The 1880

Commencement Info Session

Yes, we have to sing that song, too.

Just got back from the Commencement Information Session thing. If you didn’t make it, or didn’t pick up a program, here are the important bits:

Arrive by 9:30am on Monday, May 19th to your line-up location.
School of the Arts (Performing Arts, VMA, WLP) and Interdisciplinary Studies Arts majors go to the Courtyard Marriott Empire Ballroom, First Floor 275 Tremont Street.
School of Communication (CSD, Journalism, Marketing Communication & OPC) and Interdisciplinary Studies Communication majors Citi Performing Arts Center [formerly Wang] Basement 270 Tremont Street.

Practice your alphabet - it will assist the ushers with a smooth line-up process. [wtf?]

No alcoholic beverages are permitted at the line-up sites or Commencement [so be sure to get them into your system both before and after]

Your attention and cooperation will be most appreciated.

EVVYs Nominee List is up

The 27th annual EVVY award nominations are now up on their website. I’ll highlight a couple of the big ones (at least, as a film major):

Outstanding Intermediate Film
“Broken” Bryce Richards, Michael Grabow and Bradford Wilde
“Front Page” Kevin Mastman, Matthew McManus, Brian Vannucci, Tony Yacenda
“Dream on Cupid” Mike Grabow, Bradford Wilde and Bryce Richards

Outstanding Cinematography
“Billy Club” Elie Smolkin
“Front Page” Brian Vannucci
“2326 Pilot Episode” Elie Smolkin

Outstanding Cinematic Production
“No Wind, No Waves” Julian Higgins
“Animal Magic” Benjamin Phillippo, Katie Machaiek
“Front Page” Kevin McManus, Matthew McManus, Brian Vannucci, Tony Yacenda

Outstanding Multi-Cam Director
“Johnny Paula Directs GME 11/8/07″ Jonathan Paula
“GME: April 9, 2008″ Zachary Schiffman
“News @ 6″ William Gersh
“Speechless Ep. 5″ Eric Sagotsky

Outstanding Single Cam Director
“No Wind, No Waves” Julian Higgins
“Honor” Christina Densmore
“Looking Up” Ryan Cook

You can read the rest of the nominees on the EVVYs website (although, you guys could use a LITTLE bit of better separation techniques there!).

Pages x 100

What an internet we have here.

As you famously tech-savvy stoodints know, every Emerson kid gets 250MB of webspace accessible anywhere on their pages folder. What’s that you say? You’re not a New Media major with unlimited web space on the newmedia.emerson server? No problem. File Dropper, a webspace service has apparently completely lost it and is giving a free lifetime account with a whopping 250GB of space to those that sign up before May 15th. Just sign up for the File Dropper special and start dumping files. Keep your giant final projects safe - you’re almost done and we don’t want you to freak out and call the help desk crying. No, we can’t get your footage off of your busted drive or suck your paper on how cool it would be to go drinking with Baudrillard and Jameson out of that damn Porsche LaCie disk. Sorry.

READER PARTICIPATION: Registration NIGHTMARES!

They’re on their way.

I thought instead of explaining the registration nightmares I’m having, I would open up the discussion to discuss how registration is going for you.

However, possibly even more importantly, if you could respond to this message with this information:

1. What grade you’re going to be in next semester (1st or 2nd semester as well!)
2. Whether or not you’re a transfer student
and
3. What day/time you have slotted for your registration
and, if you’d like
4. What you’ve experienced so far in the registration process

By knowing this, we can really see what’s going on with registration and its crazy order. I’m not sure about all of you, but I’m registering a full two days after some of my peers that will be seniors. I wouldn’t be surprised if there was an upcoming junior who registers before me.

So, come on, participate!

The E Spot

The E Spot. Em Magazine. Get it? Courtesy of espotmag.com.

Looks like we have a new magazine in town. This one’s called The E Spot, and seems to be (correct me if I’m wrong) an online magazine about sex and how it may apply to Emerson students. Why would I guess this? With categories on the main page such as “Relationshits,” “Sex Sex Sex,” and “Hot Shit,” it’s pretty much impossible to avoid. With a few risque photos and a few risque articles on sex and encounters, it’s something to check out if you’re looking for something a little… steamy.

Immediately it reminds me of Boink Magazine, Boston University’s sex-positive magazine. They’ve been pretty successful at getting some quality magazines printed out. However, they are quite a bit bigger than Emerson.

How this will coincide with Em Magazine’s nude photo shoot, I don’t know.

It seems like getting naked is all the rage for Emerson’s online material. Time to talk to the staff here? Only time will tell…

Lessons from The Magic Kingdom, Part II

You sound like one of the guys on that commentary I watch all the time.

Storytelling Through Animation
2/28, 12:00PM, Max Mutchnick Campus Center Multipurpose Room

Making his directorial debut with 1994’s The Lion King, Roger Allers expanded upon a career as an animator, writer, story supervisor, and storyboard artist. He spoke to an attentive crowd of Emerson students and faculty as a part of the Professional Development Conference.

