What’s Up, India?

My brother, Aditya who is a little more into the multimedia aspect of blogging than I am has dragged his fiancee, Prachiti into the Web 2.0 world as well. Considering the time he spends on IndiCast with Abhishek, I guess the only way Prachiti could do that was by joining them. She has gone the vidcast way by preparing short 4-minute videos on YouTube. She rants and raves on the current affairs in India. With the help of my brother, she is also hosting the videos on her WordPress blog, What’s Up, India?

Admittedly she is quite new at this and the videos may need improvement. She has produced ten videos so far and you can go back and check out the rest. But given that this latest video is one of her better efforts shows that she is learning quick. Please chime in with your comments and suggestions. I’m sure she will love to hear from you. Her YouTube Channel can be found here and her most popular vidcast (on Salman Khan) got more than 2,000 views (and nasty comments). The desi blogosphere has thousands of blogs, perhaps a dozens of podcasts but I’ve really seen or heard of any decent vidcasts. Hopefully, Prachiti does this often enough to carve a niche of her own.

PS. They are also looking for people who will write scripts for their vidcasts. Ash has written a couple of scripts for them and my sole attempt didn’t make the cut…yet. If they like what you have written and if you insist enough, I’m sure Aditya will agree on some revenue sharing :)

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  • http://www.suyogdeshpande.net/blog/ Supremus

    Too bored to hop over there (sleep time!), but here is my feedback:

    Her diction lacks any variation; its monotonous – almost seems like she’s reciting a prose out of a textbook. She could do great with some excitement (+she already has good looks to carry it off!! :)) and fun in her voice.

    And she doesn’t need to occupy 80% of the screen – it would be fun seeing her stand, see her hands do some expressions; it could be very promising.

    Interesting idea though!

    S

  • http://www.ipatrix.com Patrix

    Supremus, Thanks. I’m sure Aditya and Prachiti are reading and will incorporate that in their future presentations.

  • http://www.theindicast.com Aditya

    Hi S,
    Well, we are trying to go for the facial expressions more than the hand gestures (which are no doubt important). There are other technical green screen related issues that we need to sort of to get that working. But I get what you are saying.

    Thanks for the line.

    Aditya

  • AM

    I think its a very good attempt and kudos for taking the initiative. Its definitely a nice informal way for us NRI “desis” to catch up on Indian News and current affairs. Good job.
    Now for some frank opinion…firstly Prachiti is not a trained professional news-caster..so we really shouldn’t expect her to present the news like one. But along the same lines..she does seem to be trying too hard to be an NDTV, CNN- like news presenter. It is not a bad thing but I think it distracts from the news content. Viewers like me would like to see a more casual and conversational style of presentation. I think it would be more comfortable for her (the presenter) as well as the viewer. This is something similar to what Supremus hinted at above (casual face expressions…currently she seems to be trying hard to be a little too “proper”)
    Keep up the good work.

  • Sapna

    Great! It’s fantastic that you’re recording your response to ridiculous current affairs in our country today.

    I would just suggest that you don’t need to do it in news presenter format. It’s more casual to do it in some other setting… a cafe in your neighborhood, whatever. Also she can speak as if she were talking to a friend nearby, that’s more natural and less oratory.

    Keep it going!