Actors Own alpha online

After a stressful week of cross browser tweaking, and polishing those annoyingly time eating small 'finishing off' things, the first working version of actorsown.com is online. Ideally I would have liked to have finished it a few weeks ago to allow plenty of time to promote it and get some members, but as it happens, I will have to do it in a few days! Such is life.

Over the next few days I plan to add some more small features that will hopefully support the bulk of the functionality already in place. I will also have to go and do some PR work to rally up some actors who will join and hopefully get the ball rolling. Luckily I have contacts in a few drama courses around the UK so its just a matter of perseverance.

Here is a screenshot of the front page of the website. Not totally finished, but taking shape. note: I used this great little website called browsershots.org which takes a screenshot of whatever page you submit in a load of different browsers. Pretty helpful!



And here's a little promotional flyer for email etc I'm putting together.



If anyone has any actor friends or family, please PLEASE could you direct them to www.actorsown.com. And any comments on the design/layout/functions would be greatly appreciated.
On a different note, my host has been playing up over the last few days, with hourly down sessions and frequent hanging. What a pain. I've sent some pretty serious emails off so hopefully they sort it out or it'll mean a host shift, which I'd really rather not have to do! Anyways, back to tweaking...

joys of ie

Well after an overly extended easter break winding down from the dissertation I finally decided to get back into the joys that is the major project.. Yesterday initially seemed super productive with my question and answer section (which will function similar to yahoo answers, a kind of modified forum) being implemented and modified with seemingly no problems. I even built a functioning search engine and working tag cloud for the forum. Then I looked at it in Internet Explorer. So much for no problems. All of a sudden divs took on a nature of their own, and even though I have tried to code it standards compliant, following all the 'rules' for cross browser compatibility, it still managed to fuck up, in a painfully nasty way.

So the problem (well, a problem) that I face, along with every other web designer, is when to start hacking the css to display correctly in all browsers, (mainly IE... damn you microsoft). Do I attempt to do it as I go? or just write all the backend first and worry about it later. I'm thinking because I've come to the realisation that its gotta be finished in a few weeks that it will have to be done at the end. And no, I won't have a bitch and moan about IE cuz anything I've got to say has been said many times throughout the blogosphere. Work goes on.

Another problem that has arrised is essentially from lack of (or lazy) database planning. My website is going to incorporate a major search engine where the database of actors can be searched using a plethora of options. Because this is a main section of the site, I can't really skimp on it, so it means I've got to re structure the database to be more search friendly. Should have thought this through properly a looong time ago. oh well, such is life.

Back to Posting

Well, after over two months of neglect, I've decided to start utilizing this blog again for several reasons. Firstly because essentially it will help when I come to writing the nastyness commonly known as the Production Analysis. Secondly because of iheartplay people may actually read it, which is always good!

More later.

some links

Browsing the net I found a few things that were/are helpfull in creating my pitch for the minor project. The first is an article by Bill Reichert.

Endless articles, books, and blogs have been written on the topic of business plan presentations and pitching to investors. In spite of this wealth of advice, almost every entrepreneur gets it wrong. Why? Because most guides to pitching your company miss the central point: The purpose of your pitch is to sell, not to teach. Your job is to excite, not to educate.

heres the link

The other is a posting on Creating Passionate Users website

When we show a work-in-progress (like an alpha release) to the public, press, a client, or boss... we're setting their expectations. And we can do it one of three ways: dazzle them with a polished mock-up, show them something that matches the reality of the project status, or stress them out by showing almost nothing and asking them to take it "on faith" that you're on track.

heres the link

slow progress, rats and a desktop

Progress on my minor has been very slow in the past few days. Mainly because there seem to be bloody rats in the walls around where I work, so all I hear is constant scratching! Bloody hell. I have started building the presentation slides using flash and getting very frustrating with the trouble I have to go to just to get some simple fade in and outs. Why doesn't someone design a piece of presentation software which makes this all very easy!

I have wasted time in modding my desktop to make it less osx like and more like I imagine a proper desktop to look like. I've utilized the space on my 20inch monitor with an iTunes controller down bottom left, album artwork top left, and adium contacts middle left. There is also a five day weather forcast and time bottom right. I have used a program which hides the menu bar. Its suprising how much effect this has!

production schedule

Today's todo list comprised of creating this blog, and setting down a production schedule which I have been putting off because it will show precisley how far behind I am... as well as how much work I have in the next few months!


I found a brilliant, free piece of opensource software called GanttProject. If you don't like to use microsofts excel or want some more functionality then check it out. They have both a windows and osx version.Using this I have created a first draft of the production schedule. I am worried.






It's not untill you visualize the project lifetime over the next few months that you can really understand how much work is involved and quickly it must be done! Especially as I have undertaken quite a large project with way to much backend code needed!

post numero uno

Ok. Finally I have setup this blog, even though its not exactly a mission. It is essentially going to be a journal primarily serving the purpose of the production of my major project for university - ActorsOwn. This is a final project for the Interactive Media Production course at Bournemouth University. I've decided to create this because my memory is worse than than of a stoned goldfish and shortly will have to write a production analysis detailing the why when who what and where of the project. Hopefully this will all be here!