Features of vlogs shaping responses to vlogs (these are just suggested features; you may have your own features that are shaping your response): See also Steve Garfield's Vlog Soup, in which Garfield comments about a range of different vlogs: http://stevegarfield.blogs.com/vlogsoup/

- sense of the producer’s engagement/interest—the extent to which the producer exudes a strong interest in or passion about their topic or experiences.  As in any writing, level of interest and passion can be evident in their enthusiastic use of language, descriptions of personal experiences associated with the topic, and desire to share their experiences with audiences.

    For example, one his vlog, One Week Job, Sean Aiken, travels around North America, taking up a new job each week: http://oneweekjob.com/  He shares his experiences with these jobs given his desire to share these experiences with totally different kinds of work.  The Minnesota participants on the Reel Discussions http://www.reeldiscussions.tv/home.html

vlog have a strong interest sharing their opinions about current films.

- sense of audience—the extent to which the vlogger considers their potential audience(s).  In most cases, people use blogs to communicate only to their own friends and family.  However, they may sense that there is the potential for a larger audience.  In thinking about their audiences, they may consider their audience’s knowledge of a topic or the need to draw them into their presentation.  In his weekly vlog on video production, Izzy Video http://izzyvideo.blogspot.com/ Izzy Hyman displays a keen sense of his audience’s knowledge about technical aspects of video production by assuming that his audience may be relatively unfamiliar with a lot of technical aspects of video.

    Some vloggers also perceive the need to provide their audiences with a service, as is the case with Twin Cities Live that provides video of local music: http://twincitieslive.blip.tv/

- Genre play—vloggers are also playing with different genres—in some cases, parodying different media genres: TV news, horror films, cooking programs, reality TV, etc.  The daily vlog, Rocketboom, http://www.rocketboom.com is a parody of TV news, in the same vein as Comedy Central’s Daily Show. 

- Multimodal mixing—vloggers creative use of different modes to convey their message, for example, as does Spike Lee in his movies, mixing animation into their texts.  On his vlog, John Ackr, demonstrates a lot of creativity on his vlog, Sloppy Films.  For example, he creates an animation, I Hate My Job, about people’s attitudes towards their jobs:

http://sloppyfilms.blogspot.com/2007/07/i-hate-my-job.html And the vlog, It’s Jerry Time http://www.itsjerrytime.com, created by two brothers, one of whom employs animation and the other, a music soundtrack.

- Camera work—vloggers also recognize a key aspect of what makes for effective TV: using close ups of talking heads.  This requires the use of steady camera work, effective lighting, and breaking up monologues with transitions: titles or cut-aways to images.  For example, in filming interviews, it’s important to effectively portray the interviewee through uses of close-ups.   The Real Reality TV vlog that features documentaries created by St. Paul adolescents uses interviewing as a primary tool: http://www.realrealitytv.blogspot.com/

- Editing—in editing clips, the use of transitions that provide seamless movement between clips to create a sense of time passing, as opposed to the jerkiness of home-movie-like jump cuts between clips. In his video of the Minnesota State Fair at night, David Howell uses effective fades between clips to capture the blur-like nature of the fair at night: http://www.davidhowellstudios.com/