Seven questions

So of course thinking about winning the lottery has had me conjure up an image of a u-tube channel that I create; it would be called '7 Questions'. Even if I was to win the lotto which would allow me on this extravaganza, I don't think I could do it as I envision as I would need to stick around for my kids. Irrespectively, what follows is my idea.

Find a journalism student in a town or city. Ideally the person I find is fairly young, photogenic and well-spoken, but I would not want to discriminate on any of these factors.

Travel to that city, meet with the journalism student the evening before the video work; just to meet the person and allow us time to get to know each other. The plan for the next day involves five different things:

1. I interview the journalism student and ask the person six questions and a seventh one which is inane.

2. The journalism student is to interview someone aged 17-23, come up with six questions and I will provide an inane seventh question.

3. The journalism student is to interview someone aged 38-44, come up with six questions and I will provide an inane seventh question.

4. The journalism student is to interview someone aged 58-65, come up with six questions and I will provide an inane seventh question.

5. The journalism student directs me to a street and/or neighbourhood that the student takes me through and talks about the neighbourhood. 

For the six questions that the journalism student is to ask, I would recommend to ask about what are important topics in the interviewee's life in their immediate vicinity of life, and in their municipality, and in their state or province, and in their country, and what they think is a major issue that is global in nature. For the inane question, the interviewee is not to know in advance there will be one. Though, if this catches on and becomes popular enough, interviewees will expect the inane question; the mystery will become - what is the inane question I will get?

For at least one of the questions I ask of the journalism student, I will try to get the person to provide something personal in nature, or, by meeting them on the previous night, be able to ask them questions about what we had talked about.

On the day of the interviews that the journalism has coordinated the interviewees, have four cameras each on tri-pods; two on the journalism student and two on the interviewee. Have one of the two cameras a fairly close shot of the person's face, have the other of the two cameras a little further out. Roll all four cameras for the duration of the interview. I expect filming to not take more than 10-15 minutes. I would also have clip-on microphones for each person.

For the walk through the neighbourhood, that can take 30-45 minutes.

The next morning, I would do a walk through in that neighbourhood on my own, just one continuous filming for more than 47 minutes.

Once all of the filming is done, I record my self providing a brief introduction to each video.

For the first time I prepare these for upload, I would engage with three different editors I find on-line and ask them to edit each of the interview videos, edit the neighbourhood video with the person, and finally, from the continuous one I do, edit the neighbourhood walk through video to be exactly 47 minutes and also, produce a sped up version that is exactly 7 minutes.

Of course I will need to pay each of these three editors. Once I have the results back from them, I will pick the one that was most responsive and produced the best quality of video. Going forward I would use the winning editor.

Next, I would engage with three different music composers, I would ask them to produce a faster paced background music for the 7 minute hi-speed neighbourhood walk through, and a mellow slow paced background music for the 47 minute one. In both cases, I'd want to see that if there is any noticeable change in the video based on something that happens, or that comes into view, that the music reacts to this. 

Of course I will need to pay each of these three composers. Once I have the results back from them I will pick the one that was most responsive and produced the best music for the background of those two videos. Going forward I would use the winning music composer.

So from one journalism student in one city or town neighbourhood I would have 

1. An interview where I interview the journalism student
2. An interview between the student and a 17-23 yo
3. An interview between the student and a 38-44 yo
4. An interview between the student and a 58-65 yo
5. A neighbourhood walk through with the student
6. A 47 minute mellow music neighbourhood walkthrough
7. A 7 minute faster paced music neighourhood walkthrough

A 15-30 second video of me introducing the video would be up front of the videos, and a 10-20 second video of me at the end where I ask for comments like: What did you think of the answers that were given? What other questions would you like to have asked? Do you have any inane questions that you'd like to see asked? Please always be civil.

In the description of the uploaded video I would reference the music person and the editor, I would thank the journalism student and I would link to an online form if anyone in any city anywhere would want to act as the journalism student to host episodes in this channel.

On that form I would ask for the contact information of the person, and would let them know that they are expected to line up three interviewees all on one day. They are also expected to come up with the six questions that they will ask each interviewee; it can be the same six for each interviewee, or different. Finally, they will be expected to introduce to me a street or neighourhood, so they should give some thought as to what they will show.

After doing two or three of these I would start posting, twice a week. The first one or two dozen I would need to find myself, but hopefully after that I get people who fill in the form to be hosts in their town/city. I would do as many of these back to back in a logical travel direction for three or four months. For example, if I could meet with two people per week, that's 14 videos per week, 56 videos per month and 168 videos in three months. Perhaps I would post more often than twice a week.

Each group of seven videos, once they are all posted, I would create a playlist that plays them all together.

After the three or four months of travel, I would take one or two months as a break and use that time to start planning the next trip that would visit multiple locations based on the form submissions that come in. I could see doing this first here in Canada (see next paragraph) but then I could see going into the US and doing regions, like the North East or the South West, for example. Heck, even just going through all of the towns in Texas would take a month. I could then see me heading to Europe, Australia, Japan, India and so many places.

Let us say I started here in Montreal, well, I could maybe do two different neighbourhoods in this city, and then go to Ottawa, and then Kingston, then Oshawa, then Toronto, Mississauga, Scarborough, London, and other southern Ontario towns, then head west to visit Winnipeg, Brandon, Regina, Saskatoon, Edmonton, Red Deer, Calgary, Lethbridge, Kelowna, Kamloops, Vancouver and Victoria. Anyhow, you get the idea that I would go in a city order that would make sense to travel adjacent place to adjacent place.

I have no idea how much interest there would be in actually watching these videos, how many subscribers I would engage and at what rate the increase of subs would be (assuming there is an increase). I am aware, though, that what counts are good thumbnails, catchy titles and above all, consistency. So if I can put out videos on a super consistent basis and keep doing this, I can expect that after a year or so my traffic and engagement ought to increase.

Anyhow, it is fun to have ideas.