#charlieissocoollike
charliemcdonnell-issocoollike:
BLINK. <3
charlies american accent is pretty good when he sings :D
charliemcdonnell-issocoollike:
Wait. Is it wrong that i dont know who is she? I feel like ive seen her somewhere ugh. But charlie looks perf
Post link
PEDIA 08 - You’re Welcome.
From a video that I think Michael Aranda did once where charlie was in his dressing gown. Mocked up to look like one of those sleazy American Apparel posters.
I’ll admit, a couple of the characters I’ve used in these posters are being used in a larger poster that I’m working on at the moment. I think re-appropriating them for other things like this is pretty fun though :) Can’t wait to show off the final poster I made.
-Jonny
Post link
^ Is it really a roadtrip if you fly there? just sayin’
Organised by online travel company Contiki the tour covers Germany, Italy, France and England and features a variety of challenges and tasks for the YouTubers to complete on the way.
Along for the ride are Meghan Camarena (strawburry17), Charles and Alli Trippy, Charlie McDonnell, Michael Aranda, Bryarly Bishop, Jimmy Wong, Kate Elliott (katersoneseven), Jack Douglass, Jesse and Jeana (bfvsgf), Corey Vidal, Nadine Sykora and host Tim Deegan.
The whole shebang kicked off on Saturday with the YouTubers having flown in to Munich, Germany the previous day.
Gatherings
The first of three planned gatherings took place at Kultfabrik, a veritable hive of pubs, clubs and bars described as “Europe’s biggest party zone”.
However, despite it’s reputation (and unlike a certain Hyde Park gathering we all know about) it was reportedly “totally chilled out and awesome” and attendees got to talk to their favourite YouTubers without fear of being impaled on anything.
The other two are due to take place in Paris and London on the 13th and 14th of October respectively.
^ Munich Gathering
Competition & Voting
The tour will be splitting up into three groups to compete for prizes that they will then be giving away to their subscribers.
The challenges will be spread across the cities of Munich, Venice and Paris with the YouTubers racing through the streets of Venice, taking to the stage at Oktoberfest and showing off their video creation skillz at the Paris film festival.
Those stuck at home can win a trip of their own by registering to vote at the Contiki roadtrip site.
^ Meghan Camarena and Jimmy Wong gearing up for the Octoberfest challenge this afternoon
Contiki isn’t the first business to utilise the powerful audiences of YouTubers to gain access to their target domographic -in this case 18-35 year olds positively heaving with wanderlust- but it may well turn out to be the best attempt so far.
Instead of cynically trying to use idols to push products Contiki is selling adventure itself.
Something we could all probably use a little more of.
^The gold plated play button, reports of it going *ting* when looked upon are as of yet unconfirmed.
The new rewards system -which attendees of this years VidCon got a sneak peek at- was officially unveiled just over a week ago.
It consists of a gold plated play button for those who have reached at or above a total of 1,000,000 subscribers and the thing is framed in a way reminiscent of gold or platinum records.
There’s good stuff in here for the slightly less mammoth creators too. Those who have reached 100,000 subs get a 500 dollar gift card and a custom DSLR bag.
Awards
It’s actually not unusual for social media personalities and organizations to receive awards based within an online genre or even a single website.
The Webby Awards are old as balls, rewarding internet peeps and businesses since 1995 and The Streamy Awards go one further.
They focus exclusively on web series; still a pretty small industry despite the large audience growth and acceptance into mainstream culture that it’s made in recent years.
What’s different about these rewards is that they’re given exclusively on the basis of numbers.
^ Look familiar?
Mixed Reception
The reception among big YouTubers has been largely positive and tends to break up into those who are still a bit too small to qualify for the gold and have a hungry look in their eyes.
“I want one, my house mate Charlie. He’s got a million subscribers. He just sits at his desk just across the room from me with his gold…plate….thing. I do just want to put more effort into my videos and make them more worthwhile” - Alex Day
and those who are grateful for the recognition but have some concerns
“I love it because it feels like a thank you…a thank you to the people who have invariably worked extremely hard to achieve that level of success. And it’s important for YouTube to recognize that those people play a large part in the success of YouTube"
"The fact is that most of the people doing really interesting things, who have the most potential to grow, to change things, to continue altering the landscape of media, and who I am fascinated by do not have 1,000,000 subscribers” - Hank Green
“I'm flattered, since i am in the 100,000 category - but saddened by all the incredibly talented and hardworking people going un-thanked, the ones who don’t quite have that many subscribers but still make huge contributions to this community daily” - Kristina Horner
They aren’t the only ones to focus on the smaller channels.
Smaller Channels
One thing brought up repeatedly in the comments on the official announcement, on twitter and other sites where the discussion has taken place is that the awards do nothing for smaller partners and creators.
The awards themselves arent the main issue here however. It’s a sense of continued and growing frustration with YouTube -spawning movements like the #SaveYouTube campaign- its policies and the general attitude of the site as a whole.
A lot of the ways in which bigger creators got a leg up in the past simply don’t exist any more or have been redirected towards already popular channels.
Stuff like getting featured on the main page or appearing in the recommended videos section and although the community has gone a long way in picking up the slack there’s always going to be people who slip through the sizeable cracks.
Stabilisation
When taken together with things like the new London Creator Space and programs like YouTube Next VloggerandNextUp a picture forms of a business trying to consolidate its gains and standardise skills and pathways to success in an industry where technical proficiency can vary from the profound to the mediocre.
It could well be a risky move, there’s a good chance it may simply limit creativity, create a stiff model for how creators should work and interact with their audience that could stunt them in the long term and make the industry even harder to break into.
Then again it might usher in a new generation of ultra-proficient creators while improving the already substantial profiles of the people who did it the old fashioned way.
Damned if I know, feel free to have your say though.
but what if Dan’s last video will end with “Goodbye Internet…"
