On this Presidents Day I bring you exciting news: I am turning my travel project into a video series!
I’ve been thinking through the project’s successes and setbacks since the second Kickstarter missed its goal last year – two people in particular asked really good questions. One thought the concept was good, but that future Kickstarters would need something more than the concept to stand out. Another suggested grouping the trips around themes rather than just simple geography – possibly more time-consuming, he said, but then the project would feel logical in concept and not just in logistics.
I’d been mulling these two thoughts around for a couple months when I was describing the project to several friends and acquaintances – one said, “I think it would make a great book.” Another said, “I think it would make a great show.”
And I realized something: haven’t I been saying all along that my goal was to get my own show on the Travel Channel? What better way to train for that goal than to do an actual show? I’ve found some great themes already through the traveling and researching I’ve already done, themes that could nicely frame half-hour video episodes. And taking you all to these sites, rather than just describing them to you after the fact, would prove my theory that you can learn something by physically being in a place that you can’t learn in any other way.
I know how to write for broadcast, and I’ve done plenty of video in the past – technically my masters degree is in visual and media arts, after all – and while I’m not saying I’m on the hosting level of a Rick Steves or a Bourdain, I think I’ve got enough personality to pull it off.
But it’s not really what I think that matters – what do you think? Am I onto something? Am I completely off my rocker? Would you watch such a thing? I’m all ears.
Coming later this week: my game plan for 2013. Where I’ll go, what I’ll see, how I’ll get there and what you’ll see if I pull it all off.
