Some Foundational Statements

1. This journal exists to provide an open forum for undergraduate students at Stanford University with an interest in film, media, and the moving image (all defined as broadly as possible), a forum in which they can share a wide range of thoughts and work freely with their peers.

2. This journal seeks to provide a forum for the development of lively, informed (and informing), thoughtful (and thought-provoking) conversation and, ultimately, an active, collaborative, and highly participatory community of students with an interest in moving image media of all kinds.

3. This journal intends to serve as a direct, peer-to-peer alternative to the classroom and coursework, involving a different set of pressures and rewards. Above all, the journal values collaboration, not competition. Of course the journal is not an "either/or" alternative to the classroom, but instead a complementary alternative, and obviously students' thoughts and work in both arenas will, and should, overlap.

4. This journal is, at least in the beginning, a blog for reasons both idealistic and practical. This form of publishing coincides with the journal's direct, non-hierarchical, conversational, and collaborative vision. It is also a form of publishing that does not require a budget.

5. This blog-as-journal serves as an initial, unofficial, "grassroots" effort to explore the possibility of developing an active community of Stanford undergraduates sharing thoughts and work relating to moving image media and, hopefully, producing new thoughts and work together. In this way it can be thought of as an experiment. This initial exploration will serve as the foundation for any further development into an official, funded student publication and organization, a development that may or may not occur in the future.