DissolvingTime no, casey's stabilization requires NO skill. All it needs is a simple ultra wide angle lens, wider the lens the less noticable the camera shake. It's fucking easy with a 10mm on a crop camera, or 14mm on a full frame.
I totally agree, vlogging was the next step to fill the hunger of reality tv, and it seems much more "real" because there are no "scripts" or "producers", but the content is still geared towards a demographic, and the daily events have to be interesting enough to keep viewers engaged. So realistically, there is still quite a bit of unreality, and forced drama and climactic elements. I believe this facade is the very thing that tires the creator.
agreed. for me as a creator more than a vlogger. Vlogging in it self is very tiring after a while. But if you creating short films, fun episodes, tutorials, livestreams etc. It becomes very fulfilling! I feel thats my way of looking at it.
Like ´Reality-TV the choice is not solely by the viewer. The fake TV-reality dramas are cheap to produce and all you got to see on TV were repeats and cheap shows. We were lured with cheap thrills. Here on youTube it is algorithms that gently pull us in into absolute low content. Vlogger show themselfs walking through dark passages telling what they had for breakfast and that they did their work out. Because it is fast and cheap to produce, when life is happening and time pressing, they drop high quality content for a daily report on bowl movements. Since youTube throws these videos into our face page after page after page we end up watching this nonsense on a regular basis. I don't have a TV set anymore. I never missed reality TV. I'm sure I won't miss vlogs!
Good points, I'm getting a lot of disappointed commenters now that I'm not uploading everyday, I started to resent the way people were expecting me to live my life, I wasn't being myself, and I was spending all of my time in front of my computer editing. Basically daily vlogging isn't sustainable if you're editing your own videos.
Yup, daily vlogging doesn't mean anything if almost everything is made up in order to lead the public to think you're an interesting person. Furthermore, filming and editing don't let you live life. Well said guys 👌
People will complain about anything man. Just do what you do. If you want to hit up daily uploads do it but if you can't keep it up or simply don't want to.. then don't. At the end of the day it's your day, they're your hours, it's your effort. If people knew half the amount of effort needed to upload even weekly, I'd hope to think that they would appreciate the work they get to watch when it is shared. A 10 minute vlog can take 8 hours+ to edit (CAN take, depending on editing experiece) and its hours of footage filtered into the final product you see.. oh and they do it straight after they have "finished" their day. Camera off. Sim card out. Laptop on. Work through the night. Get 5 hours sleep. Wake up. Camera on. Repeat. What I'm getting at is, filmmakers/vloggers/youtubers put in hours of work and are critisied for the 5-10minute put online. You gotta do what you want to do man. Not what someone else wants. Hats off to all the daily uploaders. BANG!
I think that vlogging can hurt a person mentally as everyday they have to almost pretend to be the person all the viewers preserve them to be, which would be mentally exhausting. The point about fans getting their fix from vlog vids is similar to celebrities, fans get obsessed and follow the persons every action and get caught up almost trying to be or living like that person.
Dude spot on! I've thought about this very same topic over and over again; every time, I could never understand how someone could vlog every single day and still feel like they're living THEIR life (if that makes any sense). I understand why people find vlogs so appealing (I myself am guilty of watching too many vlogs), but I realized that being over-invested in other people's lives leaves no time to progress in your own life. Sometimes we have to snap out of our trance and simply step outside. Excellent video, Simon!
You live your life the same way you did before except now there's camera in it. You allow people to have an insight into your daily activities. It's not for everyone, for sure. You either have the personality to put yourself on the spot and share with the masses (in our case the "masses" are about 100 daily viewers... for now) or you don't. The very beginning was tough. After five episodes it seemed impossible. We did not see ourselves at 100 or even 50. It was an experiment. Now - believe it or not - however crazy that may sound, I am starting to feel like something would be missing from my day if I can't work on the daily video. Contrary to the idea everyone gets when they just think about it - it does NOT take over your life. It certainly becomes a part of your life but so does an office if you have to sit there for 8 hours a day.... and THAT would definitely kill me. I wrote more than I intended... sorry! :)
Because I'm a very private person, my opinions naturally sway towards the negative side of the matter. Vlogging is certainly not for everyone, but I'm happy that it adds more to some people's lives in a positive way!
Casey f'd it up for everyone, even himself. He took a plain burger and topped it with caviar and truffles and now that's what everyone expects.. problem is caviar is too expensive and truffles are hard to find. It was nice while it lasted.
I always looked at it as motivational. I knew I would never be at his level, but as someone who thrives on competition, it pushed me to work harder, think faster and do more.
A lot of people like a chilled vlog where the UA-camr just talks about something on their mind, and maybe go to the shop to buy bread. I watched a few of his vlogs but I was never hooked, because you didn't see his home life - mostly what he did through the day. I like the home life aspect.
Vlogging certainly can be dangerous on both ends. I have personally seen people get depressed just looking at other people's FaceBook and Instagram accounts let along a well edited vlog. You are right - people generally only show the good stuff, so viewers can begin to feel their lives are depressing in comparison. On the other side of the camera, I think daily vlogging and the time spent can ruin personal relationships. Enjoy the moment instead of trying to get a picture of the moment. I tried filming in Yellowstone 10 years ago. My camera broke. Best thing ever. I got to enjoy it with my own eyes instead of through a lens the whole time.
Sadly I think you´re right and I agree with what you say about it not being healthy. I think a lot of the people including myself crave that perfect life that is portrayed in vlogs and inevitably compare it to our daily, not-as-exciting life, and instead of doing something about it and going out and living, we stay home and watch them enjoy theirs. As much as I like watching some of these vloggers, I do think we need to break that vicious cycle and get out, work on real relationships and have real, fun, exciting experiences.
I would tend to agree with you that if you let it, of course it would be unhealthy just like spending 1/2 your day watching TV. As a viewer, I like to find vlogs where the people have a different lifestyle than mine say they live in different areas of the world, while I am in the U.S. and I do like that they have a different lifestyle or have a creative job, which is not like mine. It is good to see that but it is bad to romanticize about it because like reality TV, it is not reality. I do have to tend to stay away from the political vlogs because I just get really pissed off and there are a lot of hate in the comments just like some of the comments here on this subject. Lastly, it is tough though to do any kind of vlogging because you constantly have to think about what you are doing and will it be interesting and what angle I need to make the shot at etc, etc then to spend hours watching it again to edit the whole thing. I can see where it will burn you out so I do understand why these people would like to get into a different format or venue for their work.
I started Vloging for a short time for 3 main reasons. 1st Do more active things that i usually would not bother to do. 2nd be more positiv and energetic. 3rd to have something to edit. I like to edit because its a way for me to be creative. And some days i will hear a song or see something that will make me feel right. Then i try to mimic or re-create that moment or feeling into some of my videos. I stopped because it was awkward (Honestly you have to have a very big ego to think that anyone cares for your personal life in the start). And its time consuming, school and working out takes priority for me. Later i hope that i can overcome that awkwardness and stop thinking "Jesus christ, who care?! Who do i think i am, filming myself like some oblivious prick." There is a word for it but i cant figure it out.
RocketLR I think that's a good perspective to have. You did what most vloggers probably should've done. It's admirable that you were able to step back and acknowledge yourself from another point of view. I find the whole thing to be very egocentric. Unless someone is already established as a person of importance, they work in an interesting industry and share meaningful experiences, or they're documenting travels to unique places, why should they assume that anyone cares? That's not to say that their life is boring or they have nothing Interesting to say, but I just think someone should begin a vlog for other people, not to inflate their ego or get more views for their channel. If they have nothing to contribute aside from their quirky personality, I really don't think vlogging is a good idea.
So, the first daily vlogger I bumped into here on youtube was Fun For Luis. Before him, I didn't even know daily vlogging existed. When I suddenly realized what his channel was all about, the first thought I had was that it was entirely unsustainable. How could a person make an interesting and exciting video about their life every day without burning themselves out rather quickly? Since then, I have watched many daily bloggers, studying their many different styles and practices. I have truly com to enjoy the genre but have continued to have concerns. If GFVSBF was based on a romantic relationship, how could a relationship ever be happy and fulfilling when it is directly tied to income, when it has to survive if the persons involved are to continue to work? After over a year of watching multiple daily vloggers, my opinion has not changed. I still believe that it is unsustainable. I certainly believe daily videos ARE sustainable, but when they are built around a persons life, relationships, family, experience, it does not take long that you stop living because it is fun and you start living to get a pay check. If I were to ever start doing daily videos myself, it would be something much closer to unbox therapy or Linus tech tips. I think it is important to be able to step away from the videos at the end of the day and still have your personal life. When your personal life becomes work, and you live simply to get paid, how do you live? Thanks for the excellent video man. Really enjoyed it.
ik we're on the subject of daily vlogging, but I feel like that last sentence of your 4th paragraph can honestly apply to not only the "public figures" of instagram, but everyday people. You end up not doing things because you enjoy doing it but because you can post it on your wall or feed and boost this personality you've created.
Great video! It is very interesting to see how several vloggers are giving up vlogging. We did daily for 5 months, now just doing 3 vlog per week. We also try to vlog the happy moments, because we like to share the good in life. I know some people might think our lives is perfect, but i had also talk about some struggle here and there. I can imagine it is very stressful and overwhelming when you have millions of people commenting on your life. It can be damaging to person's emotional state. As for the person watching the vlogs, the same thing happen if you follow friends and family in Instagram or Facebook, you can feel jealous of their "awesome" lives. I try to be inspired instead of feeling jealous... if I do feel jealous, I just stop following them.
At The Leals ya I agree... I did the same thing and like a couple weeks ago went back down to a couple a week... Just wondering if the daily vlog hype is over... It was cool because if it's good quality people were interested in what you can make every day but now that daily is done to death it's lost it's value
Great perspective on this. My favourite quote is "don't compare your documentary to other people's highlight reel". Vlogs I see as other people's highlight reel. The dangers of treating the familiarity of vloggers like friendships is a great spot. With the addition of social media channels and mail time, it adds a sense of realism to that friendship as you feel that you can connect with them, however it is incredibly imbalanced. The value of the 'friendship' to the viewer severely outweighed compared to the value from the vlogger's perspective. Vlogs for me have been inspirational entertainment.
Well, I think your comments relate mostly to lifestyle vlogs. If a daily blog demonstrates a skill, for example, or the learning process, it can be instructional and not just motivational. For example, if you were to show behind the scenes of what you record every day and talk about the challenges and considerations you come across, that would be awesome. Not because I want to "be you", but because I'd learn a tonne! Great videos man!
I only used to watch casey's vlogs cause he inspired me to get out and do stuff and he really got me into cinematography, his vlogs were a source of inspiration to me, but not everything lasts forever. :'(
I can definitely agree with you Simon. I think it's very dangerous to compare our lives with the lives of others. When we do that we start changing our own thought process--and it can even be a subconscious thing--to become more like theirs, whether or not that kind of lifestyle is what is meant for us. I think it's a good idea to ask, why do so many people watch these vlogs? As you made note of in the video, these people can have insane view counts and subscribers, so they are obviously very popular with the general audience. My observation is they watch for one of two reasons. The first reason being that they enjoy hearing the story, and find the person's life fascinating. They only see it as a source of entertainment to be enjoyed for a moment. The other reason would be that they are watching because they get a slice of something that isn't their own boring, dull life. They feel if they watch or listen to this person, they can change who they are just a little bit to become like that person in the way that they live. This is the dangerous reason to watch vlogs, because it suggests that there is a problem with who you are. Thanks for the insight as always Simon.
I've recently just started vlogging at the age of 68 ... inspired by Casey Neistat in the first inst and a few others since. I vlog and Blog (on wordpress) about once , maybe twice a month, and quickly learned that a 'Day in the life of me' was not the true day in the life of me...not exactly 'fake' but edited for the audience...I am still learning, still yet to find my niche and still searching for my style. I stumbled on your vlog and I must say your content and style of presentation has impressed me mightily ... I am now one of your devoted followers Simon...one of the 'Better' Brits doing vlogs...I look forward to watching all your previous efforts ..
