June is Pride Month, and there are a LOT of different events all across the country. A lot of them feature various drag artists and other O Bar talents as guests, and I can only catch glimpses of those performances via social media clips. We only have so much free time, and O Bar remains our priority for queer entertainment. So we miss out on a lot of these drag brunches and other events.
Every time I find myself scouring stories and other vertical video formats, I am reminded that most people record videos in a very particular way. Vertical video means a lot more focus on one or two people, thus the "fancam" format that most end up following. It's not bad, but it means they only really focus on one or two people, and everything else gets cropped out. And if you've watched my O Bar videos, you know I'm a big picture/full production kind of videographer.
That makes me better appreciate what I do for O Bar. At times it can feel like a thankless personal commitment to try to record pretty much every single number we get to watch. But it's a way to document and celebrate all the amazing performances and make it possible to revisit these numbers time and time again. I'm only able to pull very limited ad revenue from a fraction of the videos I upload, which barely covers my Google One storage needed to accommodate all the media I record.
I've made some interesting friendships and acquaintances thanks to all the videos I take. The people who most express their appreciation for my uploads tend to be people based outside of Metro Manila (thus don't have immediate access to O Bar), or very young fans of local drag (thus aren't allowed to go to bars yet). I've met a few of them at O Bar, and in other cases I've received direct messages on Instagram from people looking for particular videos or who just want to say thanks. These interactions do a lot to help keep me going in this part of the hobby.
So for those of you who don't understand why I flood my feed with YouTube links for the O Bar videos I record, this is a bit of an explainer. For those of you who do go to O Bar and realize what I'm doing, I hope you appreciate my efforts. Even better if you take the time to like the videos, leave comments for the performers, or even re-share the videos to spread the love for O Bar. It'll really mean a lot to me.
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