Allers opened his talk with us urging us to follow that which excites us. Allers had been fascinated with art and animation his entire life. After graduating with a degree in fine art, he decided to travel, notably living in a cave for some time. Always fascinated with animation, he purchased a do-it-yourself animation kit, produced a small bit of work, and came to work at an animation studio in Boston in 1974. Hearing of a professor at Harvard teaching animation, armed with his portfolio and what he called a “mix of determinism and naiveté,” convinced the professor to let him audit the class. This experience sparked an interest in more narrative work.

Leaving Boston behind, he fell into a storyboard position at Disney, where he helped develop ideas for the film Tron. Considering video games barely existed at this point in development for the film, there was a considerable amount of creative elbow room. Storyboard artists would be given script pages, audio samples, artistic renderings, and be required to dissect a scene. “What is interesting or unique here? How are these characters special?” Boarding scenes allows for the first step towards visualizing a story. The actions, the pacing, and the rhythm of a scene can now be extrapolated and understood by other members of the project.

Read the rest »

Lessons from The Magic Kingdom, Part I

Chris Montan wears expensive jeans and wants you to be successful.

Beyond Networking
2/28, 11:00AM, Max Mutchnick Campus Center Multipurpose Room

Chris Montan is currently the president of Walt Disney Music. He’s acted as the Executive Music Producer on just about every significant Disney feature, stage production, or animated release of the last twelve years. His son happens to go to our school, and he was so kind as to bestow some of his most insightful precious stones of knowledge upon us as a part of the very valuable “Professional Development Conference.” What follows is what he had to say.

Entertainment is a hard business to get into, and hard to stay in.

There’s is always some day, some event, some serendipitous moment that acts as your big break. You need to work to improve chances and prepare for that luck. Be ready when your door opens. He was lucky enough to make a huge lateral shift through corporate trees of Disney when Eisner and Katzenberg were reorganizing the company.

Only do things you are perpetually passionate and excited about. Noting the clichés of the statement, he refers to passion as what your friends can see really excites you. For example, Bette Midler has been a long time buddy of his, and as long as he has known her, she approaches every new project with the same excitement as she ever has.

Continually educate yourself in fields that really fascinate you. Give yourself as much information as possible. In college, Montan read all he could about successful singer-songwriters, because that was what he wanted to do with himself. Don’t be the disengaged student that drops out of school their sophomore year when you get bored or realize you’re not doing what you want to do.

Read the rest »

A Response to Hand-Me-Down Night Brouhaha: Lucy Goldberg

Lucy Goldberg is the Elections Commissioner for the SGA and is “not a voting member and [does] not have a constituency to represent.” She’s e-mailed us this response, which you, our readers, are more than welcome to do by sending it to the form on the lower left.

I would like to applaud those students who have expressed their interest in the Student Government Association of Emerson College. This is partially in response to the controversy that has erupted over the budget allotted to the 2008 Hand Me Down Night Committee, but it is in response to something larger that plagues the nation at large as well as our own direct democracy- the utter lack of communication.

Until now, we have not heard many individual voices with a genuine complaint or concrete concerns as to how our small government is run. As the board gathers every Tuesday in between class schedules and work schedules to discuss the newest appeal or the ever-present business of dealing with Aramark’s services without comment, it becomes difficult to remember that anybody actually cares about the decisions we make. Even the staff reporter from the Beacon becomes ambivalent as we all fill in our governmental roles, nothing more than practice for the day when we will become professionals in the real world.

Read the rest »

Fed Up With Hand-Me-Down Night? Take Action TODAY!

This is a topic that hasn’t been taken lightly around Emerson’s campus.

As John Tyson says in the Facebook group, Official Hand-Me-Down Night Boycott:

Every year, the SGA spends progressively more and more money (this year, nearly $40,000) on, essetially, a giant one-night catered party for themselves and their friends. It’s a giant “pat yourself on the back” fest. To put that amount in perspective, it’s about the same that FPS or EIV receives for their budget for a whole year.

Despite efforts on the parts of many voting members this year to decrease the expense and scale of the event, it’s cost has only gone UP. This is in direct opposition to the general consensus of students, who, when surveyed, mostly agreed that they were not interested in the event, wouldn’t want to go again, and thought the expense was too great.

In light of this argument, the SGA has asked that any students who would like to state their case about the brouhaha can come to the meeting TODAY at 2PM in the upper lobby of the Little Building.

Here is the Facebook event for the SGA Student Initiative on Hand Me Down Night.

Of course, this post is open to any comments in support or against the SGA meeting, Hand-Me-Down Night, or the SGA as a whole, but keep it relatively clean– any lecherous fuckery will be taken care of.

If anybody is interested in writing a full statement, they are encouraged to do so in the comments/concerns box on the lower left corner of the main page.

Disclaimer: John Tyson, former VMA Senator in the SGA, is a staff member of The 1880.

Winter Weather Cancels Stuff On Campus

For the three Emerson students who have class today, as you probably already know, classes after 4 PM are cancelled. Additionally, the labs and the darkroom are closing at 4 as well.

The library will be staying open until 9 PM.

Enjoy the snow and stay warm!