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One of my acquaintances, whom I've been introduced to and known since 2007, wanted my help in producing a video: touring his video game collection, unboxing, and just video gaming in general. Despite that I quietly quit--retired--from video production in 2022, yet tried doing it again one last time in 2023 and early 2024, meant I'd have to decline. However, for years, he wanted it done, and out of the kindness of my heart, I'm now laying plans to. This will give me an opportunity to refresh my camera and editing skills: something I've been honing by myself since 2001. That's right: since I was 14 years old, in 2001, I've dedicated this craft for more than 20 years; and while my content ended up on YouTube, lots has changed with both the platform and content in general.
Gone are the days of doing something for the fun of it. While I, too, am guilty of this, it's like we have to do something for the sake of monetizing or presenting it, getting us the most 'likes' or 'views.' We've transacted our mundane, yet personal amusements, for clout or potential content in hopes to get sponsored. Being an older millennial myself, having lived before internet, social media, and now, AI, it's almost as if our beloved tech has consumed our well-being--injecting monetization as a compliment. If technical convenience meant that this comfort would eventually lead us to shun traditional jobs, making this a platform for our new (paid) gig, where we can earn a living under our own rules, then we shouldn't blame the job market nor tech/AI for where we're at, right? Sounds like a topic for another day...
Since using YouTube as early as 2006, seeing, and binging, the content back then, from Smosh, Lisa Nova, SMP Films, NigaHiga, sXePhil, then Ray William Johnson and Cinemassacre, the days of seeing efforts producing long, original, almost episodic-like content, is long gone. Those that do often get swamped by YouTube's algorithms (some are still active and garnering a following). While there are a few YouTubers to blame, last I read, it was video blogs, internet drama, and social commentary that's striking viewers' fancies. Worse are the thumbnails: showing an open-mouthed, shocked face as visual bait, getting users to click on the video--clickbait. Still having that traditional formality in following the "recipe" when producing videos, whilst having thoughts about succumbing to the standards, it was part of the reason I didn't want to pursue video anymore.
"Rules are rules, bro. You just got to do it like that."
While I certainly can do things my own way, alongside abiding by the rules when posting on YouTube, some videos boost better than others. If I'm being honest with myself, and the content I've made over the years, I come off very flat. I'm too formal, in spite of growing up in a time where doing something weird, or stupid, and having it recorded on video meant I'll be mocked forever. Others thrive in such area because they have the personality for it. Given my introverted nature, something I've personally been, years before people online now say the same thing about themselves, it's a toss-up: there are days when I'm energetic and lively, but most of my days are low-key and observant. To cave into the normality where I use frequent jump cuts, making me look like a visual seizure, means something that strikes me negatively: doing so in the name of garnering views means I don't care about what I put out, nor do I care about my audience's time watching it, so long that I'm getting views. Early YouTubers, such as Ray William Johnson, were one of the first to incorporate this frequent jump-cuts in their videos every end of their spoken sentence. I remember giving that a try, and it was a pain to edit; it felt like I didn't care what I said since I can cut it out, yet patching words that originally were never paired, nor spoken, together, orally, made me sound unnatural. Reflecting on that back then made me re-think this whole content creating conjecture. Then 'lo and behold: TikTok comes along in 2016, plus YouTube introducing their YouTube Shorts, and it began to show my aging skills immediately.
I originally was supposed to retire from video production in 2019 due to the changing landscape of online content, but received backlash for it (yes, seriously). I gradually came back after...then retired officially. Video will always remain in my heart, and if I were to do it again, it'll just be for me and my, albeit, small audience (namely for my video sub-domain: https://plus.kcuniversal.net).
