Sunday, May 25, 2008

Vlog & youtube

These days, I seem to be inspired by articles written in the LA Times. This time they had written about the prevalence of cooking videos there are online. According to the article, there's a huge range in the quality of videos from amateurs like me, to those who claim to be at the professional level. The timing of this article could not be any more perfect. I think I mentioned it in a previous post, but I've been working on a cooking video entitled Flour Power. Ideally, I think it'd be great if Flour Power was a series of cooking tips or recipes, but the way it's shaping up, it's too time consuming. A 5 hour shoot turned into 30 minutes of footage, which will be no more than 5 minutes when it's published. Although cutting down the footage to 5 minutes is the most frustrating part of the process, ideally the video shouldn't be much longer. How many people would actually sit around and keep watching? Perhaps I'm just selling myself short, but I think a lot of it would just depend on the response that I get from people. Once I have finished editing it, I'll post the link up for those who are interested in watching. In case I don't post it here, it will definately be posted on my other blog.

Anyway, getting back to the original topic of the article and videos, I know cooking shows have been around forever, but I can't help but think that this recent boom in the number of videos being posted is related to youtube, and other similar sites. Youtube has every other way for people to express themselves, why not food? Food is so expressive. You can see the amount of time and effort people put into creating it, not to mention the way it's presented. The more I think/write about food, the more I feel like I should pursue cooking more seriously.

If it weren't for my video class this quarter, I wouldn't have noticed so many things. It's been the launching point for so many things - youtube, cooking, Flour Power, and my niece's birthday slide show. I am so grateful for having taken this class, and I hope to continue to refine my editing skills and purchase a video camera.

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