Cool vid man ! I got an idea when you said "Vlogs are fake" I totally agree !! So I started thinking that, vloggers are giving up vlogging because they are forcing themselves to be fake (or more careful/ trying too hard to make their day interesting)in front of the cameras every day and it's hurting them in a way because it's not who they really are all the time.... But that's just a theory..... A VLOG THEORY X) Thanks for Reading
I don't think vloggers are fake. You of course can't answer for everyone, you only see and follow the big vloggers, because they seem interesting. The real thing is that they are not fake but they just don't show it all. It won't be interesting (I think) if you show it all. It has to be entertaining. It's just something you also want to be, that makes it huge. It's up to the viewer what to do with it. It's hard work, to vlog every day. Maybe that's the reason they give up. Or they want to do something else. Just like series on tv, they also eventually stop.
@Guido Heijnen No, they are "fake" mostly. Rather than recording their normal everyday lives, they make sure to go out of their way to do abnormal things that the ordinary person doesn't do in their everyday life to make it seem as though their life is exciting.
Ni K I don't think they are completely fake, but they definitely have to keep up a persona, like being positive all the time and doing challenges they would never do in real life - I'm finding it a bit annoying after a while
Aside from Casey's short films, I don't see how his vlogs portray any elements of storytelling. I mean he had a unique style but i don't think it fits into the category of story telling.
What if the time and effort he was putting into vlogging kept him from making his short films. He has alluded to exactly this on one of his recent vlogs. He needed to make a decision about whether he was a vlogger or a film maker. Plus vlogging is hard to do! Its hard to keep on coming up with "Scenes" for your daily vlog. I for example have been trying to make a series of videos about setting up and configuring my server. I got the un-boxxing done and realized that I needed another $5000 of equipment and software to be able to set this machine up the way I wanted to. Well, thanks to a rather large unexpected tax bill for some back taxes from 6 years ago I am not able to allocate funds to my server project. I expect it may take me another year or so to clear my back taxes up and then another six months or so before I can even begin to get the equipment to complete my server project. Try explaining that little bit of reality to a viewing audience. Th other thing that vlogging seems to imply is that you make huge money vlogging. I truly do not see that it is all that lucrative. Most of their ad revenue comes when they hit very very large numbers of subscribers. Even then they get most of their money from Patreon, sponsorships and from other projects that they very often are not allowed by NDS's to even mention. Most of the really successful vlogs seem to be part of their daily work and it is done as an aside to working and not just to vlog.
really? Casey told a story every single vlog and you didn't realize. He woke up. He went running. He went to the juice press. He went to work at Beme. Couple hours later, he meets up with a cool person. He heads home in time to see the baby. He gets on a plane. A story every day.
mercedbread Chrystian mentioned 'great story telling'. You're telling me that by literally filming yourself wake up and do everyday shit, classifies as great story telling?
Definitely agree with you here. I think there is only so long one can broadcast their life without breaking down. We've certainly witnessed this breakage over the past while on UA-cam. But who can blame them? They're only human.
A hundred episodes in and I'm asking myself some of these same questions. I love that creating "vlogs" allows for a more regular creative outlet and personal dialogue with people who are interested in what you do. I love the permission to create something that is less than perfect from a filmmaking perspective. It's almost more for me than the people watching. These questions of how much is too much to share, and how can you be truly authentic to what real life is when sharing, is super challenging. I think it's hard to share the negative or hard things, because when you do, people automatically try give you advice or feedback, or tell you that it really isn't that hard. It just makes trying to be real almost not worth the effort. Being positive is much easier than truly sharing hard things, because then you get all this arm chair feedback on things that are important to you. And their feedback is based off not having the whole picture.
I love vlogging, been doing it since I was 14, although I made my first few videos private and stopped for a while. I picked it back up again last year and have bee doing it steadily ever since. I did daily vlogs for around 40 days before it had a big impact on my health and grades. I was staying up until 2 AM every night, and had school in the morning. I now focus on quality over quantity. I just don't have the time in high school to make and edit videos every day. I love UA-cam more than anything though. I fell in love with it when I first found out about it at age 10, and proceeded to make my first UA-cam videos. I don't plan on stopping anytime soon either. To anyone wanting to start making videos, just go for it. You will learn many things along the way, and hopefully have a ton of fun doing it!
KaseyVlogs this was so well thought out !!! I agree with you 100% ! Daily vlogging is hard and it's almost like it's a second job but when you do it because you love it you don't notice how it can effecting your health etc ! I am getting over that hurdle of getting in the rhythm of picking my vlogging camera up everyday and now that I have more time on my hands I can do something I love ! I hope to see you and your channel grow !
Hey thanks for your encouragement. I was wondering wether to do it but your right, I should just start. Ive seen some videos like these that discouraged me from blogging but I think I should just go for it. Good to hear from people who do it as a hobby and not as a living because it is a little more real.
It's not just vlogging - it's social media in general. When Facebook came out everyone was on board. Now I don't see as much activity and I think it's simply because a lot of people grew tired of being fake. Most people wake up, brew a cup of coffee, do their 9 to 5, eat supper, and go to bed, but there's so much pressure to make one's life fantastic. Living in a fantasy though is hard work. Going back to vlogging, it must be really stressful when that fantasy becomes so large, when every week you're flying to a different country, staying at an exotic hotel, riding fancy cars, etc. People quit because they lose themselves.
I went on a trip for just four days and daily vlogged it. If I could go back, I wouldn't have. It wasn't fun, and it made the trip a drag because every time I did something I enjoyed I felt I had to film it. Great thoughts Simon.
We talked about this at the Buffer Festival Panel this year in Toronto. I was the winner of the Daily Vlogger Category for my real representation of one of the worst days of my life. I totally agree with you that Vlogs are an edited representation of ones life that they want to show you. But for me I want to show everything but not all at once. That is the key. Some of the people on the panel with me are some of the people you mentioned in this video. It seemed like they all were caught off guard with my video which in itself was honest unedited and dark part of my life. It opened up the conversation on how vlogs have changed, like you mentioned. For me I wanted to be transparent, to share my feelings my vulnerabilities and my strengths. That what vlogging is to me and always will be. To be a filmmaker and a person who also wants to share their life with everyone you have to be a bit fearless and not be afraid to show, well... Everything. I love your videos I love your opinion very much and it just reminded me of that afternoon on stage. Thanks for reminding me why I do this. Warm regards friend.
diragusa I try to show the reality too. I started my vlog as a result of the worst day of my life. I had not considered vloging before my wide died but after she died I used it as a therapy. try to be honest.
your welcome. but I don't mean to boast. I mean it as a an outlook from within the lions den. People are afraid to show the hard things in life. When I heard that I knew I was doing something right, something that even the best vloggers ever were shocked to see what I put out. The future is about sharing and communicating to everyone the most common feelings we all experience: the good, the bad and the inbetween.
I can't believe I just found you through this comment thread! I was in the audience at BufferFest and was blown away by your submission -- you were a huge inspiration to me and have influenced changes I plan to make with my channel moving forward. THANK YOU! Kelly
I try to avoid watching too many vlogs because you are litterally raising the vloggers up and bringing yourself down by wasting your precious time watching someone else's success. This is huge as a student in college.
Vlogging daily is also a hell of a pace to keep up with... I do one video per week & going up to 2 (while working - not on UA-cam - during the week) would make my workload explode... I have the highest respect for creators who produce (quality) content daily.
I’m not sure if it’s possible to produce quality content everyday. From the start to this short experience to try improve as a beginner. I think from sheer doing if we get 1 in 10, then 1 in 5 quality , we’re on the right path . I think daily can produce more ideas and after a short stint of 2-4 weeks I think this could help the weekly content perhaps. Impossible to produce quality content if daily .but some will be .
Great video man! People really compare their lives with vloggers who only show good or happy part of their life and thats dangerous because the viewers will feel bad about their lives which is sad.
I think vlogs would be a LOT more interesting if the people making them didn't talk to the camera or even look at the camera. And instead just shared their experiences in a more kind of 'fly on the wall' style. I don't know of anyone who does that though. The closest would be Gary Vaynerchuk's DailyVee I guess. Although he had someone else shooting and someone else editing. The audio helps though, always being wired up with a lapel mic for example.
I agree with what you said where "Fly on the wall" style is hard to achieve without of hiring a cameraman to follow you around 24/7. There needs to be another way where people can share their lives without having the drama they set for themselves. Because if you look at Casey, he did great with a "movie style vlog" where he was so successful he needed to stop making that effort and continue better content and challenge himself to create something different than anyone else.
still, the strongest feature of vlog is how we feel so close with the vlogger when they talk to us (camera), if they dont talk to camera we dont feel any intimate feeling and just be a third party watching their life (sorry my grammar sucks)
if you will check out Creative North, I think those guys are doing something pretty original. combining the two aspects you're talking about, with filmmaker's sensibilities.
I just mentioned this in a vlog, the idea of presenting nothing but positivity can lead to people getting down on theirselves for not living a life anywhere close to as interesting. I think it is very important to remember, that EVERYONE, gets down and deals with deep personal issues. As a daily vlogger, I do present optimism and positivity when I am feeling down, and it honestly does cheer me up. Faking it till you make it works. It is important to always remember what you're watching is edited.
thanks for weighing in here John. There is something to be said for faking it till you make it, but I'm not convinced that it would necessarily transfer to the audience. As you say, the more we can remember this stuff, the better :)
I don't watch vlogs daily and not subscribed to any. I find myself spending way to much of my time in there life. I have seen several vlogs but it really annoys me when I search on UA-cam for info and I have to watch a 10 minute vids before I get the answer. But yet, creating content eachday is awesome and hard. I respect that. It becomes a game of quantity vs quality. I look at Every Frame a Painting and Filmmaker IQ, they present quality but they don't produce as much. I think those all of us need to take a step back from media once in a while because we can get trapped in a world that doesn't exist and let the one that does float away.
Nate's Film Tutorials ya exactly the problem is UA-cam has become soo saturated with big to average to small emerging youtubers. I'm really not going to watch like all 180 of my subs 10 minute videos everyday. That's insane. And majority of the time they're not even doing anything worth seeing & they only do clickbait video titles with equally clickbait images that have nothing to do with the majority of the video or its falsified under false pretenses.
Nice insights. I tried daily vlogging in the summer and quickly got burned out. I felt like I was being manipulative in a sense because I was only including the interesting stuff. However, If I kept the boring stuff in the vlogs then no one would've stayed watching
Vlogging is a strange one, It seems to be less about the content and more about the one-sided relationship between the vlogger and the viewer. As much as I think most of them are quite pointless, I think there are things you can take away, as filmmakers. It tells us what an audience really cares about, and what people really connect with. Which is usually either becoming attached to a certain character that they can resonate with, or even just observing basic human behaviour. I think these are the things we fundamentally and instinctively engage with as human beings, which I guess is why they've become so popular.
very well said. it can definitely be a reference point for writing&directing relatable, humanised characters. Although it's worth noting that part of the audience-vlogger connection comes from the fact that they've 'known' them for months, years even - seeing them for a few minutes each day. It wouldn't necessarily work so well in a two hour movie.
DSLRguide Yeah I completely agree, I think that's what makes it such a phenomenon. The idea that you can get a glimpse into another person's daily life is quite amazing despite how mundane and simple it might sound. Where the audience feels a genuine relationship between themselves and the person on the screen. It becomes way more immersive and intense compared to what we can represent in film. However I think the impact of emotion through humanistic behaviours can be conveyed in multiple art forms and styles, wether it be films, music, painting or short videos. Some mediums may have greater advantages, but in the end it's whats at the core of the work that enables it to resonate with others I think.
This definitely changes my perception of vloggers and the impact that they are having on my life. Then again, to me vlogging is an entertainment form or a form of escapism, like TV and movies. I only watch a select few vloggers, like Casey Neistat, who has helped me to develop a more dignified editing style and has taught me life lessons through a computer screen like to work harder to get to where I want to be in life. While some/most vloggers are trash and fake to me in terms of fake personality and bad quality, watching some vloggers like Casey, Ben Brown (very underrated imo) and Adrian Bliss (lol) does indeed feel right to me. Just my 2 cents.
that's fair enough. I agree that Casey is in more of the entertainment/motivation category, rather than just letting people live his life, and Adrian's is commentary which gives it way more meaning hehe.
