I realise there are people making money from commercial shows - and some of you are being funded by people like Podtech to produce a certain number of shows per month in a certain genre. Probably not enough to pay the rent by itself, but it's great.
For me, I just don't see the numbers stacking up for videoblogging as a rent paying gig. More than that, though - I don't want to poison it by making it What I Do To Make Money. Let alone making it What I Do To Get Rich. To guarantee enough viewers, I'd have to abandon what I enjoy about videoblogging and invent a commercial concept - a Show. And then slave over selling that to as large an audience as possible. And I don't want to be restricted to only making one type of film in order to make money, because it'd mean I wouldn't have time or energy to make films for fun, or be inspired to create different things. I'd have to choose a subject that guaranteed the maximum number of viewers and advertising income. Suddenly, it'd be like making commercial television. The freedom and lack of worry about numbers, accountability and other pressures is what I love about videoblogging. And equally, I love the people I've found who feel more or less the same way. That amazing atmosphere of creativity and connection for its own sake that hit me at Pixelodeon. I've been realising that it's like being back at university again - where we created and shared things together because we wanted to. Since university, I've watched all my friends and the people I used to make shorts with come to London looking for jobs in things they love - writing, TV, film, etc - and most of them succeeded. And that was pretty much the end of any fun they had being creative. There wasn't the time or the inclination to make things outside their job. They just service their mortgages and make slick products for other people. Great for them. But my idea of extreme boredom and frustration. But that's just me. I don't like doing one thing for long. Now, for rent and food money, I use my skills to make one-off little corporate films and websites for individuals and small businesses. And in my own time I take out my phone camera and muck about with it and put stuff online. I don't make much money - just about enough to get by - but there's a clear enough line between those things that videoblogging is still just 100% fun. And I can stop making films with my phone tomorrow if I want without any worry and, I don't know, spend a while making things on Super 8 - or doing a small series of short stories. Whatever. I can experiment without risk and enough people will watch and connect to make it worthwhile. For me. But again, that's just me. Rupert http://twittervlog.tv [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
