What makes a good #lifecaster?
Tuesday, November 9, 2010 at 4:42PM
Operating as a 1 woman camera crew in 2008. That's the web cam, attached to a netbook, which ran off of a sprint air card. Awkward situations not included.I've been racking my brain all day trying to figure out if there is such a thing as a "perfect lifecaster." I have 3 people I already know I want to come on board to lifecast, just because I know I find them to be great storytellers and incredibly interesting people overall ... but there is no formula for this type of shit yet. Which is kinda awesome ... gives you room to play. MTV's Real World pretty much solidified the reality TV stereotypes ... "the hot chick, the dumb jock, the thoughtful one, the class act, the gay one, and the two that always ended up dating for the entire season." But what the hell makes a good lifecaster? It's definitely not something everyone can do. I've tested that theory, it's just not pretty.
First off, I've just been thinking about what the hell is a lifecaster? The best definition I could come up with is someone who dictates their life across the workable elements of social media. That's my standard definition when people ask me what I do. At any given moment, you can find out what I'm watching (via @gomiso), where I am (via FourSquare), what I'm listening to (via pandora), what I'm thinking (via twitter) ... and be told the entire story combing all of those elements via this loverly little website.
I tell good stories. No joke, I've been waiting for something like this to happen my entire life. A lot of weird, crazy, random shit happens to me. For reals!!! I've been like this little magnet forever and a day for interesting situations to just be attracted to. Total awesome sauce! But just having interesting things happen to me doesn't make a good lifecaster. You have to be able to tell the story.
In reality TV you have producers, editors, directors, a whole SLLEEWWW of people behind the scenes that watch what you do and figure out a way to tell the story with the footage they've captured. Lifecasters have to be able to tell the story in real time as it is happening in 140 characters, followed up with either a video or blog post after. It's night and day. I think eventually this art form will have producers, directors, and whatever else ... but we're currently in the trenches. So, we've got to figure this shit out for ourselves.
I'm totally figuring this out today, so if you guys have any ideas on what makes a lot of this interesting, and what doesn't I'm totally game to hear it. I need to write up these guidelines to give the lifecasters before they officially begin ... and I'm kinda just stuck.
Reader Comments (3)
For me a big part of what makes it interesting is MORE than talking heads. You need to put yourself out there. It's documenting your every day life, the connections you make and posting them for the world to see. I sort of accidentally ended up doing this when I was filming a project up in Alaska at the beginning of the year. What was supposed to be a story about someone else ultimately also became my story, my journey. Lifecasting is that, a spotlife on all aspects of your life, from where you go for groceries to meeting new people at your favorite bar. It's about incorporating YOUR life with others, which is where it can get tricky because not all people want to be a part of it. So it is then about then finding those that do in the most authentic way possible. So I would say a good rule is this is about YOU so respect those around you that may not want to take part in that and definitely incorporate those that do want to be a part of it. So big rule for me is RESPECT and understand that not everyone wants to participate and that's ok!
Social media to me has always been about engaging with people you may not typically come across in day to day life and being authentic at the same time. So infusing that as a lifecaster is also important. It's not necessarily where you are, but showing me from your POV where you are and what that means to you in the moment and then how that should or shouldn't affect me. I also think utilizing livestream will be a big component of this because it will allow us as a viewer to see what is happening in real time.
I think the most interesting stories are and will continue to be those that are simply people's every day lives and how those stories are all universal. Good luck lifecasters=)
depending on how you wet up your theme and life cast structure and equipment...
INTERACTION: enguaging your viewers prety much like there friends (close friends) in the room with you is a good start trying as much as possible not to be fake even though part of it must have some structure there are going to be worshipers and haters casual viewers and hard core
narration: viewers will be more enguaged and invested if you can involve them, viewers cant see, feel, understand everything about you, and keeping them in the loop such as telling viewers who a guest is or what website your looking at or that you dont feel well or sad about an argument with a friend.
transparency: this can be the toughest one depending on your theme/vision the more open and transparent you are the better this can feel very embarassing depending on what it is, breakup with a boy friend fight with family
you should talk with your friends to determine their position as you might share things that they might see or hear about same with family, if for some reason you cant or wont talk about something wont hide it or be sneeky ,, say you have an audition but its identity is confidential just say you did an audition and maybe give it a code name for later reference you will have to decide where you draw the line and do so before events transpire that also includes being intimate do you talk about or show kissing your BF? what about things more serious?
try to carry some sort of flip cam and be ready to use it like a diary try to note the date time and location for each entry and eighter narrate it like talking to a friend or telling a story.
WOWW! Awesome responses!!! keep it up!!!