Last Week

Tomska is a youtuber with over 4.3 million subscribers, with a side channel called dark Squidge (645,000 subscribers). On this second channel, Tom posts a weekly vlog series called last week, where he records various parts of his week and puts it all into one video for the start of each week. As Tom gained his fame through making comedic short films and sketches, and has built up a small team over the years to help run his channel and content; it is incredibly interesting to see the inside view of the creation of youtube videos and the maintenance of channels.

However, The vlogs don't purely focus on this; they also focus on Tom depression, obsesity, relationships, self doubt, worry, his life story, all forming into a well rounded video each week. So, not only is it a deep insight into the inner workings of a youtube channel; it also provides the creator with a greater connection to his fans which he otherwise wouldn't be able to achieve due to his other content (Sketch comedy) not having that lenience. Below are two examples of videos showing the range of emotions and experiences carried through last week.

Even though Tom tends to put a comedic twist on everything in these videos, there is still evidence on the fine line that they have to walk in order to stay in this line of work. Even with short, quirky remarks like "have we been fired yet?" when addressing their trip to Hungary show some of the possibilities faced by content producers. 

This second video also carries a very important message that, if you are suffering with depression or other mental illness, it is important to build strong support networks of friends to make your life easier to deal with. And that's exactly what Tom has done as displayed by the video below. So, while also providing an insight into a creators life and their different styles, he his also creating an escape for people, and giving them meaningful advice and proving that it works. 

LonelyGirl15 and Fake Videos

When Youtube was in its infancy, it was primarily a platform that was treated much like a social media. People would make videos dicussing their days and views, sending video messages to each other, and the occasional short film. then in 2006, a new regular content producer started to appear with the tag "Lonelygirl15". At first she seemed like the typical teenage girl content producer with strict parents.

As this channel progressed and started creating more content, her fans started to notice weird things taking place in her life such as things on the wall, bruises, stories about her parents etc. This worried a lot of the fanbase, creating an explosion in subscribers, comments, discussion on forums creating theories such as her parents being satanic priests or cult leaders. Eventually, it was revealed that Lonelygirl15 was actually a character, created by Greg Goodfried (a Lawyer), Miles Beckett (plastic surgeon intern) and Mesh Flinders (a Screen Writer). 

This is the first example of people manipulating the platform in a completely new way, by creating a character with a story arc but presenting it to the consumers in the most common video format on youtube, vlogs. This very much signaled the start of further manipulation of the platfrom of youtube and the development of the marketisation of youtube. 

below is an interview with the creators of Lonelygirl15:

Unsurprisingly, this reveal was met with some backlash. Even though the creators carried no malicious intent with the creation of Lonelygirl15, viewer's still didn't like the fact that they were being lie to.

This does bring up an interesting point though. Looking at a few lists of so called "fake videos" and the drama that seems to collect around them, it brings up the point that very few of us truly know how real much of the content we watch is when it comes to prank videos or vlog channels. Below is a video showing some other fake video "scandals" in the past including Lonelygirl15. If anything, the video shows just how volatile the platform of youtube is and the lengths some people will go to just to get themselves extra viewership. I hope you enjoy.

Michael Wesch on Youtube and the Mediascape

Michael Wesch is a Professor of Anthropology at the University of Kansas. In 2008, he gave a lecture about how instrumental the role of Youtube and the world wide web is in general in evoloving the human race from an anthropological standpoint. He states that as sites such as youtube give the public the chance to contribute to the mass media, more and more people are having to change themselves in terms of personality or how the appear in order to fit in with the new medium and society.

As this lecture was given in 2008, many of the big famous youtubers who gain income from the site haven't started out yet. Instead, he focuses on how the platform was used as a means of connection around the globe; almost like a new social media. This can be seen by the fact that a majority of the videos that were posted back then were roughly 3 minutes long (about 200,000 a day back then- this has increased dramatically though) with ordinary people discussing their views and talking about their philosophies and lives.

Furthermore, he discusses how anyone with access to a webcam can join in on the global discussion rather than needing a full film crew or a producer commissioning the work. This lead to the creation of online dramas and the emergence of the channel known as Lonelygirl15, but i'll discuss that in a separate blog post.

This video clearly demonstrates how media how now influenced society in such a way so quickly that has caused shock waves resonating throughout the world, leading to mass societal change in only 20 years or so.

Stop Motion With Live Action

Stop motion is a technique where lots of photos of an object or scene are taken where minute movements are made in the scene between shots. Typically, this technique is used with clay figures and scenes to make films and TV episodes such as Wallace and Grommit and Flushed Away. But stop motion has been used in live action. Popularly in scetches on youtube and in indie films to create an interesting effect in a scene.

This video illustrates how stop motion can be a cheap tool that can be used to create intriguing visuals that can compliment a song well, and also create visuals without the use of animation. Taking inspiration from some live action stop motion videos, i've decided to include a small scene of stop motion in my production. While it won't contain anywhere near the amount of frames as some other small scenes of stop motion as i want it to go with the rhythm of the song, it is still classed as stop motion.

