F06 :: Feminist Film Studies

I stumbled upon this vlog after doing a search on Google. This vlog comes from a vlog series called Video Pancakes and was filmed and posted on September 27th, 2006 by a woman named Mary Matthews. This vlog was centered around Mary's last day of employment at the Tony Danza show, which ended on the last day the show aired on national television. What interested me about Mary's vlog was that her personal narrative of her last day at work at every moment revolved around the man Tony Danza. Every time Mary was on screen or was filming other co-workers the topic of focus was always Tony Danza. In Mary's vlog no one ever shares their emotions of how they feel about the show being canceled. Perhaps more personal interviews did not occur because Mary did not want anyone to get into trouble over anything that they said if they bad-mouthed anything about the show ending. One woman near the end of the vlog comments on how the show was "tender and uplifting". However I was unsure if the woman was talking about the show itself, how the show made her feel when she watched it, or how she felt working with the Tony Danza show. My favorite part of the vlog was when Mary interviewed a few of her colleagues, asking them to tell her their favorite "Tony-ims". The sound quality of the vlog left something to be desired because I was unable to hear any of the "Tony-ism" except one "Apple trees make apples", which I did find to be particularly funny.
I thought the vlog's overall composition and beginning imagery was intriguing. The vlog begins in a subway car with the main focus of the camera on the subways doors, which have bright light radiating from them. This was a good image to begin the vlog with because it reminded me of the idea of "seeing light at the end of a tunnel" for example when someone dies. In this case 'someone' wasn't dying, but 'something' was. The Tony Danza show was being canceled. I also liked the several scenes on the vlog showing that Mary Matthews had a high level of responsibility on the show. In these scenes Mary uses many different framing techniques. Mary is seen, in a close up shot with just her head and shoulders on the screen, talking with someone on the phone over a few particulars of how the show was going to be run that day. Another scene shows Mary in a dark room filled with computer equipment talking on a microphone to a woman named Rita, telling her how to act when she is on the phone live with Tony later on in the show. This is a mid shot because Mary's torso up to her head is seen and the viewer can see what Mary is doing with her hands, re-positioning the microphone she is talking into. In the last few minutes of the vlog Mary uses big close up shots to get the expressions and reactions of her co-workers when she interviews them about what they are going to do after their last day of work, with all of their answers being, “having drinks".
A few other things that I liked about this vlog was that it showed the behind the scenes work that takes place when filming and broadcasting a television show. A teleprompter is shown and there is also a scene where two men are controlling which camera shots are being broadcasted over the network, "Take 1...take 4". I assumed the numbers the men were saying referred to the different cameras that were set up around the stage with different shots, either long shots or close up shots. Another thing that I liked about the vlog was that throughout the vlog there was music, which played a song called "That's Life". Overall I thought Mary Matthews posted an entertaining and well edited vlog that showed her personal narrative of part of her day and showed a behind the scenes look at Mary's last day working for the Tony Danza show.