scan t.v. 24

Here are two sections of an essay I've been working on. The essay is about SCAN TV 24 - the t.v. station at UNH. The club is most often ignored / misunderstood. I would argue unjustly ignored / misunderstood. In the essay, I attempt to capture the true spirit / character of the station as I have found it during my time at UNH. The first section I've posted here describes the typical goings-on at the station. The next section is a kind of introduction to different aspects of the station. These two sections are in no particular order, but I thought they were two fertile sections. Any comments / criticism would be greatly appreciated.
***
It is Tuesday and I have time before class. I stop by SCAN. I open the office door and immediately see filth and disarray but this is somehow welcoming. An empty Sunkist bottle lies horizontal on top of a massive digital server worth a frightening amount of money. An orange drop of liquid falls mute to the shiny surface, the first of what I am sure will be many stains to come. A Snickers wrapper dangles lightly over a nearby keyboard. The chocolate flecks inside have almost certainly found there way to the many crevaces between the lettered keys. “It’s fucking hot in here!” Guthrie Andres, computer genius for the T.V. station explains to me as I make my way into the office. Guthrie is sitting at a nearby computer, his feet resting on top of the PC tower. He is wearing his shirt tied on his head like a shabby turban. I hear the door open. Matt Lubicky, senior SCAN member and advertising mastermind comes in and shows me the latest ad he made for the school newspaper. It has a picture of a bird on it and there's an arrow pointing at the bird with the words "the bird is guilty" added in bold lettering over the arrow. At the bottom of the ad, almost as an afterthought Matt included SCAN's general information. "I like it" I say. The door shuts again and I look up. Sabino San Juan IV enters. Sabino is the General Manager of SCAN. He is brilliant with technology, able to deconstruct and construct any mechanical thing and perhaps most significantly he sincerely believes he is a wolf in a human's body. "Did you see this?" he asks, holding up some piece of computer equipment I will never understand. "It just came in...and...basically...it's really good..." Sabino proceeds to bombard me with technical information, the specifications on whatever he's holding. I just nod, wanting sorely to shift conversation. The T.V. at the front of the room is playing VH1 Classic. Phil Collins sings passionately "take, take me home". Then Nate Lord, SCAN celebrity and senior member walks in and gives his usual shouted greeting, "just the losers I wanted to see…hey, hey boys!!!!!" Nate and I proceed to theatrically make fun of each other for as long as the other people in the room laugh. Jon Waugh, SCAN member of several years and instrumental to the short lived SCANNATION T.V. show slides in behind us holding up a large white tube. “Know what this is, boys???” he eagerly asks to the room. “What’s up Johnny?” we reply. “New Batman poster…it’s got the Joker on it…so good…oh my God, so good” We all admire the poster and then meander about the room. Some of us doing work. Some of us watching videos on youtube. Others talking and not talking.
***
This is the room where I met my best friend, where I edited for eight hours straight and where that kid in the dog collar told me he was a wolf. This is where I learned to accept my eccentricities and become publicly creative. This is where I wasted countless hours and where I am proud to belong – SCAN TV 24.
SCAN TV 24 is the campus television station for the University of New Hampshire. It comprises a studio for filming live television shows which are broadcasted throughout all campus dorms and an office complete with digital server and three computers with professional Final Cut Pro editing software. The club is responsible for the proper handling and maintenance of many thousands of dollars worth of equipment and hardware. It is also home to one of the most diverse and motley groups of UNH students on campus. At SCAN you are sure to find an unlikely tableau - roomfuls of impressive technology juxtaposed with immature, uninhibited and messy fun.
SCAN is open to all and prides itself on its unbiased and diverse membership. Despite this, very few members of the UNH community feel comfortable walking through SCAN’s office door. I didn’t at first, and for good reason. The first time I entered the SCAN office was during my Sophomore year. While timidly viewing the awful raw footage of an unfinished short film I had shot earlier that day, Len Mazzone, resident tech nerd in the group several years back, singled me out solely to mock me. In the middle of a conversation with another SCAN member about how “the majority of UNH students were dumb and obsessed with sports,” Len looked at me and presumably by my “jock-like” grey sweater and jeans combo assessed “that’s kind of like you, isn’t it?” I think the intimidation of SCAN, what’s slightly frightening about it is that there are members in SCAN who aren’t afraid to call you out; who are loud, theatrical, and at times abrasive. What is also slightly frightening is that you generally have to prove yourself in some way before you can crack the social barrier between “UNH student” and “SCAN member”. The initiation varies with the passing years and with the rolling membership, but I know I didn’t feel comfortable in the SCAN office or studio until I dedicated a lot of time to the club and produced a lot of content. Productivity was my in. For other people, it’s holding an executive position. For others, it’s simply knowing a SCAN member.
SCAN is criticized for its output and adored for its uncaring attitude toward its output. You can literally film anything and have it broadcasted on the SCAN TV 24 broadcasting loop. The contents of SCAN’s scratch space (essentially the digital library for all of the saved material on SCAN’s computers), comprises material for actual television shows, commercials, short films, and other miscellaneous bits predominately of a strange and irreverent character. In the scratch space, you will find “SCAN ids," or short commercials for the T.V. station which new general members are required to make before they can advance within the group. The ids are often between 30 seconds and one minute in length and are almost always of an exceptionally random nature. Like the one where lounge music is played over a scene from a dubbed Chinese martial arts film or the one where the sound of manic laughter is played over a slow zoom into a bowl of disgusting leftovers sitting in someone's sink. Also in the scratch space are short films. These come in both the successful and failed varieties. They are largely compiled during the film fest season, toward the end of spring semester when everyone frantically attempts to produce their thirty seconds of fame in the off hours when they should be sleeping and / or writing papers. The range of short films is large and includes five minute experimental animations produced over months and 10 minute embarrassments wherein screenshots of the video game Halo are edited to music taken from someone’s I Tune’s library.