FEFO I guess (DA Beta)

“Extreme arrogance that leads to ones downfall, vaguely connected to Irony.”

– Urban Dictionary, Definition of ‘Hubris’

I walked into this semester incredibly over-confident about my DA. “This ain’t my first time at the rodeo”, I said, with a level of overzealousness that belied the total half-baked nature of my idea. Making a YouTube channel was fun in theory. In practice however, I found I had none of the following essential elements: video editing skills, confidence in front of the camera or… idea generally. FEFO amirite guys?

I’ve abandoned my extended rodeo metaphor that I was using to talk about my DA, because I’ve abandoned my original idea. Call me a sucker for symbolism, whatever.

With my initial idea sunk I returned to the drawing board. What kind of digital content played to my strengths while also being relatively easy to create. For me, that answer was obvious: words.

Here I had two options. Attempt to create my own platform for disseminating and distributing words that I wrote (hard) or attempt to publish through someone else’s pre-established site (also hard). I chose the later and began submitting content and applying for positions.

I had a few rejections…

…before my first win!

With content now being produced at Second Union, I began working on how I would frame it. As I went into on a previous blog post, the world of pop-culture criticism is built on a cult of personalities. So, while my writing is the core of my Digital Artefact, the framework and personality I create around it is equally important.

There are four key platforms which prominent pop-culture critics/essayists use, so I worked on creating these and putting my own framework on them. The two main examples I used to formulate my framework around are Fran Hoepfner and Mia Vicino.

The first platform, my Letterboxd account, I already had. This account is essential for movie reviewers, as having it signals that you are a “film buff”. I worked on consistently “reviewing”. These are short, comedic reviews that exist on their own while not overlapping with my lengthier main reviews.

The next was to develop my instagram, which should in some way directly reference my consumption of content, while focusing overall on developing a unique aesthetic for my content users to engage with.

Finally, my Twitter. This Platform required less mimicking of other’s styles and more. Instead it was about creating my own verbal style, whilst linking and supporting my other words. I did this by embedding content throughout my whole profile.

By developing these platforms I was creating a sense of personality for users to buy into, drawing them to my content by attracting them to me and my outlook. I also used the clout generated by my profile to apply for more austere and discerning sites. First, The Critical Movie Critics and from there Film Era. Each of these sites come with their own pre-stablished brands, which my content now draws on, diversifying both the reach and nature of my content.

My continuing goal is to expand my content and continue to apply for new sites, spreading my work to generate interest in my media profiles to then push interest back onto my work (it’s a neat little loop).