The Internet Q&A as Creative Catalyst
If you've followed my exhaustive promotional efforts in the last five days, you know that last night Kicking the Seat participated in a live Q&A chat with writer/director Angelina Jolie and actress Vanessa Glodjo of the film, In the Land of Blood and Honey. The fine folks at PartnersHub presented me with this exciting and unexpected opportunity, and I couldn't have been happier to watch these stars spend an hour answering questions that weren't dreamt up in an Access Hollywood men's room.
But it wasn't all roses and exotic chocolates. The road to the chat was paved with three obstacles--the first of which was technological. I barely know my way around this simple Web site, and the prospect of having to update its SquareSpace template to accommodate PartnersHub's viewing widget nearly made my head explode (not the doing of it, just the prospect). I installed the widget in the blog post below this one, but its width far exceeded the one I'd been using for entries.
So, early yesterday morning, I got up and began fussing with Kicking the Seat's innards. The downside of doing this at 3:30 (without coffee) is that I mistakenly deleted the site's custom template, which I created two years ago. But since necessity is the mother of invention (as well as a plain ol' motherfucker), I remade the entire site in about three sweaty, heart-pounding hours. I'm still tweaking it (notice the page banners' various sizes), but in the end I'd allotted twice the text width to my reviews--meaning you'll no longer risk getting Carpal Tunnel Syndrome while reading measly thousand words.
The second obstacle was a seeming lack of reader interest. I learned that there are some things that, literally, can't be given away--like a free movie poster. Granted, In the Land of Blood and Honey is only playing in about six theatres across the country, but I'd hoped to drum up some kind of participation. This isn't me ragging on you or anyone else. I was just a bit surprised that nobody showed up for my party. Putting away the Kleenex now.
My final hurdle was a lack of confidence in the event itself. All week, I've wondered if this thing would pan out, what form, if any, the chat would take, etc., etc. When the feed went live at 7pm and then cycled through the film's trailer for the umpteenth time, my heart raced while sinking. At about three after the hour, Jolie and Glodjo popped up and began taking questions. Finally, I breathed deeply.
What followed was a relaxed, informative discussion of movies, careers, and conflict, which you can check out here.
I really hope to be involved with more of these kinds of events, and to engage more of you when they happen. If you have any suggestions or thoughts on what you'd like to see, or why you didn't participate, I would love to hear them. The last thing I want is to harp obliviously (current blog post aside).
Thanks, everyone, and take care.