For our ‘Self Portrait’ project we had to do a Video log (Vlog) about our theme. Our brief said it should ‘reflect on issues of self-representation through the traditions of the self-portrait and the context of the online blog’ so essentially, follow conventions of pre-existing vlogs in the production of our vlog.
I already follow a couple of vloggers on YouTube who follow the conventions of vlog. These are OutbackZack and nigahiga. OutbackZack is a vlogger who generally complains about everyday life issues and annoyances with his unique sense of humor. he does most of his videos in the setting of his bathroom an occasionally other people’s bathrooms, probably at a stab of originality humor. He films using a video camera, and edits his clips together himself. Unfortunately due to some copyright or partnership problem the vast majority of his videos were removed, but there is a playlist which has a couple of his videos left: OBZ Playlist. nigahiga is a sort of online personality, he is a vlogger but some of his videos are more like short film flicks. An example of his vlog style is here. He uses the no breath convention, well thats what i like to call it, so whenever you are supposed to take a breath you don’t, and you insert another clip in there instead to make it more punchy and exciting. The change in tone of voice is different and may sound strange at first but really does come effective if listened to for a good length of time. He is very upbeat with what he says as well.
I am a huge fan of the OwnagePranks channel, essentially OwnagePranks is a voice actor who uses Skype to prank call businesses and people around the world. He does these non-scripted pranks with his many voices to make very entertaining videos. He tries to provoke people for their reaction by annoying them until they snap, but not all the time in some cases he does it to confuse his victims by rapid change of voice. In this example he changes is voice 3 times, from English Nerd to Afro/American Guy to Chinese guy/girl. But what i have taken from his videos is his subtitles idea where whenever he says a word or sentence the text appears, fairly self explanatory really. He animates them to fit the way they are spoken, i tried my own variation for the start of the vlog to appear when they are spoken and fade for effect.
As our vlogs had to be based around our themes, my theme is journey and my original thought was to do a vlog on a journey that i have regularly or a train journey. However I thought that the end product would be dull and I went back to square one. In the lesson we were shown some past work and one of the works we saw was someone telling the story of their life. I was inspired by this because as soon as i saw it i had plans in my head of what to include in mine, all of which i did. This links to my theme because it is a ‘Journey of my life’ and every scene is another step on the journey of my life.
I started off by searching through old baby videos looking for some funny moments and came across me falling into a box and the sweeping one, and thought these could be use to show my really early moments. I then found a baby photo on the day i was born and used that to start my journey. The whole song idea came about from when i told my parents the idea of the vlog, they essentially said they remembered a song called ‘Man of the World’ and with a little bit of research found it was sung by Fleetwood Mac. The lyrics ‘Shall I tell you about my life’ really captures the emphasis on what the vlog will be about and with the ‘OwnagePranks’ inspired subtitled effect i found it made a good steady start to the vlog.
After the song, i show the video of baby me and narrate over the top with a dramatic ‘SPLAT’ which completely livens up the calm introduction. After this i show the box scene. I narrate over the top of this clip just to let the audience know these are my first steps and after i finish i play Timber by Pitbull ft Ke$ha, which again livens up the dull baby video as it is a fairly well known song at the moment, which also captures the attention of a young audience. I then show another baby video of me sweeping the floor, nothing very comedic i just felt i needed something else to help explain the childhood stage..
I then moved onto school, using the OwnagePranks subtitles as a transition. Now in this part i wanted to get across that i hated school with an almighty passion, so i decided to burn my school tie. Sounds strange i know just burning memories like that but i’ve got enough memories from there and also it felt literally amazing doing it. I wanted this scene to be slow and steady to make the next scene a big shock to the system.
So the #Selfie scene, yeah thought it would be a good idea, because i wear woolly hats really often and i thought if i created a montage of historic and contemporary photos of me wearing hats i could put it to the song #Selfie by The Chainsmokers. Its an song that is in the charts at the moment again attracting the youth interest, which is all about taking photos of yourself (a selfie) and i just thought it would be a great idea, and i think it turned out pretty well, although i cant tell if sometimes the pictures are out of sync in the middle of the montage.
From here on in it gets a bit more entertaining. After #Selfie i put in another transition to the next stage of my epic journey, ‘my greater achievements in life’ none of which are true, but still. After this, i actually film myself talking to add another mark to the list of techniques i’ve used. This was just a spontaneous idea to round the journey off, i’ve done the narration of my past and its now me talking live for the present/ future, so there is logic behind my ideas. Essentially i talk about what i might achieve in the future, i then fade myself out and fade in the #Selfie song and role on the credits in sync with the beats. After the credits i fade myself in so it looks like i’ve been talking to myself throughout the credits and then fade me out to finish. So i think i showed a good journey of my life, albeit not all true.
My vlog should be considered as a online digital media production, for starters it literally is an one. It is a media production, in the form of a digital video that is online on the platform of YouTube. I use some of the conventions and editing techniques that are found in other online media productions, such as: the subtitles on OwnagePranks’ videos, the narrating over the top of videos is a strong convention that i followed, the mashup/ montage is also common amongst vlogs. There is a certain comedic element about it, i mean it is obviously about the journey of my life but i try and do it by mocking myself, by showing the cute videos of my childhood, especially the one where i fall into a box. I try and spice it up, so i can keep the audience entertained, which is why i did the greater achievements in life scene and made up some obviously ridiculous stories to see if it makes them laugh. This comical idea is a regularly seen convention in online vlogs.
I feel my vlog suits the social network environment well because it is the sort of video that is commonly found on Facebook. Of course this all depends on what our socially connected friends post and which pages you decide to like, but fairly often in my own personal experience i have found that people will post these types of videos. I put the vlog on my wall, and judging by the view count on youtube, i would guess about 15- 20 people watched it, but i can’t be sure i was told by a few that they had watched it. I know that YouTube channel owners often set up a Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts to let their fan base grow and to advertise their videos.
If i was to put this video on an online publishing format such as a WordPress blog, i think the blog’s theme would have to be relevant to the video. For example my wordpress blog has the theme of journey which is why i did the vlog like i did in the first place, nevertheless the vlog works with the blog. However if i put my journey vlog on a blog about caring for elephants, it would make no sense. Some blogs have very specific themes, and if that theme doesn’t relate to the vlog in anyway, the vlog won’t fit as it wouldn’t fit the context.
This is my Vlog.
Networked Image 