One Torqued Nut

I swear I’m not trying to turn this site into my personal social commentary on “YouTube celebrity” tweets, but sometimes you jut see a tweet that sets off a need for commentary. So when smpfilms’ own “Mr. Safety” commented through a recent twitter status update that he’s got piles of completed videos, but he’s not releasing them because “if I post them right now they won’t get viewed. This time of year has always been slow“, this simultaneously amuses me and makes me question if all the tube-lebreties have forgotten what all of this YouTube stuff is all about. It also proposes a genuine question for all of us who study the marketing side of YouTube: When is the best time to upload your latest video/film project?

First, let’s talk about the art side of YouTube. A lot of people on YouTube are what I would consider artists in an electronic medium. Now, I’m not talking about the people who shoot 30 seconds of raw footage featuring their kitten eating a bug. I’m talking about the people that actually come up with an idea, plan it, shoot it, edit it, and then upload something new and unique. That’s art, and regardless of the quality of the final product, YouTube is a virtual gallery for these artists to show off their works. So coming from the perspective that no artist likes a gallery without any viewers, I can certainly understand the hesitancy to upload a video during a slower time of year on YouTube.

At the same time however, what sort of artist paints a masterpiece and leaves it in their bedroom closet until they think enough people will be at the gallery that day to see it? If I were to wait for enough viewers to show up on my channel to give one of my videos 20,000 hits overnight, I may never upload another video again. So what then, should I just keep making them and never ever upload another one?

I am reminded of Frederic-Auguste Bartholdi, the french sculptor. If you close your eyes and try really hard to remember your 5th grade US history, you’d recall him as the man who sculpted the statue of liberty in the 19th century. Another round of memory jogging would recall that President Grover Cleveland accepted the statue for the United States on Oct. 28, 1886. I also want you to think about another famous pair, Orville and Wilbur Wright, who flew the first modern airplane back in 1903. At this point, you’re probably thinking “Wow, interesting history lesson, but what’s your point?” Well hang on, I’m getting there right now.

Here’s the thing – back in the 1860’s and 70’s when Bartholdi was sculpting lady liberty, humans couldn’t fly. The highest manmade structures in the world were still barely the size of a medium sized office building today. The bottom line was that as far as Bartholdi knew, there never was or would be any way for anyone to see the very tip top of Lady Libery’s head. And yet, even knowing that nobody would ever see it, he still painstakingly sculpted out every last detail, making sure that every strand of hair and every unseen part of her headpiece got the exact same attention that he gave the rest of her.

And that’s what art is about. It’s about doing your best, and putting it out there, even if you know that nobody will ever see it. So when I see someone like Cory, who I know to be a highly skilled artist, saying he’s not releasing videos because they won’t be seen, it gives me pause. Moreso when you realize that the guy is the 9th most subscribed director of all time on YouTube, when he says “nobody will see them”, he means that the video might only get 80,000 or 90,000 views initially. So not only is he minimalizing the fantastic fan base he has which most of us would give our left eye for, but he’s also not satisfied with more people viewing one of his videos than Mozart ever had attend one of his live concertos, or more people viewing his video than Shakespeare ever had in attendance at one time at the Globe Theatre. I could go on, but you get the point.

Art is supposed to be about expression. If you make a great video and then keep it hidden until the time is right, then you’re marketing yourself, not expressing yourself, and you’ve missed the whole point behind what art really is. And so while 16 year olds with a good idea are out there doing art, many of YouTube’s A-listers have forgotten that, and are now just giant marketing machines. In that respect, I actually have more respect for the little folks who made videos that suck but had their hearts in the right place than I do the people with the budget to make masterpieces, but keep them hidden until it’ time to fight for the Summer blockbuster spot.

Having said that, even artists need to eat, and when you’ve had the fortune of being YouTube’s 9th most subscribed director, living off your partner income means that you do have to do some marketing to ensure that you can continue drawing crowds and remaining relevant to the masses who pay your rent by clicking your ads. After all, 100,000 hits on a video won’t pay your rent. So do you settle for lesser views by releasing in off-times, or do you wait until viewers have returned from their winter breaks? That’s really up to you. I will say one thing: If you’re a little guy producer and you see a herd of the big shots taking time off, make as many of your “works of art” as you can. When the smpfilms fans get bored because they’re not getting fresh stuff, they’ll go looking for new people to follow. So for those of us farther down the charts, maybe the best time to release our latest project is right now.

-Jim

Edit: just in case people Miss it, I don’t have anything against Cory. I think he’s a great guy and a phenomenal filmmaker. I just happen to think he needs to quit thinking about views, and start thinking about expression. My two cents, for better of worse.

Tags: filmmaking, production, smpfilms

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 17th, 2009 at 4:18 pm. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.