I first read the book The Hobbit way back in about grade 5 actually just after our teacher had read the entire story to us over the course of several weeks. Immediately I jumped all over The Lord Of The Rings series and the other books by J.R.R. Tolkien.
When the first movie from the Lord Of The Rings (10 years ago!) hit the screen I knew they had struck gold as it was a visual treat to watch and pretty much stuck to the Tolkien storyline. I wondered when they were ever going to bring the prequel of Bilbo Baggins' The Hobbit to the screen and the production was beset by difficulties and it looked like the elderly Ian McKellen may not be available to recreate his excellent role of Gandalf the Grey. Finally they've moved forward with the movie and they have released the first trailer which you should see below.
The film will not be released until December 2013 a full two years from now but just from this trailer I believe it will definitely be worth it. Gandalf looks as weathered as he did in the trilogy and we see the youthful Bilbo and his meetup with the host of Dwarves who will accompany him on his adventure (and his fateful first meeting with Gollum). I am looking forward to more sneak peeks at this film during the run up to it's release.
Yes, it has been a long, LONG time since I have posted a blog post on Bradshaw's Blog but I do have a very legit excuse for my absence. In mid-November I was involved in a car accident (I was a pedestrian) and was struck crossing the road at the corner. I spent 2 weeks in the ICU of two hospitals suffering from what was described as a fractured skull, a brain injury along with cracked vertebrae, plus the loss of about 10% of my body weight. I am still no where's near recovered although I was released after a lengthy hospital stay (luckily with cute nurses).
Although I will likely be unable to return to work for the foreseeable future I am able to watch Youtube videos and zip around the Internet. It is difficult doing too much as it seems I still suffer from a moderately severe concussion and become exhausted with any amount of activity. I thought I should write something here to let those who do read this blog know that I have not abandoned it and will continue posting regularly. There are obviously some lingering effects that I will have to deal with which I hope will not become any kind of permanent limitations - I do have a surprisingly strong discipline and I am determined to get past this. Still, this could have been ever more severe than it has been. Having the effects of a concussion (among other ailments) is difficult to deal with - just ask Sidney Crosby. I had considered doing a P4A video about my condition but found it much too difficult to do at this time. Perhaps I will be able to film and post it in the new year.
I do appreciate you spending the time to read this and hope to have more Youtube news and videos posted shortly.
This is too awesome! TheFineBros have been making great videos on Youtube for a while now and they answer what happens to the Peanuts gang when they start to go through the changes from kid to adult. They also have some great bloppers from the making of the video so go to their Youtube channel and subscribe.
"Wha-wa-wha! Wa-wha-wha-wa-wha!" I always wondered what happened to the adults in Charlie Brown's universe.
The Fine Bros (Rafi & Benny) also have a great series where they show older viral videos to kids and film their reactions. Below is one of their latest where they show the one about the kid trying to show off his epic Star Wars light saber moves. You should watch this one too.
Youtube posted the above information on the site's statistics page.
Youtube recently posted that there are now hundreds of partners making as much as $100,000 a year or more through the site's Youtube Partnership Program. the vast majority of partners do not make anywhere near that figure but some like Ray William Johnson and other top youtubers make a lot more than that. How much does Ray William Johnson make on Youtube? Exact amounts are hard to get but there are some sources that will provide estimates if you just look for them.
A while back I wrote a post called If Ray William Johnson Can Make $2,000 A Day On Youtube Why Can't I? which used figures from myu2b.com which showed that RWJ was making about $2,000 a day from just his Equals 3 channel as a member of the Youtube Partnership Program. The website is now defunct and went belly up soon after my post. I'm still getting questions about the earnings that Johnson and other prominent youtubers get from Youtube and some reasonable estimates are available online at websites such as Socialblade and elsewhere. How accurate their numbers are is a point of conjecture.
The information below is available at Socialblade and each of the links listed below will take you to take particular stats page. How does the website arrive at the dollar amounts given? According to Socialblade their numbers are "Based on a 0.5 to 3.25 CPM. CPM on YouTube's are not public and are estimated to range vastly so use this for entertainment value only. Also not valid if channel is not a partner." Only the Youtube partner, Youtube and perhaps their accountant and the tax department really know what people make on Youtube and the amount they get day to day and month to month fluctuates so much that it is almost impossible to nail down a hard figure.
