Welcome!

Greetings, dear readers. And welcome to You're Making a Scene.

For the past three and a half years, I have had the honor and privilege of being a regular contributor to sister-blog Scarlett Cinema, which film ciritc P.L. Kerpius and I first founded under the auspices of giving women a greater voice within the traditionally male-dominated realm of film criticism. I am immensely proud of Scarlett and all that it has become since its early days. Having first met in the Cinema Studies department at Tisch School of the Arts back in 2003, Ms. Kerpius and I were often stymied by the glaring differences that seemed to exist between the ways in which we and our male counterparts thought about and discussed the very medium that had drawn us all together: film. Even more frustrating was the realization that our ideas about film as well as the manner in which we chose to communicate them were regularly being squelched amidst a din of other voices that typically felt more contentious in attitude rather than dialogical. Thus, we felt compelled to create Scarlett as a means through which we could finally be heard. Or at least feel like we were being heard.

The truth of the matter is, however, that while Scarlett remains very dear to me, my heart simply isn't in it these days. Scarlett is a shining example of what fine film criticism written from a uniquely female perspective could and should be; and most of the credit for that should be given to Ms. Kerpius (I haven't written a post of substance for Scarlett since late 2009). The reason for this is that while I enjoy and appreciate most traditional forms of film criticism, I am just as, if not more, interested in discussing the business, creative development, and production of films as well as the examination of how social constructs such as race, gender, class, and nationhood are both represented in as well as propagated by various forms of mass media. In other words, I am interested in the how and the why behind moving images and their social and cultural impact upon people as much as I am with the formal qualities of extant cinema. Consequently, it is my hope that both Scarlett as well as my own areas of interest will be better served by You're Making a Scene, a blog that aims to discuss film primarily, but also to speak more broadly to the sociological, cultural, and production aspects of a number of mass media forms, including music videos, viral videos, television shows, newscasts, and even other blogs.

Though it is possible I may still pop in to Scarlett from time to time, Ms. Kerpius will continue to expertly steer that ship. In the meantime, I invite you to revisit my humble little corner of the blogosphere to read my thoughts on issues related to mass media production and, by extension, its impact upon the more ambiguous project of culture production. Let the fun begin! ¡Olé!