Blogumentary [chuck olsen]

Weird Moments on the road with Edwards

UPDATE 08/08/08: There is a brief shot of Reille Hunter filming John Edwards, from 1:04 - 1:10 in this video.

Hello friends! As y'all know, I was on the road filming presidential candidate John Edwards this week

We began in New Orleans, then on to a town meeting in Des Moines, Iowa and finally New Hampshire. That's where I got off and returned home. Here are a few odd random moments edited together on the plane. Enjoy, and watch for proper videos and interviews on Rocketboom and YouTube.

RELATED LINKS:
Steve Garfield video: Behind the Scenes: John Edwards, YouTube and the Campaign Website
Washington Post: Edwards, Now Seasoned, Elbows His Way Into the Field
Flickr snapshots from the trip

Quicky blog post

I just wrote this on the videoblogging group list and thought I'd repost....

This day began for the Edwards entourage in the early wee hours, in the devastated 9th ward of New Orleans. From there it was on to Des Moines Iowa for a town hall meeting and blogger meetup, and now I'm in New Hampshire about to crash after a totally surreal day that feels like 3 days. (3 awesome days!)

The announcement was your typical press event, my camera had nothing unique to offer. So I interviewed Scoble on how he got involved and what he thought of the whole thing and the process. I interviewed a vlogger from North Carolina who was invited by the Edwards folks and was very excited
to be there. Lastly I found some church volunteers down the block from all the Edwards hoopla, where the "real" work was going on -- they were gutting a house of all it's moldy exoskeleton. They were working like mad ripping it up, finding some remnants of the owner (beads, a moldy bible). The guy giving me the tour was a big Rocketboom fan which I did not expect!

For what it's worth I'm convinced Edwards is a passionate, smart, authentic person who would make a great president. He has some people on his team I interviewed 3 years ago -- the people who made the Dean campaign legendary for its use of technology to engage and make the campaign "people powered." But now, it's evolved to include video and frankly there's a better candidate.

I've got a few bad phonecam photos and thoughts on my flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/blogumentary/

Edwards: "I intend to run in '08"

NY Times story

I'm currently in New Orleans. Arrived too late to be part of Edwards motorcade to the lower ninth ward. I'm hoping to catch a ride with the press shuttle, if they let me.

I've never been to NOLA before. Flying in and driving by the Superdome brought a strange nostalgic weightiness to my transit - from my TV memory. Graffiti spotted on a building downtown: "Katrina was here."

Damn

Robert Altman, James Brown... who's next?

Merry Xxxsmas

I just want to give my sincere thanks and well wishes to you all out there. My friends, online and off, and anyone who stops by this here blog just in case I post something interesting. One of these days I'm going to hit the reset button here and make it simpler. More focussed on my photography and a recent blog post or three. Move the video clips and other crap to another page. I have quite a lot of video clips, you know - lots of music especially.

Starting today I'm babysitting MNspeak while Matt Bartel is enjoying a lovely graduation present (trip to China). I'm pretty happy with my first set of local links, but now the whole dang site is down. Hope I didn't break it already. UPDATE - it's back. Whew!

Minnesota Stories will probably be on break most of this week. Vlog Santa will wrapup very quickly too. A vlog/travel opportunity has suddenly popped up. Hopefully I can share exciting details about that soon.

Peace, love, and all kindsa hippie crap like that to you and yours.

Vlog Santa's Media Tour

Ho ho ho! As Vlog Santa says, these days that means "Whore whore whore" which is just what the big guy has turned into. He's gracing the cover of this week's Pulse of the Twin Cities. I was on the cover earlier this year too. Both events are courtesy of gentleman-about-the-town Max Sparber.

A more theatrical, in-depth Vlog Santa experience can be had on this week's Flak Radio podcast. Let me first say, I really enjoy listening to these guys (Joel Myer, Taylor Carik and James Norton). It's funny and darn-near brilliant. They tape in Al Franken's studio, where 2/3 of them work as producers.

Jump right to Vlog Santa's spontaneous visit here (MP3).

Word has it ol' fat drunky will make some sweet-ass vlog cameos too, including The Clip Show and Veoh's hot "internet television" show Viral.

Today I spent some time with VS rehearsing for Xmas eve on a snowy, icy roof. He didn't like that. Later, I filmed him accidentally murdering baby elfs. Also watch for a real life elf slave who looks a lot like my friend Jonathan - that may be the crown jewel of the whole show.

Vlog Shoutouts, Happenings

» VLOG SPARK
A fantastic idea for a vlog from a fantastic individual, Miguel in Portugal. (Those of you who've seen Blogumentary will remember him talking about Plain Layne.) Make a video about something that sparked you into action or thinking something new.

» JAY AND RYANNE SIGN TO PODTECH
You know, like rock stars sign to a major label. They'll be making videos about sustainability for RyanIsHungry simulcast on PodTech. Congrats to them both.

Here's the video where I discovered they were dating. I still really love this video. Aww!

This arrangement sounds a lot like my video series profiling Minnesota artists. I'm partnered with the Walker Art Center's mnartists.org but the videos also live on Minnesota Stories and I have full creative freedom. We work together to find artists to profile and it's just the best possible working relationship.

