If Dominic Arpin looks happy here, it's because I've taken a file photo and used it out of context as filler art to tell you that TVA has renewed his weekly web video clips show Vlog for a third season, days after it aired its second season finale. Arpin says he's got a deal for 10 episodes so far, not including the four special-topic episodes that will air over the next few weeks.
Vlog premiered in 2007 as a half-hour show with Arpin and Geneviève Borne that screened 30-second clips from popular videos online. It took me a while to warm up to it, especially because it seemed to leech off other people's creative content without offering much in return (the show still isn't downloadable or streamable after it airs). Its erratic schedule following Occupation Double (and against RadCan's powerhouse Tout le monde en parle) didn't help its ratings, which eventually led to its cancellation.
But Arpin refused to give in. He launched his own website and began work on an online video guide, and eight months after it was cancelled, TVA brought Vlog back to life in a retooled form. Gone were his co-host and the all-white sets and giant flat-screen TVs. Instead, he'd introduce the videos webcam-style from his fake apartment. The show was also moved to Thursday nights (and eventually Friday nights) at a fixed time.
Apparently that was enough. Vlog is here to stay, and Arpin doesn't have to worry about going back to reporting.
I was just reading a post on Dominic Arpin's blog about how he noticed a picture of himself in a video on Bombe.tv (click on "Les infos"). It's silly, but we bloggers are a vain group sometimes, we love talking about how other people are talking about us.
In fact, it's the same photo, apparently taken through a Google Image search. Needless to say, they'll be hearing from my lawyers soon.
Oh wait, I don't have any lawyers.
Well that's ok. My outrage is tongue-in-cheek anyway. People can do what they want with my stuff for personal use (you know, build a shrine to me or something). So long as they're not selling them I'm OK with it. But would some credit have hurt? At the very least they could have asked me for a high-resolution version instead of taking the 450-pixel wide one on my blog.
I could have even given them the non-cropped version:
The Dominic Arpin original
Of course, it's really Arpin that makes the photo with his adorable little smile there.
Maybe I should make some T-shirts out of it. I could make a career out of printing T-shirts of Quebec blogger celebrities.
A smorgasbord of government organizations and nonprofits is sponsoring Quebec's anti-smoking week next week, and part of the campaign features videos with TV personalities giving heart-felt thank-yous to loved ones who helped them quit smoking, while sitting on the floor of the same living room. Each video ends with "je t'aime" (or "I love you") in a serious, look-you-in-the-eyes way that seems to walk the line between tear-inducing and creepy (though maybe I'm overly sensitive in this regard).
Kidding aside, they're pretty gut-wrenching videos, designed to make people uncomfortable and get them to talk to their parents, kids, siblings, spouses and other loved ones about quitting smoking.
Dominic Arpin, the former TVA journalist, popular blogger and now host (again) of his own TV show about videos on the web, has finally launched a project called WebTVHebdo, which is a guide to web-based television shows. It's a project he started a while ago with lackey Patrick Dion.
In a world where these things are popping up all over the place, a need quickly emerges to provide a reference, and Arpin and Dion have jumped on that void decisively.
September 24, 2008 – 1:47 am|Posted in Blogosphere
From my Google Reader feed
The video in question, whose short version has gone uberviral, is a bit less about language and a bit more about left vs. right, but it still paints the Conservatives with a big caricature brush that I think will be dismissed as unrealistic, just as the language confusion is being dismissed, since the Conservative heritage minister is a francophone from Quebec City.
Those of you who follow Dominic Arpin via Facebook already know this, but for the benefit of the less-connected: TVA is bringing back Vlog, its weekly roundup of hot web videos, more than nine months after it aired its last episode, supposedly for good
Vlog was cancelled due to disappointing ratings, though it got screwed by the network and was never really given a chance over its handful of episodes. Not only was it slotted against Tout le monde en parle, but it followed Occupation double, which would almost always run long and push the show back. That wouldn't have been a problem if the audiences for the two shows were the same, but they weren't, and people tuning in at 9:30 to watch a show about Internet videos instead saw some stupid reality show about sexy people living together, with no clue when their show would come on.
When it was cancelled, there was talk about an online-only version coming earlier this year to Quebecor's new Canoe.tv website. But for reasons that Arpin promises to explain on his blog by next week when the fall schedule comes out, the network decided to try again to put it back on the air.
Vlog Season 2 premieres Thursday, Sept. 28 at 9:30 p.m. on TVA.
I hate it already.
UPDATE: Arpin gives some details in a video on his blog. He mentions something about the format being more like a YouTube video blog, with him looking into a camera.