Myu2b stopped updating their website, their twitter account stopped sending out tweets back in January and now the site is gone from the web. One guy started posted a bunch of videos relying on myu2b.com's numbers saying he wanted to "expose" (as he termed it) how much many of the most subscribed youtubers were making through the Youtube Partnership Program including the video below:
Actually I kind of cringed every time he called Ray William Johnson "Ray Williams Johnson" (which he did in at least three videos) because it sounded like he was talking about a channel by Ray's, um, johnson. His name is rjared and his video about how much nighiga was making from Youtube got over a million views. He then did a whole series of videos about various partners and promised to release the name of the website at the end of the series, but myu2b tanked.
First, take a look at what Ray William Johnson is approximately earning from Youtube.
First off, you can throw away that $4.5 million dollar figure because that is just ridiculous. An educated guess would be that the lower figure is closer to being accurate and I would probably double that amount for most of those listed here. Also, in Ray's case, he also makes money from t-shirts and other merchandise as well as downloads of his music from his Yourfavoritemartian channel. There has been some speculation that Ray is Youtube's first millionaire and I think that is probably accurate.
What Do Other Famous Youtubers Make?
Not everyone who is a top Youtuber is a millionaire but most are likely enjoying a fair bit of success monetarily. As mentioned above, if you want to get a real approximation for how much money top youtubers make each year, take the lower yearly figure and double it. Each link given below will take you to take partnered channel's Socialblade page which gives what they figure is the amount that channel earned over the past 30 days and what they are likely to make this year. Most on this list would probably see the higher figures and just say "I wish I made that much".
The people chosen here are in no particular order and appear because they are looked at as very successful with the Youtube website. Some like Philip DeFranco plow most of their earnings back into their own businesses and take only a portion as actual income. If you are on the website Reddit, you might have seen the thread Phil did about his experiences on Youtube. Take a look at an article about that here Philip DeFranco Drops Bombshell On Reddit – Some YouTubers Make Six Figures A Month! (or you can check out the actual Reddit thread.)
Finally, I'm not posting this to "expose" what anyone is making on Youtube. No matter how accurate the numbers are hopefully you are not looking at Youtube simply as a piggybank or looking at the more successful ones with envious eyes. As mentioned, the majority of youtubers do not make money like this. Post videos if you love doing it and if you find some success, that's cool, but do it because you enjoy doing it and don't dive in with dollar signs in your eyes.
There is a gaming channel on Youtube that is blowing up right now. It's called RiotGamesInc who has amassed an astounding 139,500-plus in the past 24 hours. This channel now has over 729,000 subs and that total puts them at around 86th overall on Youtube's Most Subscribed List. How does that happen?
To give those numbers some perspective, JennaMarbles, the next most subscribed channel garnered a mere 6,700 in the last day or so. Apparently the channel has just grown by 24% OVERNIGHT. First, take a look at RiotGamesInc's latest video below:
This video was released September 22, 2011 and has received over 334,000 views which does not even put the video in the top 20 most viewed for the past week. So their video is not driving all those subscribers to them. Actually, the channel has not released a massively successful video from what I can tell. The channel does have lots of videos which have a million to two million views which is an awesome number of course, but there are other channels which have four or five million views or more. Is there some sort of skullduggery afoot? As far as the video above goes, there is not much substantially different from many of the other gaming news channels.
BUT: it does look odd that they were receiving new subs at the rate of about 1,200 per day and then that number shot up to 118,000 on September 22nd and 193,000 on the 23rd.
I've been subscribed to DeStorm for a long time now and he recently hit 1,000,000 subscribers on his main Youtube channel. He just posted a couple of videos giving his take on how to become a Youtube success story yourself and a lot of his advice can be applied to life in the real world. One thing, he uses some language that may not be appropriate for the little ones, but beyond that, this is some brilliant advice.
WHERE'S MY CAMERA! Like he mentions, DeStorm was a personal trainer at one point and he set that aside to work on Youtube and now he is definitely seeing things come to fruition. Make sure you watch the second video too.
If that doesn't get you motivated you are just dead inside. I'm really thinking of posting some videos myself and watching these videos certainly is a kick in the pants.
If you follow "Katers Daily Capers" on Katersoneseven you may have known that she was planning on returning to England (just to visit, not to stay) in early September and this is just Kate & Cory (aka Mr Safety from smpfilms and DudeLikeHELLA) are getting ready to fly. One high point is when Kate & Cory spot a certain extremely famous actor waiting to board the plane at the airport...
