Thoughts on Video Blogs (Vlogs)

Responding to the following:

Select one vlog that you like and describe what you like about this vlog, possibly including a link to or screen shot of this vlog in your post. 

Whom do you think is the audience for this vlog and what aspects of the vlog are designed to appeal to this audience? 

What video/editing techniques are employed in this vlog and how effective are they?

The video I selected, after watching too many others, was a 2004 profile of artist Lillian Colton.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPRYe9xs0x0

The secret to having a good time at the Minnesota State Fair is finding those lingering connections to its rural roots. That means clog dancing, baby farm animals, and of course crop art. Rumor has it, you can see Bjork and Al Franken rendered in seeds this year. But it's not quite the same without legendary crop artist Lillian Colton, who passed away earlier this year. 

This video is one of a series produced by Mike Dust for Colton's 2004 exhibition at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts.

The segment on Colton was more professional than most. Mike Dust seems to be an artist, like Ken Burns, dedicated to documenting ways of life. I appreciated the editing, high-quality sound, and overall content of the video. I felt like I was learning something instead of being entertained with frivolity. The fact the subject is no longer living ensures the video is perceived as an oral history. If I were interested in regional history or folk arts, this video would be an excellent resource.

I would much rather watch something like this on a larger screen, ideally as part of a full series. The computer video size, a limit of technology, is not always easy to view comfortably. The video streams of even the highest quality skip frames, which can cause eyestrain and even a headache in my case. Until the technology improves, the viewing experience hurts even a quality documentary.

Much of what I saw on Minnesota Stories would not be a considered a "vlog" — many were segments taken from local television, including PBS / Minnesota Public Broadcasting, with inane comments posted in response. Some of the videos were simply the standard nonsense posted to YouTube; not exactly elevating the artistic form of video. Truly creative images would require a great deal of effort to locate, in a medium I don't generally appreciate.

The most popular video, one on the monthly Critical Mass bicycle demonstration, was a segment from KARE 11 News. The video was choppy, dropped frames, and the sound skipped several times. I have a high-end laptop with a huge, fast hard drive and cutting-edge video. My cable modem connection is good. There's no technical reason on my end that the video should have been so poor.

If you were to create a vlog post for this course, what form might it take: autobiographical recollection; political statement a la The Daily Kos; instructional demo, for example, of a composing processes; a literary text, etc.

If I must create something, it would not include video or sound of me. I don't wish to add to the partisan vitriol of the Internet, certainly, and the primary reason I maintain a Web presence is because it is a good place to store documents I use for work. My wife maintains photo sites for family and friends, but the pictures are not of us — they are of the house or our cats. It usually requires family asking for the photos before we post new images.