The Horrifying, Nerve-Wracking, Wonderful Anxiety of Creating Saturday Night Live

For over forty-five years Saturday Night Live has been an American cultural constant, a weekly parody of politics, entertainment, and society that continues to produce live shows on a hectic, weekly schedule. As Tina Fey described it, it’s schedule is “designed around cocaine;” but even since the drug’s departure the fast-paced, last-minute production style has remained. To create one of the longest-running and most beloved television programs possible, actors, writers, and crew members work around the clock, overnight, and up until the last possible second to make the sketch comedy fever dream a reality.

Streaming: Hollywood’s Favorite Child

How have streaming platforms capitalized on growing audiences and shifting trends? And just how big are these platforms and their libraries of content?

From Riches to More Riches: Philip DeFranco

When one thinks of the kind of person who would benefit form a platform like Patreon their mind often gravitates towards independent illustrators, podcasters, musicians, and other “starving” artists looking for a means of sustaining themselves while also doing work that hey love. It does not seem like the kind of place that well-established business […]

BasicLee’s Unique Balls

In 2016, Lee Chipman, a Massachusetts mother of six, opened up her Etsy shop, “It’s Basic Lee Designs”, after encouragement from friends and family. Lee was known in her town for her festive, homemade felt garlands and unique decorations, and eventually selling them to friends and neighbors by request. Lee has totaled 114 sales, most of […]

Fallen Titans: H3H3

The H3 Podcast was started by popular YouTube creators Ethan and Hila Klein as a companion piece to their main YouTube channel, H3H3 Productions. This podcast originally started off as a small yet high-production endeavor, with the two hosts able to make live commentary on subjects they found humorous while interacting with their fanbase. The […]

Attack on Anime: an Industrywide Implosion

Since the 1970s America has had an undeniable fascination with Anime, the distinct art of Asian, often more specifically Japanese, animation. Many fans who fell in love with the medium dream about moving there and pursuing a career creating the artwork that they grew to love. Animator Henry Turlow did this, and highlights some of […]

Technologically Induced Precarity in Art Direction

The website for the Art Director’s Guild (ADG) describes the guild as a local chapter of the International Alliance of Theatrical and Stage Employees (IATSE). There are more than 104,000 members of the ADG spanning the US and Canada. The Union includes not only art directors but graphic artists, illustrators, matte artists, model makers, production designers, […]

Your privacy is important to us

Has anyone seen the movie Freaky Friday (2003)? That one with Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis? Just watch the first 45 seconds of this clip and bear with me. In addition to posting this because I thought it would be funny to bring up a movie like Freaky Friday in a discussion this important, I also […]

Being Human: How Computers Define Our Data

Every person is more than just who they are — deep inside, each one of us is made up of  potential that determines who we could be. This potential can be understood as all the possibilities we could be given our inner code which is comprised of all of the data that defines us. In other words, […]

Data, Algorithms, and the Pursuit of Privacy

Analyzing the morality and ethics surrounding any major issue is something I always try to take into consideration because I believe this frame of mind fulfills a utilitarian objective. As an example, I’ve explored the concept of morality and whether it can be present in the context of a business monopoly on this very blog […]