Annoyed – dwayneali.com

02.15.13

Featuring: dwayne

A search for “bluejays” on Twitter during the past two days has certainly resulted in more negative than positive results (..completely anecdotal! No real research here!). For the most part, users took to the medium to voice their displeasure and their inability to obtain tickets for the Home Opener (ahem. the Honda Opening Night) shortly after single-game tickets went on sale. Now, tickets for the Home Opener have been available through other pathways. If you are a season ticket holder, you have that access. If you purchased a Flex Pass, you would have had access (though, availability for that game to Flex Pass holders has been sold out for sometime).

Of course, the “Flex Pass” has a degree of inherent inflexibility. Many are not looking to purchase 10 or more games at a time. The number of games can be a big commitment for someone living outside of the city (because, you know, the Jays are billed as “Canada’s Team”).

But something that irked me this morning, and the impetus for this post, were the comments made by Stephen Brooks, VP of business operations for the Jays. (Note, that his comments were presented as responses in the Toronto Star, but we were not given the actual specific questions that would have solicited his comments.)

The Jays’ senior vice-president of business operations, Stephen Brooks, said there wasn’t a system crash but the processing of tickets may have been slowed in some cases by the volume of demand.
“Those are the realities of any online sale,” Brooks said.

The appearance of a server crash, either due to lack of response by an overloaded server or due to other technical issues, is not the “reality” of any online sale. They are, however, the reality of any online sale where the server is not equipped to handle the expected load, or not equipped to properly communicate the cause of any server issues to the public/client. This shows the importance of communications to clients (web app) in such situations. The lack of an effective user interface results in many users assuming that a server has crashed, and the most frustrated and vocal of the bunch took to social media to perpetuate that myth. It should be noted that the term “server crash” is, to the general public, an all-encompassing word for any issue that causes a lack of server response – which could be at any point along the chain of server communication with the client, such as a DNS issue or client memory load due to an especially hoggy script (read: flash). Similarly, it’s why anyone who uses a command line interface in popular media is considered a “Hacker.” (Well, unless they’re whipping up a GUI in VB to track the killer).

On Friday, there were more than 2,500 tickets to the home opener available on Stubhub, with the cheapest seat ($14 face value) selling for $57 and the most expensive going for $1,620.
“It reflects the popularity of the team this year, which is a positive,” Brooks said. “Seeing fans paying inflated prices like that I don’t think is ideal for anybody. But it is the unfortunate reality of the ticket world.”

He seems to like to emphasize our reality — as though we are resigned to a sad fate dictated by the “ticket world.” It’s more than a little odd coming from those selling the tickets. To suggest that they don’t have that much influence, or do not have the ability to change the way tickets are sold is laughable (offensive?). The New York Yankees recently dropped StubHub as an official reseller in an attempt to better control the “reality” of their ticket sales. That reality, of course, is quite different for season ticket holders and occasional purchasers.

12.02.12 tagged design, Marketing, superman, superman returns, web, webdesign

Superman marketing to follow same dark path?

Featuring: dwayne

So…I followed the online marketing for the theatrical release of Superman Returns in 2006 somewhat closely. It blew my mind at the time that a film that was in the midst of being billed the most expensive movie of all time had nothing more than a static logo/crest for its web site. (Links are all sourced from the Wayback machine to present them as they were at the time). Even just 6 months from the film’s release, it relied on a mailing list signup form, a movabletype blog of generic updates (“American Latina” site updated!), and the work of a popular fansite, BlueTights.net. Even one month before the movie’s release, the page’s crest had been merely augmented by an assortment of downloadable wallpapers and icons as part of it’s ‘webmaster program’, all in a format that looked like it was designed in 1999. The goal seemed to be to provide an assortment of average- to below-average quality imagery for other webmasters to use on their fan pages – essentially passing the marketing buck. I’m not sure if it was well intentioned, or simply the result of a studio that failed to grasp the importance of the online sphere for marketing such a movie to an important audience (read: nerds).

