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Saturday, April 16, 2011

The Video Blogging Interview with Steve Garfield

I was interviewed by a university student majoring in Communications who is fascinated by Video Blogging.

Here are her questions and my answers:

Video / My First Videoblog post: January 1st 2004. It's the year of the video blog.

1. Why did you decided to start Video Blogging?

I started video blogging as a technical exercise. There were lots of blogs around, but no blogs with video so I decided to see if I could figure out how to do it.

Link: First Video Blog Post: 2004: The Year of the Video Blog

1a. What made you do it?

I like to make a New Year's resolution each year, so this was my four 2004.

1b. Why did you decided to start the The Carol and Steve Show?

The Carol and Steve Show was another New Year's resolution. I wanted to get into the regular habit of making videos and figured filming what my wife and I did on the weekends would be good fun, would get her involved in creating videos with me, and share moments of my life with online friends.

2. How did you initially become involved or interested in video blogging? What has kept you involved for so long?

Like I said earlier, it was just a technical exercise to see if I could figure out how to do it. But, once I got involved they were always new things to try, new things to learn, and I was happy to share that knowledge on my blog.

What's kept me involved so long is the satisfaction I get from helping people.

3. What made you start video blogging protest rallies, traffic short-cuts... (citizen journalism)?

Steve and Amanda
Steve and Amanda in NYC

I've always been very interested in how news is produced. The New York City video blog Rocketboom, asked me to become a correspondent for them. That's what I started doing a lot more videos.

Link: Steve Garfield's Rocketboom Reports.

Video blogging is a lot like blogging. It's people sharing knowledge. So I like to record events and things that I learn about and share them with video.

4. Has been a significant person (or persons) in your life that have influenced or stimulated your thinking and attitudes about your work?

Kathy Griffin at Eagle 93.7
With Kathy Griffin at Eagle 93.7

When I was a producer on a Boston morning radio show, Kevin Karlson was my mentor. He insisted that all the audio edits I produced were perfect, I love that work environment trying to make the perfect edit.

That audio editing experience related to video editing.

4a. How did they influence your work?

I also learned how to tell us story in a short period of time, and how to craft a story.

5. Where do the ideas for your work generally come from?

I get ideas for videos from news and events around me.

6. Has there been a particular project or event that has significantly influenced the direction of your career? if so, could you talk a little about it?

For a period of time I was an independent consultant, doing programming and web user interface. While doing that, I took classes to learn how to edit with Final Cut Pro. Prior to that I worked in public access video for number of years. When the Macintosh laptop came out with Final Cut Pro, along with a consumer video camera, I could bring the whole production studio into my own home. Then, when a long-term programming contract ended, I decided to pursue video production full-time.

7. When you started, did you saw video blogging as a career, or just as an expression?


Vlog Soup 21 from 1/5/07

I've always looked at video blogging as a way to express myself. It's a way to practice with new software and hardware, and learn new techniques. The career comes from the visibility that video blogging gives me. Video blogging has led to consulting contracts with major companies, a book deal, and appearances on many broadcast outlets.

8. Why did you decided to write books on Video Blogging?

David Meerman Scott approached me one day and asked me if I'd ever thought about writing a book. I told him that I hadn't. And he asked me if I wanted to write one, so I agreed. Writing the book, Get Seen: Online Video Secrets to Building Your Business (New Rules Social Media Series), was a lot of fun and I'm enjoying all the positive feedback that I'm getting from it.