Vimeo has picked up a reputation as a home for beautiful and cinematic online video work, and as a result, its community churns out a massive amount of creative content each year. There aren’t enough hours in the day to watch all of the slick, well-produced videos on Vimeo, but luckily for us, the online video site has directed its viewers toward a handful of its greatest hits. As it did last year, it has compiled a list of its top videos of the year, which are separated across multiple categories.
It’s hard to recommend one particular video from among Vimeo’s list; I can only instruct you to head to Vimeo’s Top Videos of 2015 page, pick a category that best reflects your interests, and check out the chosen videos in that category. Personally, I’m a big animation fan, and I enjoyed “Coda,” which Vimeo honored as its top animated short of the year.
“We live for the new styles that emerge each year, from the up-and-coming creators who upload to Vimeo for the first time to the soaring talents of filmmakers who rake in awards at festivals,” reads Vimeo’s introduction to its Top Videos. “In 2015, this rang truer than ever.”
Do you have your own favorite Vimeo video from 2015? Feel free to add it to the discussion below.
Facebook has been working to improve its presence in the live streaming arena. To that end, the social networking site and online video giant, which boasts over eight billion video views a day, now allows all Verified Pages to use its broadcasting feature called Live.
Owners of Verified Facebook Pages can start live streaming at any time using Live. The feature will notify that Page’s followers, as well as anyone who recently interacted with the Page, about the live stream so they can watch in real-time. Followers who aren’t able to catch a Page’s live stream don’t need to worry, though. Once a broadcast is concluded, Facebook will save the full stream directly to the Page’s video section for future viewing.
It’s December, which means it’s the time of year when nostalgia compels us to run through classic holiday movies. Everyone has their favorite (mine is Die Hard), but many people swear by Home Alone, the 1990 classic in which Macaulay Culkin’s Kevin McCallister adorably fends off home invaders.
Culkin is all grown up now, and as part of his emergence into adulthood, he is imagining what the same transition would be like for his Home Alone character. He is the guest star in the first episode of :DRYVRS, a web series created by musician Jack Dishel.
In :DRYVRS, Dishel–best known as the former guitarist of The Moldy Peaches and as the husband of Regina Spektor–crafts comedic encounters across a series of Uber rides. In the first episode, he is picked up by Culkin, who whose character has become slightly unhinged after a series of abandonment-related emotional traumas during his childhood. When an assailant looks to hijack the Uber, Culkin improvises some weapons to fight him off, just like in Home Alone. This isn’t a kids movie, however; it’s more of an Adi Shankar interpretation of a kids movie, and by the end of the episode, that becomes abundantly clear.
Dishel conceived of :DRYVRS while recording an album with his current band, Only Son. “I took Uber and Lyft to the studio every day,” he said in a press release. “I kept having these strange conversations with the drivers and would tell everyone at the studio when I got there. We’d all laugh about it and I thought it would be fun to make a series based on those experiences with some of my actor friends. Anytime I tell anyone about the show they say, “Oh, I have the craziest story!”
Future guest stars in :DRYVRS include Rosanna Arquette and Steven Weber. New episodes of the series will arrive in 2016.
Google has a new ad showing small business owners the efficacy of YouTube advertising. The Alphabet-owned internet giant released a video spot featuring The Simpsons character Homer Simpson, who successfully uses YouTube video ads to boost his business presence.
Google’s YouTube spot, created by ad agency Camp + King, starts off with original footage from The Simpsons’ season four episode “Mr. Plow,” in which Homer starts up his titular snow-plow business after a massive snowstorm hits his hometown of Springfield. The YouTube ad shows Homer struggling to attract customers after following the traditional marketing method of putting flyers on car windshields. But then, Homer’s daughter Lisa hops on the computer and sets Mr. Plow up with a TrueView advertising campaign, resulting in a stream of phone calls for the business.
The Homer Simpson-themed ad was referenced in a blog post from Google business tips blog. The post outlines why YouTube advertising isn’t just reserved for big businesses. Google notes video advertising on its online video site is a “powerful tool for small and medium businesses which actually make up the majority of the video advertisers on YouTube.” In fact, Google notes the amount of small- to medium-sized businesses on YouTube has doubled since 2013.
In addition to Mr. Plow’s YouTube ad success, Google describes how the Ole Smoky Moonshine distillery used TrueView advertising to reach local consumers interested in adding alcohol to their holiday beverages. “To raise brand awareness ahead of the holiday season, the company partnered with their agency VaynerMedia to introduce the ‘C’mon Live a Little’ tagline among their key audience of 21-to-34-year-olds in zip codes near their distilleries,” Google writes. “The campaign featured a series of short TrueView video ads which drove a 22% increase in brand awareness and 1,115% increase in related keyword searches.”
Watch The Simpsons-themed YouTube ad from Google below:
Welcome to YouTube Millionaires, where we profile channels that have recently crossed the one million subscriber mark. There are channels crossing this threshold every week, and each has a story to tell about YouTube success. Read previous installments of YouTube Millionaires here.
In the online gaming community, you should take note of the Terroriser. That’s the digital alter ego of an Irish man whose adventures–both in video games and real life–have caused fans to flock to his YouTube channel. He’s now above one million subscribers, so we talked to him about his accomplishments:
Tubefilter: How does it feel to have one million subscribers? What do you have to say to your fans?