Kate of course has more balls than I do because I would be a bit hesitant to approach someone so famous and she walks right up to him (grinning like crazy) and asks Hugh Laurie (Dr Gregory House from the television show House in case you didn't know) and requests a hug but is turned away. Now I don't know Laurie but love his work on the show House as well as all of his previous work, but how can you turn down a hug from a pretty girl like Kate? I loved Cory's reaction (at 8:00): "You know, he totally Housed you" and then did a spot on impression of Laurie's walk.
Of course, Laurie probably gets approached a lot for autographs from fans but not requests for hugs in busy airports. I'm guessing that with the hat pulled down and the sunglasses he was hoping to get through the airport unnoticed. Not all celebs want to be "on" at all times and he was likely heading back to England to visit his family and felt he was "off the clock" as far as his star persona and didn't want to draw attention to himself during his own private time. Still awesome that she did get a chance to meet such a big star and when she next meets him she can remind him of how he snubbed her in the airport and get that hug!
Since Kate went back to England she has had a bunch of adventures, renewed old friendships ("The Loud One and that crowd of lunatics) and packed up what remained at her mother's place - actually you get to see Kate's mother in a later video - and has now returned to California with a bunch of boxes in tow. I would recommend watching just about every one of her vlogs while in England and Cory's channels for his take on England, especially her friend "the Loud One's birthday party.
Apparently, iJustine has run afoul of the powers that be over at Youtube because of her use of copyright material in one of her latest videos which was promptly taken down. If you want to see the actual video she includes it inside the video below (although speeded up so quickly you cannot get the jist of it) but she has also posted it on her website and here's a link to her Steve And I which was removed from IJ's Youtube channel after having been up only a day or so.
Whether you saw the video on Youtube prior to it being deleted, copyright infringement is an important matter which can lead to the closure of your Youtube channel along with other more serious ramifications. She sang a song dedicated to Apple CEO (now the former CEO) Steve Jobs and his recent resignation from the company presumably for health reasons. The most likely reason for the video being pulled was that the song was reworked from one sung by Lady Gaga.
If you have followed iJustine on Youtube, Twitter, Facebook or any of the many platforms she has a presence, you know that she has been a longtime fan of everything Apple-related in general and Jobs in particular and considers him as a role model/inspiration. Many admire the work Jobs has done especially since he returned to Apple after being ousted by shareholders many years ago and guiding the company to the prominance that Apple enjoys to this day. IJ has long been an early adopter of each of the various Apple products as they have come to market and wears her Apple fanaticism as a badge of honor. You can see that she seems genuine in the video below where she first addressed the Jobs resignation announcement.
There will always be those who criticize her, saying she has too many Youtube channels and always trying to get more views and therefore more money and they are entitled to their opinion. I read somewhere that someone thought she might have posted the Steve Jobs song video knowing it would be taken down in order to create some controversy around herself, but I don't see it that way. I thought the song was sort of silly, irreverent and just something she felt like doing at the time to show others how she felt. It was typically IJ.
You can love her or hate her but she is after all just another personality on Youtube and the Internet and you can always choose to change the channel. Like many who watch iJustine's videos we find her first because she is very pretty but most stay because she has that offbeat sense of humor and personality to back that up. Yes, I think she is very pretty, but I find many women to be pretty and unless they have something to back that up with, interest wanes fairly quickly. She does, and that's why I watch her videos.
Looks like MysteryGuitarMan is finally making an honest woman out of his fiancee Sarah Evershed and about to marry her. Actually, by the time you read this they will be married. If you missed MGM's latest video (see below) he explains that he won't be uploading a new video next tuesday as usual because he and Sarah (Mr and Mrs Penna) will be making sweet music together on their honeymoon. The video was uploaded the day before they tied the knot and you can see that they are mad for each other and everyone should wish them the best.
The second video shows him actually proposing to Sarah, done in solid MysterGuitarMan fashion and the third one was shot by Olga Kay and shows a lot of the reception and features a bunch of wellknown youtubers.
Love the ending to that video. MGM: "Who's the cutest little girl in the world?" Sarah: "ME!!" It doesn't matter what he uploads, but I make it a point to watch every one of MysteryGuitarman's videos because they are all entertaining and imaginative and this one is no exception and it was nice to see him incorporate Sarah into this one with the two pictures becoming one with her rejecting his overtures of love and then her giving him a guitar which resulted in her becoming smitten.