I definitely agree with you that vlogs are fake, that's the reason I only like to watch travel/luxurious lifestyle vlogs. Whenever I watch Casey Neistat, Roman Atwood or any other vlogger, I only enjoy the ones where they're out of town, in another country, exploring the world and sharing the experiences with their viewers. As much as I think the 'home' vlogs are super fake, the travel ones just seem more real to me. And of course, I find them actually entertaining (which I can't say about the normal vlogs where the vloggers just sit at their house all day and occasionally meet a friend or two). So yeah, that's vlogs for me. Travel vlogs only :)
i can see why some would be fake. so far i have been lucky and mine are real as can be. mostly me working (tattooing) and just doing random stuff with the family. however we are headed to colorado to the mountains in two weeks and i am stoked to vlog those!
My favorite vlogs that Casey put out were his travel ones as well. There was a trip he took to South Africa (I can't tell you which one it was since he does it occasionally) and the vlogs that came out of that trip I believe are still his best ever. There's only so much content that you can create if you stay in the same town (New York), you know?
I actually feel like it's healthy and a bit therapeutic to watch vlogs, because, well for me at least, I can, for a few minutes, focus on somebody else's life and kinda get away from my own life and problems. Although maybe you shouldn't watch too much and procrastinate and completely try and escape from your life... Anyways if you want to know more about what I think, I also made a video on my channel!
I agree. it must be hard for the partner too to be filmed every day... But it is their choice if they want to daily vlog! I think it's great but you just have to know what you are getting into
About a movie I see what your saying and kind of agree, but I think a healthier alternative is to talk to other people in real life and develop a social life as much as I can.
The thing that annoys me the most from people on that app is when they record millions of 10 second clips of a song , but, the video does not show anything, just the sound of the music... like wtf?
i think snapchats different. it isnt nearly as strenuous and its more fun and social. the most editing you can do is use a filter. its not nearly as demanding and its easily accessible.
It depends on the priority you put towards your daily vlogging. I've been doing it for 5 years, it's not my living. For me it's about collecting memories, I've been lucky enough to capture some amazing moments in my life up to now, from holidays, to getting engaged and married, plus so much more. I wish I'd found vlogging years ago, but, back when I was younger, it was about writing in a diary. For the sake of pulling out a camera for 1 / 2 hours a day in total and maybe 1 hours editing in an evening, I have 1000's of memories I can just press play on and re-live, who wouldn't want that. The issue is when you allow your audience to dictate your content, for me, it will always be 100% about me and my family and being able to look back on moments.
Casey Neistat inspired me to get into filmmaking and photography. that's what makes me sad about him quitting is that there might be kids that would have been just as inspired as me, would he have continued vlogging. I only found your channel Simon because of Casey neistat, and you and him have influenced me in ways you don't even understand. I agree that there are some ways daily vlogging can be damaging, but I feel the good outweighs the bad.
Brilliant video, we so look to escape the "boredom" of our lives that we seek out what we think we lack through other people's stories, it happens with movies, series, reality tv, vlogs and even books (all to a different extent and measure). The problem with this is that even if the word "real" is embedded in the title or even if it's a daily vlog after a while we tend to forget that that it's all been curated, filtered, edited and put through post-production. We forget that no matter the social media platform we see it through, we are looking at "the painting", not the painter or the process.
Agree, *Casey start vlogging to push itself to do exciting stuff, forcing him to be creative everyday, in the purpose of make those vlog interesting*. Make a "well-made" video everyday. And because having a time limit usually bump up creativity, and you learn by doing. So for me Casey's daily videos (and not vlog) were a bit differents, *we were aware that he doesn't show everything.* he said it multiple times.
For me watching vlogs does not feel like a social experience, nor do I feel like I'm friends or have any kind of relationship with the people I watch. So it doesn't feel like there's any risk these replacing authentic connections. I can only speak for myself, but for me it just isn't this vicarious social experience that many purport watching daily vloggers to function as. I would say it's more like non-sexual voyeurism. Getting a peek into people's lives through their vlogs feels more like being a fly on the wall. Because even though they address the audience, it's one-way communication which isn't intended for any specific individual.
Charming New Society I think UA-cam as a platform invites you to get to know the creator through commenting and community. Smaller channels are better able to respond to each person.
You're so right! Ive thought the same. I'm so glad I found another being with the same level of conscience. Keep on spreading the word my friend, the third eye is proud of you.
LEt's be serious, it's all about MONEY! After UA-cam made recent changes to their monetization platform earlier this year and also a few months ago they all realized they'd get cut quite a lot of $$$ in the future, so instead of continuing and taking a pay cut they just decided to stop doing vlogs or "take a break" until UA-cam will see their loss and go back to whatever payment plan they had before. Let's not romanticize this move, if they could do it for 5 years, 3 years or whatever every day they can still do it now, they just don't want to because of the pay cut.
George Pop absolutely. but I'd even go a step further in saying that UA-cam started going downhill once they let large corporations (ie: Makers Studio & the like) take over, or rather "offer" the vast majority of large subscriber based UA-cam creators "join" their company. It not only hurt the creators by taking a huge cut of their profits, but it put major restrictions on their creativity. I never took vloggers serious thanks to watching the Shaytards 7 years ago. I honestly never understood the appeal, they live such a boring life. At least from what I saw back then. Plus you could tell so much of it was BS, not to mention forcing their young children to be filmed everyday. Who does that to a child? back then their kids hated being filmed all the time. They only started to enjoy it once they got older and started receiving thousands of dollars worth of "gifts" in the mail, essentially making it Christmas every week. But hey, who am I to judge....I'm just providing my opinion. There's certainly nothing wrong with using UA-cam to make money, but do something creative to earn that money. At least Casey was creative at times. But if you watched any 5 of his daily vlogs, then you have watched all 200 of them, or however many there were. It was the same time lapse, cut scene, drone footage, flight to somewhere, posted in every single one. They were heavily edited and completely unrealistic. If you watched that Vietnam piece he did, you could tell exactly what ended it for him. When he first announced making that video, he was supposed to edit that overnight and post it the next day, but it ended up taking him almost a month to post. In that Vietnam piece he admitted missing so much of his sons life due to his work and that's sad. Even his wife looks unhappy in the majority of his vlog footage, let alone all the older clips of them together, simply because he spent SO much of it with a camera in his hand. It boggles my mind when I go to a concert or ballgame and look around to see hundreds of people spend the whole time experiencing it thru a viewfinder. Sure I enjoy experiencing others "adventures" on UA-cam, but watching someone else's daily life in the form of a "vlog", I just don't get. I'd much rather enjoy my own life and make my own experiences, than waste my time watching 5-10 minute clips of someone else's boring day.
Simon, you bring up something disturbing that up until now I hadn't heard put into words, even though I had considered it. I follow many vloggers and have seen the stress they've created for themselves by satiating my curiosity. It's been obvious to me that "it's fake" or edited but on the bright side they inspire at the same time with positivity, creativity, and honesty for the most part. If we keep your points in mind such vlogging has a place. Like Milton Burle used to say "Everything in moderation, including moderation." (I love that quote)
People that vlog have to put a happy face on and be positive all the time because that's what people want, and as we know, nobody is happy/positive all the time. I could never vlog because I would have to put the same face on and use the same voice I had to use when I was in sales, and that just kills a person inside. Hell, I can't even makes videos for my channel most of the time because I just can't make myself sound all super cheery, but just talking normally isn't entertaining to people for the most part.
Solid assessment of daily vlogging. As a daily vlogger, I think most of your points are spot on. My only caveat is checking in with some daily vloggers to see what their personal goals are for doing the vlog. Their goal may have nothing to do with sharing their story, like keeping a diary, something to think about. Cheers
Great reflection on the topic. A good reminder is needed from time to time that the experiences you observe within media reveal only one side of the coin.
I feel as though vlogging is and can be fake, but these influential, happy vloggers impact who I am. They can make me happy or inspire me to do something. On the other hand if we are being "intimately" enveloped in their life I would like to know if they're having a bad day or anything else that isn't shown in these "fake" vlogs.
Hayden Bingham the problem though is the facade they put on to make others happy. Much like how some of the best comedians are fundamentally depressed and spend every waking moment making others laugh because they are empty and want no one else to feel that way. In some cases it is admirable, but too many vloggers are disingenuous and do it for the money/attention. So many vloggers have no idea what they are doing, so they make the running theme of their channel "happiness", so many channels claim to do it to make people happy but they themselves aren't. It's a weird like slice of psychological mystery.
Wow dude... this was so spot on and very well said. You're right it can be dangerous mentally to the viewers as well and you have just made a lot of people realize how we should view vlogs. I think for those vlogs we see of people traveling the world and doing extraordinary things we should take only as inspiration and motivation to see what's out there in the world for ourselves, realizing that they have just as many flaws as us even though it's not on video, BUT there are amazing things out there and we can walk in that direction with hard work and see where it takes us individually.
Some people are stuck working abroad in other countries and want the feel of being home so my vlog works out very well for OFWs... showing a bit of life here makes them feel happy because their homesick .. Vlogging can be exhausting etc but u have to know when to take a break and say u know what I’m not gonna vlog today I’m gonna go shoot some pool and drink a beer with the boys or whatever is your happy place / hobby / getaway 😄 u have to know when you need a break and put the camera down. For me I love driving my motorcycle. Feel so free and relaxing.
the real problem is a lot of people who aren't really creative then try and be super creative, to make money via youtube. these people quickly run out of ideas and therefore they quickly find it a real hard slog to keep making stuff. Where as creative people won't have any problems
I'm pretty sure creative people have a lot of these problems. Writers block is the most famous example of creative people having trouble creating. Creativity isn't really how much you can make, it's how creative the stuff you make is. Even if that's once every 10 years.
i for sure edit out the boring stuff but i don't fake the good or the bad. luckily i have not had any bad since i started. knock on wood. though i would imagine i'd keep the arguing out of them. also, i am only doing weekly, not daily. keeping my art, tattooing, and FX work mixed in them when my days are slower.
This is where you are SO wrong. Yes Vlogs only show where things are always happy and nice. But, the thing is that I actually vlog to remember all of the positivity that is still around me, while there is so much wrong still going on.
Z06 Juan that strengthens his point. You'll be comparing all the wrong in your life to all the great on their lives. This is what I understand Simon to be saying.
Dilip Tien I guess I can see your point. However I don't simply trash all of my footage so it still exists. Only the creator knows what goes on between the cut scenes. They are here for entertainment, anything that goes on behind that is their own business. They can decide whether to share the bad times or not. I started my own vlog as a hobby & I there are clips where you can honestly see where life is testing me. I keep it real, and if other creators decide not to, then that is up to them. Everyone has their own unique sense of online/camera persona. 👍🏻
The bit about watching vlogs replacing friends kinda hits home. I work & talk to people there but I need to have more friends outside my significant other and family. Good video, and thanks for your input!
Tying shoes, walking out the door and down the street... I love how you did this vlog style while talking about vlogging. You are very talented! And you're actually that person I look foreword to seeing every week!
Simply put, vlogs are personality prostitution: I'll give you my synthetic and fabricated virtual friendship, intimacy and privacy in exchange for your views, approval and ultimately money. Vloggers sell the dream of a fulfilled life of someone who can make a living and live a permanent holiday lifestyle by simply "being themselves" and doing, well, nothing else. The viewer can live their dreams through the vloggers. It is very easy and lazy to simply click and watch someone else live their lives and fantasise about how that could also be your life, rather than taking responsibility and, going out and make your life less mundane and uninspiring. They are also very addictive. All the perfect ingredients to make them a mild drug like comfort food or netflix.
I really enjoyed Casey Neistat's vlogs, when they ended I felt like watching the last episode of friends and the office, all at once, but I really really didn't like seeing him smash canon 5d's. Here I was saving money to buy a decent camera and mic, and he is smashing cameras for errors... I stopped watching him for that, but liked knowing he is there, for a fix, how you call it (he did talk about that clearing it later). In conclusion, I agree with you. For me the most annoying thing about vlogs is that there are a lot of people copying Casey's style, probably other's too, and with vlogging being about you, a diary of sorts- it is fake from the start. It can't possibly be you, when you are acting like someone else. I just do q&a or talk on a subject, edit it... and don't make it about me, but the subject. I really enjoy your channel .
