The Great Village
I’m back as an active member of the Seesmic community and as with the Indy thing am looking at ways to interact work and play on the platform. I believe the next six months are going to get very interesting in regards to online video and particularly for the more conversational sites. Of late though I’ve been very critical regarding a few things that don’t work or are just missing over on Seesmic. Time for a little more positive feedback.
I’m really enjoying The Great Village. Check out the first episode here:
Why does this work? Because of a nice robust attitude to what doesn’t work*. Vin Vin had a good stab at something called Seesmic Cafe but it never really gelled for me. I actually appeared on an episode and it was pretty obvious on both sides of the camera that something was broken. Partly was the interplay between Vin Vin and the ‘barfly’ - it was often painful to watch. Which was crazy because Vin Vin is a very funny guy. Thankfully that seems to have been mothballed, lessons have been learned and we’re now treated to Vin Vin and Giselle. And the interaction is very genuine.
You can tell these two are friends and enjoy working together and thanks to some smart work behind the camera (quick shout out to Whit) Vin Vin is allowed to do what comes naturally. Being a French guy in a very American setting is something he’s very fucking good at - he doesn’t need a script and what comes across is the passion for what he’s doing and a genuine interest in what’s going on around him.
Meanwhile Giselle is just about the most natural person I’ve seen on any kind of web show. That she’s a film maker in her own right helps a lot and I know that her and Whit have a long history (think Willow and Xander) which makes for an altogether stronger show. You need to trust the people you work with and I think this comes across in spades watching these episodes.
Even when moving from heavier topics such as 9/11 and Tibet to Californian wine you get a sense of something special here. Check out Vin Vin:
Really good stuff guys. I’ll keep watching.
* Trial and error means trying a lot. That’s a blog post in itself.
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Wow Mike, Thanks so much for the blog post. I’ve told you before we have another show that we’re going to pilot. We’re all pretty excited about it, and this is officially the first text announcement of that. I won’t say any more.
We really appreciate your feedback and take it quite seriously, so thank you so much for taking some time to watch our content.
Thanks Mike! your post made my day.
“very interesting in reagrds to” - really must spell check…
That basic error aside, what was that about wanting to get on with everyone all the time? Why can’t you just carp and whinge from the sides like everyone else? Why not be open and frank without also having to find something to praise, Dr Pavlov? Are we that predictable?
Actually you’re 300% kinds of right. I agree with you so much that I bleed pumpkin juice. This is a great and woofing dog full of health and promise. Vive!
Where do I sent this brown paper envelope?
Whit - I now have my eye on you.
Loic - My pleasure.
Hey Deek - my own fault for relying on a crappy spell checker - it’s rare that I write straight into wordpress. My bad.
I’m gonna put “Where do I sent this” down to your deep sense of irony
[...] wanted to give Mike Atherton a quick shout out and thanks for his kind words and comments over on his blog. Mike is a Seesmic user, and someone I really value the opinion of. He’s from the UK and [...]
Is there an emoticon for irony? That would help…
Nicely said, nice to read, and giving a very fair treatment to many shared feelings about the shows. Thank you Mike.
Mike-
Excuse my taking so long to respond to this. I like to really think things through… ahem, thank you.
Thank you not only for this post as it is incredibly valuable (and nice:) to hear but thank you also for your consistent honesty - whether it is good or bad. Yours is an opinion I always listen for and I have come to value very much so I just really appreciate you being very honest with us all the time. Of course, while I appreciate honesty in any form, it’s nice when that honesty is as complimentary as this blog post so thank you very much for the compliments. It makes me very glad to know you like the show.
ps Just posted #4 and working on #5 (which I am really excited about).
pps And Whit is right, look out for this new show. You probably should be excited about it too. (2nd official text announcement).
ppps And one more thing, keep it real.
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