s a wimp out. Here’s just a few reasons why boycotting movies won’t work.

1. Invariably, the star will never know. Unless you write them a fan letter - unlikely to be read anyway - or one to the producers - ditto - the star won’t know why you’re boycotting the movie. Even if they bother to read it, they’re unlikely to change their minds based on your tactic.
2. Your tactic is lame. Instead of arguing the points of the issue - ie Scientology is based on one man’s fantasy about aliens and has no scientific basis in reality - you are not even attempting to engage in an actual argument. Not going to a movie amounts to sticking out your tongue and blowing raspberries.
3. Your one missing movie ticket does not equal much in the scheme of things. Especially hollywood blockbusters which rack in millions of ticket sales around the world. Sure, one person can affect change - but how likely do you think it will be to change the ideas or thoughts of the star and their followers based on you not turning up to a single screening?
4. You can miss out on a movie you might actually enjoy, or makes you think, or whatever. There’s some great cinematography out there, and if you boycott it just because you dislike a star’s position, then you may also miss out on good camera work, special effects, scripting, acting, or any other design aspect.
5. And this is the crux of my thoughts. The star is not the only person in the movie. The cast is not the only group of people in the movie. The crew are not the only people in the movie. There are literally thousands and thousands of people who work on a single hollywood film. This doesn’t just include all the people in the credits, but the hundreds of additional businesses who are hired and all of their employees: caterers, film developers, truck hire companies, drivers, builders, designers, costumiers, even book authors and sellers.

Yep, by boycotting the movie, you deny: hundreds of thousands of poor, struggling artists; small businesses; and every other person working on the film… well, the right to their income. The right to not be tarnished with the same brush just for happening to be hired alongside the movie’s lone nut. The right to have their work admired or disputed on its own merits, not some screwy side issue that has nothing to do with the actual author’s intentions or director’s vision.

Whatever you think of the star’s personal leanings towards an issue, do you really have to punish everyone else in the process, for an argument nobody will hear and for a tactic that isn’t even good debating?

Personally, I’d rather do something useful, like donate money for research or to a relevant organisaton; turn up to rallies or speak at events; spend some time volunteering or teaching… pretty much anything will work far better than a boycott of a movie.

My two cents. But it just had to be said by someone who works in the arts. Invariably, the people who speak about boycotting movies don’t have a clue about just how much a single film can provide so much business to so many people.

As they said on a sign for a gym: “Happy healthy legs eleven!”

If you spent your holiday anything like mine, you were: coughing, wheezing, tied to the computer, annoyed with your web host, pleased with your web host, annoyed with the partying neighbours, buying a couch, getting annoyed with the two hours wasted picking up said couch… and eating. Not sleeping though. Cause of the coughing and wheezing.

… Sigh… it never fails, new year’s always passes for me as very bland, dull and full of work.

Whilst I had hoped to continue migrating/creating new content for School of Puppetry, it’s pretty useless. My web host is tracking down a lone problem with the site still. Although the site has been fully recovered and works fine, there is a tiny issue which - whilst not affecting the frontend currently - does prevent me from adding new stuff.

I promised myself that if I hadn’t completed my secondary project (the one for the other puppeteer) by Jan, I would at least set aside some proper time to work on various posts and videos for SOP. So I guess whilst I wait for the web host to fix the issue, I can work on that. But honestly, this other project is sucking up all my creativity. When it comes to art, I very rarely am able to multi-task.

The main thing with this alternate project is also that I am considerably stuck on a small but important problem. I’ve spent numerous days thinking and rethinking it, trying different things, but nothing works. Luckily this morning I have solved part of it, so at least I’m making progress. I’m also working on the last dregs of the largest parts of the project; but also the hardest parts of it.

… On a slightly different issue: I’ve been thinking a lot about March. The 21st is the annual international puppetry day, and with the new SOP site, I’d like to celebrate it somehow. Initially I was thinking a seasonal theme change (ie. the logo with a party hat on it), but it’s a little too Google-celebration to me. So I’ve been thinking on something else. A giveaway of sorts.

Those in the gaming community may have noticed an ‘Indie Bundle’ or two. For those who aren’t familiar, a number of independent game developers have bundled up their games into a package, and offer it up as a single product. There are a few reasons why this is good: you get a bunch of cool games and support small artists/gamers; you pay however much you want (ie. you can pay one cent, or, as some people have done, given thousands); and the profits go towards charity. You can even select which charity, as each game developer provides a suggestion from which you can choose. Last time I checked in on one of these Bundles, a single person had paid $2000 US for games probably worth $100. And about a million had been raised in total.

So my idea is that any pattern on SOP could be available for whatever you want to pay: and the profits would go to charity. This would happen over not just the 21st, but the whole of March. I’ve been thinking of naming UNIMA Australia as the charity, and donate whatever’s raised for the annual scholarship. (It’s only recently been raised from $800 to $1200, which is still pretty small) But that’s probably not sexy enough to get people to hand over their money, particularly when most of my customers aren’t puppeteers and/or haven’t heard of UNIMA. Naturally I don’t expect to be raising as much as a million. But it’s a much more interesting idea than a simple freebie.

At this point though, I’m still stuck in alternate-project land. I really do need to move on from it now, but these issues aren’t easily solved. So with any luck my web host will solve their problems right around the time I solve mine; and then lots of great stuff will be posted. I even have some good ideas for more downloadable content… but as usual, ideas are always forthcoming while the development of them take forever to do.