I personally neutral with vlogs and mainly prefer them only for special occasions. My personal thoughts are if you, I, or anyone was vlogger, most of us would want to show the most exciting parts of our day. If we didn't, not a lot of people would want to watch it, think someone is ungrateful, boring, or etc. Sometimes I feel like vloggers or friends in the vlog are pressured to be more excited and energetic than normal in their videos, but that's just my opinion and I don't have any problems with it or people who watch it. It's just not my cup of tea sometimes, because I do watch some vlogs myself. Compared to the old ghetto UA-cam days, now a days videos are more polished, super energetic, get your attention, fast paced, sometimes really short and edited. Like it makes sense, and it's not an issue, but personally I like it where it feels like it's a face cam phone call to a friend who lived like across the world, who asked how is life now a days and you showed them without any sugar coating. Then again, I'm the type of person who loves raw unedited footage, acoustic music, etc. Pretty much the bare bones of things. Anyways, thanks for reading this if you are. I'm just sharing my thoughts and opinions on vlogging, and not really saying anything important.
THIS IS SO IMPORTANT - thank you for sharing! I've always felt this distance between my vlog and what actually happened behind the scenes. Gosh, such perspective. I do enjoy watching vlogs, and hearing about people and what they learn... There's definitely quality stuff out there !!
Dude you made so many good points in this video, the analogy about how if you knew everyone saw your journal you would think more carefully about what you include is spot on
I like my weekly. I don't dig the daily grind. I go on adventures and they're mostly positive but I will admit that I've gotten annoyed, angry, and cried on camera. I don't share 100% but then again I know no body is perfect, that's the best part of life.
Thank you. I've got to admit it wears on me some. Not the uploads but the other aspect. Right, so I'm an adventurer. Meeting people is a breeze and most of the time you meet these incredible people that sadly you never see again. Today I was with my friend (I've been staying wither her in NZ for a few months) and we met up with her friends and had an excellent day. We made plans for an upcoming wedding I got invited to and when we got back home I just sat, booked my next flight to my next location then this sad pit filled my stomach. I miss having friends that last longer than a season. Crap hit the fan for me this year. My best friend of life passed from his battle with cancer, I ended a childhood friendship, and my relationship to someone I was going to marry ended. I've kept my quality friends but damn I miss having a partner in crime by my side. I'm juggling my youtube channel, my blog, a patreon, an instagram and I have a solid internet community. Those things are easy. The hard part is the fact that I can't knock on someones door, catch up, hangout just because I was in the area. That all kind of hit me today.
I have always hated vlogs...especially ones like Casey Neistat that obviously set up the camera on a ledge, walk away from the camera only to run back to the camera and talk into it like they have been jogging. Or setting up the camera across the street to simply cross the street, out of frame to casually stroll your child across the frame only to have to cross back and get your camera before it gets stolen. So forced.
His vlogs annoyed me, he was so reckless with the things people sent him, kind of disrespectful imo. Also his use of drones was stupid, no consideration what so ever for the rules, or peoples saftey
Reuben van Dorp I know right,did he seriously just lose a drone that DJI trusted you with before any of them have been officially released to the market,really ridiculous tbh
likuidsistem Totally agree, I don't want to dwell on his old stuff - which was brilliant - but look forward to what he makes next. It may well be the Vietnam project he recently mentioned? His exceptional creativeness hasn't stopped with the ending of the vlog, quite sure of that!
You aree absolutely right about the negative side of vlogging. It got the positive effect on our lifestyles in sense of improvement and embracement of the bright side of our lives, but failing to understand the cinematography behind it it can cause envy and many other things that are shadowing that positive effects. Great video and thematic!
Wow, you are so articulate. Thanks for posting this, I have several friends who do daily vlogging and part of me wants to say "Stop!" it's quite evasive and can take away from those moments, because you're "upshowing" what you have to offer in your days, and you hide the negativity, kind of like stuffing emotions inside. That can be quite unhealthy. (I realize that there are other sides to this arguement aswell!)
Same. Casey's vlogs were so motivational. As pathetic as it sounds, sometimes Casey's vlogs were what made it possible for me to leave my house or even get out of bed.
I used to make vlogs, but I tried to make them as real as possible, but at some point it was depressing because my life seemed to be boring and repetitive, vlogging is just an extra thingy for youtubers so that their viewers can get to know the youtuber better. But then again... Is that really needed? Instead of vlogging I decided just to quit and whenever I go to fun places or I want to share something I can't put in a normal video, I'll make a mini montage/random video. Vlogging is fake and depressing... And time consuming.
I really enjoy your candidness on camera. While I'm sure a lot doesn't make it on camera, your videos such as "i was dishonest to get a brand deal" and "my biggest failures in filmmaking" have really resonated with me. I think you could provide a lot to the genre of vlogging through your understanding of the value of showing the good in the bad, as well as your appreciation for great cinematography and story-telling. I'd love to see you try daily vlogging for even a month perhaps, just to see how you would handle such a challenge and what you could bring to the genre.
It's nice to hear from someone who shares the same views. Not only are they edited, it also doesn't make much sense to watch someone else's life, in no way is it benefiting you(in most cases). I also find it very boring when people vlog themselves driving places or walking. I was also watching this vlogger whose family is currently being targeted by a potential stalker. This person has tried on many occasions to kidnap his niece and nephews who are in vlogs and they are only 8, 11 and 12 years old. This could be a result of daily vlogging. This video was well put together and covered a lot of valid points. I subscribed.
"Real". Wouldn't say any of the daily vloggers are that real or genuine. There are ofc some of them that are better than others in regarding that aspect, but if you think their life is anything like what you see in their vlogs you're dead wrong.
either they have forgotten what hard work feels like, and they've gone soft, or maybe filming life every day, and putting it out into the world to be judged and commented on by millions of people is tougher than it sounds. I guess we'll never know unless we try
scottt923 It gets to a point where the money doesn't really matter to them anymore. Sure, they wouldn't do it if it didn't make them money, but UA-camrs aren't like the billionaires on Wall St. We aren't trained in finances and in fact we're a lot like the general public. That's why after a certain point the money doesn't play as huge a factor because whether they vlog or they don't, they're making bank and can already live a great life - there is very rarely the thought process of "this is an investment and I need to keep going" .
I love what you said about not seeking real friendship because you've felt you've "gotten your fix." Vlogging, and social media in general, is a tool. It becomes good or bad depending on how and why it's used. Probably, one of the key traits to have, whether your a viewer or a vlogger, is to know when to step away and have the strength to do it.
I think your points are valid with replacing friendships with vloggers as well as seeing edited versions and comparing that to our own. I definitely think that the inspirational aspects of vlogs as well as seeing the world from different perspectives is good as well. This comes at a strange time when I am thinking about starting a vlog, but more as a home video, not as a performance. I think it will help me live for something.
I love the idea of vlogging, but I think it's the "daily" part that kinda ruins it for me. Holding yourself to a strict, busy schedule forces fake, staged, and less genuine content. Vloggers are quitting because they are letting thier lives be dictated by the vlog. Vlog when you have something to say, when something exciting has happened, when you want to tell the world something. It doesn't have to be daily, and honestly it shouldn't be.
Woow, this speaks to me very much. Oddly enough this was a recommended video on my feed (I was starting to think UA-cam's recommended lists were starting to be trash with these new changes and unrelated, clickbait-y recommended content) and I even clicked this video on a whim. I devote a large amount of time on UA-cam to where it is honestly unhealthy and I was beginning to realize that rather than doing me good, it was starting to consume me. Your point with the vlogging becoming so welcoming it almost seems as if you see know the person almost profoundly, to which also, you mentioned, can be exaggerated or even be ingenuine, is absolutely correct; I can be using that time to build up actual friendships or even myself. After all, UA-cam is an entertainment platform and they have their ways to keep the viewers still around. Any how, I very much agree with what you're saying and deep inside knew of this myself, but didn't want to realize. Since it is the beginning of a new year, I'm hoping to change not-so-good habits, and UA-cam watching being one of them because I spend hours watching content that doesn't give back as much as I devote, if that makes sense (which to clarify, your points made perfect sense to me).
Absolutely agree. It's dangerous. As soon as you vlog something you aren't living it-you aren't experiencing it with your 5 senses-you're missing out on something! People are spending hours of their lives editing and displaying their lives instead of truly living in it, how tragic, and how unnatural to do this for days on end. But this technology and sharing ability has just hit us as humans and I think people are going too crazy with it, unbeknownst to the negative impacts. PLUS the people sat at home watching them-also missing out on great chances to live. Personally I think now and then, if you're going somewhere cool then sure. But people filming themselves eat breakfast and have conversations? Unbearable to me.
I love how you impersonate their vlog style in this video
Ben Hedges very clever
The irony is palpable
"Achieving" a focal length is done by twisting the zoom ring on a lens. A very impressive feat.
more like emulate and emulate very well!
DissolvingTime no, casey's stabilization requires NO skill. All it needs is a simple ultra wide angle lens, wider the lens the less noticable the camera shake. It's fucking easy with a 10mm on a crop camera, or 14mm on a full frame.
I totally agree, vlogging was the next step to fill the hunger of reality tv, and it seems much more "real" because there are no "scripts" or "producers", but the content is still geared towards a demographic, and the daily events have to be interesting enough to keep viewers engaged. So realistically, there is still quite a bit of unreality, and forced drama and climactic elements. I believe this facade is the very thing that tires the creator.
exactly. and since we perceive it as more 'real', the fakeness can be more damaging to the viewers
I agree too
agreed. for me as a creator more than a vlogger. Vlogging in it self is very tiring after a while. But if you creating short films, fun episodes, tutorials, livestreams etc. It becomes very fulfilling! I feel thats my way of looking at it.
Like ´Reality-TV the choice is not solely by the viewer. The fake TV-reality dramas are cheap to produce and all you got to see on TV were repeats and cheap shows. We were lured with cheap thrills.
Here on youTube it is algorithms that gently pull us in into absolute low content. Vlogger show themselfs walking through dark passages telling what they had for breakfast and that they did their work out. Because it is fast and cheap to produce, when life is happening and time pressing, they drop high quality content for a daily report on bowl movements. Since youTube throws these videos into our face page after page after page we end up watching this nonsense on a regular basis. I don't have a TV set anymore. I never missed reality TV. I'm sure I won't miss vlogs!
We all know Coca Cola, Cereals or Chipotle is bad for you. But we keep eating it.
Good points, I'm getting a lot of disappointed commenters now that I'm not uploading everyday, I started to resent the way people were expecting me to live my life, I wasn't being myself, and I was spending all of my time in front of my computer editing. Basically daily vlogging isn't sustainable if you're editing your own videos.
big respect to you for switching from daily uploads despite the commenters/financial pressure :)
Yup, daily vlogging doesn't mean anything if almost everything is made up in order to lead the public to think you're an interesting person. Furthermore, filming and editing don't let you live life.
Well said guys 👌
People will complain about anything man. Just do what you do. If you want to hit up daily uploads do it but if you can't keep it up or simply don't want to.. then don't. At the end of the day it's your day, they're your hours, it's your effort.
If people knew half the amount of effort needed to upload even weekly, I'd hope to think that they would appreciate the work they get to watch when it is shared.
A 10 minute vlog can take 8 hours+ to edit (CAN take, depending on editing experiece) and its hours of footage filtered into the final product you see.. oh and they do it straight after they have "finished" their day.
Camera off. Sim card out. Laptop on. Work through the night. Get 5 hours sleep. Wake up. Camera on. Repeat.
What I'm getting at is, filmmakers/vloggers/youtubers put in hours of work and are critisied for the 5-10minute put online.
You gotta do what you want to do man. Not what someone else wants.
Hats off to all the daily uploaders. BANG!
Reece Powell good said
It must be tiresome making a video everyday...how can you live a life if the goal of each day is to entertain others.
I think that vlogging can hurt a person mentally as everyday they have to almost pretend to be the person all the viewers preserve them to be, which would be mentally exhausting.
The point about fans getting their fix from vlog vids is similar to celebrities, fans get obsessed and follow the persons every action and get caught up almost trying to be or living like that person.
+
A vlog a day keeps the psychiatrist paid.
hahahaha
Ser Abiótico right
Ser Abiótico drop the "well" and it would flow better.
Brilliant
OMG!!!!!
