Uncle Sez: How we make our China vlog

Don't succumb to that pressure to produce all the time; take the time to rest and recharge your creative batteries! We talk about how the cycle of production and recharge works, and the difference between procrastination and constructive relaxation. Uncle Sez what?: How's your uncle?: Labor Day holiday 1:03 • Conducting business: More than 200 views! 4:21 • Homeschool film school: Take a break 8:01 • Commentary: 5 videos * Watch it!: "Barry" 1:28:27 Links, mentions and videos: • Elizabeth Gilbert, "Big Magic: Creative living beyond fear" • "The end of Summer in Sichuan China" https://youtu.be/rvh-4mqtgUo • "Understanding the mystery of power in China" https://youtu.be/fEtNWe2Xam0 • "One year in Lijiang" https://youtu.be/HaQL1X1uhFY • "Why care about the environment?" https://youtu.be/urEvvK23vfg • "I can't put my shoes on any faster" (Vacuum update) https://youtu.be/kgWFsVMnuN4 • "Walk-in clinic in China" https://youtu.be/tnXAq67V-HE • "Environmental pharmacy" https://youtu.be/H4-BvcxjBo4 Correction: The

As low- (no)budget filmmakers, we've got janky equipment, but that's part of what makes our janky style. This week's Uncle Sez is all about the MacGyver-ing we do to get the shots we want, using our cheap-o cameras, stands, lights and sound recorders. Also part of our discussion of how we make our China vlog: are we in favor of copyright infringement protections? And, where did blue come from? Excuse our technical problems, but the sound cut out a little more than halfway through. So this week: Another abrupt ending! Our videos and links: • Podcast RSS feed: http://feeds.soundcloud.com/users/soundcloud:users:478018788/sounds.rss • Podcast on Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/hello-uncle-foreigner/uncle-sez?refid=stpr • "Why do we live in China" https://youtu.be/Yr15wv25CL0 • The Summer Trilogy https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLb6g-VebhVZzgaKCz5w80gSrKG425BEMo • "All the tea in China vs. Starbucks" https://youtu.be/wE-G9nRm6RA • "An island we want you to forget" https://youtu.be/jnpjZHDgvHc •

This week our discussion of how we make our China vlog centers on lighting. How can you tell if it's good or bad? Besides visibility, what style can lighting contribute to your video? And what difference do expensive lights make, anyway? Videos and links: • Hello Foreigner: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCftjeM16I5qqLnCc1iIH8Ag • "Three ways I survive China" https://youtu.be/0Xzexf_sfi4 • "What time is it in China?" https://youtu.be/Qj1pC_h_VBc • "No ice, you're in China" https://youtu.be/HkpwDMI4fXQ • "It's China, so get used to it" https://youtu.be/yWtgxvmnupQ • "Making weird noises at the gym in China" https://youtu.be/9TMZ_cnWAmg • "Fighting in the foothills of the Himalayas, and a normal massage" https://youtu.be/U2OUO79wZl8 • "Still shy in China" https://youtu.be/lAD1K3Jew0k • "My American husband almost died in China" https://youtu.be/3Cw5j4oddFg • Western Toilet "About time" https://youtu.be/Em_KyGTr_0M Well-lit shows mentioned: "The Twilight Zone," "What we do in the Shadows," "A.P. Bio

The giraffe has evolved into our prime mode of China vlog, and this week we started to look at actually giving the darn thing some structure! Addendum: Cory Fukunaga is the name of the man who directed "Maniac." Videos mentioned: • "Shoes": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgWFsVMnuN4 • "No ice": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HkpwDMI4fXQ • "Mega shorts": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9p76Osi-Fw • "Sichuan dinner": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6kj8eDpU-Q • "Noodles": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f65G2WWRMaA • "Book review: 'Little Soldiers'": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3eb6noVewo • Western Toilet: "Cool water" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kvzbcnN-V0 Uncle Sez what?!: How's your uncle?: Failures 1:14 • Conducting business: A Facebook boost 4:43 • Homeschool film school: Giraffe video structure 10:14 • Commentary: "No ice," "Mega shorts," "Sichuan dinner," and "Little soldiers" 31:25 • Watch it!: "Superstore" 1:07:17 -- Uncle Sez is a weekly chat about the making of China vlog chan

