Presswork: A thing of the future!

 This Thursday is a big day for me. I'm covering IndieCade. This festival is known as the Sundance of Video games. The reason why this is a big deal for me is that this will be my second red carpet event that I'll be attending. My theatre company has become Aficionados for local festivals and organizations; this is just a fancy term that means we spread the word and support what we do like good pals. My first was the Feel Good Film Festival a few months ago.

Take everything you've been told and have imagined as a red carpet event and break that stereotype. I'll admit the only thing that really stresses me out is the makeup and outfit (Thank goodness for Macy's, Lane Bryant, and the occasional Ross run), but honestly once you get there it's one of the most amazing parties that you can go to. Imagine the feeling of accomplishing something great and just holding a celebration for it. That's the gist of it; and because everyone there is in such a good mood its a place with the most amazing conversations. I hope that this is not just my experience at the FGFF, but so far the staff from IndieCade has been friendly.

Titles are celebrated as much as feared. I've never met a single CEO that was rude or snobbish at these festivals. They're usually more than grateful to be covered and surrender the press badges gladly. One of the greatest feelings I've had running my non-profit is the recognition and support from other festivals. It's because all of us are after the same goal; to bring what we love to the world.

This post was really sparked by my thoughts this morning on the way that the press industry is changing. When I started in theatre the early 2000, things were different. You'd kill for a reviewer to come to a play and you'd hope they were a good one. I have a few printed articles and reviews of my plays but they were always a toss of the coin. You were never sure if that reviewer was even a professional or someone worth dealing your time with. When I started my internship at a the Falcon I remember reading reviews and logging them in. They were rude and often mean with no real criticism. Simply because bad news sells; people love to hear people being torn down. Let's face it, who really picks up the paper and reads it daily these days? For the few that do you need to make it interesting and memorable.

Things needed to change: hence blogging and social media came to play. Ahh the plays, the reviews, the community; an artist could ask for nothing else. The review has become candid, real, and...well... a review. These reviews allow us artists to grow, to move, to hope. The industry of press has been brought to its knees and it gets challenged every day.

Consider before you like something, or put the start rating or choice, or go as far as blog or comment; that you are bringing power to the community that you support. Because you're as much apart of it as that artist. Because of that you help keep it alive.
-Stef

UPDATE: Due to limited space at the ceremonies, I did not attend the red carpet ceremonies. The footage above was taken by my affiliate sponsored company Raging Nerds