Dude spot on! I've thought about this very same topic over and over again; every time, I could never understand how someone could vlog every single day and still feel like they're living THEIR life (if that makes any sense). I understand why people find vlogs so appealing (I myself am guilty of watching too many vlogs), but I realized that being over-invested in other people's lives leaves no time to progress in your own life. Sometimes we have to snap out of our trance and simply step outside. Excellent video, Simon!
that's a pretty killer summary of the whole situation, nice!
1. how do they do it?
2. I can see why people watch
3. I should watch less.
haha
Kevin Padilla yeah soo true - I also want to do a video about this topic - and this is is a pretty damn good summary :D
You live your life the same way you did before except now there's camera in it. You allow people to have an insight into your daily activities. It's not for everyone, for sure. You either have the personality to put yourself on the spot and share with the masses (in our case the "masses" are about 100 daily viewers... for now) or you don't. The very beginning was tough. After five episodes it seemed impossible. We did not see ourselves at 100 or even 50. It was an experiment. Now - believe it or not - however crazy that may sound, I am starting to feel like something would be missing from my day if I can't work on the daily video. Contrary to the idea everyone gets when they just think about it - it does NOT take over your life. It certainly becomes a part of your life but so does an office if you have to sit there for 8 hours a day.... and THAT would definitely kill me.
I wrote more than I intended... sorry! :)
Because I'm a very private person, my opinions naturally sway towards the negative side of the matter. Vlogging is certainly not for everyone, but I'm happy that it adds more to some people's lives in a positive way!
right! i struggle to do a couple a week tops and have no idea how people could live having to do this every day.
Casey f'd it up for everyone, even himself. He took a plain burger and topped it with caviar and truffles and now that's what everyone expects.. problem is caviar is too expensive and truffles are hard to find. It was nice while it lasted.
This is one of the most profound UA-cam comments I've ever come across. I couldn't have said it better. Bravo faceless commenter, bravo.
I always looked at it as motivational. I knew I would never be at his level, but as someone who thrives on competition, it pushed me to work harder, think faster and do more.
instantsiv Lol! great analogy.
A lot of people like a chilled vlog where the UA-camr just talks about something on their mind, and maybe go to the shop to buy bread. I watched a few of his vlogs but I was never hooked, because you didn't see his home life - mostly what he did through the day. I like the home life aspect.
Wrong.
Vlogging certainly can be dangerous on both ends. I have personally seen people get depressed just looking at other people's FaceBook and Instagram accounts let along a well edited vlog. You are right - people generally only show the good stuff, so viewers can begin to feel their lives are depressing in comparison. On the other side of the camera, I think daily vlogging and the time spent can ruin personal relationships. Enjoy the moment instead of trying to get a picture of the moment. I tried filming in Yellowstone 10 years ago. My camera broke. Best thing ever. I got to enjoy it with my own eyes instead of through a lens the whole time.
Train Tsar Fun So true man got me drepessed many times
Sadly I think you´re right and I agree with what you say about it not being healthy. I think a lot of the people including myself crave that perfect life that is portrayed in vlogs and inevitably compare it to our daily, not-as-exciting life, and instead of doing something about it and going out and living, we stay home and watch them enjoy theirs. As much as I like watching some of these vloggers, I do think we need to break that vicious cycle and get out, work on real relationships and have real, fun, exciting experiences.
it all starts with this realisation, then we have the choice of how we spend our time
I would tend to agree with you that if you let it, of course it would be unhealthy just like spending 1/2 your day watching TV. As a viewer, I like to find vlogs where the people have a different lifestyle than mine say they live in different areas of the world, while I am in the U.S. and I do like that they have a different lifestyle or have a creative job, which is not like mine. It is good to see that but it is bad to romanticize about it because like reality TV, it is not reality. I do have to tend to stay away from the political vlogs because I just get really pissed off and there are a lot of hate in the comments just like some of the comments here on this subject. Lastly, it is tough though to do any kind of vlogging because you constantly have to think about what you are doing and will it be interesting and what angle I need to make the shot at etc, etc then to spend hours watching it again to edit the whole thing. I can see where it will burn you out so I do understand why these people would like to get into a different format or venue for their work.
I started Vloging for a short time for 3 main reasons. 1st Do more active things that i usually would not bother to do. 2nd be more positiv and energetic. 3rd to have something to edit. I like to edit because its a way for me to be creative. And some days i will hear a song or see something that will make me feel right. Then i try to mimic or re-create that moment or feeling into some of my videos.
I stopped because it was awkward (Honestly you have to have a very big ego to think that anyone cares for your personal life in the start). And its time consuming, school and working out takes priority for me.
Later i hope that i can overcome that awkwardness and stop thinking "Jesus christ, who care?! Who do i think i am, filming myself like some oblivious prick."
There is a word for it but i cant figure it out.
RocketLR self consciousness I believe.
RocketLR I think that's a good perspective to have. You did what most vloggers probably should've done. It's admirable that you were able to step back and acknowledge yourself from another point of view.
I find the whole thing to be very egocentric. Unless someone is already established as a person of importance, they work in an interesting industry and share meaningful experiences, or they're documenting travels to unique places, why should they assume that anyone cares?
That's not to say that their life is boring or they have nothing Interesting to say, but I just think someone should begin a vlog for other people, not to inflate their ego or get more views for their channel.
If they have nothing to contribute aside from their quirky personality, I really don't think vlogging is a good idea.
Just started watching your channel, i can only say that your content inspires me. Keep up the good work.
Magnus Kirk same!!! Love this channel
So, the first daily vlogger I bumped into here on youtube was Fun For Luis. Before him, I didn't even know daily vlogging existed. When I suddenly realized what his channel was all about, the first thought I had was that it was entirely unsustainable. How could a person make an interesting and exciting video about their life every day without burning themselves out rather quickly?
Since then, I have watched many daily bloggers, studying their many different styles and practices. I have truly com to enjoy the genre but have continued to have concerns. If GFVSBF was based on a romantic relationship, how could a relationship ever be happy and fulfilling when it is directly tied to income, when it has to survive if the persons involved are to continue to work?
After over a year of watching multiple daily vloggers, my opinion has not changed. I still believe that it is unsustainable. I certainly believe daily videos ARE sustainable, but when they are built around a persons life, relationships, family, experience, it does not take long that you stop living because it is fun and you start living to get a pay check.
If I were to ever start doing daily videos myself, it would be something much closer to unbox therapy or Linus tech tips. I think it is important to be able to step away from the videos at the end of the day and still have your personal life. When your personal life becomes work, and you live simply to get paid, how do you live?
Thanks for the excellent video man. Really enjoyed it.
ThisLifeRiding beautifully said.
Thank you.
ThisLifeRiding
probably the best comment on UA-cam
ik we're on the subject of daily vlogging, but I feel like that last sentence of your 4th paragraph can honestly apply to not only the "public figures" of instagram, but everyday people. You end up not doing things because you enjoy doing it but because you can post it on your wall or feed and boost this personality you've created.
nicely said btw
Great video! It is very interesting to see how several vloggers are giving up vlogging. We did daily for 5 months, now just doing 3 vlog per week. We also try to vlog the happy moments, because we like to share the good in life. I know some people might think our lives is perfect, but i had also talk about some struggle here and there. I can imagine it is very stressful and overwhelming when you have millions of people commenting on your life. It can be damaging to person's emotional state. As for the person watching the vlogs, the same thing happen if you follow friends and family in Instagram or Facebook, you can feel jealous of their "awesome" lives. I try to be inspired instead of feeling jealous... if I do feel jealous, I just stop following them.
sounds like you're aware of the short comings & are adapting to them, nice!
At The Leals ya I agree... I did the same thing and like a couple weeks ago went back down to a couple a week... Just wondering if the daily vlog hype is over... It was cool because if it's good quality people were interested in what you can make every day but now that daily is done to death it's lost it's value
Great perspective on this. My favourite quote is "don't compare your documentary to other people's highlight reel". Vlogs I see as other people's highlight reel.
The dangers of treating the familiarity of vloggers like friendships is a great spot. With the addition of social media channels and mail time, it adds a sense of realism to that friendship as you feel that you can connect with them, however it is incredibly imbalanced. The value of the 'friendship' to the viewer severely outweighed compared to the value from the vlogger's perspective.
Vlogs for me have been inspirational entertainment.
that is indeed a great quote! thanks for weighing in your thoughts Martin!
Well, I think your comments relate mostly to lifestyle vlogs. If a daily blog demonstrates a skill, for example, or the learning process, it can be instructional and not just motivational. For example, if you were to show behind the scenes of what you record every day and talk about the challenges and considerations you come across, that would be awesome. Not because I want to "be you", but because I'd learn a tonne! Great videos man!
Absolutely love how you did this in a vlog format. Very well used
I only used to watch casey's vlogs cause he inspired me to get out and do stuff and he really got me into cinematography, his vlogs were a source of inspiration to me, but not everything lasts forever. :'(
Same here man, same here :(
i concur
Coby me yes Casey ended, but there are so many other great vloggers out there man! Hope you find someone you like!
Coby me just watch his videos again, it will keep you up for a couple of years
Yes. I added 1 mile to my runs. Thanks Casey. I'm subtracting one now that he has stopped vlogging.
I can definitely agree with you Simon. I think it's very dangerous to compare our lives with the lives of others. When we do that we start changing our own thought process--and it can even be a subconscious thing--to become more like theirs, whether or not that kind of lifestyle is what is meant for us.
I think it's a good idea to ask, why do so many people watch these vlogs? As you made note of in the video, these people can have insane view counts and subscribers, so they are obviously very popular with the general audience. My observation is they watch for one of two reasons. The first reason being that they enjoy hearing the story, and find the person's life fascinating. They only see it as a source of entertainment to be enjoyed for a moment. The other reason would be that they are watching because they get a slice of something that isn't their own boring, dull life. They feel if they watch or listen to this person, they can change who they are just a little bit to become like that person in the way that they live. This is the dangerous reason to watch vlogs, because it suggests that there is a problem with who you are.
Thanks for the insight as always Simon.
totally agree with you
I've recently just started vlogging at the age of 68 ... inspired by Casey Neistat in the first inst and a few others since. I vlog and Blog (on wordpress) about once , maybe twice a month, and quickly learned that a 'Day in the life of me' was not the true day in the life of me...not exactly 'fake' but edited for the audience...I am still learning, still yet to find my niche and still searching for my style. I stumbled on your vlog and I must say your content and style of presentation has impressed me mightily ... I am now one of your devoted followers Simon...one of the 'Better' Brits doing vlogs...I look forward to watching all your previous efforts ..
Cool vid man ! I got an idea when you said "Vlogs are fake" I totally agree !! So I started thinking that, vloggers are giving up vlogging because they are forcing themselves to be fake (or more careful/ trying too hard to make their day interesting)in front of the cameras every day and it's hurting them in a way because it's not who they really are all the time.... But that's just a theory..... A VLOG THEORY X) Thanks for Reading
I don't think vloggers are fake. You of course can't answer for everyone, you only see and follow the big vloggers, because they seem interesting. The real thing is that they are not fake but they just don't show it all.
It won't be interesting (I think) if you show it all. It has to be entertaining. It's just something you also want to be, that makes it huge. It's up to the viewer what to do with it.
It's hard work, to vlog every day. Maybe that's the reason they give up. Or they want to do something else. Just like series on tv, they also eventually stop.
@Guido Heijnen No, they are "fake" mostly. Rather than recording their normal everyday lives, they make sure to go out of their way to do abnormal things that the ordinary person doesn't do in their everyday life to make it seem as though their life is exciting.
Ni K I don't think they are completely fake, but they definitely have to keep up a persona, like being positive all the time and doing challenges they would never do in real life - I'm finding it a bit annoying after a while
Enchant You watch The film theorists, aren't you!?
Ni K
Agree. They put a mask on camera then as soon as they turn off the camera they take off the mask.
I liked Neistat's vlogs cuz the storytelling is great and they inspire me to set goals and WORK for it.
Chrystian Pinheiro same here
Aside from Casey's short films, I don't see how his vlogs portray any elements of storytelling. I mean he had a unique style but i don't think it fits into the category of story telling.
What if the time and effort he was putting into vlogging kept him from making his short films. He has alluded to exactly this on one of his recent vlogs. He needed to make a decision about whether he was a vlogger or a film maker. Plus vlogging is hard to do! Its hard to keep on coming up with "Scenes" for your daily vlog. I for example have been trying to make a series of videos about setting up and configuring my server.