Sometimes collaborators disagree -- then what do you do?! We'll tell you all about that and more in this week's Uncle Sez -- How we make our China vlog. Videos mentioned: • All Hello Foreigner thumbnails: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCftjeM16I5qqLnCc1iIH8Ag/videos • "China keeps welcoming me": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwNc8wEoG-U • "Lamma Island": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnpjZHDgvHc • "KTV": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHJ2t_rpRv8 • "Ideas vs. Style, round 1": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKuOSfO46Q8 • "Noodles": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f65G2WWRMaA • "Don't change your clothes": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-W2o7WH4AQ • "Park life": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvRaGemK4Hw • "Rural China": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5xuc5qdsQY • "I can't put my shoes on any faster": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgWFsVMnuN4 • "Shoes (official music video)": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJOv1jHBfbo • "Straight out of Luzhou (official music video)": https://www.youtube.com/

This week, we have a somewhat convoluted discussion about facts versus stories -- one of us was very tired when we filmed this and wasn't expressing herself so well. But, it's all part of how we make our China vlog. Videos & links: • Our website: https://www.hellouncleforeigner.com/ • "Hot Pot: Woman vs. Spice": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgR2Z1hRgUE • "No sleep til naptime" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWPenssClio • "Peanut Butter" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RU9rsJPprU • Gastropod: https://gastropod.com/ • "The Food Explorer: The true adventures of the globe-trotting botanist who transformed what America eats," by Daniel Stone: https://www.danielstonebooks.com/ Uncle Sez what?: How's your uncle?: Famous eyes 1:26 • Conducting business: The giraffe spine 4:30 • Homeschool Film School: More than an idea 13:41 • Commentary: "No sleep til naptime" 36:21 • Watch it!: Gastropod 46:55 -- Uncle Sez is a weekly chat about the making of China vlog channel Hello Foreigner. You can find those vid

"How do I know if my work is good?" is a question that plagues all artists, and it's our topic of discussion on this week's Uncle Sez, how we make our China vlog. Videos discussed: • Xiu Xiu, "Scisssssssssors": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkK6GT4pkbU • Don't change your clothes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-W2o7WH4AQ • First appearance of the Giraffe: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=61WOJfEQzYw • Peanut butter taste test: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RU9rsJPprU • "Look Around You": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBaVwwuErmU Uncle Sez what?: How's your uncle?: Street mangoes 1:12 • Conducting business: No Internet 3:10 • Homeschool film school: How do you know it's good? 5:24 • Commentary: Peanut butter and Pants 32:35 • Watch it!: "A.P. Bio" and "Better Things" 58:47 -- Uncle Sez is a weekly chat about the making of China vlog channel Hello Foreigner. You can find those videos at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCftjeM16I5qqLnCc1iIH8Ag

In this week's look at how we make our China vlog, we talk about filming on location, and the different approaches we take to getting it done. By the by, we talk about Internet disruptions at the very beginning ... and then our connection came back right after we were finished filming! So this video when up right as planned. Videos referenced: • New channel trailer: https://youtu.be/OHCe0cZ30eU • Keep your freakin' money: https://youtu.be/9v92pO50nI0 • Nine months of Uncle Foreigner: https://youtu.be/25kvnPdOQAg • Fish mint in Chinese cuisine: https://youtu.be/YzWR1014Mxw • Taobao scams: https://youtu.be/WpE9Iiiqz7Y • Field notes: https://youtu.be/S5xuc5qdsQY • Last week's "Giraffe": https://youtu.be/jvRaGemK4Hw • Christmas in China: https://youtu.be/neH9wMbDtVo Uncle Sez what?: How's your uncle?: The babies are crying 2:13 • Conducting business: YouTube channel trailers 4:54 • Commentary: Fish mint, Taobao, and Field notes 16:02 • Homeschool film school: On location filming 34:04 • Watch it!: "Do

Uncle Sez is our weekly look into how we make our China vlog. This week we talk about how to do a good on-camera interview. We also look at that tricky line between what's popular among other YouTube creators vs. what the viewers are actually looking for and watching. And ... the Asian squat. That Atlantic article: https://www.youtube.com/redirect?q=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theatlantic.com%2Fhealth%2Farchive%2F2018%2F03%2Fcan-you-do-the-asian-squat%2F555716%2F&event=video_description&v=kzqFCb_u5ZE&redir_token=w7fQLx2ZmDtIexRxdLAJZkH62Nl8MTU1NDc4OTQ1MUAxNTU0NzAzMDUx Uncle Sez what?: How's your uncle?: An uneventful police visit 2:05 • Conducting business: Don't fall for false "genre conventions" 7:40 • Commentary: A giraffe, a dragon, and 100 names 16:40 • Homeschool film school: Getting a good interview 34:58 • Watch it!: "Russian Doll" 45:07 -- Uncle Sez is a weekly chat about the making of China vlog channel Hello Foreigner. You can find those videos at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCftjeM16I5qqLnCc1iIH8