So, I’ve happened across what seems to be the first online push for the upcoming Man of Steel movie. WB is attempting to piggyback off of the expected buzz surrounding its just-in-time-for-xmas release of The Dark Knight Rises on BluRay. If enough people share the interactive object online, some sort of secret will be revealed. Ooooh.

The counter seems surprisingly ready to reach 100% on the day the BluRays are released anyway.

Now, its one thing to try to generate interest and buzz in this way, but it’s another to make the process lack transparency – and thus lack credibility. With the number seemingly arbitrary (How many shares per percentage point?) and the values only calculated server-side, it does little to assure fans that the object is nothing more than a pre-timed marketing ploy.

Alas, here’s the object:

Well, half of it. The embed doesn’t let me change the frame size. It’s not as though people will have different size limitations in displaying WB’s marketing for them…Right?
I hope that this really isn’t representative of the forthcoming marketing campaign…

Oh, the full image (as I expect that absurd iframe to be replaced with something shortly..)

12.01.12 tagged film, lincoln, plays, screenwriting, spielberg

Lincoln and something about theatres goes here

Featuring: dwayne

Lincoln. The 2012 release from Stephen Spielberg.

The story.
It felt…Labored….Forced.
(There’s an unfortunate slavery joke in there somewhere.)

The Characters.
There was a lack of character development – even of the main character. There was no emotional investment in the black characters that this battle was portrayed as for. There was minor mention of one free man and and their ‘maid’ who was once a slave. Mostly cut off when trying to tell her story, there was no emotional investment in seeing success for her. As much as the problems (eg, slavery) are large and well beyond the scope of the film, you need to convince the audience of that particular world’s problems. Maybe there’s a large level of assumption of the audience’s knowledge? But, there’s a fine balance. On the one hand, you can assume the audience knows nothing, on the other hand, you assume they know lots – thus eliminating the need for the movie in the first place. If this is supposed to go on as an important and timely piece about Lincoln, the major themes of the film should be better established so that the audience is invested in the big payoff that Spielberg tries to show at the film’s climax (the passing of the 13th.)

The Actors.
Daniel Day Lewis, as expected, did an amazing job. The supporting cast could be distracting at times. When trying to fully embrace this world, seeing John appear and try to convince you that he’s a teenage can be a bit jarring. A few of the other supporting members were also distracting…including….

The Wife.
Mary Todd Lincoln. Portrayed here by Sally Field as one of the major obstacles he had to overcome. The woman, shown as emotionally unstable and without reason.

A Play?
The film was a glorified play. Each scene was set up on a single set and could have been in a studio somewhere. You expected the curtains to close rather than the cross fade between them.
It was a contrived build up. No tension. You knew exactly who would vote and how. It was set up that the characters had a moral dilemma or internal struggle, but would ultimately voted as you expected. There was no real tension, just drawn out time. The visual montage for the votes was something out of an 80s film – an act of desperation temporal desperation.

A Film?
It didn’t utilize the power of film.
There would be slow zooms and close ups, but they didn’t add to the design of the scene or augment the story itself. They just forced you to focus. They said “here, this is important!” War scenes were shown in the opening, but the battles were reduced to just numbers in other scenes. I suppose this emotional detachment was in a sense powerful? But again, this detachment reduced the investment of the audience – and reduced the impact and the implication of what was achieved.

The Music.
Similarly, the music was used to control the audience rather than guide them. There were often quiet scenes that the audience was told were important as the music slowly picked up to provide a rousing backdrop to an important speech. Seriously.
It was mostly forgettable too. At age 80, I think John Williams is on auto-pilot now. Perhaps Spielberg is too.

So, Lincoln comes off as a play, doesn’t utilize great storytelling or the power of film, and doesn’t do a good job of bringing the audience in to make for that powerful climax. I’m not going to end with a joke about getting shot in a theatre. But, if you go in expecting a fairly good play, it’s still worth watching.

11.29.12

My Darling Clementines

Featuring: dwayne

Oh darling clementines, I love you so….

But I hate the damn box you came in. Let’s get something recyclable.