The First-Person Camcorder

There are these videos on You Tube of people who decide to take a picture of themselves everyday with a camcorder or webcam. This parody is my personal favorite.

If you want to take the idea further, you could do a daily video journal and capture it on disc. With a panasonic vdr m50 digital camcorder, you can record a dvd track entry everyday. Then, when you fill a disc up, you can just import it onto your computer. It’s just like a when you fill up a paper journal and file it away. And with a dvd camcorder, you are able to have your footage already in MPEG-4 format. Then, uploading it to YouTube or Revver.com is a snap.

These daily videos are most likely only entertaining to the filmmaker. But it is a way to track one’s progress and develop camcorder skills. I think it would be great to have a writer or even filmmaker to track their daily progress on whatever project they are working on. I know the video diary on the Magnolia dvd was pretty self-indulging of PT Anderson. Still, it was fascinating to see what was happening from his own POV on a long-term basis.

The camcorder allows you capture your personal behavior without a huge film crew following you around real world style. And even on the “Real World”, they have the confessional booth where the roommates essentially film themselves with a camcorder. I always found the confession tapes to be full of the best parts in the early years of the show. Lately, the confession segments seem overly fabricated. It’s more like they are being interviewed instead of speaking aloud to themselves.

Related posts:

1. YT Awards
2. A Camcorder Agenda
3. Camcorder Evidence
4. Dual Digital
5. Lights! Camera! Action!