The video below shows the elaborate setup he used when he actually proposed to Sarah back in September 2010. Yes, that is Ultimate Fighting champion Chuck Liddell playing the lawyer. At first I didn't know what the heck I was watching but then you see MGM yelling "CUT!" and it starts making sense. Make sure that you watch it all the way to the end.
Olga Kay's Take on The Penna-Evershed Wedding Reception
I really liked Olga's video showing the start of the wedding. And yes that is Charles Trippy and Alli Speed from CTFxC getting into the car at the start and one of Olga's roommates Jess (on Youtube as exoticjess). You can almost play "Name The Youtuber" at the reception as there seems to be dozens of them running around.
Me: "I think I'll check to see what new videos have been posted on Youtube. Cool! A new CTFxC video!" And about ten minutes into it, it gets a little weird as Charles starts talking about this blog he found that shows the Top 100 from August 2007 and there on the screen is - this blog! I'm like "Hey! That's my blog! That's Bradshaw's Blog!"
The vlog starts out with Charles discovering their credit card number had been stolen (bummer) but they got that mess straightened out fairly quickly. Then Charles points out that Alli is all bandaged up with various aches and bumps and bruises (she still looks good though). After a little sojourn into the toy store to get some props for the CTFxC Movie Club (check Alli's channel for that), where Charles was in his glory as usual, they go outside where he shows Alli beside the sign saying "No Stopping Anytime". All I could think about was the video below by ExplosmEntertainment.
Later we get to see Zoe & Marley catching cheese in super-slow motion Charles talks about this new CTFxC Movie Club which they just started (you missed Spaceballs on the first one) but you get a sweet deal by going to Netflix.com/CTFxC and uploading video responses to Alli's channel and some will be featured in their videos. I'm tempted to post a response to some of their choices. Upcoming movies they recommend include:
8/23 - Shutter Island
8/25 - Mega Shark vs. Crocosaurus
8/27 - The Crow
So if you love any of these movies you might want to post a video response when they watch these films. Charles goes on to mention about how he started on Youtube back in the day responding to the videos posted by bigger names on the website and how his channel has grown from there to what they do today (they have over half a million subs on CTFxC, Charles' own channel has 738K subs and Alli's has 228K) so from that tentative beginning you have to say they've done very well.
Charles later mentions "this blog I found" that shows the Top 100 from August 2007 which is the post I wrote a couple of weeks ago. And then shows my blog (yes, I became a giddy fanboy for a second, lol) and says some awesome things about the post. Needless to say, my lame little blog was flooded with CTFxC fans (he also tweeted about the post).
I never expected to see any mention of my blog in any CTFxC videos or anyone else's on Youtube so I was shocked when a prominant youtuber like Charles took notice. This is why you should do video responses of your own to Chales and Alli's movie club as well as others on the website. You may get noticed and found by audiences you might not otherwise have reached.
One more thing I have to state categorically: CTFxC FTW!
One of the many UK Youtubers I always look forward to seeing pop up in my subscriptions is Chris Kendall (aka crabstickz) who has a dry, slighty awry sense of humour. One of the things he does is do drawings (I loved his drawing challenges where people would try to stump him but he always seemed to come through with an odd but interesting drawing of their topic). But anyway, on to this latest video. Lately he has been doing "Storytime Sundays" where he tells a story based on some of his own artwork. Sounds simple enough but they are actually pretty entertaining stories.
If you are wondering about the hat Chris is wearing, there's a long sordid story about that. It seems he has moved to London and was looking to get a haircut in his new hometown and... well, it's probably best if you watch this video where he enlightens us on his misadventure in barbering.
Love his reaction when he finally takes off the hat lol. Needless to say he will likely be wearing that hat clear through until November.
Just finished watching Philip DeFranco doing a live vlog via Vokle. Sorry, but you're too late to see it but it was pretty good. Just Phil kicking back and answering some Twitter question (he answered mine), text questions and some video questions. Most of the video questions were from PhillyD fans shocked that they actually got through to him and there was some gushing fan shots but Phil handled it very well and answered as many questions as he could. He was on for quite a while and the lovely LinzLoves (Phil girlfriend in case you didn't know) returned from the gym but refused to come on camera but she made comments in the background. Don't know what it is about hot, sweaty women not wanting to be on camera.
