Lonelygirl15

Out of the three articles we’ve read so far this week, I thought that the article about Lonelygirl15, “The Secret World of Lonelygirl” by Joshua Davis, was the most interesting.  I had heard of Lonelygirl15 before, but I had never seen the videos.  I always kind of figured that it was some scam by a bored teenage girl, and not an elaborate plan to recreate television.  I was amazed at the amount of time, effort, and money that went into this project.  The type of people behind the whole thing are not who you would expect either. One guy is an ex-lawyer, and another is a writer, and another is an ex-doctor.  I always pictured that they would be geeky college computer nerds or something of the sort, not adults with actual jobs.

The creaters of Lonelygirl see fictional video-blogging, or “vlogging” as they call it, as a potential new form of television.  They say that it is better than television, because you can actually interact with the characters on the show, and the plot can be changed or twisted based on what the audience says that they want to see.  The videos are all about two or three minutes long, like a regular video blog would be, or most Youtube videos, really. It is also released several times a week, like a normal vlog would be.

Despite what people may think, Lonelygirl has as many viewers as popular sitcoms.  According to Davis, the videos average about 500,000 hits each.  This idea of using fictional video blogging as a new type of television where the fans can interact with the characters is cool and definitely more convenient than television shows.  There is no such thing as “missing” one of these videos, as they are always online, and you can change the plot.  The creaters of Lonelygirl could really be onto something big.

Below is a video that I found on Youtube.  It’s an interview with two of the creators of Lonelygirl.  It’s a lot of the same information as the article gave, but it is interesting to hear it directly from the creators.  Enjoy