Sunday, June 17, 2007

Thoughts?

Blogosphere, your advice please.

I’ve had an idea percolating for a while that I’m not sure whether to implement or not. I’ve been considering (deep breath), starting a podcast.

Here’s the basic idea for the format.

The podcast would be called “Concepts for Aliens” (or something a little snappier when I put a little effort into thinking of something better).

The concept is imagine that aliens have landed, and you have to explain basic concepts to them. (Ok, I know this sounds dumb as a sack of hammers, but let me explain). For example, the concept of ‘Concerned Parent’.

On the one hand, this is exactly as it sounds, a parent who is concerned. But if we put this into the context of someone who writes to a local paper and signs their letter ‘A Concerned Parent’, we know we’re probably talking about a knee-jerk reactionary, AKA, an asshole.

Oh, did I mention I’d try to be funny?

So, short 3 to 5 minute casts once or twice a week, in an after-school special style.

So now we come to the problems:

1) I’ve been told once or twice that I’m a funny guy. Unfortunately if I try to be funny, I come across as about as humorous as open-heart surgery.

2) Material. I deliberately left this blog as ‘open’ as possible so I’d always have something to write about. This is a little more specific, and it wouldn’t be long before I ran out of ideas.

So, whaddaya think? Worth a try? Or just another crappy podcast that no-one would listen to?

Let me know your thoughts, thanks!

The Paulius.

3 comments:

OzzyC said...

I think a podcast would be worth a try, but if you're going to do it, why not go all out and do a vlog? Maybe you could do a cardboard cutout of the alien and do mock interviews with the guy.

Paulius said...

I'd love to do a vlog, except for two small drawbacks.

1) I don't know anywhere that does free hosting of videos besides youtube, and youtube picture quality is awful.

2) I don't actually own a video camera. Which is a pretty big drawback for a vlog.

I thought about doing it as a series of flash cartoons as well, but the harder something is to produce, the less likely I am to keep doing it.

Kato said...

As Ze Frank said, don't get addicted to brain crack. I say do it. Do it and suck. Do it and succeed. Whatever the outcome, just do it. At least you'll have the experience. Of course, I can say all this knowing that you went ahead and did it already, but it would have been my advice anyway.

If you ever did a vlog, I'm sure you could probably find hosting. There are places like Revver that do revenue sharing and are likely better quality than YouTube. But not having a cam sucks (though these days I bet you could pick up a webcam, which are surprisingly decent, for a reasonable price).

And as for being funny... good luck, I'm still working on that one myself. I think you just have to be natural and not force it. When in doubt, look at the people you think are funny and see what they are doing.

If you run out of material, then you run out of material. You can always move on to something else and use what you learned with the first experiment to make your next project better.

When all else fails, dress up like The Queen and effect a posh woman's voice. Your British, that bit's always funny.