Unsure about why DeFranco was using Vokle rather than Ustream or BlogTV. I was unaware of Vokle until now but I will check it out. Phil mostly covered a lot of familiar ground - how he got started, etc and was asked if he thinks he would be in the Top 100 again if he were starting on Youtube today. he replied in the affirmative if he had the knowledge he has acquired since he started back in 2006. He also was asked about the economy and his take on the current stock markets from a German viewer (not Phil's usual area of expertise) but he mentioned he had been invested in Netflics but had jumped out of the stock prior to the recent downturn. He said he was not really the stock market type and only invests once in a while and usually in a single stock at a time.
One interesting answer DeFranco gave was to overseas sales of DeFranco swag. A British lass asked him about how she could acquire a Philip DeFranco t-shirt in the UK. Personally, I want to grab one of those monkey t-shirts. Phil mentioned that they should be available through forhumanpeoples.com (but the shipping to the UK would probably be insane) or possibly through District Lines.
I tweeted a few days ago about doing a Bradshaw's Blog post about all the various Youtube merch available so expect that in a few days or so. What I found interesting about Phil's response to the UK question was that he mentioned that they were going to have a UK warehouse but "not for 9-10 months or so" meaning they are planning on expanding the operation overseas which is cool for those living in Europe.
Yes, I'm a big-time geek who loves to watch both Hank Green and John Green's vlogbrothers channel. Individually they are great but when they get together those Green boys are hilarious.
If you are unfamiliar with John & Hank Green's Youtube channel each brother uploads a new video in response to the other's. All contain intelligence, goofiness and intelligence. Yes I said intelligence twice because Green & Green (Green squared?) is exponentially better than most of the dreck that gets posted online.
In this video, John drops in on Hank as he is filming his latest video and they answer some of the pressing questions posed by Nerdfighters, such as "Who would win between the two brothers in an arm wrestling match?" John previously stated that likely both would lose and that is pretty much what happens. Anyway, watch them as they debut a new segment called "Hank's Question Tuesday".
So those were the first questions answered by Hank and John (loved the arm wrestling "Battle of the Nerdfighter Titans"). As an added bonus they had an alternate ending for this video which continued and provides an explanation of Hank's comment at the end "Stop looking at me! STOP LOOKING AT ME!"
Also the whole part about Kermit the Frog versus Padre Pio was great and shows the differences between the two. Here's the alternate ending video.
If you missed it, here are some videos about 2011's Summer In The City Youtube Gathering which took place August 12th to the 14th in London, England. According to their Facebook page, over 1,800 youtubers from around the UK were planning on attending the three day event making it one of the largest, if not THE largest UK Gathering. Just about anyone who's anyone was there again this year which was the third year that the event has been held. If you can attend in 2012 you might want to vlog about it as I will try to post whatever footage I can find here when I see it (don't know if I will be able to get over to London or not at that time next year cuz busy Bradshaw is busy).
This is a list of what happened:
FRIDAY - Icebreaker day; Meeting in Hyde Park near Rotten Row at 1pm
FRIDAY (pm) - Open Mic Night, Imperial College Student Union, 7:30ish
SATURDAY - Main gathering day; Regent's Park, 1pm
SATURDAY (pm) - Gig Night; South Bank Uni Student Union, 7:30ish
SUNDAY - Chillout/Goodbye day; Jubilee Gardens, 1pm
I just saw Alfie from PointlessBlog's video of pictures from his perspective. In case you're wondering who sings the song it is Sum Me Up (available on itunes) by BriBryontour<--that a link to him playing the song - sub this guy!)
Here's another video showing some of the event posted by jessieHORRIFIC to whom I'm also subbed.
If you're interested in going to SiTC 2012 (when announced) use the links above for more info. I'll also post something before the event next time.
If you're not subscribed to Tobuscus' TobyTurner's channel this video may leave you a little confused. "Intro of darkness, then reddness, the whiteness" What? That is of course how Toby opens and closes his lazy vlog where he walks around (with Steven his aide-de-camp, gopher, cameraman, invisible friend). Toby doesn't say much in his daily vlog but does use a lot of words while doing so and it is usually done outside on the street where he easily gets distracted by planes and flowers (with a half-finished caffeinated beverage in one hand and the audience in the other).