Its interesting to me how well older stop motion videos hold up compared to newer ones. For example "sledgehammer" by Peter Gabriel. What was a groundbreaking piece of media for the time can still be considered just as groundbreaking many years on.

I believe the reason that this video from the 1980's can still hold up to newer stop motion videos is down to the fact that the fundamentals and technique of stop motion haven't changed. While they have been refined over the years, as can be seen in the Wallace and Grommit films when comparing the first and latest films together, they are still all about taking a sequence of many shots and putting it together to form moving image.

Kina Grannis- In Your Arms

As i discussed in my blog post about stop motion, i plan on using a small clip of stop motion in my music video. While looking at various videos employing stop motion, i remembered a video that i saw about five years ago, "In your arms" by Kina Grannis. This is an incredibly unique music video as it employs Jelly Beans to form the main background and scenes in this stop motion video.

Looking at this video, it is clear to see the power and presence stop motion can have as a medium for creativity. After remembering and re watching the video, i found a separate video documenting the behind the scenes of the music video. It is after watching this where i stated to realise the time involved in making a video of this style and magnitude. The fact that a 3:30 minute video can take a year just to shoot it baffled me. However, the sheer devotion and creativity paid off as this is one of my all time favorite music videos.

• 2,460 frames
• 1,357 hours (22 and a half days)
• 288,000 Jelly Beans 

While im not looking to employ stop motion of this magnitude in my production, it does give a great insight into the depth a creator has to dive into to create such a complex piece of stop motion. The fact that they had to make sure that every hair and minute aspect of Kina's expression was the exact same as their reference photos is amazing. Also the sheer amount of time involved in creating the back drop just for one picture on the camera. All in all, this is a fantastic project which lead to a great music video that i would highly recommend. 

The Final Idea Change

Due to the time constraints of my previous song, i decided to change my idea and wrote up; my plan, shot list, props, locations and actors in one sleepless evening. I have been working on this idea for the past few months and am already feeling more comfy with this song and the time.

The new song i am creating a video for is "Dreaming with a Broken Heart" by John Mayer. (linked below)

I chose this song because I've been a fan of John Mayer's for years and the song provokes quite strong visuals just waiting to be applied to the screen. Themes included in this song are: loss, regret, being broken hearted, longing. With this range of moods, it lends itself to being quite a melancholy piece with interesting rhythmic elements that can be built upon. In fact, i'm planning to branch out in terms of techniques and use a small scene of stop motion to convey one idea I've had about the main characters heart sinking in his chest.

I'm confident that i can deliver a high quality product in good time whilst also delivering on the evaluation aspects and ancillary texts.

Band Websites- Ancillary Text Research

One of the ancillary texts I have chosen to accompany my main task is the band website homepage. With this in mind, i devoted some time to look at some band websites. The websites i chose to view were Red Hot Chili Peppers, Catfish and the Bottlemen and Twenty one Pilots. I found that there were a list of criteria that these websites had in common. These websites all had:

• Tour dates and locations
• navigation to media (pictures,videos)
• merchandise
• downloads to music
• music videos  
• links to social media
• Ticket sites

Compare this to the twang- no websites just rely on social media and separate sites for Merch and tickets. While the bigger bands websites do have links to their social media and other outlets, smaller bands like "the Twang" solely rely on social media and businesses to advertise gigs ad tours and distribute merchandise.

One site that breaks the mold for more established bands and musicians is John Mayer's website. His website appears to be completely devoted to his new EP's (extended playlists) and a video advertising his new tour as seen by the screen captures below.. While it still contains the links to social media, it focuses less on the merchandise and more on the music and where you can listen to it.

Looking at the variety of examples of different artists websites, we can see that they all contain the same themes with varying amounts and emphasis. A website like the Twenty One Pilots one focuses more on the merch, whereas John Mayer's focuses more on tour dates and new releases rather than merchandise. This has aided me in one of my ancillary texts as it haas given me a greater insight into the themes featured in an average band website. 

BBC Three

BBC Three is a rather unique case study of what the future might hold for television channels. This is because BBC Three used to be a TV channel, but in 2016 moved to be completely online to act as an extension to BBC Iplayer (the BBC's catchup service). On this new platform, the BBC are now able to create exclusive shows for the online space. These include documentaries, comedies and dramas; making it more into a netflix like platform just without the subscription.

The move of BBC Three from terrestrial television gives us a glimpse into the future. I feel the BBC used this move to break into the market of catch up and on demand TV which has grown exponentially in the past few years with platforms such as Netflix and Amazon Prime. We can see that BBC Three being online has given the BBC a chance to advertise some of their internet exlusive shows such as Taboo and the Asian Provocateur (my personal favourite).

But with more and more TV channels making the move to online due to the popularity of netflix, is this where TV will be going in the next 10-20 years? personally, i think no. While i agree that streaming platforms are stealing the show at the moment, for channels with as high a reputation as the BBC still having significant foothold, and the markets for TV's still booming, i feel there will always be some live television rather than it all being located online. Below is a link to the BBC 3 site

BBC 3