Exploring the Literary World
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In these difficult times, we turn to familiar faces. And which ones are more familiar (besides friends and family) than the celebrity faces we see on our screens every day? Now, imagine if these stars, people loved by the masses, had a message just for you.
With Cameo, you can order personalized video messages from celebrities for rates that range from shockingly reasonable to downright absurd. With so many options to consider, from which celebrity to choose to how much you're willing to pay, some videos will be better than others. Overall, though, Cameo works wonderfully as advertised.
It's an Editors' Choice award-winning app and is perfect for shopping for unique and truly special gifts.
You can browse Cameo's celebrity catalog without an account, but once you create one, you can purchase videos through the company's website. However, Cameo recommends using its Android or iOS app. There, you'll find more features, more ways to communicate with celebrities, and easier access to videos. Many of these perks, like direct messaging and video downloads, are missing or harder to find on the web version. I tested Cameo primarily using an iPhone SE.
Cameo has thousands of celebrities to choose from, from actors to athletes to musicians and Internet reality show contestants. The service may seem overwhelming at first, but it provides excellent navigation tools to enhance your search.
Featured stars like Paula Abdul, Floyd Mayweather, and Ice T get top billing on the main page, but you can also type in names manually. Under the “Comedians” tab, you can select “Saturday Night” to find Chris Kattan and Jon Lovitz. You can filter by actors from your favorite video streaming service. There are dozens of categories as well, including those for Disney stars, En Español, professional wrestlers and game of Thrones.
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Reading the Cameo catalog is like getting an autograph at a convention. Marina Sirtis and Brent Spiner star trek are here, for example. It's genuinely exciting to see a famous person, and also morbidly fun to see that this is what that famous person is doing these days.
What is Gilbert Gottfried doing these days? Is he on Cameo? That seems right. It certainly does a better job than Plotgaon of balancing irony with quality.
With so many stars to choose from, there is some inherent inconsistency. Some respond faster than others. Some charge more than others, with prices ranging from less than $50 to more than $500 for a 30-second video.
Prices may also rise without notice. User reviews and ratings help inform your decision. The pages also display past videos of a particular celebrity to show an example of what their message might look like.
Once you've decided who you want to hire, it's time to request your message. Select whether or not the video is for you or someone else. Mark that the video is for a special occasion, like a graduation or birthday. Finally, write a 250-character description of what the person should say.
You want to be very specific, mentioning anything that might mislead the celebrity, like pronouns or pronunciation. Remember, this celebrity is a stranger who doesn't know you. They can't improvise completely without guidance or the video will look bad. You can also attach a short video for further explanation. Some celebrities even let you send more details via chat for free.
Videos are more fun when you leave room for creativity. When I ordered a Cameo video as an engagement surprise, I gave the great Luis Guzman a pretty tight script. But towards the end of the video, I asked him to just riff a little on his role in Community , and having scripted and unscripted parts elevated the product. My fiancée and I loved it. The perfect experience was like working with a respected professional, not exploring some abandoned hack.
Your video can be a heartfelt gift for a loved one or a complete joke to troll and roast your friends. Remember Dubsmash, the app where you'd lip-sync movie clips? Well, Cameo just cuts out the middleman and makes the meme directly from the actors.
