Bill, you raise a most interesting question. A good friend felt that the "persona" you displayed while reviewing an old movie was totally different than the "real you" (?) he had seen in short clips of you explaining to me the way to use my camera.
Yes, you have to have a persona when you vlog. Jonny Goldstein has various "personas" he uses in his comedy routines. I am struggling with creating a new, non-serious (or humorously serious) persona for videos with humorous content. Indeed,I even did a recent vlog entitled "Glasses as Image" http://www.veoh.com/videos/v291145phEY72pz http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEEnJ4qX7So http://blip.tv/file/165791/ in which I invited the audience to join me in creating "new personas" through bizarre glasses I had purchased. What's strange is when two personas you want to create "collide". I deleted some footage from the "glasses" video in which I wore huge black-rimmed glasses and speculated that they made me look like a Michael Musto clone. Then, in my respectable "Randy Wicker Reporting" drag, I actually stumbled into and interviewed Michael Musto at the Gay Expo this past weekend. I couldn't resist asking him about his "glasses as image". He now wears much smaller round black-rimmed glasses. He told me that he stopped wearing the 'big' glasses "after reading what people were saying about me on the Internet". I even described the mockery of him and his glasses as having been done "by some comedian" (I hope that is accurate). He said that it was flattering to be a person that was subjected to characture. I'm going to blend the "proper reporter" me with the "want-to-be comedian" me in a confessional video beginning with the interview and than adding a section (introduced by myself looking very respectable but wearing a pair of big white angel wings) 'reporting' that all reporters "like to appear as angels but that is not always the case". However, melding two different personas is difficult. I plan to create a second blog which will consist of my humorous videos. You can only be "one persona" in any series of vlogs. Randolfe (Randy) Wicker www.RandyWickerReporting.blogspot.com Hoboken, NJ (One mile from the center of the known world.) 201-656-3280 --- In [email protected], "Bill Cammack" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > @ The Network2 get-together, I showed up late to a conversation about > "internet personas" between Bre, Grace, and a guy whose name I didn't > catch, but who was pointed out to me as "that guy over there that > looks like Hugh Grant". > > As I was in the process of giving my opinion on the subject, I > mentioned the word "acting". Now, I didn't mean acting like as in > Shakespeare, but the basis of the conversation was "personas", which > implied to me that we're talking about a particular presentation being > made, which is acting. Not only that, but depending on HOW you're > making your videoblog or show, I think you're acting merely by looking > into a video camera or webcam and interacting with it as if it's a > real person you're having a conversation with. > > I realize that there are people that just turn on the camera and say > whatever comes to them in a heartfelt manner, and that's their > videoblog. That's not what we were talking about. We were talking > about choosing a style of presentation... deciding how to deliver the > information as opposed to just having the information and saying it > however it comes out. > > I also feel like it's "acting" because there's certain information you > need to deliver. You have to get from point A to point B, so there's > a particular amount of calculation that goes into what you're > saying... even if it's not scripted. It's different from stream of > consciousness, "this is merely a videotaped documentation of how I > felt and looked and what I said on this particular day". > > I also referred to the persona as a "character". There are lots of > examples of characters on YouTube. You can see the same people in > some videos "in character" and in other videos "behind the scenes", > apparently being themselves and hanging out with other people. There > are also lots of examples of people that aren't attempting to do a > character and are just trying to document what they're feeling and > thinking. > > Do _you_ consider yourself "acting" when you videoblog? Do YOU have a > character? If so, how did you select it and what does having a > character do for you? > > -- > Bill C. > http://ReelSolid.TV >