Developments like these make me feel the dream of 2005 is coming true. We're getting paid to making creative videos online and tell stories we want to tell. We're not getting rich, most of us, but there's happiness and sustainability to be found.

» RAYMOND CELEBRATES 2 YEARS OF VIDEOBLOGGING
Congrats Norwegian vlog-brother Raymonde. Here's a video of him from Jan /05, shivering down his spine.

» MICHAEL VERDI
Moving to San Francisco and still making great videos of him and Dylan, who is recovering from appendicitis. Good luck.

» NETWORK2.TV
They got off to a rocky start announcing their online video guide (think "Internet TV Guide"). Opt-in, opt-out, opt-off! I felt bad about this brouhaha because I know Chris Brogan is an upstanding fellow who started the PodCamp unconference. I also think Network2 could be a great service and help bring in a wider audience to my stuff and others making "shows." They took the community feedback (along with my own email advice) and made some changes. The community is much happier now.

The videoblogging community might want to create a "Video 2.0 for Dummies" FAQ so Web 2.0 video companies can avoid pitfalls and do the right thing. Or at least, have an idea of where we've been and not walk into these waters without proper gear. There are a few sharks, and they will bite, but many of us want to swim with you if you feed us and treat us with respect. Also, we're very colorful and pretty!

» BAGHDAD IS LIKE GRAND THEFT AUTO

Today at the Fights

Andrew and Amanda battle it out on the Yahoo videoblogging group. Andrew posted my email of the final Rocketboom proposal to Amanda. Accusations are flying. The community says "take this elsewhere!" Amanda responds here and the saga continues.

In other news, 3vil vlog hits the reset button.

My Computa Spaces, Yay

New discovery - about 10,000 people have seen Vlog Santa on MySpace. The two old episodes I uploaded last month must've been featured videos. Yay! The kids have a pretty mixed reaction to Vlog Santa. From "ololol vlog santa makes my day" to "wot the fuck wis that shit<br> randon basterd." Overall pretty postitive though, and it's really fun to be Vlog Santa on da My Computa Spaces.

VS would need twenty times those views to approach anything like an online "hit." It seems a little easier to get noticed on MySpace video than YouTube, probably because it's fresher and smaller. Lori gets confused when I spend time making MySpace friends for Vlog Santa. He's got about 420 friends now, but I definitely want him in the thousands. There are weird goth/industrial artists I've never heard of with like 45,000 friends on MySpace. Vlog Santa will crush them. Well, not really. But it's the easiest way to build an audience, which I learned from Scriggity. Smart dudes over there.

Meanwhile, if you've sent Vlog Santa a question please be patient. There are props, you see, and and and - anyway, Vlog Santa is a slow fat bastard. How come Karina is the only lady to send in a video question? C'mon ladies, don't be scared. Vlog Santa is all bark and no bite.

Amanda's ABC Debut

AMANDA: REMEMBER HER FROM ROCKETBOOM??
That line makes me giggle. Yes, we remember. And now she's on ABCnews.com. It's rather surreal to see her in this context. It feels like the grownups ("MSM") left the cameras and lights on and Amanda snuck into the studio to make this quirky little show. Check out her Steely Dan t-shirt (!).

HOW IS IT?
Steve Garfield, 10 Zen Monkeys, and the New York Times have great critiques. I'm actually relieved it's a weekly show, because it's much more likely I'll have time to watch. I don't get my up-do-the-minute fresh links from video, I get them from TailRank, BoingBoing, etc. which is much more immediate and non-linear. A weekly show with Amanda's take on the news, weird links/video, and especially content from the audience will make this a compelling experiment for ABC and Amanda.

PROBLEMS
No RSS podcast feed, pre-roll ads, popup player, no links, comments are completely disassociated from the video. Amanda says she is working on the infrastructure issues with them, so hopefully they can learn to be nimble and flexible. She's had total script control, which is great.

CONTENT?
Honestly I wasn't interested until the artificial blood story. (Disclaimer: I've played with Popular Front's groovy snowflake thingie a lot over the last few years.) The coolest part of the show for me, aside from the dream sequence, was the cameo by funny young vlogger William Hung.

In spite of user-submitted links, Rocketboom often feels like traditional top-down media, though quirkier and born of internet culture. Boing Boing is the same way. They are filters and guides, tastemakers and curators, with a lot of help from the audience. Something about asking for and including video from your audience feels more interactive to me. The host is the voice of authority, the host has the power and the voice through video. So a text comment or contributed link does not nearly equate with the power of video. Including amateur video and interacting with that person disseminates the top-down aspect and makes it feel more lively and interactive, even though the host/producer still has the power to choose who and what is shown. You know, like Vlog Santa.

WHEW. Well, that's all I have to say for now. Andrew Baron has a rather different take, of course. There is a lot of behind-the-scenes history behind his post, so it's certainly more complicated than "sour grapes" as some people are saying. But I'm doing my best to keep my nose out of that. I do wonder what big news Rocketboom has in store?

Good night, and may God continue to bless the United States of Amerikka.