In this short snippet from the July 1st Inside Mac Radio show, the hosts talk about some comments from Robert Scoble regarding production values and things that came up at Vloggercon.
Perhaps the vloggers out there have some thoughts about this:
[QT_COMMENTS http://www.mobvcasting.com/a/vloggercon_prod_values.mov 320 240]
[00:00:15]Anyone know where Scoble said this?
[00:00:28]This seems a bit inflammatory.. But alas.. Perhaps vloggers can clarify here..?
[00:01:54]http://smssugarman.com/ – Looks interesting..
[00:01:21]ew production values, the whole thing stinks of art! give me a shaky hand held anytime.
Oy. Look there is a spectrum of opinion about this topic. I’m only speaking for me, not for anybody else.
Here is a poetry equivalent – those folks that create stream of conscious poems and those that work in rhyme versus those folks that work in haiku versus sonnets versus textual sculptures. Which one has the greater production value?
If a vlogger wants to capture what he/she w/o any manipulation of the video image or audio afterwards that is their choice.
If another vlogger wants to practice standard video and audio techniques and do all they can to tell the story that is their choice. If if they want to jump into the experimental grid, you guessed it – it is their choice.
The difference is that one size or a specific set of production values does not fit all. The viewer has the option of continue to view the video or not.
Let me be clear, I am not advocating bad video for the sake of posting on a vlog. I’m saying it is the choice of the vlogger to do what they want and the equal choice of the viewer to say yea or nay.
I guess I didn’t realize that this was really an issue. I come from the old school, the really old school, and I have always wanted my production values to be high. I like to mess with stuff, but don’t really see the kewlness of just presenting yourself, and the mundane things that you are doing. I realize that this might be perceived as elitist, and perhaps it is. When I was young, I fought like crazy not to learn the rules, not to learn technique, and to sell out – which was what I thought it was to imitate what others had learned. I felt that if I did that – then my “voice” would no longer be MY voice – it would be just what everyone else was doing. It would no longer be authentic.
It took years for me to really get it – that my voice – my vision would never really change, and if I had any creative notion at all, it would be better serveed by presenting it in a way that people enjoyed.
Ah, such is life.
Milt Lee
I was at Vloggercon and didn’t hear anyone say that high production values are bad in and of themselves. What I did notice was resistance to the elitist point of view reflected in this audio clip.
Videoblogging is about exploding a lie. The lie goes like this: “You’re not good enough, you’re not pretty enough, you’re not smart enough, your equipment isn’t good enough, your lighting isn’t sweet enough, your audio isn’t controlled enough, you don’t have the proper training or knowledge of the right production conventions for your voice to have a place at the table. Media making is for professionals, the rest of the riff-raff is just too low-tech and ignorant of ‘proper staging’ techniques to be taken seriously.”
Even granting the weird point about listeners being deafened by eardrum-bursting amateur podcasts (what the–?), videoblogging is about clear communication between people whose voices have traditionally been left out of the conversation.
I understand why someone with an investment of cash and reputation in the expensive pursuit of high def equipment and 3-point lighting would feel threatened by evidence that people can understand one another perfectly fine with an onboard camera mic. But that doesn’t change the fact that there are a new set of standards and conventions in ascendency which have nothing to do with the commercial history that drives most talk about “quality.”
So-called “production values” are very important. And those values are changing. Get on board.
There’s a difference between tools (such as a software tool), news, entertainment and art.
Authenticity can be approximated via disregard for production values, but folks know in their guts when it isn’t real.
Do not assume that Picasso could not draw realistically from life. Do not assume that all vloggers do not know the rules they break.
I’m personally just tired of being force-fed olympic-quality, unattainable perfection and rethink the entire aesthetic of the medium.
Part of its charm is the immediacy. With immediacy, there are certain risks, not least of which is bad judgement.
There’s lots of that in the vlogosphere, too.
But if what you’re interested in is community and a strong network, all the rest of that shit falls away. Production values. Bah. Just keep showing us the world through your eyes, intelligence and heart.
That’s what I want and get in the vlog community: wider vision.
It’s about telling stories. Sometimes, stories without narrative.
Whatever it takes.
XOX,
– The Faux Press
Production value is very important to me… When I started Kitkast.com, I made my show with a video-capable still camera, but the video was cloudy and the audio gave me an annoying lisp. Both I and my audience were annoyed by this problem and it was not fixed until I purchased a Mini DV Cam.
There are so many factors to improve your audio and visual works that it’s hard to figure it all out while you’re learning a million other things as a newbie (ie. trying to learn about editing and compression, and using imperfect amateur equipment like a still digital camera). Whether it’s on purpose or not, vloggers tend to improve. I know that I, for one, am proud of all the improvements I’ve made since my debut back in October 2005.
Production value is an ongoing battle… sometimes you move to a larger space and your faced with echo (*ahem*) or sometimes your lighting isn’t good and you find out in post-production that the camera wasn’t able to focus perfectly (*ahem*). Things go wrong in filming sometimes, but that’s not just unique to videoblogging… it happens in Hollywood as well.
Vive la better production value!
Production values are valued most by those who are able to excell in them. Production values are most important up to the point that the viewer can see clearly what is happening and understand what is being said.
Perfectly lighted scenes and flawless sound actually enhance a presentation only marginally. Content, creativity and point of view are all much more important. Giving a voice to those who previously were excluded because they didn’t have professional cameras, commercial radio studios, etc. is what fills vloggers with revolutionary zeal.
If you have something really amazing to show and/or tell, now you have a level playing field (the Internet) on which you can “tell your story”. “share your idea” or just put on a show.
People whjo make a big deal about “production values” are the kind of people who don’t deal with the substance of something. Instead, they focus on details.
There is a difference between production values and being competent.
In the end it is about communicating effectively and telling a story. If the viewer can’t see what you are talking about due to poor lighting and choice of shots, if your voice is inaudible due to poor sound pick up/mic placement and if your video is slow and lacks a story, then all of those things will have a negative impact.
A great book can be written using just a pencil but you need some skills, which you probably learnt at school. A great video can be made with basic equipment, but many people have no skills at all and are too lazy or arrogant to learn from the numerous free resources out there. Film-making is a ‘language’.
Viewers will make some allowances but, like or not, they will compare your efforts to TV.
[00:00:08] stuff