John Lacey
Where Is JohnOfJordan?
I recently made, what I like to refer to as, an “involuntary collaboration.” Rather than contacting people and asking, begging, pleading for clips, I adopt a slightly different approach. I work with videos that already exist. I love being able to take existing footage and working it into a new narrative.
This isn’t the first time I’ve done this. One of my most viewed videos of my early YouTube career was an offering titled, “Life, Death and Boxershorts.” It was an amusing collection of video clips from people I watched. Users like Marwade, JohnnyDurham19, Hotbananastud, Lonelygirll15 (note the two L’s), Lukettylwillie. Even TheHill88 made an appearance.
The title actually gave a pretty good indication of the themes. It shuffled between people talking about life and death, and finally, boxershorts. JohnnyDurham19 celebrated the virtues of Gap boxer shorts. Lukettylwillie admitted to only having a couple of pairs. Tripplehelix offered Lukettylwillie some support, “Nothing wrong with that - as long as they’re good!” This was followed up by HotBananaStud’s pants promptly ripping.
At the time, I was really impressed that such a chunk of my subscriptions were making allusions to the same subject matter.
The video is no longer available. I was concerned primarily that I didn’t have permission to use the footage from the various parties involved. Sourcing the videos, and editing them into one package was a very enjoyable process. It really spawned my love for editing. Something that - if I’m being completely honest - I enjoy much more than actually standing in front of a camera.
The technique was revisited later in another video. One which I’m still very proud of today, titled, “Everything’s Coming Up JOJ!” This time the video featured people talking about me, making reference to me. It might seem self-serving. But the truth is I would watch that video and feel a part of it all. Seeing and hearing my friends joke around with me seemed a much more real demonstration of “community” than the rhetoric that fills vlogs across that particular website.
Lately I have been struggling to make videos. I have more time than ever, and less inclination. I have become very uncomfortable being in front of a camera. I don’t know what to say. The time I used to prize in having this house to myself has become largely non-existent. I guess I need to just push myself through the lull and see what happens.
In an attempt to overcome this I had made a rather woeful vlog that I also used to make fun of the “Naked Vlog” phenomena.
While I struggled with making videos, I still missed the interaction the site has. I decided to make another “Involuntary Collab.” It wasn’t an easy process. I couldn’t convert a lot of the footage I wanted to use to a usable format. More troubling Sony Vegas Movie Studio had obvious ‘issues’ with the project, opting to crash continuously.
I am happy with the overall result though. I had genuinely forgotten that Junkienet had described me as someone “who is very special to Australian YouTube.” I had forgotten just how funny Bet0001970 could be.
JohnOfJordan: Yeah, the cattleprod was an interesting touch, but are you sure it matches your outfit?
Bet0001970: I prefer to think of it as a ‘behavioural adjustment device,’ and it’s black; everything goes with black.
Footage taken from original video “Sam I Am.”
The Chipmunk-esque performance of the theme song by RandomnessAzn cracked me up the first time I heard it. (This is the only piece of truly original footage used in the video.) Killert00thbrush talked about eating a battery at my request. JohnnyDurham19 described me as an “Australian videomaker.”
One thing I listened to with particular amusement were the comments of RoboFillet.
Also there are lots of other, shall we say, “smaller” Australian Youtubers of whom I only have time to mention one.
I was his first subscriber ever. He has since eclipsed me completely. Surely a testimony to his friendly quirky style - something I’ve been pimping since day one.
John, I don’t think I had been too aware of how much you enjoyed editing until watching the most recent video and reading this. And, boy, can I relate. The “in front of the camera” process has become easier over time. One thing I learned right away was that it was far easier for me to act like a goofball while a video camera was recording when I thought only a few close friends would ever see it.