Bookmark Vlog Blog
Mar
6
Michael Verdi has had a very nice idea over at his vlog site. He’s basically issuing a call for vloggers to make little clips of what they love in their lives. No great productions required, no extended profound films on the meaning of life and death, just snippets of things that make them happy. When I went to Michael’s page recently I watched his vlog title “Coffee and Cookies.” Basically, it’s just a little part of his day that he loves. You can figure that out by watching the vlog, but it seemed a little out of left field for me at first. But then I watched his vlog where he issues the call to make vlogs about the things you love in your life, and suddenly the “Coffee and Cookies” vlog registered more significantly for me.
The idea of cohesion, of some type of context is what did it, of course. Our brains are constantly in search of order and meaning. All sorts of “artists” throughout the history of time have thought themselves clever or avant-garde by not doing the sometimes very hard work it takes to offer that to their viewer/reader/listener/etc. And without exception, they’ve all disappeared in a quickly dissipating onanistic fog. And this is a danger that many vloggers will face, I think (I’ve seen some examples of it already). Because many see vlogging as a new medium, and to a degree it is, they mistakenly assume that human needs and desires have changed just because the medium has. That’s what makes Michael’s idea such a good one. It seems simple, and it is, but it’s also essential. By putting out a call for vlogs that show others what you love in your life, he has provided a space, if you will, for this to happen in. It’s a very free and open-ended space, but it still has form. The mind is easily predisposed to recognize the meaning in the vlogs because of it, and the result is a great sense of satisfaction on the part of the viewer.
There is a small, but growing collection of these vlogs over at mefeedia.