Saturday, August 21, 2010

My American Idol Opinions

This is my first ever video post. I'd appreciate input and opinions, but please be kind!

6 comments:

Rae said...

Hey lady! Great job! Sonia and I watched and loved your video. We think you have a great on screen presence. Just a few notes. One is that you can hear Andrew in the background...just bits and pieces of what he's saying, but it's a little distracting. The other is just a loading issue. As we watched your video, it stopped multiple times and buffered, but wouldn't restart unless I moved the playhead. I'm not sure anything can be done about that...and it wasn't that big of a deal anyway. Overall, it was awesome and you're totally fun to watch. Looking forward to the next installment!

mary alice said...

You were awesome! I stopped watching a few seasons ago. I just felt like it was kind of boring after so many seasons!

Sally G. said...

Good morning Colleen! I agree completely with Rae - you have a fabulous on-screen presence: friendly, inviting, comfortable, welcoming. I felt it would have been great sitting in the room with you discussing this topic. Well done.

I also heard 'distracting sound' in the background. In fact, I assumed it was in my house and muted the video temporarily to check. As Rae noted, not a big deal really - but it did take me away from what you were saying for a small bit of time.

Finally, for a weekly v-log - it may be a bit long. People seem to have a limited time/attention span online ... it's hard to know the point where 'hooking them' evaporates into 'losing them' ~ and you are engaging and your topic was interesting. Just something to think about.

Now, my thoughts on American Idol. Like you - I very quickly tired of the 'who will be the next judge' discussion. WHO CARES? I think part of American Idol's decline rooted from the fact that the focus became more about the branding and the celebrities than it did the contestants and the talent.

Harry Connick Jr., Shania Twain, Barry Manilow, Adam Lambert - all these mentors actually made their sessions about the individuals they worked with. They were generous, giving, helpful and all would make great judges.

When Ego rules - it becomes about things that don't really matter. Good talent is voted off because voters are calling in based on popularity. Judges looking for good media bytes offer critiques that are either unfair or unhelpful - yet sway mindless voters.

I will continue to watch American Idol because for me, it's about the young artists on stage. I do think things will change this season. Nigel Lythgoe is back as Executive Producer and one of his goals is to lift American Idol out of its two season ratings slump. You can't do that by leaving things largely the same.

Great job Colleen. I'm looking forward to next week's installment!

alexandra p said...

Hey Colleen! - I just watched your vlog post and loved it! I had no loading issues. Can you make a facebook "like" link to your site? Also, as a lot of us adults have ever increasingly short attention spans, a 5 minute limit might be a good idea. Anyway, loved seeing you and keep up the good work!!

Phunk Factor said...

The video was cool...i enjoyed it!! I didn't have any problems in buffering...it all played pretty smooth for me!!

About the subject...I gotta agree with Sally G., the last season it was focused more on the judges than on the talent....couple that with the fact that the talent was the worst ever...I only tuned in to watch Crystal!!

About the new season...i'll tune in a few weeks to see if they are focusing on the contestants and the quality of contestants....if it's up to standard...why not?!

I grew up watching American Idol...I'd hate to give it up!

Colleen said...

Thanks for all the feedback. Isn't it amazing that I can't get a quiet house for 5 minutes? I'm more shocked the dog didn't bark the entire time. I will keep future vlogs shorter. My next one was only a few minutes long. I'm shelving that one for now though, because next week I'm talking Emmys!