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‘Lutang’: Cute animated severed head talks about college life

What a student vlogger/course shifter can do

His character is a cute animation of a floating head—with dripping blood for added effect—but it’s far from gory.

Hello! This is the first word one hears watching the animated vlogs of 21-year-old college junior-turned-course shifter Karl Freidrich De Villa.

Like he said in his first vlog entry, he always wanted to be a communicator, to enter the field of communications. He admits, however, that it’s a cutthroat industry, so it could be difficult to land a job. That’s why he opted to take up psychology.

“A job where I get to communicate with people and still make money,” he said in his vlog.

Unfortunately, he failed to get into Psychology and landed on the wait-list in Communications. He ended up eventually in Nutrition and Dietetics at the University of Santo Tomas. After two years, he decided to take a break from school.

That was when he got the idea to start his own vlog, to talk about why he opted to shift courses. Better to watch his first entry to have an idea; it’s only around three minutes long.

His vlogs are different from the usual vlogs people are posting lately. His character is a cute animation of a floating head—with dripping blood for added effect—but it’s far from gory.

“Recently, there’s a boom in the content making industry,” De Villa said. “Even before quarantine started, many have been trying to make their own vlogs and podcasts. Honestly, I just wanted to make my own content, too, because I got inspired by friends who were making their own.”

Also, at that time in his life he was going through a lot. De Villa wanted to share his experiences with other people—“I finally convinced myself to just do it.”

He named his vlog series “Lutang,” just because his character is a floating head. “Lutang” literally means “to float.” It’s also a pun—“It’s like a representation of one’s disconnection from reality. And also, all I do is talk about random topics under the sun.”

Another reason he chose to animate a severed head is because it was simpler to make. He is still learning the ropes in animation, but his style has improved in his newer vlog entries, which now total four. The topics range from shifting college courses to being aware of social issues. “The thing is, even I don’t know what kind of topics I like tackling,” De Villa said. “It’s one of those things you know you have to do the moment you think of it.”

De Villa admits that doing animated entries is labor-intensive, as it takes him two weeks to a month to make a three-minute video entry.

Generally, De Villa chooses vlog topics that can educate, comfort, or entertain. “That’s why my uploads are not that consistent, because I just can’t think of anything to talk about.”

For now, he is taking things slowly, though he is working on shifting to the course he wants, Creative Writing. He is still thinking what topic to vlog next, and just like his vlog series, he is just floating along until an inspiration comes up again.

Originally published in YOU.PH

About author

Articles

He runs a GenZ website You.com.ph. He was contributing editor of Inquirer’s To be You section where he built a network of student writers, student athletes and models and beauty pageant candidates including Miss Universe 2015 Pia Wurtzbach who was its beauty correspondent, then beauty editor. He’s styled Wurtzbach and other beauty queens for shoots. He’s a stylist and a kettlebell aficionado.

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