I got the un-boxxing done and realized that I needed another $5000 of equipment and software to be able to set this machine up the way I wanted to. Well, thanks to a rather large unexpected tax bill for some back taxes from 6 years ago I am not able to allocate funds to my server project. I expect it may take me another year or so to clear my back taxes up and then another six months or so before I can even begin to get the equipment to complete my server project. Try explaining that little bit of reality to a viewing audience.
Th other thing that vlogging seems to imply is that you make huge money vlogging. I truly do not see that it is all that lucrative. Most of their ad revenue comes when they hit very very large numbers of subscribers. Even then they get most of their money from Patreon, sponsorships and from other projects that they very often are not allowed by NDS's to even mention. Most of the really successful vlogs seem to be part of their daily work and it is done as an aside to working and not just to vlog.
really? Casey told a story every single vlog and you didn't realize. He woke up. He went running. He went to the juice press. He went to work at Beme. Couple hours later, he meets up with a cool person. He heads home in time to see the baby. He gets on a plane. A story every day.
mercedbread Chrystian mentioned 'great story telling'. You're telling me that by literally filming yourself wake up and do everyday shit, classifies as great story telling?
Definitely agree with you here.
I think there is only so long one can broadcast their life without breaking down. We've certainly witnessed this breakage over the past while on UA-cam.
But who can blame them? They're only human.
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A hundred episodes in and I'm asking myself some of these same questions.
I love that creating "vlogs" allows for a more regular creative outlet and personal dialogue with people who are interested in what you do. I love the permission to create something that is less than perfect from a filmmaking perspective.
It's almost more for me than the people watching.
These questions of how much is too much to share, and how can you be truly authentic to what real life is when sharing, is super challenging.
I think it's hard to share the negative or hard things, because when you do, people automatically try give you advice or feedback, or tell you that it really isn't that hard. It just makes trying to be real almost not worth the effort. Being positive is much easier than truly sharing hard things, because then you get all this arm chair feedback on things that are important to you. And their feedback is based off not having the whole picture.
I love vlogging, been doing it since I was 14, although I made my first few videos private and stopped for a while. I picked it back up again last year and have bee doing it steadily ever since. I did daily vlogs for around 40 days before it had a big impact on my health and grades. I was staying up until 2 AM every night, and had school in the morning. I now focus on quality over quantity. I just don't have the time in high school to make and edit videos every day. I love UA-cam more than anything though. I fell in love with it when I first found out about it at age 10, and proceeded to make my first UA-cam videos. I don't plan on stopping anytime soon either. To anyone wanting to start making videos, just go for it. You will learn many things along the way, and hopefully have a ton of fun doing it!
Really interesting story, glad you shared it.
Hope your vlogs take off eventually, best of luck from Europe!
KaseyVlogs this was so well thought out !!! I agree with you 100% ! Daily vlogging is hard and it's almost like it's a second job but when you do it because you love it you don't notice how it can effecting your health etc ! I am getting over that hurdle of getting in the rhythm of picking my vlogging camera up everyday and now that I have more time on my hands I can do something I love ! I hope to see you and your channel grow !
Hey thanks for your encouragement. I was wondering wether to do it but your right, I should just start. Ive seen some videos like these that discouraged me from blogging but I think I should just go for it. Good to hear from people who do it as a hobby and not as a living because it is a little more real.
Probably the best criticism about VLog i have ever seen.
Great job young man! Thanks for sharing and happy midweek
It's not just vlogging - it's social media in general. When Facebook came out everyone was on board. Now I don't see as much activity and I think it's simply because a lot of people grew tired of being fake. Most people wake up, brew a cup of coffee, do their 9 to 5, eat supper, and go to bed, but there's so much pressure to make one's life fantastic. Living in a fantasy though is hard work. Going back to vlogging, it must be really stressful when that fantasy becomes so large, when every week you're flying to a different country, staying at an exotic hotel, riding fancy cars, etc. People quit because they lose themselves.
I went on a trip for just four days and daily vlogged it. If I could go back, I wouldn't have. It wasn't fun, and it made the trip a drag because every time I did something I enjoyed I felt I had to film it.
Great thoughts Simon.
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We talked about this at the Buffer Festival Panel this year in Toronto. I was the winner of the Daily Vlogger Category for my real representation of one of the worst days of my life. I totally agree with you that Vlogs are an edited representation of ones life that they want to show you. But for me I want to show everything but not all at once. That is the key. Some of the people on the panel with me are some of the people you mentioned in this video. It seemed like they all were caught off guard with my video which in itself was honest unedited and dark part of my life. It opened up the conversation on how vlogs have changed, like you mentioned. For me I wanted to be transparent, to share my feelings my vulnerabilities and my strengths. That what vlogging is to me and always will be. To be a filmmaker and a person who also wants to share their life with everyone you have to be a bit fearless and not be afraid to show, well... Everything. I love your videos I love your opinion very much and it just reminded me of that afternoon on stage. Thanks for reminding me why I do this. Warm regards friend.
diragusa I try to show the reality too. I started my vlog as a result of the worst day of my life. I had not considered vloging before my wide died but after she died I used it as a therapy. try to be honest.
diragusa thanks for the boasting.
AmeriJam Acres some people do it for therapy. and that's admirable. I'll take a look. thanks for watching!
your welcome. but I don't mean to boast. I mean it as a an outlook from within the lions den. People are afraid to show the hard things in life. When I heard that I knew I was doing something right, something that even the best vloggers ever were shocked to see what I put out. The future is about sharing and communicating to everyone the most common feelings we all experience: the good, the bad and the inbetween.
I can't believe I just found you through this comment thread! I was in the audience at BufferFest and was blown away by your submission -- you were a huge inspiration to me and have influenced changes I plan to make with my channel moving forward.
THANK YOU!
Kelly
This is actually the most real thing I've ever watched.
I try to avoid watching too many vlogs because you are litterally raising the vloggers up and bringing yourself down by wasting your precious time watching someone else's success. This is huge as a student in college.
kalef1234 whoah... That statement hit me hard, as a college student... Watching someone else's success can hinder our own progress... 😐
Nice runescape
"everything in moderation"
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Vlogging daily is also a hell of a pace to keep up with... I do one video per week & going up to 2 (while working - not on UA-cam - during the week) would make my workload explode... I have the highest respect for creators who produce (quality) content daily.
I’m not sure if it’s possible to produce quality content everyday. From the start to this short experience to try improve as a beginner. I think from sheer doing if we get 1 in 10, then 1 in 5 quality , we’re on the right path . I think daily can produce more ideas and after a short stint of 2-4 weeks I think this could help the weekly content perhaps. Impossible to produce quality content if daily .but some will be .
Just watched three random videos and added all three to favourites. Can't remember when do it last time. Cheers!
haha thanks for the positivity!
Your warning will save a vlogger's time... and soul. Thanks.
Great video man! People really compare their lives with vloggers who only show good or happy part of their life and thats dangerous because the viewers will feel bad about their lives which is sad.
I don’t have friends who want to be on camera and so I can worry people think i have no friends . When actually I just saw them off camera :)
I think vlogs would be a LOT more interesting if the people making them didn't talk to the camera or even look at the camera. And instead just shared their experiences in a more kind of 'fly on the wall' style. I don't know of anyone who does that though. The closest would be Gary Vaynerchuk's DailyVee I guess. Although he had someone else shooting and someone else editing. The audio helps though, always being wired up with a lapel mic for example.
I agree with what you said where "Fly on the wall" style is hard to achieve without of hiring a cameraman to follow you around 24/7. There needs to be another way where people can share their lives without having the drama they set for themselves. Because if you look at Casey, he did great with a "movie style vlog" where he was so successful he needed to stop making that effort and continue better content and challenge himself to create something different than anyone else.
I kinda do that :)
still, the strongest feature of vlog is how we feel so close with the vlogger when they talk to us (camera), if they dont talk to camera we dont feel any intimate feeling and just be a third party watching their life (sorry my grammar sucks)
if you will check out Creative North, I think those guys are doing something pretty original. combining the two aspects you're talking about, with filmmaker's sensibilities.
Epictetus Just had a quick look. That does look decent. Thanks.
I just mentioned this in a vlog, the idea of presenting nothing but positivity can lead to people getting down on theirselves for not living a life anywhere close to as interesting. I think it is very important to remember, that EVERYONE, gets down and deals with deep personal issues. As a daily vlogger, I do present optimism and positivity when I am feeling down, and it honestly does cheer me up. Faking it till you make it works. It is important to always remember what you're watching is edited.
John Hill your vlogs seem really genuine, which is why they're the only ones I watch
I love you John.
thanks for weighing in here John. There is something to be said for faking it till you make it, but I'm not convinced that it would necessarily transfer to the audience. As you say, the more we can remember this stuff, the better :)
I don't watch vlogs daily and not subscribed to any. I find myself spending way to much of my time in there life. I have seen several vlogs but it really annoys me when I search on UA-cam for info and I have to watch a 10 minute vids before I get the answer. But yet, creating content eachday is awesome and hard. I respect that.
It becomes a game of quantity vs quality. I look at Every Frame a Painting and Filmmaker IQ, they present quality but they don't produce as much.
I think those all of us need to take a step back from media once in a while because we can get trapped in a world that doesn't exist and let the one that does float away.
Nate's Film Tutorials same!! Apart from casey but he's now stopped:(
Nate's Film Tutorials ya exactly the problem is UA-cam has become soo saturated with big to average to small emerging youtubers. I'm really not going to watch like all 180 of my subs 10 minute videos everyday. That's insane. And majority of the time they're not even doing anything worth seeing & they only do clickbait video titles with equally clickbait images that have nothing to do with the majority of the video or its falsified under false pretenses.
Nice insights. I tried daily vlogging in the summer and quickly got burned out. I felt like I was being manipulative in a sense because I was only including the interesting stuff. However, If I kept the boring stuff in the vlogs then no one would've stayed watching
Vlogging is a strange one, It seems to be less about the content and more about the one-sided relationship between the vlogger and the viewer. As much as I think most of them are quite pointless, I think there are things you can take away, as filmmakers. It tells us what an audience really cares about, and what people really connect with. Which is usually either becoming attached to a certain character that they can resonate with, or even just observing basic human behaviour. I think these are the things we fundamentally and instinctively engage with as human beings, which I guess is why they've become so popular.
very well said. it can definitely be a reference point for writing&directing relatable, humanised characters. Although it's worth noting that part of the audience-vlogger connection comes from the fact that they've 'known' them for months, years even - seeing them for a few minutes each day. It wouldn't necessarily work so well in a two hour movie.
DSLRguide Yeah I completely agree, I think that's what makes it such a phenomenon. The idea that you can get a glimpse into another person's daily life is quite amazing despite how mundane and simple it might sound. Where the audience feels a genuine relationship between themselves and the person on the screen. It becomes way more immersive and intense compared to what we can represent in film. However I think the impact of emotion through humanistic behaviours can be conveyed in multiple art forms and styles, wether it be films, music, painting or short videos. Some mediums may have greater advantages, but in the end it's whats at the core of the work that enables it to resonate with others I think.
This definitely changes my perception of vloggers and the impact that they are having on my life. Then again, to me vlogging is an entertainment form or a form of escapism, like TV and movies. I only watch a select few vloggers, like Casey Neistat, who has helped me to develop a more dignified editing style and has taught me life lessons through a computer screen like to work harder to get to where I want to be in life. While some/most vloggers are trash and fake to me in terms of fake personality and bad quality, watching some vloggers like Casey, Ben Brown (very underrated imo) and Adrian Bliss (lol) does indeed feel right to me.
Just my 2 cents.
that's fair enough. I agree that Casey is in more of the entertainment/motivation category, rather than just letting people live his life, and Adrian's is commentary which gives it way more meaning hehe.
I definitely agree with you that vlogs are fake, that's the reason I only like to watch travel/luxurious lifestyle vlogs. Whenever I watch Casey Neistat, Roman Atwood or any other vlogger, I only enjoy the ones where they're out of town, in another country, exploring the world and sharing the experiences with their viewers. As much as I think the 'home' vlogs are super fake, the travel ones just seem more real to me. And of course, I find them actually entertaining (which I can't say about the normal vlogs where the vloggers just sit at their house all day and occasionally meet a friend or two). So yeah, that's vlogs for me. Travel vlogs only :)
That's why I only really watch FunForLouis and Ben Brown.
