This week we were supposed to find a vlog that we enjoyed and share it with the rest of the class. I was having a hard time finding one that I thought captured the essence of a vlog. It seems a lot of people out there are using vlogs for no other reason than they enjoy listening to themselves speak. After much searching, I finally found one that immediately peaked my interest and my watching of it did not lead me to believe I had just wasted precious minutes of my life.
The vlog can be found here: http://vimeo.com/3071006.
This vlog is a woman’s personal experience of her battle with breast cancer. She is sharing her story “of courage and hope.” Her audience is both fellow cancer patients and those who are fortunate enough not to get the disease. The vlog uses both words and images to get her message across. She wants her audience to know what it is like to go through this disease. She is attempting to increase awareness on a topic that has influenced her life so heavily.
She also incorporates slow, steady, and rather sad background music so as to give her video the underlying tone that reflects the impact this disease has had on her private life. She records snippets of her life through surgery and even her outlook afterwards. This was a very moving video and her openness about the ordeal she went through is shocking. Her video is very effective in getting her story out where the public can see it. She even shows the apprehension and fear that she feels knowing she’ll have to go bald. The end of the video really creates the feeling that you knew this woman in the video. The way the video compiles sounds, music, words, and video clips makes a final product that the viewer feels is genuine and really delves into the issues that come along with facing breast cancer.
I think this is very useful in thinking about having students of mine vlog, or even when I vlog. When using it an academic setting there will be already be a valid reason for using a vlog, but I think the tone is very important in keeping viewers interested. The music and video heavily impact the vlog on breast cancer. I think using music and text in video clips can also be very helpful in vlogs that are of a more academic nature and work better to get information across because they are more interesting to their viewers.
Megan, what a powerful vlog!
ReplyDeleteIn this woman's case, the vlog does so many things that a simple blog post could not do. We get to see her, surrounded by family and friends. She combines music, words, video and still shots. As a viewer, I got this impression that I really got to know her.
What a great resource/comfort for other women we are going through the same thing. Elizabeth is candid, and not shy about showing and telling the world like it is. I really felt like this was a great example of
1) All of the things you can do in a vlog and 2) the impact of a personal vlog for thousands/millions of potential viewers. It was very well done.