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05/09/2001 Archived Entry: "Busy"

Instead of saying the usual spiel about being busy and very sorry that I haven't updated, etc etc, I think I'll actually explain what I've been doing.

Mainly the time in which I would be updating this weblog has been insidiously sucked up by the time I spend writing The Guide for the AI movie promotion. In all fairness, maintaining the guide doesn't take all that much time; perhaps two hours a week, which is something I can easily afford considering the sheer amounts of procrastination that are inextricably part of my life. But it's not just maintaining the guide - it's other stuff. The very presence of the AI movie promotion 'game' takes up a bit of my time as well, although again that has been decreasing in the past week as I've settled into a comfortable (and less time consuming) rhythm.

I have also been in the media about the AI movie promotion - I should point out that the producers of AI have done no direct publicity at all; yes, they have put up posters and are running trailers, but they don't have a PR agency that is fielding media inquiries about the movie - at least, not an active PR agency. Instead, it seems that they've taken a risk and ploughed much of their money into this internet marketing game (if you still don't know what I'm talking about, go and read the beginning of the guide I wrote).

This state of affairs has somehow resulted in fans of the movie and the game handling approximately 100% of the publicity for the movie. In a way, this is a win-win scenario since most people like being in the media spotlight and I won't deny that I enjoy seeing my name in newspapers; and of course, the producers of the film are getting lots of (sorta) free publicity. The first interview I did was with The Guardian, and that was conducted via email. I feature briefly in a Newsweek article, again done by email.

My next two media appearances will be a break from tradition since I'm going to be interviewed by an international arts programme on the BBC World Service on Friday - the programme will probably be aired later that day and I'll provide details of exactly when that is. The following Friday, I'm doing a TV interview with NOW.com; as yet, I haven't been able to figure out exactly what NOW is - are they an internet video news service? Do they syndicate their reports to other countries? Are they on terrestrial TV? Who knows!

As usual, with the law of diminishing returns, the game is gradually getting less and less fun and more of a burden. I'm trying to cut this off at the pass because it really is an interesting game and it would be a shame for me to abandon it. So I've been trying to take a break from it in the last few days and also I'm planning to write a few editorials about the nature of the game fairly soon, something which I am looking forward to with a disproportionate amount of excitement. Don't ask me why, I don't know.

And yes, I will as usual now announce that updates to this weblog should be daily for the next week or so...