Of course trying to get you to watch his lazy vlogs is difficult if you are unfamiliar with his somewhat unique style although I am preaching to the choir for many who watch daily hoping to win a Tobuscus t-shirt, game or toby-related swag (annotated at the bottom where the most recent winner "congrats to telboy1992" is shown - for a split second I thought it was my Youtube name (DellBoy010) finally listed there but no dice. Only the cool kids get a free Tobuscus shirt.
So what is Tobuscus doing wandering around Philip DeFranco's studio? Well, like a bee drawn to honey, Toby is there because there is a Maxim photoshoot going on ("Hot,hot,hot,hot,hot") for the Maxim's Hometown Hotties (that link takes you to lovely Caitlin O'Connor's pictures so you can vote for her. And follow her on Twitter @Caitlin_OConnor).
Toby wanders through the halls of DeFranco Studios where they apparently have a break room for the interns so they can play Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood and other stuff. And he passes Philip DeFranco who of course is on his phone. Is it weird that I wanted to see Caitlin lying down on some of DeFranco's monkey posters? It is? Is it also weird that I want the monkey poster she lay on? That's weird too? Okay.
Finally Tobuscus shows us a little more of Caitlin's photoshoot (thank you Toby and especially Caitlin) before ending with his standard outro ""darkness, redness, whiteness" and then "do, do, do, do, do, sub-scribe! BOOOP!" Like I said, he does have a rather unique vlogging style.
How do you celebrate getting your one millionth Youtube subscriber? If you're TimothyDeLaGhetto, you run naked through the hallways of a Canadian hotel yelling "I've got a million Youtube subscribers! And I'm neked!"
Tim's "TimothyDeLaGhetto2" vlogging channel is the latest to join a select group of 44 other Youtube channels that have garnered at least a million subscribers. Shaycarl, EminemVEVO and communitychannel (from Natalie Tran) are the most recent to hit 1,000,000 subs and you have to ask what Tim will do for an encore when he hits two million subs.
Actually he has 1,003,825 subscribers as this is being written so it is just a matter of time until he hits 2 million. What do you think he should do when he hits that number. Leave a comment below with your suggestion.
Don't know how I missed this one from Andrew Bravener (actually I do - it's because it sort of got buried like he explains in the video) but this is a good vlog where he explains his feelings about the current state of Youtube compared to what the website was like 3 or 4 years back. Actually watch the video because Andrew explains it a lot better than I do.
After watching this video I wanted to do a video response saying "Hey Andrew. I do MY part. I do a lame blog promoting various Youtubers (big and small channels)." But I didn't. I thought well, I'll feature the video here maybe with a couple of the video responses others have posted.
I agree whole-heartedly with what he says in this video about smaller channels being buried by the rush to monetize everything about Youtube (I've read that the website is tracking to make one billion dollars this year which is good for those who run the site as well as those in the Youtube Partnership Program, but for the most part the vast majority of those who post videos and upload their own content do not see a plug nickel.
I am not trying to slam those who are trying to make some money with the website because there is a lot of great content being posted (that I report on here) but there is also a lot that is never seen because of the pre-eminence of larger channels that dominant the boards pushing smaller channels out of the community's eye. That is one of the reasons I started this blog - to try to bring interesting fun content to the attention of those who might miss it. There are only so many hours in the day so even I miss a lot of cool stuff being posted on Youtube (it took me four months to find Andrew's video for example) so you and I need to do a little digging and look for content beyond the latest from Ray William Johnson, iJustine and Tobuscus. Don't get me wrong, I do watch all their stuff too, but I also look for smaller channels (and you should too).
Anyway, take a look at a couple of the video responses to his original video:
StrummingSally's response to "An Open Letter To Youtube".
crazycrisco's response to "An Open Letter To Youtube".
I think Chris may have taken active steps to follow up on this response because he has been posting videos fairly regularly since posting this response to Andrew's video.
What are your impressions of Andrew's rant about the state of Youtube?
As you know if you are a regular reader of this blog (what, you don't have something better to do with your time?) I like to check out Youtube videos. Videos of people in the Top 100 Most Subscribed and others that are a little further down the list and crazycrisco qualifies as the latter with a mere 170 subscribers (I'm number 170 - I like to get in on the ground floor). Crazycrisco is Chris who "lives right on the Ohio river" who has been posting videos on a semi-regular basis for about the last 4 months or so and I got a message to check out one of his videos (the one below) which I liked, so I checked out some more. Now I'm subbed.
