JUST A THOUGHT: I dwell in possibility.— Emily Dickinson

COOKING AND VLOGGING: With one network closed down and the other slowing down on production schedule, our actors are finding ways and means to keep themselves busy, income- generating, or at least, visible to keep fans and followers interested.

If they’re not cooking and selling food online, they’re vlogging. Both can be money-making ventures in the age of Covid-19 pandemic.

Vlogging takes actors one step higher than being just a talent for a TV network. It allows them their own personal space in cyber world, their own channel, so to speak.

MONETIZING: The beauty of vlogging, says talent manager Ogie Diaz, is that it can allow vloggers to make money. Those on YouTube get paid in dollars.

The process of earning from your vlog is called monetization. One achieves it when he has reached a certain number of views or followers, say, 500,000 or more.

VLOGGERS: I saw a recent vlog by Bea Alonzo where she gave viewers a tour of her house.
I notice it is quite a movie star home, large yet elegant, with carefully chosen art pieces.

Now, Bea is normally the very private type of person. During interviews, she lets out measured answers that are really nothing more than icing on a cake.

Vlogging has changed that side to Bea, so that she has even allowed the public, anyone for that matter, to get a glimpse of her bedroom.

I also got to view, inside and out, the new home of Vice Ganda. It is an imposing structure, quite modern and masculine in design. The word industrial comes to mind.

Google says Erich Gonzales, Toni Gonzaga, Jennylyn Mercado, Kim Chiu, Solenn Heussaff are among the top actor-vloggers in the Philippines. Other most watched vloggers are Alex Gonzaga, Ogie Diaz, Scarlet Snow Belo, Drew and Iya Arellano.

There’s also Heart Evangelista, fashionably chic everywhere, at all times, even when she’s merely going to buy some condiment at the neighborhood sari-sari store.

What is the most popular YouTube channel in the Philippines? It’s the squeal show hosted by Raffy Tulfo, which recorded approximately 1 1.8 million subscribers in June 2020.

Wil Dasovich is another popular channel.

LAHAT SILA: Every other actor runs his own vlog.

We can’t mention all their names, but trust me, all the big stars are out there, holding court, broadcasting from their own channels, in their own homes.

It’s as if the stars’ vlogs are their own teleseryes, their diaries made public.
It’s where they tell their stories, their life unscripted.
Time was when people made a record of their daily activities, trivial or significant, on notebooks called diaries. They were later called journals.

People would guard these with their lives. Some would even put them under lock and key, literally, in a vault, so that no one could see them.

In this highly digital age, diaries have come out of the closet for all the world to read.

MYSELF ON EXHIBIT: Social media has allowed actors their own platform to promote themselves, either positively or negatively.
It used to be that both established and rising actors depended on print and broadcast media to make their activities known to the public.

Now, they have been equipped with their own channels to trumpet whatever it is they are doing---good or bad--- to get noticed. This new media has eclipsed the popularity of entertainment talk shows that eventually led to their downfall and closure.