MarkBrooks.TV Vlog Episode 16 :: I’ve been wanting to visit India for a long time. Finally the stars lined up, and I got a great justification for going. I’ll film a vlogumentary on dating apps vs matrimonials services in India. I’ll go from Malta to Dubai and have a night-over, and then go from Dubai to Delhi. This vlog covers the flight on Emirates from Dubai to Delhi.
Two days before the flight I checked in and scored an upgrade deal. This business class flight on Emirates cost an additional $201.50 two days before the flight. That did not include lounge, or being able to fast-track through the line, or additional baggage. The $201 was purely for the upgrade of the flight. Which was just fine. The original one-way ticket cost me $306.75.
MarkBrooks.TV Vlog Episode 15 :: We met up with our friends Jana, Irena’s very good friend and her husband Nick, my mountain biking buddy, at Birzebbuga. There’s a very nice beach in Birzebbuga at “Pretty Bay.” It is actually called, “Pretty Bay.” It’s mostly pretty, except for the port, and the gas ships ferrying into the area by the new power station.
We took some time to do nothing, and watch the kids play on the beach. I don’t take enough time to do nothing. It’s important to find time to chill …with a cold beer, good friends, and family. Bliss.
Vicki hunted for crabs, and Madeleine trekked the beach. I sent the drone up for a toodle around the bay as well.
On the way home, Vicki asked for icecream. We’re trying not to feed her too much sugar. But she was persuasive. Then we called my 84 year old mother. She made me hunger for my favorite British food.
Sasha spent the day with her best friend, so I took her, Vicki, and Sasha to the movies. Kong was not kid-friendly at all. I’ll be more careful with PG12 ratings. Sing, was more suitable.
MarkBrooks.TV Vlog Episode 14 :: Last week I alluded to a new project that I'm going to be working on and announcing this week, and the new project is...
I'm going to go to India and film a mini-documentary, a vlogumentary, if you like, about matrimonial dating, and the rise of dating apps in India.
You have the traditional world of matrimonials in India which is essentially Matrimony.com and Shaadi.com and Jeevansathi.com and now you have the likes of Tinder, and Woo who are rising, and shaking things up a bit.
So, this seems, at least in my world, rather interesting. I like to study Internet dating services and this is, I think, quite interesting to the rest of the dating industry.
The stars have lined up, I'm going to India next week. I'm going to be there two weeks and I'm going to be talking with the CEOs of these companies, and hopefully talking to a few end-users as well.
So the difference with this particular style of documentary is its going to be fairly short. I'm just shooting for 30 to 45 minutes, and I'd like to make it fairly punchy. I think what I like about the idea of vlogging is that it is honest and everything follows a timeline. Everything is in the actual timeline that it happened. I like the authenticity of that. I want to follow that same style in this documentary. If you can call it a documentary. It's really a vlogumentary.
There is actually a definition for vlogumentary on the Urban Dictionary. A vlogumentary is "a do-it-yourself documentary created by a video blogger (vlogger) with the express purpose of documenting reality and sharing it online without care toward profit or marketability.”
That's the long and the short of it. I don't care about making money on this. This is something that just seems like a good thing to do. It would be interesting to do, at least for me, and the audience that I cater to, which is Online Personals Watch and the Internet dating industry.
This is a big market that is growing very quickly, and its a market that's changing quite a lot, and there are some unique cultural nuances of this particular market. So, that's the new project.
And the other announcement is, I actually did pass my exams at the London School of Economics, and so I do actually have a Masters degree now, which I'm thrilled about.
So, what happens next is I fly out on Tuesday. I'm going to be in three cities in India. I'm going to be going first of all to Delhi, which seems to be where most of the companies are. Then I'll be going down to Chennai for a few days to go visit my friend Muru at Matrimony.com and then I'm going to go visit Gourav who's the CEO of Shaadi.com and maybe even meet up with Anu who's the fellow who started Shaadi many years ago. That's the line up. Three cities in India and then I'll be home. It's going to be a couple weeks of traveling and exploring.
I'm going to take you right along with me, and that's kind of the purpose of this vlogumentary. You will see what happens. It's not going to be scripted. It's not going to be acted out. It is the God's honest truth of what happens along the way, who I meet, what they have to say… and then I'll condense it down to the interesting bits. But it's going to be laid out the same way as it happens.
It's another experiment.
One of the things I'm really not happy about is, there's one thing I can't take to India because it's not actually allowed. I could get in trouble for setting my Mavic Pro drone free. I can't take it. They don't want drones flying in India. A real downer.
The deal is, drones are not allowed to fly anywhere in India. You need to have a special license, and even that is a work in progress. They've not even got that established yet. I thought maybe in Gurgaon, which is quite a modern area of Delhi they might be allowed. They don't want drones anywhere near any built up areas with a lot of people. Which, if you think about it, makes an awful lot of sense. My Mavic Pro drone is not that light. The rotor blades are quite sharp. I certainly would not want this landing on my kids' heads.
So I think, kinda the rule over there is, if you happen to crash one of these, you're going to be in hot water. If you happen to smuggle one in and fly it around and it's not in a built up area, especially if it's on private ground, you probably will be fine. But, I'm not going to risk it. It's going to stay. And that's just me being a pussy maybe, but I don't like the idea of going to an Indian prison.
MarkBrooks.TV Vlog Episode 13 :: I said this was a 12 week experiment. I did 12 weeks of vlogging (at www.MarkBrooks.TV) to learn about Youtube and video blogging, and mainly as a lark. Now what? I’d certainly appreciate your advice round about now. __
I’ve almost got a plan for something new. Something that seems like the next step, that incorporates what I’ve learned from this vlogging lark. It certainly felt like malarkey at times, but my family will look back on these vlogs in the future for some beautiful memories.
I’m not done with vlogging though. Just …what I’ve done so far lacks real purpose. That’s kinda bugging me. It needs more focus. I’d like to continue vlogging, but it needs to be more pointed. Wtf, is it for? Even I don’t know. What does each episode deliver? Why on earth would YOU want to watch it. Goodness knows?
So, moving forward, the vlogs will be more focused. The purpose should be clear in the title. I’ll endeavor to make each episode’s focus and purpose clearer in future, and each episode will be shorter and encase a clear idea, or question, or journey, or something.
Just one thing. But then I’d like to do something else, in addition. Something that takes what I’ve learned from this fracas of vlogging over the last 12 weeks. What’s next? Watch the video, and I’ll embellish more next week as ideas crystallize further. Please comment and let me know your thoughts. Thanks. ;-)
