Active Context goes Youtube!

Ok, so Active Context goes Youtube? Well, yes! I’ve actually had a channel on therefore several years but didn’t really post anything besides a few clips a few years back of me just talking about this movie or that album. It was a time before ActiveContext as a concept didn’t really exist. I was writing on the blog The Flick Fanatics Companion and the Swedish equivalent Fanatisk Film. I wasn’t really happy with this approach since I also wrote on a couple of other Swedish blogs – Magnifik Musik about music and Bedårande Böcker about books. There were a few other minor blogs at the time as well but I’ll leave those for now. What I wanted was a place where I could combine all of my interests and not limit myself to just movies or music or anything else. I also wanted to reach out more so I had to abandon my first language and go for English.

As it’s not my first language I was a bit worried and I guess I struggled a bit at first with finding the correct words. There’s always a problem finding the nuances when writing in a foreign language. I think I’m fairly good at English but it’s never really the same. But there are programs that let you get the grammar right and spell checks and all that stuff. Of course, that doesn’t prevent me from making mistakes sometimes anyway. But that’s life, I’m not afraid to make mistakes anymore.

Inspiration

Taking it to youtube is another matter though. It’s one thing to find the written word and one thing to express them with my voice. I’m not good at that even in Swedish. But What the heck? Why not give it a go. I’m a pretty frequent visitor on youtube som I’ve seen my fair share of what’s going on. But could I create my own content? Did I have what it takes? Well, I got encouraged by an acquaintance – Sarah of Horror, check out her channel!

Inspired and ready to go I tried my hand at filming myself. I can’t talk and I can edit so I tried to make it as good as I could of course. To have something to talk about I chose the fifth season of the Swedish series Mother Goose which I had just seen and was pretty pleased by. Well, the video was not as good as the season was lol!

Clickbait

Then I watched this pretty unusual movie called Antrum. It was really special and I thought I could rant a bit about that one as well. Theoretically, it wouldn’t be a problem since I had lots of thoughts about it. But still. It’s a difference between sorting your thoughts in writing and actually speaking them. Regardless of which language you use! I did try to do some editing stuff as well. It think it took me all day but I learned a lot! I also thought I should try my hand on the clickbait. I hate coming up with “selling” titles but I had to give it a go anyway. I might do a written review of this some time. It’s really special!

With this new knowledge at my disposal, I went ahead and made something I thought about a few years ago actually, but never got around to. I wanted to make a series of videos where I pick three objects from my collections and display them for the camera i.e. my cell phone and talk a bit about them. I was really please with the intro I created for this and I have made three parts of this series so far. I really enjoy actually holding in a physical DVD or CD or a game for these shootings.

Collections

It’s very different to actually holding in something but to just speak about something without holding it. Strange, I don’t know why. I also thought I should create a template thumbnail with me making some funny faces but I think I have replaced them with something else now. The purpose is to be seen and I don’t think that the template really did that for me. Well, I don’t know.

But just displaying collections might be the funniest thing to do. I’m a critic essentially and I want to review stuff and have opinions. Of course, I have some means to do that when I talk about the stuff from my collection but it’s not really the same! But the problem is that I know that you should niche yourself on youtube. That’s what most of the videos I’ve been watching claim anyway. And I don’t want to do that. I don’t wanna limit myself to movies or a certain genre of movies. I want to cover all of my interests. I want the channel to be an extension of ActiveContext.net.

Cult!

But I have made a couple of reviews too. Movies are my first interest so I went for that first. But what to pick? Well, First I went for a cult classic, more or less. I thought that at least a few people should be interested in Ninja in the Dragons Den, But I was wrong. Very few views were generated.

Then I thought, Horror! That’s what I probably know most about and am most interested in when it comes to movies. I also have most friends interested in the genre on social media. The first attempt was a disaster. I think the movie choice I made was ok. A movie that wasn’t terribly old but at the same time not over-hyped. I chose The 16th Episode which is about YouTubers chasing more views for their channel. Pretty funny to post a review about such a subject and at the same time really looking for more exposure myself. Well, it misfired for me, but I still got off better than the people in the movie!

Zombies for the masses

Ok then. What about a Zombie flick. A pretty different one. Not as well known as the classics of course but not a movie that everyone already has covered in reviews either. Well, it actually went a little better. But I think most of the views are really me checking how things work etc. How many of you out there have actually seen Re-Kill? Or even heard about it? Maybe more than I thought but still not as many as the more mainstream zombie flicks out there.

For each video, I have learned a lot about editing which is really the fun part of YouTubing. I don’t enjoy speaking to the camera that much, it feels pretty awkward. I can handle it and even if my accent is the greatest I think I can make myself understood. Of course, I know I might not be the most energetic guy in the universe, especially when I’m talking but I don’t feel itäs right to pretend I am something that I’m not. I’m a thoughtful person and I don’t talk a lot just for the sake of it. Maybe I should start practicing that? It might give me more views on youtube at least. I understand that something needs to happen in the youtube clips.

Final video?

And with my latest upload to date, I think I went all in. It’s the most excessive editing I have done and I was really proud when I even edited in some sound as a reference in this one. I have learned to get pictures in the footage both covering the entire stream or just adding it to a corner or something. I have learned to add some texts and I now know how to add some extra sound as well! What I really enjoy is getting a better editor for the videos. But If I can ever be a better speaker? I’m unsure about that. Silence of the Hams review below! Hasta la baby vista!