Why a Vlog Fails and the Carlynton Project.

I begin with a quote from myself....

It seems that the story of Carlynton's creation hasn't been told. With the proposed consolidation of the two elementary schools, may be a generation that does not see a Crafton Elementary and a Carnegie Elementary.

That is why I did the Carlynton Project, to look at the one unified district that the three towns had in mind. A simple 5-minute video project detailing the general history that everyone knows. Easy project right?

I should know by now that nothing is easy. Relationships, Politics, Baseball, and Carlynton Project all have at least one thing in common: It's Complicated. In order to pull off something as simple as a video project I fought off speed limit signs, woods, black-draped posters, and the web that is the streets of Crafton and Rosslyn Farms. It took months of research, planning, and scripting and at least three hours of editing to get to where it ended up. In the end, I have a 7-minute DVD in HD (So I can't watch it myself) and apparently a GATE project.

So, I submit three copies: One to my adviser, one to my supervisor, and the third to my uncle. My supervisor watched it a week after I submitted it with her daughter (who is a film major) and "loved it".  My adviser, well it took him about three weeks to figure out what it was.

Then, in front of the 7th grade teaching staff, he decides then to premier it. It received the best reviews for a video that I have ever made. He decided the next day to deliver it to the PR director for the district... who is also the secretary for the school district.

She decides to premier the project in front of the whole school board the next day. I have no knowledge there was even a board meeting. The following day, today, the superintendent walks over to me at lunch and asks for a copy for the district. He apparently liked it... a lot.

So this is how a project snowballs. Not through YouTube, but through word-of-mouth. Not through 99 cents per click, but through giving a DVD to your world cultures teacher (yes, the marine) and seeing what happens. Vlogging fails because the story gets told but never gets seen. This is the story, the story to be continued.