The video is about Chris' trip to VidCon 2011 held in Los Angeles at the end of July. It is not your usual, breathless "Guess who I met at VidCon?!" type video but more of a general impressions of California from someone who had not been there before. The state of California is obviously beautiful and he gets some nice footage of the ocean and the beach put to music.
And check out this other video he posted called "Inappropriate Dubstep" that he made with friends. Loved the poor guy in the elevator trying desperately to escape and the reactions of others when the doors open.
A while back, around the end of VidCon 2011, Charles Trippy was doing a sequel to his Doctor Zombay video which he posted on his personal channel charlestrippy (as opposed to his CTFxC channel) and filmed it at Shay Carl's house while they were in L.A. And yes, that is Princesstard as Trippy the policeman's step-daughter.
If you want to see some behind the scenes stuff about while they were making this video, both Charles and Shay included some footage (loved the part of a leather-lunged Princesstard screaming). First, here's the CTFxC video as they were leaving VidCon and doing some filming. Doctor Zombay is Ben and Dr Chris are both from RuinTheInternet. The daughter is of course Princesstard from the Shaytards and her mom is played by Alli Speed (CTFxC).
Also, Shay Carl included some footage and behind the scenes stuff on the Shaytards vlog just around the same time so watch that too.
It looks like Freddie Wong & Brandon Laatsch's freddiew channel just passed the two million subscriber mark on Youtube (actually, as of this posting they're on their way to 3 million as they have 2,010,531 subs).
If you are unfamiliar with the work of Freddie and Brandon, they make cool special effects videos on Youtube that have garnered almost 350 million views in total and each week they upload another which usually gets viewed several million times. One of their most recent videos was a take-off on Universal Pictures' Cowboys & Aliens which featured actor/director Jon Favreau (who directed the movie). Here's a link to Freddie's Cowboys & FreddieW which was posted 3 weeks ago and has already received about 4.5 million views.
So What About This Awesome Giveaway?
Glad you asked. Watch the following video just posted by Brandon and Freddie where they acknowledge surpassing the two million subscribers mark on Youtube. That is actually quite an accomplishment and their channel is now the 10th most subscribed of alltime on Youtube. In the video, Freddie and Brandon fill us in on a contest in which they are giving away a chance to fly out to sunny L.A.
You can find their contest on FreddieW's Facebook Page as mentioned in the video. If you're a diehard Freddie Wong fan you might also want to check out a couple more of his sites, namely facerocker.com as well as Freddie's Blog where he gives a great (and lengthy!) post about how to succeed on Youtube. A good read and lots of helpful stuff for would-be youtubers. I also have a link to Freddie's blog on this page under "Blogs I Like" in the lower right corner (lots of great blogs to check out).
So, here it is, mid-August 2011 and Freddie and Brandon pass another milestone with 2 million subs. Hard to believe it was just last March when they got their millionth subscriber (see 1 Million Subs in 1 Year). At the rate they are getting new subscribers when do you think they will pass the three million mark? By the end of 2011? I wouldn't be surprised.
I have been subbed to Brigitte Dale's daisytree1 for a long time now (I think she may have been one of the first few that I actually subbed to back in the day) and she always makes interesting videos that are visually pleasing (she's also damned cute herself but that's beside the point) and with a certain intelligence which I like finding on Youtube channels. I have always thought that Brigitte deserved far more subscribers than she has (right now she's got 24,580) and lately she's been posting some videos about two kittens she is looking after that had been abandoned. They have been dubbed Mabel and Oscar and they will be up for adoption when they get to be 8 weeks old.
In this video Brigitte mentions that the two kittens have an Amazon wishlist, so if you would like to donate some food, bedding or toys you can follow the link -> Mabel & Oscar's Amazon Wishlist
The top video was posted in late July and since then Brigitte has been keeping us up to date on the progress of Oscar and Mabel with the two videos below. Like the title says - watch at your own risk because you will be inundated by kitten cuteness.
Oscar and Mabel: Week One
I liked that Brigitte included information about the proper feeding of newborn cats in this video (I didn't know about the wiggling ears).
Oscar and Mabel: Week Two
This video was just posted by Brigitte. Loved seeing Oscar getting cleaned up. He looked like he was trying to box and keep the paper towel away. If she keeps posting once a week, that means there are at least 6 more videos featuring this kittens. Big time kudos to Brigitte for doing this.
