Amongst the "YouTubers" that came to Pixelodeon was Caitlin Hill, aka TheHill88 <http://flickr.com/photos/ekai/543134602/>. Recently, she posted a video to YouTube <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KQv4koF1n0> which was a response to other people's responses to her video called "Chris Crocker + TV Show = A Load of Crock" <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYGmO_zCU6Q&NR=1>.
Now I know Caitlin's one of the YouTubers that's doing a character. She does mostly goofy "entertainment" skits. If she's acting in these two videos, I'll tip my hat, because she seems perfectly serious to me. There are lots of things I find interesting about these videos, including the fact that she seems to have a good grasp on the difference between "laughing at" and "laughing with" and she's basically putting down the exact same type of videos that she does herself. She also says that she liked [her work] way more before she cared what other people thought. At this point, AFAIK, she's in the YouTube Partner program. Her punchline at the end of the Crocker video is "Please realize this. Reality TV is like YouTube... Need I say more?" Granted, I don't watch many YouTube "Character" videos, so I have no idea whether lots of people are saying this, but (again, if we're to take her seriously, and I've chosen to do that after having watched both videos) her stance seems to be opposing the stance of "anything that anybody does is worthwhile to anybody but themselves" and "anybody who gets sponsored or chosen to do something has been deemed a quality performer". I find it to be a very progressive and insightful stance from someone who specializes in deliberately-goofy videos. Obviously, Caitlin has been exposed to more of "the industry", and that may be coloring her view of "sit in front of your webcam" videos. I wanted to post this in light of some people mentioning that the recent conversations in this group have been about money. How do we get paid? How do we monetize? How do we get sponsored? How do we grow and maintain an audience? How do we get more hits? How do we get more distribution? What kinds of ads should we run? I agree from my own perspective with what Caitlin had to say about "caring what people think". That's partially why what was going to be a personal "battle" with Vergel Evans <http://Lx7.ca> became Vlog Deathmatch: Video Music Challenge <http://vlogdeathmatch.blogspot.com/2007/05/bill-cammacks-official-music-video.html>. I had basically bored myself to death doing videos that conformed to what the public was consuming or what was being done in the space. I love that particular video I did with ActionGirl, because it was fun, she brought fantastic energy to the project, and I was consistently, progressively creative during the time we shot it and I edited it. That's more my style and what I got involved with video to do in the first place. I also really enjoyed the diversity and creativity of the other 19 entries in the "contest", which I really think of more as a festival. I've also had the *rare* reaction of "Damn... I wish *I* had made that video" when I see Jay Smooth's creativity in his videoblog "Ill Doctrine" <http://www.illdoctrine.com/2007/06/the_ill_doctrine_dipset_anthem.html> <http://www.illdoctrine.com/2007/07/john_lee_hooker_i_get_money_fr.html>. I guess it all comes down to what YOU would do if you weren't concerned with numbers or viewers or getting sponsored or paying bills through videoblogging... the exact opposite of what we've been discussing lately. Maybe you're already doing exactly what you want. Maybe your videos are already personally satisfying to you. I've been getting A LOT of satisfaction cutting Scriggity <http://scriggity.com> with Drew Olanoff @ Shauna. Just last night, Clintus McGintus told us he was with the program to do Scriggity epidodes, so it's just getting better and better. :D I wonder what the percentage is between people that actually enjoy what they're doing and people that do their shows specifically to get hits, sponsorship or attention. If you're not going to do videos that *you* like or even LOVE, make sure the ROI's worth it. Otherwise, you might be better off keeping your day job and making videos that are completely unmarketable, yet personally fulfilling. -- Bill http://billcammack.com
