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My Life is Yours

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Amanda Congdon discusses sharing her life with the Internet.

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Amanda Congdon:

Amanda Congdon (born 1981 in New York City) was the co-producer and host of a weekly vidcast for ABC. She has an independent videoblog, Starring Amanda Congdon. She is co-president of Oxmour Entertainment along with Mario Librandi and was the host of Amanda Across America before it concluded. She began her on-screen career with the daily news show Rocketboom, which she hosted and produced until June 2006. Congdon was born and raised in Manhattan and graduated magna cum laude from Northwestern University.

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TRANSCRIPT:

Question: How did you start video blogging?

Amanda Congdon: I was a struggling actress in New York and I had a couple of agents working with me but no one was getting me auditions for big parts. I was always looking around for my own way of getting out there and I had an acting coach tell me once, “Make your own vehicle. You’re not going to get out there just by going to auditions and working for someone else. Try to be a producer or get out there on your own, do your own thing and make your own project.” So, I was always looking for a way to do that and I came across an advertisement on Craigslist for a writer/actress for Rocketboom and I thought, “Hmm, this is very interesting.” This was in 2004 and I remembered telling my mom about it and she was like, “The Internet? Video on the Internet? Is that porn?” and I was like “No. No mom are you kidding me? No, obviously not.” Not that she thought I would do porn but that was what people thought about video on the Internet. There was no video on the Internet other than that. So it was a completely new idea to me, a new concept entirely and I applied for the job. I didn’t hear back forever though and I had been applying for so many different jobs. I had no idea really what I was doing and I ended up going in for an interview. I had to write my own script for the pilot episode of Rocketboom and I ended up getting the job.

After Rocketboom did Amanda Across America, which led me to ABC, I actually traveled across America to go to LA for ABC. While I was there I thought, you know, I’m learning a lot that I would never have known if I hadn’t tried old media but I took what was from new media I took some things from old media and I started my own business and that was really the goal. My grandfather once told me that you’ll never make money unless you start your own business. You’ll never make any money working for somebody else. So I thought, “Well, that’s got to be the end of the game.” That’s kind of how I ended up with sometimesdaily.com.

Question: What appeals to you about the video blog as a medium?

Amanda Congdon: In terms of how I started using video, I’ve always been more interested in film than, say, theater and so, as a performer, it was kind of a natural way of merging into this new medium. But I think the real reason that people decide to do video is because they want to connect eye to eye with whoever it is on the other end.

I know that when I’m looking into the camera it’s almost like a magic feeling because I can feel the pulsating eyes on the other end listening already. There’s something about the camera that is almost immediate, even if it’s not live—and that’s exciting and compelling to me. And then of course, as they say a picture is a thousand words. How many pictures are in every minute of footage? And you can show so much more with b-roll and voice over. It paints such a different picture than, say, an article or a blog—not to say those aren’t excellent and valid medium, but they’re not just not for me.

Question: Do you feel overexposed by social media?

Amanda Congdon: I don’t mind that I’m all over the Internet and that my personal life is out there along with my professional life. When I go on a vacation I feel so compelled to put pictures up. I can’t not document everywhere I go because then where is it? It doesn’t live anymore. It’s in my memory, but I need to document things so that I can remember them. Then I think, “How can I go to this beautiful place and not share it?”

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