One of the more nefarious practices employed by some Youtubers is the use of bots to artificially inflate their "likes", favorites and numbers of views along with the "mis-categorization of Youtube videos". Why is this a problem? Well, when bots are used, and a video gets a lot of positive feedback it might get featured on the front page of Youtube. This gets the content creator more and more views, subscribers and ultimately revenue - money from the ads featured on video.
Why do some people cheat on Youtube? Pretty obviously it is because of money. There will always be those who will do anything and everything in order to get a little more money and some on Youtube have no qualms about using whatever methods will give them just a little bit more each month.
Take a look at the following video by TheGUNNShop, primarily a gaming channel from Niels, aka GUNNS4HIRE (that's a link to his Twitter) who eloquently speaks about one of the latest scams and mentions a few names (such as Whiteboy7thst) and gives examples of this practice. Whiteboythst defends himself in a video at the bottom from his 2nd channel.
Not being quite as active a gamer as many, I was not aware of TheGUNNShop's channel and probably would not have spotted this if not for someone who I am subbed to, namely TheArchfiend who has a lot of videos where he slams top youtubers who he feels take advantage of their position and subscriber bases to rake in a lot of money through the Youtube Partnership Program. I don't agree with 100% of what The Archfield says most of the time but I do watch a lot of his videos because he does explain his position intelligently and thoughtfully. Plus I love when he skewers the fanboys who try to defend his latest targets when he trains his eye on those who are unethical or appear to be trying to generate money from the misfortune of others.
Really, if you are unfamiliar with TheArchfiend take a look at his channel and videos. You might agree with what he says or you may violently disagree but you are entitled to your opinion and so is he. He also posts some humorous vids like a recent one where he ambushes a hornets nest (sort of like when he takes on the fanboys of one Shane Dawson).
The bot controversy and inflating stats is nothing new on Youtube and a constant problem that I would like to see the website address. The problem is how to do it without hobbling the community. Your thoughts on this latest scam?
As a sidenote I spotted that the Whiteboythst states he has been hacked which does happen from time to time, even to the top Youtubers. What I'm thinking is that he is trying to buy some time to change stuff around in order to perhaps hide or remove the links that show what he did to get the bots to help him. Dunno, but maybe he actually did get hacked. Usually when the hackers get into your account they delete your videos, not make them private. Tempest in a teacup.
If you watch this video he admits to have used some questionable tactics in the past but now he's not. One statement I had a problem with was "look on the favorites. If I was using a bot for favoriting would I be number 4? No, I'd be number one." Well, by being consistently number one you would draw the gaze and scrutiny of others but by slacking a bit and being number 4 you may fly a little under the radar of some. It does seem all this may be orchestrated to again increase Whiteboythst's notoriety. Or maybe not.
It does seem that he will probably emerge from this latest bout of silliness with yet higher visibility, more subs and more money dropping into his bank account each month. Look at the results of all this type of activity down the line rather than being misdirected by what is going on now - sleight of hand may be what is happening here.
Map of London and area showing how the rioting has spread
"There is no moral high ground about wanting to steal Air Jordans."
Kinda says it all in a nice, neat package. This is a good video by Philip DeFranco where he describes what is currently going on in London, England and cities. In case you don't know, a man was shot and killed by London police (see the First Night of rioting which gives some info about Mark Duggan).
Watching what Phil says about the rioting I was taken by the fact that he was talking about something important that needed to be said and viewed by members of his audience. Where others are posting videos about "awesome mullets", DeFranco is shedding some light on something that matters and making people aware of what is going on in the world. Don't get me wrong - I did watch (and laughed at) the video RWJ posted about the Mullet Guy, but that's the difference between what they do. Ray is cheap laughs and Phil does informative stuff. Sure DeFranco has videos featuring dumb people doing dumb things and hot girls (yes, thank you, may I have another) but he includes information like this which is actually important.
News reports of the rioting which has lasted three long days. Apparently a man was killed.
Some video of people trying to bust into a shop and the police tossing them in a van along with shots of the aftermath.
More video of buildings ablaze.
To see more coverage of the London riots I would encourage you to go to Youtube and search "London Riot". There is a lot of videos being posted that you might want to see.
on the first one) but you get a sweet deal by going to 