People Talking About Other People and What They're Doing/Saying
You're wondering after hanging around YouTube for 20 years, what I think of the content of today. Whether you like(d) him or not, Howard Stern had a great suggestion when he was a judge on America's Got Talent: he wanted to choose a winner whose performance has a high replay value. I agree, and looking at the current YouTube landscape, a ballpark of <10% of channels I'm subscribed to fall under that--for me personally. Think about it: in 10 years, will you recall, or re-watch, that social commentary from [insert YouTuber] when they posted about what other people on TikTok or Instagram posted? Their formula is like this:
- Introduce yourself / "Coming up" / Briefly explain today's topic or plan
- Show clips via PiP--Picture-in-Picture
- Implement commentary/reaction to video clip(s)
- Repeat
- Outro: remind viewers to follow on social media, tip, 'like', share and subscribe
- Bonus: mention platforms for monetary gains
When the series Kids React became prominent, I never thought it'd be the format that would storm the platform. Some channels, and you know who I'm talking about, specialize in these, and it's beyond tiresome. Granted, there exists some--some--who comment, critique, and rationalize eloquently, using fallacious logic--logical deduction--to make a fair (counter-)argument with the speaker they're reacting to. Some takes, even from live streamers, are better at it than others. However, it'd be too nice to say that reacting to what other people do, post, and/or say is considered "content." There's a good reason many of us look back and watch older movies and TV shows during the analog days. Sure, commentary and reaction shows were still done back then, but I don't recall anyone saying much about it, unless they lived through that time, or if they're proficient in the celebrities that were famous back then. Would this mean that America's Funniest (Home) Videos or Tosh.0 is NOT considered content? (I know I'm getting too deep here.) While there are possible reasons to recall reaction videos featuring clips in response to current events, sports, elections, trends, etc., for me, its value wears off very quickly. I remember enjoying The Soup and Ridiculousness, but with reactionary content permeating YouTube, if I were to look back, I wouldn't enjoy it as much anymore (even though I found Joel and Rob funny). The format has been drained out already.
"Bro, you jus jealous cuz you ain't YouTube famous LOL!!! [sic]
Critiquing content that I, too, consume, sounds like coping from the failures and successes I wanted to seek. I have admitted defeat, realizing that I didn't have both the marketing know-how nor the personality for such thing. In fact, all the camera work, editing, producing and all, were done by my own self; I never had a production team; and I've spent several thousands of dollars, out of pocket, to take a chance on it. In fact, those I tried collaborating with wanted things their own way, making my projects hard to actualize. Their idea(s)? It was alright, and didn't mind helping out. However, it was money. Doing things out of love and passion, at the time, gradually faded when we were heading into 2020 (before lockdowns). Despite the backlash I got from Facebook that time, I knew my "retirement" should've been sooner, but that's okay. Anyway, while some taking away from this blog post as a cope is fine; I relegate in respecting my audience's time spent watching my videos and made it the best it could be. However, with short-form content, frequent jump-cuts, and "dramatic" zooming in and out, it's something I never grew an interest in. It's like we've lost the 'love' that videomaking originally had.
If you, or anyone you know, wants to pursue online entertainment, I'd suggest making it the best you can. Using Howard Stern's advice, craft it in a way in hopes to gain replay value in the long run. Cinemassacre's Angry Video Game Nerd series is a perfect example. Even though it's only just an angry nerd talking about, and reviewing, video games, it's produced and edited with that 'love,' similar to cooking a meal hoping your guest(s) or significant other enjoys it, with the care for the ingredients you put in. As long as you implement that 'love' in your projects, you should be fine.
Maybe I am coping, such that quality content can't be normalized anymore. My sister found a horror movie posted on YouTube, only for Hollywood directors and producers to confront the crew and help make their project into a feature film (I didn't get the title of the film), so there's still hope. Seeing YouTube videos that are more than 15 years old, with horrible acting, poor camera work, and bad editing yields a charm to this day. It's not perfect, but at least they tried; and I respect that, knowing I still enjoyed watching it. You can say this is why I, now, prefer smaller YouTube channels as they're more authentic--those with less than 50,000 subscribers, or even lesser.
There's a lot to be said in this sort of "philosophy" of online videomaking, but I'm still stuck in the old "craft it with love and care" when it comes to video (food as well). Normalizing pumping out content to garner views and subscribers, in my mind's eye, sounds tiring to me. Not sure how they do it, but that's a lot of bandwidth consumed. Hmm, so even if AI data centers were never a thing, would we still be against building data centers anyway to store all this content being posted everyday? (Gosh, I wish I could talk with engineers, upper management, or if I'm lucky, CEOs about this matter because I genuinely want to know.) All I'm trying to say is I miss quality, YouTube/online content, when the creator(s) actually put in time, effort and 'love' into it. Even if the lighting, sound quality and/or editing is terrible, at least they tried/are trying. Now, especially with cell phone recording 4k videos, it's like that charm isn't a reason to make videos anymore.
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