REMEMBERING THE JOURNEY OF SWATH ~ The First Post
Disney
"Not long left now... Final few days of @SnowWhite. Already feeling the loss in my life. But on the up hand - it is nearly #christmas :-)" ~ Sam Claflin
(December 5, 2011)
The first post...
Setting up the Site
I cannot tell you how much angst went into creating the site and the first post. One thing that was not going to happen, was calling on a professional to do it. It just would have made the site business-like and impersonal and that is not what I wanted. I wanted to experience the personal journey in order to share it with others and it was a lot of hard work but worth it in the end.
I wanted the site to have a purpose, mean something that was special to us and others; I wanted to do more than copy someone's work and post. Since we have writing backgrounds, why not write? Use our brains, do research, put some effort and thought into our posts and have some meaning and thought behind it. Yes, it is more work but hey, what's the point of getting a degree if you do not even try to make it worth the time and effort, not to mention the money, to get to use it. Let's do this and write. So we did.
I could have used a publisher or an editing program used by journalists, but I wanted the site to feel more personal and not as if we were writing for the New York Times. The site should be more humanized instead of homogenized. I wanted that Robert Pattinson scruff. Makes us more touchable than distant.
I wanted the site to be for fans who liked the fun stuff but wanted it to be on a level for a fan who did not want nonsense, hence it is for the "discernible fan". Thoughtful...news worthy and not about showing someone walking out of a restaurant with their girlfriend or husband because this fansite is about a movie. There are plenty of fansites and gossip sites that feed those interests but we just were not going there and have not.
So there was a thought process going into this thing and it appears our choices have worked out.
After setting up the site to make it at least functional, I was literally running on fumes. Working to 4 and 5 in the morning trying to put the page together to meet my goal to have our first post up before June.
I thought about every widget and its function, its purpose, what information it can provide for fans of all types of backgrounds.
Choosing a template was a struggle because certain templates made the page look average or typical or too corporate. Ugh, decisions, decisions to coin a phrase from a 'Twilight' movie.
The first look I chose for the background was fire but the original banner or the photo did not work with it so it turned into a forest background.
Fire...I wanted the fire and there were reasons why. Firstly, SWATH was supposed to be along the lines of Lord of the Rings, which means lots of action, horses, swords, and FIRE...
Secondly, this movie would be promoted to guys, therefore visuals for the sight had to be guy friendly. Since I'm a chick who likes a good action flick, it needed to be as dark and sinister as I could make it because from everything I read about it at the time, SWATH would be that type of movie.
If you believe that there is a higher being than ourselves, HE sent us an angel named @karenxan who makes banners. We could not believe it. She made the banner that is up today (a new one will be posted this week) which was made exactly to my specifications. She is genius in my book. She allowed me to eventually use my flames. Now if only I could have had the flames flickering - that would have been perfect.
Then there was the decision about the type-setting, fonts, colors, size etc... You can see how our posts changed and developed over time. Even the color of the type-setting was changed due to a suggestion by a fellow blogger. We appreciated it and made the adjustments and it was much better.
We had to set up contacts, emails, other forms of media (Facebook, tumblr, Gmail, YouTube etc...); determine where to save photos and videos (Vimeo, Imagebam etc...); learn how to make and edit video etc... and then learn how to post them onto the blog within the pixels etc... of the page.
So after placing every tab, widget, link etc... in place (at least as many as I could create and get up on the page) and setting up everything it would take to operate a site, what will be the first post?
Making the Post
I signed up for an insane amount of Google alerts but later found easier ways to search the internet and favorite sites that would have what I wanted. Even searching for obscure sites, everyone has access to the same information except for what is provided by someone inside of SWATH. Love that Twitter DM!
Early on, there was not much SWATH news. It was like pulling teeth. So our posts mainly were about 'Snow White' herself, Kristen Stewart. Today, we receive questions or DMs about stories from fans that they have seen other places. It is not our goal to post everything in the internet domain or to make 10 posts just to say we made 10 posts but to post interesting and/or newsworthy items and on occasion some fan related fun stuff.
It is a difficult line to draw when it comes to Kristen because the story is all about 'Snow White'. When an actor is promoting a project, we do not want the site to look like their personal fansite, but when you are involved with a major project like 'Twilight' or 'The Avengers' we have to make room for those items. This is why there are special tabs for Kristen and Chris Hemsworth on the site.
When there is news about 'Twilight' or 'The Avengers' we really have to be judicious because we do not want to look like this is a 'Twilight' site or a Marvel Comics site, but we want to bring the latest news about Kristen and Chris and just provide that for the fans who are interested. It is a tight rope to walk.
We really have to look at what the story brings to the table. We receive a lot of tweets from those who tweet everything they find. We know there are a lot of Kristen fans that follow us and want every nugget of her life that is out there. But this is when I really put on the Editor's hat and sort through what we will post. Some stories are hard to not to post, but these are choices editors make everyday. When an actor is promoting a project, they do hundreds of interviews. How many times can you post the same story or that they did an interview? If they mention SWATH, was the same thing stated in another interview because it was stated at the press junket? If so, it is not news and will be nixed.
We really have to look at what the story brings to the table. We receive a lot of tweets from those who tweet everything they find. We know there are a lot of Kristen fans that follow us and want every nugget of her life that is out there. But this is when I really put on the Editor's hat and sort through what we will post. Some stories are hard to not to post, but these are choices editors make everyday. When an actor is promoting a project, they do hundreds of interviews. How many times can you post the same story or that they did an interview? If they mention SWATH, was the same thing stated in another interview because it was stated at the press junket? If so, it is not news and will be nixed.
We also have to be careful about going overboard just posting items to have a post. There are all types of fans who we have to cater to so I do try to be cognizant of that and not make a post just to say we made 10 posts today. What does it bring to the table? Also, consider that there are many interests and try to give all fans something to read.
The only news about SWATH early on was Kristen Stewart and Viggo Mortenson's decision to sign onto SWATH. The back and forth, are they signed or aren't they. The news stories were enough to give a fan a headache. So after the smoke cleared, Kristen was on board and Viggo was not. Then the Russian roulette of the Huntsmen began. Viggo, Hugh Jackman and finally Chris Hemsworth decided to do it and the fans felt the match was just perfect. So what's next?
Relativity vs. Universal vs. Relativity vs. Universal and the beat goes on...
In short, the corporate guys were in a fist fight and when the fight was finished, Universal and Relativity had gone their separate ways. But was the fight really over? No!
Relativity actually forgot that Universal has been around for 100 years. This grand 'ol dad isn't going to take crap from some young'in and in the process teach the kid a lesson. We now know how this fight turned out.
So, the Relativity vs. Universal had to be our first post. It read in part:
Saturday, May 28, 2011
The Reelz Channel Takes a Look at the Dueling Snow Whites
Who knew making a live-action Snow White would cause such competition? Both Universal Studios and production company Relativity Media have movies about the fair princess planned, with slightly different takes in each.
Read the rest of the original post here.
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