I've been doing vlogs for just over a year now. My ultimate plan is to Travel the world and make vlogs of my experiences, hopefully it works out.
i can see why some would be fake. so far i have been lucky and mine are real as can be. mostly me working (tattooing) and just doing random stuff with the family. however we are headed to colorado to the mountains in two weeks and i am stoked to vlog those!
My favorite vlogs that Casey put out were his travel ones as well. There was a trip he took to South Africa (I can't tell you which one it was since he does it occasionally) and the vlogs that came out of that trip I believe are still his best ever. There's only so much content that you can create if you stay in the same town (New York), you know?
Screen Siege Films agreed! That's why out of Ben, Louis and Casey, Ben is definitely the top by a mile
I actually feel like it's healthy and a bit therapeutic to watch vlogs, because, well for me at least, I can, for a few minutes, focus on somebody else's life and kinda get away from my own life and problems. Although maybe you shouldn't watch too much and procrastinate and completely try and escape from your life...
Anyways if you want to know more about what I think, I also made a video on my channel!
I do think it might not be healthy for the vlogger, especially if they are in a relationship...
I agree. it must be hard for the partner too to be filmed every day...
But it is their choice if they want to daily vlog! I think it's great but you just have to know what you are getting into
Yes but sometimes people underestimate things... and don't know what they are getting into.
About a movie I see what your saying and kind of agree, but I think a healthier alternative is to talk to other people in real life and develop a social life as much as I can.
Sometimes it's about finding others who deal with the same issues you do...there is a connection there
Spot on! Hope snapchat disappears too. People should go out and live there own lives.
travel vlogger can you take a look at my channel and help out by subscribing!
i subbed to both of you
The thing that annoys me the most from people on that app is when they record millions of 10 second clips of a song , but, the video does not show anything, just the sound of the music... like wtf?
i think snapchats different. it isnt nearly as strenuous and its more fun and social. the most editing you can do is use a filter. its not nearly as demanding and its easily accessible.
this whole comment is ironic
It depends on the priority you put towards your daily vlogging.
I've been doing it for 5 years, it's not my living.
For me it's about collecting memories, I've been lucky enough to capture some amazing moments in my life up to now, from holidays, to getting engaged and married, plus so much more.
I wish I'd found vlogging years ago, but, back when I was younger, it was about writing in a diary. For the sake of pulling out a camera for 1 / 2 hours a day in total and maybe 1 hours editing in an evening, I have 1000's of memories I can just press play on and re-live, who wouldn't want that.
The issue is when you allow your audience to dictate your content, for me, it will always be 100% about me and my family and being able to look back on moments.
i 100% agree
Casey Neistat inspired me to get into filmmaking and photography. that's what makes me sad about him quitting is that there might be kids that would have been just as inspired as me, would he have continued vlogging. I only found your channel Simon because of Casey neistat, and you and him have influenced me in ways you don't even understand. I agree that there are some ways daily vlogging can be damaging, but I feel the good outweighs the bad.
yep. my words too ^^^
love the way you shot this.
The Squirrel shot... WHAT DOES IT MEAN SIMON?!!!!111
Brilliant video, we so look to escape the "boredom" of our lives that we seek out what we think we lack through other people's stories, it happens with movies, series, reality tv, vlogs and even books (all to a different extent and measure). The problem with this is that even if the word "real" is embedded in the title or even if it's a daily vlog after a while we tend to forget that that it's all been curated, filtered, edited and put through post-production. We forget that no matter the social media platform we see it through, we are looking at "the painting", not the painter or the process.
I adore your vibe. Subscribed.
but i think casey neistat is a filmmaker more than a vloger he inspired me to be a filmmaker his content is not ridiculous like others
Mustafa Hussein yeah hopefully he goes back to making short films, I love his old ones!!!
Agree, *Casey start vlogging to push itself to do exciting stuff, forcing him to be creative everyday, in the purpose of make those vlog interesting*. Make a "well-made" video everyday.
And because having a time limit usually bump up creativity, and you learn by doing.
So for me Casey's daily videos (and not vlog) were a bit differents, *we were aware that he doesn't show everything.* he said it multiple times.
For me watching vlogs does not feel like a social experience, nor do I feel like I'm friends or have any kind of relationship with the people I watch. So it doesn't feel like there's any risk these replacing authentic connections. I can only speak for myself, but for me it just isn't this vicarious social experience that many purport watching daily vloggers to function as. I would say it's more like non-sexual voyeurism. Getting a peek into people's lives through their vlogs feels more like being a fly on the wall. Because even though they address the audience, it's one-way communication which isn't intended for any specific individual.
Charming New Society I think UA-cam as a platform invites you to get to know the creator through commenting and community. Smaller channels are better able to respond to each person.
couldn't agree more!
Fantastic discussion, well edited too! Look forward to seeing more video like this!
I honestly love how truthful and raw this is! Keep up the genuine truth and thought provoking videos.
You're so right! Ive thought the same. I'm so glad I found another being with the same level of conscience. Keep on spreading the word my friend, the third eye is proud of you.
LEt's be serious, it's all about MONEY! After UA-cam made recent changes to their monetization platform earlier this year and also a few months ago they all realized they'd get cut quite a lot of $$$ in the future, so instead of continuing and taking a pay cut they just decided to stop doing vlogs or "take a break" until UA-cam will see their loss and go back to whatever payment plan they had before. Let's not romanticize this move, if they could do it for 5 years, 3 years or whatever every day they can still do it now, they just don't want to because of the pay cut.
George Pop absolutely. but I'd even go a step further in saying that UA-cam started going downhill once they let large corporations (ie: Makers Studio & the like) take over, or rather "offer" the vast majority of large subscriber based UA-cam creators "join" their company. It not only hurt the creators by taking a huge cut of their profits, but it put major restrictions on their creativity. I never took vloggers serious thanks to watching the Shaytards 7 years ago. I honestly never understood the appeal, they live such a boring life. At least from what I saw back then. Plus you could tell so much of it was BS, not to mention forcing their young children to be filmed everyday. Who does that to a child? back then their kids hated being filmed all the time. They only started to enjoy it once they got older and started receiving thousands of dollars worth of "gifts" in the mail, essentially making it Christmas every week. But hey, who am I to judge....I'm just providing my opinion. There's certainly nothing wrong with using UA-cam to make money, but do something creative to earn that money. At least Casey was creative at times. But if you watched any 5 of his daily vlogs, then you have watched all 200 of them, or however many there were. It was the same time lapse, cut scene, drone footage, flight to somewhere, posted in every single one. They were heavily edited and completely unrealistic. If you watched that Vietnam piece he did, you could tell exactly what ended it for him. When he first announced making that video, he was supposed to edit that overnight and post it the next day, but it ended up taking him almost a month to post. In that Vietnam piece he admitted missing so much of his sons life due to his work and that's sad. Even his wife looks unhappy in the majority of his vlog footage, let alone all the older clips of them together, simply because he spent SO much of it with a camera in his hand. It boggles my mind when I go to a concert or ballgame and look around to see hundreds of people spend the whole time experiencing it thru a viewfinder.
Sure I enjoy experiencing others "adventures" on UA-cam, but watching someone else's daily life in the form of a "vlog", I just don't get. I'd much rather enjoy my own life and make my own experiences, than waste my time watching 5-10 minute clips of someone else's boring day.
Do you work for free?
Do you change the way you colour grade your videos depending on the time of year? this looks so autumn - tasty orange and brown
tasty
Isaac Roberts yummy
I think that's more from the colour of the leaves & the sunset rather than my grading :)
yeah his blog looks good. he has a tight lens and orange color.
Going from this vlog styled discussion video, I believe Simon should start vlogging.
oh no what have I done
DO IT ! to be honest I learned so much from your videos I would miss them if you started vlogging !
Love this. I try to make daily vlogging real and organic but it's so easy to only put the good parts like you said!
Simon, you bring up something disturbing that up until now I hadn't heard put into words, even though I had considered it. I follow many vloggers and have seen the stress they've created for themselves by satiating my curiosity. It's been obvious to me that "it's fake" or edited but on the bright side they inspire at the same time with positivity, creativity, and honesty for the most part.
If we keep your points in mind such vlogging has a place. Like Milton Burle used to say "Everything in moderation, including moderation." (I love that quote)
People that vlog have to put a happy face on and be positive all the time because that's what people want, and as we know, nobody is happy/positive all the time. I could never vlog because I would have to put the same face on and use the same voice I had to use when I was in sales, and that just kills a person inside. Hell, I can't even makes videos for my channel most of the time because I just can't make myself sound all super cheery, but just talking normally isn't entertaining to people for the most part.
I'm gonna start a daily vlog so that no one has any friends
hahaha
UnratedAwesomeness just checked your channel.... where are the daily vlogs😕😕😕
I'm definitely going to miss Casey Neistat's vlog, his was the only one I watch reasonably regularly.
Solid assessment of daily vlogging. As a daily vlogger, I think most of your points are spot on. My only caveat is checking in with some daily vloggers to see what their personal goals are for doing the vlog. Their goal may have nothing to do with sharing their story, like keeping a diary, something to think about. Cheers
Great reflection on the topic. A good reminder is needed from time to time that the experiences you observe within media reveal only one side of the coin.
You make a lot of interesting content and share good opinions mate! :)
Jowin agreed, I love this channel
I feel as though vlogging is and can be fake, but these influential, happy vloggers impact who I am. They can make me happy or inspire me to do something. On the other hand if we are being "intimately" enveloped in their life I would like to know if they're having a bad day or anything else that isn't shown in these "fake" vlogs.
Hayden Bingham the problem though is the facade they put on to make others happy. Much like how some of the best comedians are fundamentally depressed and spend every waking moment making others laugh because they are empty and want no one else to feel that way. In some cases it is admirable, but too many vloggers are disingenuous and do it for the money/attention. So many vloggers have no idea what they are doing, so they make the running theme of their channel "happiness", so many channels claim to do it to make people happy but they themselves aren't. It's a weird like slice of psychological mystery.
I * l o v e* the format and style of this! Really adds to the video. Interesting topic too, keep up the awesome videos!
Wow dude... this was so spot on and very well said. You're right it can be dangerous mentally to the viewers as well and you have just made a lot of people realize how we should view vlogs. I think for those vlogs we see of people traveling the world and doing extraordinary things we should take only as inspiration and motivation to see what's out there in the world for ourselves, realizing that they have just as many flaws as us even though it's not on video, BUT there are amazing things out there and we can walk in that direction with hard work and see where it takes us individually.
Some people are stuck working abroad in other countries and want the feel of being home so my vlog works out very well for OFWs... showing a bit of life here makes them feel happy because their homesick .. Vlogging can be exhausting etc but u have to know when to take a break and say u know what I’m not gonna vlog today I’m gonna go shoot some pool and drink a beer with the boys or whatever is your happy place / hobby / getaway 😄 u have to know when you need a break and put the camera down. For me I love driving my motorcycle. Feel so free and relaxing.
the real problem is a lot of people who aren't really creative then try and be super creative, to make money via youtube.
these people quickly run out of ideas and therefore they quickly find it a real hard slog to keep making stuff.
Where as creative people won't have any problems
I'm pretty sure creative people have a lot of these problems. Writers block is the most famous example of creative people having trouble creating.
Creativity isn't really how much you can make, it's how creative the stuff you make is. Even if that's once every 10 years.
i for sure edit out the boring stuff but i don't fake the good or the bad.
luckily i have not had any bad since i started. knock on wood. though i would imagine i'd keep the arguing out of them. also, i am only doing weekly, not daily.
keeping my art, tattooing, and FX work mixed in them when my days are slower.
This is where you are SO wrong. Yes Vlogs only show where things are always happy and nice. But, the thing is that I actually vlog to remember all of the positivity that is still around me, while there is so much wrong still going on.
Z06 Juan that strengthens his point. You'll be comparing all the wrong in your life to all the great on their lives.
This is what I understand Simon to be saying.
