A few months ago, my brother introduced me to YouTube vlogger and internet sensation Casey Neistat. Like millions of other people (literally), I was immediately hooked. Casey's concept of a daily vlog meant documenting his day, everyday, and releasing a new YouTube video every 24 hours or so.
While Casey is a film maker, his point isn't to use fancy video equipment or to carefully choose camera angles or to preemptively plan footage scenes. Instead, he captures moments on-the-go with a minimal video/audio setup, and uses powerful storytelling to keep you inspired and entertained.
It's clear that Casey is very good at vlogging since it's something he's done everyday for more than a year—on top of years of filmmaking experience prior. When you think about it, having to produce so much content, day in and day out, must be a difficult exercise of discipline and a huge stretch... But practice makes perfect, and Casey Neistat's YouTube videos are an example of that.
One of the reasons why Casey's style of filmmaking appealed to me (as to thousands of other content creators) is that it's relatable. Casey shows you that you can make great low-budget home-videos and grow an audience. He also reinforced a point I discovered a while back: don't wait until it's perfect to release your project. You'll either get tired of working on endless tweaks or you'll abandon the project altogether. Instead, release it when it's good enough and move on to the next one.
So, being inspired by Casey's and my brother's vlogs, I decided to give it a try as a creative exercise. I would capture various moments on video and then try to compose music for it. I did not attempt a daily vlog because... my life really isn't all that interesting! And I also have a full time job which keeps me busy for most of each day. But I set out to document upcoming trips and excursions and to record music for each vlog.
The YouTube playlist above is a compilation of all the videos which resulted from this creative exercise. And here is a list of each vlog I made: