VLOGS

Through YouTube's increasing popularity over the years, vlogs have become a very common and an essential part of some people's daily lives. A vlog is basically a video-blog, which is made by someone who is usually referred to as either a vlogger, creator, or YouTuber. These videos document these people's lives by them taking a camera and recording what they get up to or setting up a camera at their home and discussing what they've gotten up to.

I'll admit, I follow a lot of YouTuber's who make vlogs (VlogBrothers, Shaytards, Jacksfilms and Marcus Butler to name a few!) and part of my daily routine is to go on YouTube to see if the people I'm subscribed to have uploaded any videos recently that i haven't already watched.

As an experiment, I decided to make a vlog for myself to see first-hand what the process of making one is actually like. By researching vlogs and vloggers, just by watching their videos and looking at their content, I saw that the most popular videos on their pages were either important events (such as childbirth), revelations and stories (like coming out), or they're simply just random videos that had a lot of viewers.

Since I was going in to London to go to a gig, I thought that would be a good opportunity to make a vlog. Some of my favourite videos are made by the channel, Vlogbrothers. Which is run by YA author John Green and his brother, Hank. One of the types of videos they usually do are called 'Thoughts from places.' Here is one of my favourite videos by them and of this type:

So my aim was to create a video with this sort of style in mind. I would record my day and dub it over after. Here is what I achieved:

Yeah I know it's not the best video in the world!

I know that my original aim was to put a voice over on top of the video but I didn't do this, simply because I hated the way I sounded so I was never happy with any of the takes I did of my voice. I also had some difficulty actually filming things. I was so self-conscious with filming in public that I recorded very little so as not to be judged by anyone. I don't know how vloggers can walk around with their arms outstretched, holding a camera, talking to people who aren't even there. I kept having to look around and make sure no one was watching me while I was filming the view from a train!

Overall, I found the whole vlog making process very tiring and annoying. I kept having to remember to film things and I didn't enjoy filming what I was doing. As for the editing, I didn't have a lot of footage to actually go through compared to the YouTubers that film EVERYTHING they do. I'm not surprised now that being a vlogger is a full tie job for some people. Vlogging and creating is definitely not a career I will pursue, but it's nice to know what the process of it is like.

#vlog #youtube #blogpost