Reviews, Views and Adventures in Content Creation

Friday, October 28, 2011

The Vlogger Interviews: Will Massenburg [CreativeSoulTV]

Viginia-based Will Massenburg, known on YouTube as CreativeSoulTV is today's Vlogger Interview - my blog and webseries looking at the world of vlogging, from the vloggers themselves.



Will Massenburg is, indeed, a creative soul.   His Twitter account describes him as "Director/Cartoonist/Geek/Flawed Genius/Blogger/Tech Enthusiast/Apple Fan/Video Maker/Podcaster/Movie Lover."  By day, he's a professional graphic artist - by his own description, he's naturally quiet and reserved. It's almost like Clark Kent and Superman - Superman being his YouTube personality. Superman was on full display during my recent Vlogger Interview, as Will greeted me in a full Halloween disguise. 

On his YouTube channel, Will is UNreserved, outward, funny, irreverent - and sometimes downright wacky - he's clearly having a great time.

"Vlogging waas something that I got into that sort of opened me up, and exposed me to the world, I guess - and here I am!"


Will's background as a graphic artist really shines in even his simplest "walking vlogs," shot using a serious of gadgets and contraptions that allow him to suspend his camera  beyond arm's length in front of him, shooting back to give the viewer perspective that includes a wide vista of the scene behind him, and making each video a visual - as well as informational - experience.  

"When I first started YouTube, I didn't understand the whole vlogging thing.  I thought it was kind of crazy. You're exposing yourself, you're talking about your life. Some of them can be boring, some exciting, comical.  But the more I got into it, the more I understood the whole concept of vlogging... I started understanding the little communities inside YouTube by just watching a lot of videos.  I started commenting on videos, rating them, subscribing to people, and that's how I started building my own little community, or fitting into a community.

Will doesn't tell many people that he's on YouTube.  The idea of vlogging is still alien to most outside the online community.  They think "it's just this crazy site, where you see these crazy videos and things like that.  I get the question, "Why are you on YouTube?  What are you doing on YouTube?   Why are you videotaping yourself, why are you talking to a camera?"

Part of Will's motivation is in the technology.  He loves the editing, music - the overall process of putting a video together.  He also appreciates the personal challenge,  "The more and more I do it, the comfortable I feel in front of people.  I'm basically shy, and vlogging kind of brings me out and makes me more of a social butterfly.  I know it's kind of hard to believe, I guy who's wearing a silly hat, saying crazy things, but - nobody's watching right now.   If I was in front of a crowd of people, I would probably just freeze up."

Will summed up his love for vlogging in a simple, but universal expression:

"I feel like a kid in a candy store."

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