What Being a Second Life ‘Event Vlogger’ Is Really Like
I jumped head first into ‘blogging’ for a popular shopping event, and wanted to share my experience in case you were wondering what all is involved in the process.
Abnormality is a ‘furry & alternative’ shopping event in Second Life that happens throughout the year. The staff has been awesome in ‘teaching me’, a blogging newb, about what it’s like to get everything done, following the rules, and working with a group to promote a series of products. It was a cool opportunity to think outside the box and it was nice to be able to feature products in a fun way. I like helping Second Life businesses, so this was essentially getting to plug little entrepreneurs in a fun and creative way. I’m a weirdo, cause that’s just my jam. :) The theme for this shopping event was ‘Tumbleweed’, so I tried to keep a ‘desert-ish’ undertone to everything I did for my content. Here is what I came up with!
Video 1: The Desert Dryad
A few weeks before the event opens to the public, the ‘Blogger Room’ opens. This is a magical place full of amazing free items that creators have put out for bloggers to come and look at their items, try them on, and collect the colors/sizes they need to create whatever it is they want to create for their ‘required posts’ for the event. This cactus avatar you see in the picture above was there from the first day, and I thought it was so unique that I just had to do something with it. I only know of a few places that have deserts that can be filmed in - this one is a residential sim that thankfully didn’t kick me out when I perched weirdly on the edge of their region and did yoga moves dressed up as a cactus. (Maybe I blended in? :)
This was the first time that I was bummed that I didn’t have access to ‘another avatar’ on my Feorie Frimon account - I had to use one of my husbands accounts to avoid paying for an entirely new avatar set up (banjo guy in the video), but because he wasn’t in the group, I couldn’t put him in additional Abnormality gear to further promote the event items. I hadn’t encountered this problem before - normally when I ‘vlog something’, I just buy it from the store for whatever avatars I need it for, and put the credits in the bottom. Getting something for free, or trying to use an item that is only exclusively coming out at a specific event, can be hard unless you plan to use it directly on the avatar that is in the right groups. Newb mistake on my part. :)
This one took me about 8 hours from start to finish, including filming and editing. I also had to purchase some ‘western’ looking stuff for Gonje’s avatar, animations, and the EPIC banjo he’s using in the film (total about $2,000L). Looking at the ‘stats’ on the video, (roughly 2 weeks after it came out), the video has been seen almost 3,000 times across all of my social media platforms. Pretty good! :)
Video 2: Tumbleweed
This video 100% sourrounded the items and the song I chose (Thanks Bryce!). I picked three different Abnormality featured avatars that were available in the blogger room at the time that I started making this video, found three different ‘desert locations’ in Second Life, purchased a couple of fun animations to add to my collection, and off I went - into the grid to film furries bounding around the sands.
I ‘upped my machinima game’ in this video in two ways:
First, I better organized my shots. You’ll notice I have three furry chicks, and they all rotate between the plane and ‘somewhere else’ - the item was to blend the entire video in a way that made it feel more cohesive. I’m pretty happy with the results.
The second this I did was make a point to learn how to ‘Pan and Zoom’ in Premiere Pro. Because Gonje has now taught me so basics about filming (always in 4k, nothing less than 30 fps if at all possible), and I’ve been trolling YouTube to learn more about how to use Premiere Pro, I’ve tried to add a new technique every time I edit a video.
Oh, and the ‘Jackass’ mod on the little flight attendant at the end? It’s my fave. <3 I love it so much haha
This one took me about 10 hours from start to finish, including avatar creation, filming and edit. This one was a little bit longer because there was a ‘furry learning curve’, and I wasn’t 100% sure what I wanted to do when I started (except use LOTS of Abnorality items).
I think I spent closer to $2,500L $3,000L between backdrops, clothes, and heads for this project. Looking at the ‘stats’ on the video, (roughly 10 days after it came out), the video has been seen almost 2,500 times across all of my social media platforms.
Video 3: The Mermaid
When I saw mermaids in the blogger room, I was like…. uh oh. For does THAT work with Tumbleweeds? But I kept mulling on it..and mulling on it…and then after some pondering, I wondered how many people would blog about the mermaid tail. And that made me sad. :( So here we are! Mermaids and Tumbleweed. Challenge accepted! I hope I did it justice! :) These are my FAVORITE types of videos to do - the ones that tell a story more so than a dance video.
But real talk? This video was HARD to film - the learning curve of alpha textures + animated textures + SL water + high graphics + filming was steep. Honestly, I still didn’t master it because I never got my FPS up to 30 and had to work with what I had. (I wonder if one of those Second Life mega regions would have helped in this case?) There are a few minor things I’d change, but over all, it was an exploration of sound, effects, filming techniques, and angles. It was a really fun project, and getting to use some of these combat animations I’ve been collecting over the past few months was a fun bonus.
This one took me about 9 hours from start to finish, including avatar creation, filming, re-filming and edit. There was a ‘mermaid learning curve’ and I spent close to $2,500L $3,000L between backdrops, mermaid tail, clothes, animations, etc for this project. Looking at the ‘stats’ on the video, (roughly 4 days after it came out), the video has been seen almost 1,000 times across all of my social media platforms.
Other Posts
I also did two other small videos that involved an overall less production. One of my most popular shorts on Flickr is literally Feorie standing in a kitchen frying bacon in a Bay City highrise, and I’ve found that sometimes little quick pictures or silly videos can get a ton of reach if done correctly.
THIS ONE was for a set of tea props, the Voo Doo doll in her hands, and the Lysel mod. Nothing fancy…just a chick chillin’ doin’ some voodoo waitin’ on her tea to steep. You know…normal stuff. :) I didn’t have to buy anything, and it only took me about two hours from start to finish, and as of now the view reach is just over 1,000 across all of channels. Not bad! :)
Gonje got this song stuck in my head this past week, so naturally,I went with it and used the idea to fuel a video. It’s a silly short, but I got to feature someone I’ve wanted to promote for awhile and stomp around the Wastelands as godzilla. That’s always fun. :) I only had to purchase the furry head and red shirt that the human in the video is wearing, so I spent under $2,000L. I spent about 4 hours filming, making avatars, and editing. Traction on this one has been varied - it’s been up three days and we’re at almost 500 views across all channels.
So - the total numbers?
Total Views: As of 8/10/23 when I totaled everything up, 8,000 views across all platforms and all social media content created. I’m no Panda Banana or Teal Aurelia, but HECK YEAH! I’m pretty proud of that number! :)
My Total Cost to Blog Them: $10,000 L
If I was regularly a furry, this would have been WAY lower. I bought three heads to blog all the items I did for these videos and two Minimal backgrounds - I could have done this way cheaper, but I had a little bit of a budget to play with. (Also - WOAH! Furry heads are WAY cheaper than the human ones that many residents wear! And WAY more customizable! There could honestly be an entire blog post/series about how the furry creation community is the ideal community to look at when it comes to avatar heads….but I digress…)
Total Hours Spent Creating Content: 34 hours
Total Worth of Items Used In Content Creation: A Lot - tons. I haven’t gone down and counted exactly how much everyone is selling everything for, but I’m sure that I got many $1000s of Linden worth of goods in exchange for my content that I created to promote the event. While I’m not 100% sure I’ll use everything that I received to test and try and blog with, I did get to have a few items that I really do love and will wear often. That, plus the fun of making the content in the first place, really is enough ‘payment’ for me. (I hear you Bloggers - I get it now :)
Total Followers Gained: Maybe 50ish across all social media platforms?(Twitter/Flickr mostly - maybe 1 or 2 on Youtube)
