The IAWTV is currently preparing to elect five new members to the board of directors and someone nominated me. Last week I accepted the nomination and submitted the following candidate’s statement. Regardless of whether I win or lose, I will continue to advocate the contents of this statement which I hold very highly.
Thanks to the person(s) who nominated me, I appreciate your vote of confidence!
Thank you for nominating me to run for a seat on the board of directors. I am very passionate about our industry and driven to uplift our achievements and professionalism. Here is an outline of my thoughts on where I feel we should take the academy in the coming months. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions.
International- Though the IAWTV has held meetings in Los Angeles and New York, the web series industry is not restricted to these cities and we should be mindful not to exclude our international membership. As an international member (Canadian), I proposed the live-stream for the last meeting in Los Angeles and I feel it’s important to continue this inclusive way of thinking, and to encourage the international community, with the help of the Membership Committee, to join the academy and help educate and build the communities in their area. All this can be simple with some basic equipment and guidance from the Technologies Committee.
Education- Education is a wonderful tool to build exposure and community in our organization. I’d like to help the Events Committee oversee regional (local) member-organized workshops, public live-streamed peer-group panels, and blog posts on the IAWTV web site to help build our community involvement, knowledge and industry as a whole.
Advocacy- It’s time to get back on track to advocate our professionalism and devotion to this field by following up on the many issues that have recently plagued our community (e.g. Net Neutrality, IMDb excluding web series, etc.). I would like to work together with the Communications Committee to prepare statements on the issues, help the Industry Standards Committee create standards and best practices, and assist the Events Committee in facilitating protests.
Awards- I feel it’s important to celebrate our community and its’ achievements by giving it the awards show it deserves. Like many of you, I was dismayed by this year’s Streamy Awards and would like to work together with the Awards Committee to oversee the script, content, security and guest treatment guidelines for next year. Our show needs to represent the spirit and hard work of our industry and its’ stars (whether they be from the web or the mainstream) in a respectful tone.
About me: I have been working in the web TV industry since 2005 and have appeared in over a dozen web series. I have written about the industry for The Guardian, spoken on numerous panels across Canada and the US, and coordinated open community-based meetings to share knowledge with those interested in the field. Aside from being a member of the IAWTV, I am also a judge of the Canadian New Media Awards and have organized meetings with SAG and AFTRA on behalf of New Media West to discuss the details of their new media contracts. I have a Diploma in Communications, a Bachelor’s degree in East Asian Studies and worked as a diplomatic assistant before pursuing my career in new media full time. I speak English, French and Korean. (For more, see my biography and resume.)
Casey McKinnon
New Media Producer/Actress
All candidate statements should be emailed to the IAWTV membership and posted on the forum today. May the best candidates win.
Though a very young, very scared, Casey watched some Doctor Who when she was a kid, I didn’t really start watching seriously until Christopher Eccleston jumped aboard. I liked his take and, though I didn’t see every episode that season, I was extremely upset to hear he was leaving the show so early. When David Tennant came on, I didn’t really get to know him as a Doctor until Rudy sat me down to watch some Doctor Who specials. By that time, news had already spread that Tennant too was leaving the show, and I was disappointed because I finally loved him and wanted to see more. Then, I heard about Matt Smith. Rumbles from friends and reliable sources told me that he was going to be the “Robert Pattinson” of Doctor Whos so, naturally, I thought it would suck (pun not intended). Still, I started watching it from the beginning on BBC America.
What I experienced smacked me in the face. The first episode was a little chaotic, but the tease and promise of a good ride was set. And now, I am smitten.
Matt Smith’s Doctor Who fascinated me and captivated my imagination. Though he’s a young looking actor, he has convinced me that his character is old (907 to be exact). All this ain’t easy… I’m one of the pickiest sci-fi fans/viewers in the known universe, so this is quite the feat. I don’t think I’ve been this enraptured since Seven of Nine joined the cast of Star Trek: Voyager… but Smith has done this without the help of large supple borg boobies. Well done, sir, well done.
Now I’m glad to see his star shine even brighter. This weekend Matt Smith performed the Doctor Who theme with techno artists Orbital at Glastonbury. What. A. Fucking. Treat. I have no doubt that nerds all over the world were (and probably still are) jizzing their pants.
N.B.: Unfortunately, I’m behind on Doctor Who episodes while traveling. Please be kind and don’t give anything away for me in the comments… thanks. XOXO
Though we’re not currently making any new episodes of Galacticast, we still get lots of cool fanmail. I don’t usually share excerpts, but last week we got this:
What in the name of Canned Cheese happened to you guys? I go away for one little war, survive the Blistering heat meaningless excursion drills in the heat. Not to mention the Taliban and CNN hounding my every waking moment, to find out that your sweet creamy goodness is no longer producing content. Oh why in the name of ZOD did you guys leave me, now I am forced to watch NPR, it’s so cold out here on the interwebs without your outrageous infectious humor.
Oh, dude… I am SO SORRY!!! I could tell you all our excuses on why we haven’t made new episodes in a while, but I don’t think you’d want to hear about it after all the hardships you’ve been through over the past few years. I have SO much respect for what you’ve been doing and I hope you’re doing well. Can I suggest checking out what we’ve been doing more recently? Perhaps you like comics? Or how about more sci-fi comedy?
A couple of weeks ago my friend Stu Maschwitz (@5tu), as Creative Director of Red Giant Software, launched a new iPhone App called Plastic Bullet. At the time I had mixed emotions… the angel on my shoulder says Stu is a visual genius, and the devil on my shoulder told me I already have a zillion camera apps on my iPhone and that Hipstamatic was the bee’s knees. The devil was wrong.
This morning I paid the $1.99 and downloaded the Plastic Bullet app to my iPhone. And. It. Is. Beautiful.
I’ve found a lot of camera apps are hard to control: Hipstamatic is a crap shoot; Toy Camera makes it difficult to change settings; and CameraBag was great at first, but I’ve grown bored of it over time. Don’t get me wrong, they’re all great apps… but I love how Plastic Bullet simplifies creativity to the max. By placing a refresh button in the top right corner, you can keep generating random combinations of photo effects until you find “the one.” And, even if you find one you like, you can save it by clicking on the heart icon and continue searching for other effect combinations you like. Genius. And just the kind of simplistic experience that Apple is all about.
Below is a photo I took while shopping last weekend. The original photo was very plain (I was going to post it here, but my iPhoto kept freezing when I tried to import it), but you can see the effects generated for the photo make it look super cool. Hell, I want to march straight back to the store and buy that dress ASAP! …and perhaps a belt too… and some go-go boots. ;)
This morning I paid the $1.99 and downloaded the 
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