Dilip Tien I guess I can see your point. However I don't simply trash all of my footage so it still exists. Only the creator knows what goes on between the cut scenes. They are here for entertainment, anything that goes on behind that is their own business. They can decide whether to share the bad times or not. I started my own vlog as a hobby & I there are clips where you can honestly see where life is testing me. I keep it real, and if other creators decide not to, then that is up to them. Everyone has their own unique sense of online/camera persona. 👍🏻
The bit about watching vlogs replacing friends kinda hits home. I work & talk to people there but I need to have more friends outside my significant other and family. Good video, and thanks for your input!
Tying shoes, walking out the door and down the street... I love how you did this vlog style while talking about vlogging. You are very talented! And you're actually that person I look foreword to seeing every week!
Simply put, vlogs are personality prostitution: I'll give you my synthetic and fabricated virtual friendship, intimacy and privacy in exchange for your views, approval and ultimately money. Vloggers sell the dream of a fulfilled life of someone who can make a living and live a permanent holiday lifestyle by simply "being themselves" and doing, well, nothing else. The viewer can live their dreams through the vloggers. It is very easy and lazy to simply click and watch someone else live their lives and fantasise about how that could also be your life, rather than taking responsibility and, going out and make your life less mundane and uninspiring. They are also very addictive. All the perfect ingredients to make them a mild drug like comfort food or netflix.
I really enjoyed Casey Neistat's vlogs, when they ended I felt like watching the last episode of friends and the office, all at once, but I really really didn't like seeing him smash canon 5d's. Here I was saving money to buy a decent camera and mic, and he is smashing cameras for errors... I stopped watching him for that, but liked knowing he is there, for a fix, how you call it (he did talk about that clearing it later). In conclusion, I agree with you. For me the most annoying thing about vlogs is that there are a lot of people copying Casey's style, probably other's too, and with vlogging being about you, a diary of sorts- it is fake from the start. It can't possibly be you, when you are acting like someone else. I just do q&a or talk on a subject, edit it... and don't make it about me, but the subject.
I really enjoy your channel .
I personally neutral with vlogs and mainly prefer them only for special occasions. My personal thoughts are if you, I, or anyone was vlogger, most of us would want to show the most exciting parts of our day. If we didn't, not a lot of people would want to watch it, think someone is ungrateful, boring, or etc.
Sometimes I feel like vloggers or friends in the vlog are pressured to be more excited and energetic than normal in their videos, but that's just my opinion and I don't have any problems with it or people who watch it. It's just not my cup of tea sometimes, because I do watch some vlogs myself.
Compared to the old ghetto UA-cam days, now a days videos are more polished, super energetic, get your attention, fast paced, sometimes really short and edited. Like it makes sense, and it's not an issue, but personally I like it where it feels like it's a face cam phone call to a friend who lived like across the world, who asked how is life now a days and you showed them without any sugar coating. Then again, I'm the type of person who loves raw unedited footage, acoustic music, etc. Pretty much the bare bones of things.
Anyways, thanks for reading this if you are. I'm just sharing my thoughts and opinions on vlogging, and not really saying anything important.
THIS IS SO IMPORTANT - thank you for sharing!
I've always felt this distance between my vlog and what actually happened behind the scenes. Gosh, such perspective.
I do enjoy watching vlogs, and hearing about people and what they learn... There's definitely quality stuff out there !!
Dude you made so many good points in this video, the analogy about how if you knew everyone saw your journal you would think more carefully about what you include is spot on
I like my weekly. I don't dig the daily grind. I go on adventures and they're mostly positive but I will admit that I've gotten annoyed, angry, and cried on camera. I don't share 100% but then again I know no body is perfect, that's the best part of life.
Thank you. I've got to admit it wears on me some. Not the uploads but
the other aspect. Right, so I'm an adventurer. Meeting people is a
breeze and most of the time you meet these incredible people that sadly
you never see again. Today I was with my friend (I've been staying
wither her in NZ for a few months) and we met up with her friends and
had an excellent day. We made plans for an upcoming wedding I got
invited to and when we got back home I just sat, booked my next flight
to my next location then this sad pit filled my stomach. I miss having
friends that last longer than a season.
Crap hit the fan for me this year. My best friend of life passed from his battle with cancer, I ended a childhood friendship, and my relationship to someone I was going to marry ended. I've kept my quality friends but damn I miss having a partner in crime by my side. I'm juggling my youtube channel, my blog, a patreon, an instagram and I have a solid internet community. Those things are easy. The hard part is the fact that I can't knock on someones door, catch up, hangout just because I was in the area. That all kind of hit me today.
I have always hated vlogs...especially ones like Casey Neistat that obviously set up the camera on a ledge, walk away from the camera only to run back to the camera and talk into it like they have been jogging. Or setting up the camera across the street to simply cross the street, out of frame to casually stroll your child across the frame only to have to cross back and get your camera before it gets stolen. So forced.
i'm glad casey neistat stopped vlogging. excited to see more of the stuff i enjoyed back in 2011.
His vlogs annoyed me, he was so reckless with the things people sent him, kind of disrespectful imo. Also his use of drones was stupid, no consideration what so ever for the rules, or peoples saftey
Reuben van Dorp I know right,did he seriously just lose a drone that DJI trusted you with before any of them have been officially released to the market,really ridiculous tbh
me too, I think this will be a good change for him
likuidsistem Totally agree, I don't want to dwell on his old stuff - which was brilliant - but look forward to what he makes next. It may well be the Vietnam project he recently mentioned? His exceptional creativeness hasn't stopped with the ending of the vlog, quite sure of that!
You aree absolutely right about the negative side of vlogging. It got the positive effect on our lifestyles in sense of improvement and embracement of the bright side of our lives, but failing to understand the cinematography behind it it can cause envy and many other things that are shadowing that positive effects. Great video and thematic!
Wow, you are so articulate. Thanks for posting this, I have several friends who do daily vlogging and part of me wants to say "Stop!" it's quite evasive and can take away from those moments, because you're "upshowing" what you have to offer in your days, and you hide the negativity, kind of like stuffing emotions inside. That can be quite unhealthy. (I realize that there are other sides to this arguement aswell!)
I miss casey neistat:(
Still waiting for the Vietnam videov
+Dylan Films SAME. Cannot wait for him to return to his short films again!!
Jack Leigh same man! my expectations are high hahah
Rekrap13 remember in the vlog, he said he wanted to edit the Vietnam video, felt like ages ago
Same. Casey's vlogs were so motivational. As pathetic as it sounds, sometimes Casey's vlogs were what made it possible for me to leave my house or even get out of bed.
I just burnt bridges with all of my friends since I saw this video, because I now consider you to be the only friend I need.
I used to make vlogs, but I tried to make them as real as possible, but at some point it was depressing because my life seemed to be boring and repetitive, vlogging is just an extra thingy for youtubers so that their viewers can get to know the youtuber better. But then again... Is that really needed? Instead of vlogging I decided just to quit and whenever I go to fun places or I want to share something I can't put in a normal video, I'll make a mini montage/random video.
Vlogging is fake and depressing... And time consuming.
thanks for sharing - sounds like you've got a healthy attitude to me
I really enjoy your candidness on camera. While I'm sure a lot doesn't make it on camera, your videos such as "i was dishonest to get a brand deal" and "my biggest failures in filmmaking" have really resonated with me. I think you could provide a lot to the genre of vlogging through your understanding of the value of showing the good in the bad, as well as your appreciation for great cinematography and story-telling. I'd love to see you try daily vlogging for even a month perhaps, just to see how you would handle such a challenge and what you could bring to the genre.
It's nice to hear from someone who shares the same views. Not only are they edited, it also doesn't make much sense to watch someone else's life, in no way is it benefiting you(in most cases). I also find it very boring when people vlog themselves driving places or walking. I was also watching this vlogger whose family is currently being targeted by a potential stalker. This person has tried on many occasions to kidnap his niece and nephews who are in vlogs and they are only 8, 11 and 12 years old. This could be a result of daily vlogging. This video was well put together and covered a lot of valid points. I subscribed.
You should do more vids like these, its interesting seeing a more unscripted vid
Also Shaun of the Dead=automatic thumbs up
ayy! (it's much better than hot fuzz, right?)
DSLRguide yarp
Not exactly unscripted. As he said, vlogging is partially fake
"Real". Wouldn't say any of the daily vloggers are that real or genuine. There are ofc some of them that are better than others in regarding that aspect, but if you think their life is anything like what you see in their vlogs you're dead wrong.
yep, the entire premise of the video
NᴏᴠɪᴄᴇIɴDɪsɢᴜɪsᴇ No point in including pewdiepie in it. Or the thumbnail. That's just clickbait. The entire video is pretty much.
These massive UA-cam vloggers are earning millions per year, then they go on to say it's not worth it. It's actually laughable
either they have forgotten what hard work feels like, and they've gone soft, or maybe filming life every day, and putting it out into the world to be judged and commented on by millions of people is tougher than it sounds. I guess we'll never know unless we try
scottt923 It gets to a point where the money doesn't really matter to them anymore. Sure, they wouldn't do it if it didn't make them money, but UA-camrs aren't like the billionaires on Wall St. We aren't trained in finances and in fact we're a lot like the general public.
That's why after a certain point the money doesn't play as huge a factor because whether they vlog or they don't, they're making bank and can already live a great life - there is very rarely the thought process of "this is an investment and I need to keep going" .
vlogging and creating videos in general is harder than most people think!
I love what you said about not seeking real friendship because you've felt you've "gotten your fix."
Vlogging, and social media in general, is a tool. It becomes good or bad depending on how and why it's used. Probably, one of the key traits to have, whether your a viewer or a vlogger, is to know when to step away and have the strength to do it.
I think your points are valid with replacing friendships with vloggers as well as seeing edited versions and comparing that to our own. I definitely think that the inspirational aspects of vlogs as well as seeing the world from different perspectives is good as well. This comes at a strange time when I am thinking about starting a vlog, but more as a home video, not as a performance. I think it will help me live for something.
Can I ask you a question? You're using your 600d/t3i for videos right? So do you use it as a stock one, or use it with Magic Lantern?
I love the idea of vlogging, but I think it's the "daily" part that kinda ruins it for me. Holding yourself to a strict, busy schedule forces fake, staged, and less genuine content. Vloggers are quitting because they are letting thier lives be dictated by the vlog. Vlog when you have something to say, when something exciting has happened, when you want to tell the world something. It doesn't have to be daily, and honestly it shouldn't be.
that sounds very sensible to me, daily videos would take over your life unless you spent 20minutes on it and didn't care about the quality :)
Ben brown 👏👏
a very underrated vlogger and filmmaker..
Man after 30 see but I like people that are not actors I always felt like casey was fake. to me Ben brown seems more real
***** well said
Interesting. For me, I like that he isn't as loud as some others. He always comes across as very authentic to me, which I like.
Woow, this speaks to me very much. Oddly enough this was a recommended video on my feed (I was starting to think UA-cam's recommended lists were starting to be trash with these new changes and unrelated, clickbait-y recommended content) and I even clicked this video on a whim. I devote a large amount of time on UA-cam to where it is honestly unhealthy and I was beginning to realize that rather than doing me good, it was starting to consume me. Your point with the vlogging becoming so welcoming it almost seems as if you see know the person almost profoundly, to which also, you mentioned, can be exaggerated or even be ingenuine, is absolutely correct; I can be using that time to build up actual friendships or even myself. After all, UA-cam is an entertainment platform and they have their ways to keep the viewers still around. Any how, I very much agree with what you're saying and deep inside knew of this myself, but didn't want to realize. Since it is the beginning of a new year, I'm hoping to change not-so-good habits, and UA-cam watching being one of them because I spend hours watching content that doesn't give back as much as I devote, if that makes sense (which to clarify, your points made perfect sense to me).
Absolutely agree. It's dangerous. As soon as you vlog something you aren't living it-you aren't experiencing it with your 5 senses-you're missing out on something! People are spending hours of their lives editing and displaying their lives instead of truly living in it, how tragic, and how unnatural to do this for days on end. But this technology and sharing ability has just hit us as humans and I think people are going too crazy with it, unbeknownst to the negative impacts. PLUS the people sat at home watching them-also missing out on great chances to live. Personally I think now and then, if you're going somewhere cool then sure. But people filming themselves eat breakfast and have conversations? Unbearable to me.