Returning to the original format of defining a term and including the top return on an image search, not surprisingly we find ourselves with the beloved USS Enterprise, designation NCC-1701. This is the ship that carried Captain Kirk and crew through space on what is in my opinion the best of all Star Trek series. The aptly named vessel most certainly exemplified the crew's willingness to take bold action.
The term enterprise is also appropriate for what you'll find here at The Long Shot going forward. In fact, i'd like to think it works on a number of levels.
First, if you remember way back when i mentioned how a friend dubbed a group of associates the Longshot Brothers because of our penchant for diving into projects with low odds for success. He didn't mean it as a slam, at least i don't think he did. We didn't take it that way at any rate. What had we to lose by trying to accomplish some wild scheme? If the odds were low enough, we were bound to succeed in some way. And in fact we did. Chances are you've never seen, or even heard of Bad Service. But we did complete a feature length film for what it's worth. We had an enormous amount of fun doing it and learned a whole hell of a lot. And i love the film. Not because it's a cinematic masterpiece, but because we did it all on our own from start to finish. Creating it was fraught with difficulty, complication, and risk. It was, like the other screenplays i've written myself or with a creative partner, like the comic strip and later comic book, like this very blog you're reading right now, a fascinating enterprise.
It still makes me laugh.
Second, after today, i'll be shifting the focus of the Long Shot away from me and onto other people. What i'll be doing is called enterprise journalism, which are stories that a writer unearths on their own in contrast to traditional journalism where stories are generated based off news or press releases. The distinction between the two is that, where a traditional news story reports on events, an enterprise story seeks to find the forces that shape those events. It would be fun for me to continue to wax philosophical about whatever topic grabs my interest on a particular day and imagine you're all the better for having read it at the end of that day. But what really interests me is finding other people like myself that have a strong desire for autonomous expression in media-related endeavors. To that end, i'll be sharing the stories of those other people with you.
Lastly, and this is directly related to the second point, i love the idea of creating media to share on a mass scale as done by people all on their own. Because of all the innovative communications technologies available these days, it's easier than ever to generate content, disseminate it, and receive feedback from an audience. Even more than that, there is such an opportunity for creators to directly engage with their audiences. i love that. i made a list of all the people i know who fit the criteria: creating media content on their own. i am happy to note that the list is pretty long and growing each day. So to all the people i know who work on media-related projects of their own accord: be alert. *You're on notice: one day soon i'll come looking for you.
So that's where The Long Shot is at right now. It's me getting to do what i love (writing) about other people doing what they love (creating) and both things are presented in a format we both love (mass media). For all of us, engaging in purposeful activity with an element of risk or daring is what drives us. We want to be create, and be heard, and do our own thing without our messages getting muddled by outside forces. It is a difficult challenge filled with complicated feelings.
Is it worth it?
Will it pay off?
Will anyone care?
We don't know for certain where our projects will take us. Probably not the same place we had in mind when we started. But we will boldly go to wherever it takes us.
We are enterprising.
*If you are involved in a media-related project of your own and would like to share your story, please feel free to contact me. i'll add you to the list.
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