A NOTE FROM THE EDITOR
BY DC CUEVA
DCBLOG is something that I take great pride in during my evolution into becoming a well-rounded and now full-time content creator -- it's been thirteen years since the very first post here. But me transitioning into doing this gig on a self-employed basis was made possible in part by what's transpired in the Cueva household the past few years: me taking on the role of man of the house after we lost our patriarch back in 2022. Those in the house I call my casa still continues to feel the absence of my late dad as we reach what would have been his 75th birthday come next month. And it's me being the dad of our family that has been the reason for me taking a step back from the blogger's chair... though we do look forward to getting to resume offering more of these here with lots of posts already in draft mode.
However, that hasn't dampened my passion for doing what I love being able to do best: create content and putting forth my very best work whatever the platform may be. Take for example what I got to do over the winter and during the summer, all leading to an autumn tradition known as #DCVegas.
A trend that has been going on in the media world has been of a pivot to video... written content being swapped for short- and long-form motion and with the younger audience in mind. Whether it's Meta, Twitter, TikTok, Snapchat or YouTube, you can see how easy it is for big things to take off on social media in a matter of hours. And in the past few years, I've made editing vlogs my primary role as a content creator... despite being a bit camera shy and also selective in my social media activities.
In creating hundreds of vlogs for DC YouTube over the past decade, I have greatly evolved in my video work in using the experience I had of being our unofficial family videographer with our old camcorders to now putting forth all my efforts into the vlogger side of my little business. And all of this can be attributed to having the annual Las Vegas trips serve as a playground for me to create endless amounts of content that makes these trips more than just a little vacation and the one thing I look forward to every year for almost two decades: it is, at the same time, a self-assigned work assignment for myself.
I remember recording that very first Vegas trip on a bulky and grainy 8mm Sony HandiCam all the way back in June of 1994, but technology has greatly evolved to the point that just using one single camera to film the entire trip is no longer sufficient enough for me. For DC Vegas XIV next week, I plan to use six cameras to document the proceedings: the same Sony CyberShot camera I've had for nine years and a HD camcorder also from them, a gimbal for steady walkthroughs, a GoPro HERO action-cam, and a police-style bodycam to tape any slot play I may do in the casinos. And that's on top of a brand new iPhone that I bought earlier this year (my fifth, a much-needed update with a 15) just in time for the first of what is considered in the trade business "dry runs" for next week.
Back in February, I made the trek up to San Francisco to attend Day 1 of the NBA All-Star Weekend festivities, and their annual NBA Crossover fan event held concurrent to the on the court stuff in the All-Star Game, All-Star Saturday Night and the Rising Stars Challenge. We got to go see some of the NBA's best do demonstrations and meet & greets with fans, and also take part in hands-on exhibits. My camera got to spot Karl-Anthony Towns, Cade Cunningham, Rookie Game MVP Stephon Castle, and Trey Murray... and my sis did me one better a little bit by spotting the Dunk Champ, Mac McClung. But I one-upped her even more by taking a selfie picture with the Larry O'Brien Trophy, symbol of the NBA Championship... and we even got to see hip-hop icon Common.
On the topic of music: I've only been to one concert in my life... but earlier this year, I got the chance to experience that thrill once again -- this time, in my own hometown mall. Milpitas' Great Mall of the Bay Area hosted one of the stops on the national tour, Music at the Mall put on by its parent Simon Malls and Greater Music Group, a music representation company co-formed by American Idol OG judge Randy Jackson. As I evaded even my own family who had lunch as a steakhouse not far from the main stage, I spent several hours recording full performance sets by each of the seven artists performing: The Voice finalist Renzo, Bay Area native Tealousy, Long Island TikTok star Jules Walcott, American Idol alum Stefan Benz, Cleveland singer Khadi Lee, LA singer Anya Kay and Memphis girl group Karma.
Whenever I go to Vegas or anywhere else with my cameras, I rarely stand or sit at one place at the same time: I normally move around all over the place, just like those who shoot video or photos for a living in the news media -- a profession I've envisioned having all my life, but which never came to fruition. At the NBA event, it was just like any going around a casino floor: going from one exhibit to the other... and in the case of one of the players I took footage from different angles while he was at the signing table. At Music at the Mall, I filmed from various angles around the small stage to give my viewers the most intimate and creative camerawork I can offer of each of the artists performing -- even a few of the singers walked up in front of me while I was on my knees filming them. And while at that concert, I came up with the idea on the spot to film their off-stage moments for the sake of doing "bumpers" leading into and out of their performances using my new iPhone's cinematic mode.
I have taken the same high standards of quality production I have put into DCBLOG for over a decade, and adapted them into DC YouTube in making sure that it doesn't just feel like another vlog. My love of television and all the years growing up watching everything from reality shows and sports to local news, music and beyond serve as inspirations in the production style, presentation and the look, feel and sound of my videos to match the the same values as traditional linear television (the 60 frames a second "live" look, TV-style chyron graphics, transitions, bumpers, etc.). The same amount of time I spent perfecting these blogs have been devoted into creating my craft on the visual side... even taking several takes of trying to just get the perfect video out after creating several rough cut versions of the final product.
Even for one of the performances from the music series -- and a departure from an edict of only using my own videos, I had to go back and add additional info on the man who popped up in Jules' TikTok video that appeared in the cold open before her set because he was the lead singer of one of the bands featured on the Netflix show Building the Band. For another in the NBA series, because of me getting to work on the vlogs after the fact and before the new season begins I had to dig deep into my archive to add footage from the 2015 Warriors game and 2018 victory parade I went to, along with identifying who the players who appeared in videos were, and also use my cousin's stories from when he went to other events during the weekend just so I can get the most complete story of All-Star Weekend from our lens. In fact, the first of those videos drops on DC YouTube in just over an hour from now.
And that brings me back to the very reason I have a YouTube channel in the first place: Las Vegas has been the focus of my videos over the past decade. Even with all the headlines surrounding the city lately, I am excited for another trip to that happy place in the desert like the thirteen that proceeded it... and am eagerly counting down the last 150 hours or so until I make that walk from our plane all the way to our hotel and then onto the Strip. I might be nervous these next several days of packing my suitcase and also having an early Black Friday to buy songs piecemeal to fill several devices of music instead of streaming all of it to save the phone data. But at the same time, I'm just as excited to once again film my trip and not have any one crumb stay behind in Sin City: as I wrote before there's so many memorable moments over the last thirty years, and more is sure to come this time around. See you soon, Sin City...
- I AM DC
#DCBLOG
