some of my favorite videos i’ve made

“funkenzwangsvorstellung” may sound like gobbledygook, but it’s actually a word from The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows (one of my favorite books). It describes “the primal trance of watching a campfire in the dark.” A term applicable to the overall vibe of this fun weekend camping trip I went on with my best friends Allen and Zach near Shenandoah National Park. All of the footage you see was shot on a Chinon 213 XL (a super 8 film camera from the mid ’70s). This was my first brush with this kind of film and it’s a medium I’d love to revisit once I have enough money to comfortably pay for the cost of the film stock and development (which unfortunately isn’t cheap). I spent hours trying to find the perfect backing track and eventually settled on “Reaching Bliss” by Mars Water. I used to listen to them in early high school, so there’s a certain nostalgic appeal for me there. Another important note is that this is my favorite style of video to make, what I’ve deemed “musical vlogs.” While not the most recent short I’ve uploaded to my YouTube channel, this is the first video in a long, long time that I can say I’m truly proud of.

If you pay close attention you might’ve noticed the five year gap between this video and the former… Like I said, it’d been a while since I was genuinely proud of something I made. Out of all of my “musical vlogs”, however, I find myself returning to “toxic – trouble” the most. Due in part to “Trouble” off of Cage the Elephant‘s 2015 album “Tell Me I’m Pretty” being one of my favorite songs ever. In this video my friends (Allen and Jacob) and I explore an abandoned chemical plant in our town. Albeit kind of unusual, “urbex” (urban exploring) has always been one of my favorite hobbies featured in many of my videos. With the wild west and the final frontier of space already conquered, being able to adventure and rediscover remote relics of our past hardly seen by most folks nowadays is exhilarating. I specifically love seeing the unique ways nature reclaims what we’ve left behind to rot. I’d love to get back into urbexing, but I’m not a teenager anymore… So there’s slightly more extreme consequences to clandestine activities such as this.

I love impromptu adventure, and that’s exactly what this video is about. Back when I was 16, finishing up a late night shift at Food City (my first ever job where I worked as a bag boy, cart pusher, and cashier), my friend Ryan called me and asked if I wanted to go to Virginia Beach with him and some other guys on a whim. I was hesitant at first, but my manager told me to live a little and go for it — so I did. Right after clocking out at 11:00 P.M. I went home, asked my parents for permission (which they granted), threw some clothes in my backpack, and impulsively grabbed my Canon Rebel t6i before running out the door and hopping into Ryan’s car. There were a lot of ups and downs on this short trip, but it’s one of my favorite teenage memories and I don’t regret a thing. Also, this one is extra special to me as it was the video that pulled me out of my creative drought that I had been stuck in since 2018. It was also one of my first attempts at combining my “musical vlog” format with our diegetic yapping. All in all, I just love how it captures the chaotic, fun vibes of randomly deciding to drive seven hours to the beach at midnight.

I absolutely adore this video. It was the last one I really enjoyed before creatively falling off the face of the earth (until the video mentioned in the section above). The reason for the hyphenated title is that this was originally published on “Blake’s Cinema” until I reuploaded it on my current “blake” channel a year or so later at the time. Being in 8th grade, I didn’t have a license or a car, so my Mom kindly drove my friend Daniel and me to Ivanhoe, Virginia after I saw a documentary about the town by The Atlantic on YouTube. When I saw the awesome looking abandoned school that was there, and realizing that it was fairly close by, I knew I had to go. This video also features two of my favorite songs… “Blue Boy” by Mac DeMarco and “Know Love” by Rex Orange County. You’ll notice I also tried emulating the Super 8 vibe through amateur editing. (As you can see I’ve been a fan of the aesthetic for a long time). Despite the nasty poison ivy rash I got, the shamrock shakes and spending the day with Daniel and my Mom was well worth it. I’ve gone back to Ivanhoe a few times over the years, but that first adventure will always be special as it kicked off my interest in urbex, led to my developing music taste, and strengthen my love for sharing stories, no matter how simple.