How we do you put creative work away when you're finished for the day? That's our topic of discussion on this week's Uncle Sez — How we make our China vlog. Uncle Sez what?: How's your uncle?: Last days of vacation 2:24 • Conducting business: Why maintain a website? 8:30 • Commentary: Noodles of success 17:49 • Homeschool film school: When work is done for the day 32:44 • Watch it!: "The Death of Stalin" 44:00 -- Uncle Sez is a weekly chat about the making of China vlog channel Hello Foreigner. You can find those videos at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCftjeM16I5qqLnCc1iIH8Ag

In this week's discussion of how we make our China vlog, we talk about the changes we made to our workflow in order to make it more manageable. And we share stories of chatting with strangers during filming! Uncle Sez what?: How's your Uncle: Chinese New Year continues 2:02 • Conducting business: Schedule changes and more 7:11 • Commentary: Easy up that workflow 27:32 • Watch it!: "American Vandal" 46:00 -- Uncle Sez is a weekly chat about the making of China vlog channel Hello Foreigner. You can find those videos at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCftjeM16I5qqLnCc1iIH8Ag

This week in our discussion of how we make our China vlog, we look at the structural differences between a television show and a successful YouTube video. As well, we talk about the different strategies we tried for pushing our boundaries in the different vlog stories that we posted in the past week over on Hello Foreigner. Uncle Sez what?: Happy Chinese New Year 2:00 • YouTube is not TV 7:28 • Pushing our artistic boundaries 21:30 • You should watch "Corporate" on Comedy Central 37:30 -- Uncle Sez is a weekly chat about the making of China vlog channel Hello Foreigner. You can find those videos at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCftjeM16I5qqLnCc1iIH8Ag

One month after our China vlog migration began, we crunch the numbers on Hello Foreigner, and find that the rebranding has been a total success. Better thumbnails, better SEO, and better sharing links means people actually see our work this time around. -- Uncle Sez is a weekly chat about the making of China vlog channel Hello Foreigner. You can find those videos at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCftjeM16I5qqLnCc1iIH8Ag

It's our weekly look at our lives as artists in China, where we will discuss our filmmaking process and more. Out topics this week: Why we're not live streaming, and choosing impressionism over service journalism. Watch the videos we're talking about over on Hello Foreigner: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCftjeM16I5qqLnCc1iIH8Ag

It's our weekly look at our lives as artists in China, where we will discuss our filmmaking process and more. Out topics this week: Keywording, and vlogging as more than just a talking head. The videos we re-posted last week on Hello Foreigner (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCftjeM16I5qqLnCc1iIH8Ag) show us branching out from the studio, and we explored a couple different techniques to make videos that were more than just my face talking at a camera. It makes the production process way harder, but we are generally much happier with the results.

This episode, we share the Hello Uncle Foreigner origin story and talk in depth about how we defined ourselves and created our different series. Going from an idea that "Hey, we could do this vlogging thing just as well as anyone else. Better, even!" to a fully functional channel with several different shows ... this took some work. Here, we talk about that process, as well as why it was important to us to be able to create a framework for what we were doing overall, as well as a sort of "elevator pitch." See where it all started at HelloUncleForeigner.com. Of course, there's also some behind the scenes anecdotes from our latest video, "Mega-Shorts": https://youtu.be/KHTiX3yUNCI And some recommendations: * GLOBIK Cool, fun China content: https://www.youtube.com/user/GLOBIKvi... * Bird and the Bee, or all of Inara George's music, but specifically her Hall and Oates cover album: https://youtu.be/KHTiX3yUNCI * Author Peter Hessler, writes incisive non-fiction about living abroad. No Vomit Report thi

This week we share the details of our workflow: pre-production through post-production and promotion. And also, how did we do that green screen on Lamma Island?! (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnpjZHDgvHc) We're back with stories of the Uncle Foreigner life, featuring Channel Milestones, Behind the Scenes Tidbits, The Vomit Report, Entertainment Whispers, Local Luzhou News and more. Live, from Luzhou, Sichuan, China ... we're talking about China vlogging.