Wednesday, July 27, 2005

So You Want To Be Entertained?


This article came out in the New York Times about videoblogging.
A lot of us thought it was poorly researched and didn't show videoblogging in it's true light. The last paragraph really bothered me:

"Right now it seems that video bloggers can't agree what vlogs are exactly, and some of them want to keep it that way. 'What's the rush to define it now?' Mr. Verdi asks in his video manifesto. 'It would be like trying to pick a career and a mate for a newborn.'
But indeed, the newborn seems to have picked its mate. Congratulations. It's television!"

See Chuck's rant HERE

I've been thinking about this for a couple weeks so I made a video...

Music is Entertain by Sleater Kinney
These are the lyrics I used, appropriate for how I'm feeling:

So you want to be entertained?
Please look away (Don't look away)
We're not here 'cause we want to entertain
Go away (Don't go away)
Reality is the new fiction they say
Truth is truer these days, truth is man-made
If you're here 'cause you want to be entertained
Please go away

If your art is done, Johnny get your gun
Join the rank and file, on your TV dial

Look around they are lying to you
Can't you see it's just a silly ruse?
They are lying, and I am lying too.
All you want is entertainment,
Rip me open it's so freeing

If your art is done, Johnny get your gun
Join the rank and file, on your TV dial

18 comments:

Michael Meiser said...

Don't entertain me, infotain me!

:P

Sorry, that was my only un-insiteful comment.

Chuck Olsen said...

you entertained the living crap out of me!

oh no my crap is alive


ahhhhiieeeee

art & thought mechanic said...

+does headbanger dance with attitude!+

"SWEEEEEEEEEEET EDIT!!!!"

YEAH!

Anonymous said...

YEAH!

Verdi said...

I really liked this video. Here's what I noticed about my reaction. I agree with Chuck, "you entertained the living crap out of me!" Then I thought, wait a minute, what did I just see? Some random images - a concert, a ceiling fan, juice, magazines, Jay waving, Wal Mart - all shot with lots of camera motion and set to some cool music. I realized that even though I don't think of myself this way, I've been conditioned like everyone else to think of that style as entertaining. So that made me realize this was a very smart post. Now the trick for us all to pull off is to show people that it doesn't have to be this way.

jason talbot (jjfever5k) said...

oh i get it, it's like a music video.

Chris Daniel said...

Nicely done, and very "entertaining". Even though the article wasn't researched very well, It's still good to get press on videoblogging (even if I'm never mentioned):)

I've seen Sleater Kinney a few times and they Rock.

ryanne said...

that's the ironic thing here
like verdi said
i wanted to make a fun video
but also i'm thinking "is this entertainment?" am i entertained by other videobloggers? yeah totally.
is that what they want?
or is there something more?
is this like television because it's just a fun video that doesnt really say much. or is it different because i got to make it with pictures of my life and no producer told me it wasnt good enough or that it wouldnt make money. yeah that's where it's inherently different.

Marta Fodor said...

Yes, it was entertaining, and I think you were saying a lot at the same time. (The colored gallon jogs just killed me) Also, I recognized a lot of the shots from previous videos, so it was interesting to see them edited in this style. Maybe we are 'conditioned' to like this type of stuff/editing/style, but I don't mind being entertained with it by Ryanne!

Anonymous said...

I've just recently started
conditioning my hair
after a lifetime of just
shampooing it.

Anonymous said...

the article came from the new york times enough said..

Michael said...

Uh...the video link didn't work for me, but when I went to the archive and looked up 'entertain' I found this working link http://ia300109.us.archive.org/0/items/Entertain/entertain.mov

Sweet vid Ryanne ;) And you made your point when you said "no producer told me it wasnt good enough or that it wouldnt make money."

As an editor, that's been the most liberating thing for me to have the freedom to make a video that doesn't cut it on broadcast television.

art & thought mechanic said...

Oh um, i thought i'ld just add that i'm not looking at vlogs tobe entertained I'm looking at vlogs for communication. Some vlogs are entertaining and that's fine but some are not and that is cool as well.
So communication on varying degrees is why I find your vlog so fasinating as well as many other vlogs I am coming across. I tend to entertain myself if that's what i want...I tend to find that people that say something is boring tend to be themselves boreing and/or just lazy to step out of their comfort zone.

Every vlog offers a different degree of authenticity, if they were all entertaining that would become "the boreing". ~shrugs~ VLOG ON!

Chris Daniel said...

Is communicating via a videoblog entertaining? I think so.

Anonymous said...

Fresh cuts. Let's keep bubbling up and drown the monolithic media in our vlogcanic magma.

Tim McFarlane said...

As a casual observer, I look at your posts and those of other vloggers as something much more than entertainment. Sure, some of them are entertaining in some way, but there's a whole level of personal input and communication style that makes a world of difference.

Nice counterpoint to the Times article. It was indeed lazy writing. I won't even put the word 'journalism' near it. It may get more people to pay attention to what you guys are doing and I'm hoping that the majority will look deeper than the author of the article did.

Anonymous said...

I've heard Sleater-Kinney a few times, enjoy their tunes but they've stomped on a few people on their way up...

http://tinyurl.com/7swuy

Anonymous said...

So what if videoblogging is sort of like television? It's democratic, diy flavor of television with "easy" access to a mass audience that doesn't rely on the bloated pipelines of big media. That's pretty revolutionary all on it own.

What bothers me is the traditional media's snotty attitude to videoblogging and blogging in general. Change breeds fear I guess.

Great video btw.