TheGamingTerroriser: One million is a fantastic number and achievement which I have worked hard to reach. I’ve worked horrible jobs and juggled college while trying to maintain a YouTube channel which made the achievement such a great feeling.
To my viewers I would say thank you for watching me and accompanying me on this crazy journey. Without the viewers I am nothing really and I do this for them every day and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
TF: Where does your username come from?
GT: It happened when I was sitting down with a piece of paper trying to brainstorm some names for my YouTube channel in 2011. I was trying to think of a name that encapsulated the theme of my content which was at the time going to be online ‘trolling’ which was the thing at the time. I was watching the news and I could hear in the background the news anchor kept using the word terrorist/terroriser and I thought it was kind of catchy.
I thought it was cool sounding and meant I was online causing mischief and trouble, but honestly with everything that has happened in the world there are times I look back and regret my name. I always worry people think it was a disrespectful name which it wasn’t but that term ‘terrorism’ has just become such a negative expression I couldn’t help but kind of wish it was different. Luckily my viewers understand the contrast between the two and that’s fantastic. It’s especially troubling when travelling to America and TSA ask my career is and when I say YouTube, I’m scared they will ask what my channel name is! :/
TF: What makes your channel special, particularly when compared to all the other gaming channels on YouTube?
GT: Well, I’m not going to try and make myself sound special but I like to think people like my channel for me. I’ve remained me all this time and that won’t change. I work hard on editing, improving my skill set, interacting with my viewers in the comments, and trying to find cool ways to integrate them as much as possible into my channel (ie. Snapchat Q&A).
There are plenty of other great personalities on YouTube so if people watch me and stick around that’s great. I play with great people and make good videos for fantastic viewers. I can’t really define what makes my channel “special” but I can say that the energy from the viewers and sense of community is what makes my channel so enjoyable to do.
TF: What is your favorite thing about the gaming community on YouTube?
GT: Recently TeamVGaming and I, led by Ms_Vixen, ran a charity event via Twitch. We had amazing support and raised over $40,000 dollars for Extra-Life. Honestly, this is what I love about the gaming community. It can really make a huge difference and is filled with amazing passionate people who love games and having fun.
TF: When you cut together a montage, what sort of qualities are you looking for in each “funny moment”?
GT: I look for things that make me laugh and also make me look silly because I don’t mind being laughed at in clips. I know at the other end of the spectrum there is a viewer laughing. That’s all that matters to me, is to make a person watch a video and leave the video with a smile on their face.
TF: What was the inspiration for your ‘Good Glee-fing‘ series? Any plans to return to it any time soon?
GT: The inspiration for that series was purely by playing around with apps on my phone and finding a karaoke app. This triggered a eureka moment of testing to see if I could wire the phone up to my Xbox controller and then by chance it worked perfectly.
The unfortunate thing about the series was that people started to copy what I was creating. Then bigger YouTubers caught on and began stealing it away from me, but there was a major flaw with the series. YouTube cracked down hard on copyright issues and using the music in the “Gleefing” videos was a major risk for strikes. So I stopped immediately. I would need to find a way to ensure my channel’s safety first and also the app used to make the auto tune is no longer available, so again, that’s another factor leading to its conclusion.
TF: What was the craziest part of your million subscribers video?
GT: Skydiving, obviously, but definitely the feedback, ratings, etc. of the video. It was insane reading the comments, but again I did jump out of a plane…
TF: If you weren’t making videos, what would you be doing?
GT: I don’t think about ‘what if’ really. I knew what I wanted to do and I did it. If you want to do something in life just make it happen…but honestly, I’d probably be unemployed and living with my parents. Haha.
Netflix is ready to introduce Fuller House to the world. The streaming platform’s reboot of ABC’s classic TV show Full House, which ran from 1987 to 1995, has an official release date of February 26, 2016. And to get subscribers excited about the upcoming premiere, Netflix dropped a teaser trailer for Fuller House, sure to bring back plenty of memories for those who grew up with the original series.
The Fuller House teaser relies heavily on nostalgia as it opens with a view of the Golden Gate bridge and various shots of the famous Tanner house near Alamo Square in San Francisco. The one-minute-and-fifteen-second video then takes viewers inside the establishment, which doesn’t appear to have changed at all since the ‘90s. And while the Fuller House teaser doesn’t visually show any of the series’ well-known cast members, viewers can hear characters like D.J. Tanner-Fuller (Candace Cameron-Bure), Kimmy Gibbler (Andrea Barber), and Uncle Jesse (John Stamos) as they approach the front door.
Rumors about Netflix reviving Full Housestarted circulating across the media back in April 2015. Stamos appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live in the same month to confirm Netflix’s production of Fuller House. Over the next few months, the streaming video service then worked on signing the series’ original stars, including Dave Coulier as Uncle Joey and Jodie Sweetin as D.J.’s sister Stephanie Tanner. As for the world-famous Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, who took turns playing the youngest Tanner daughter Michelle, Netflix CCO Ted Sarandos noted in July the fashion line owners were debating whether or not to join Fuller House (it was later confirmed the twins wouldn’t be joining the series in the near future).
Fuller House will debut on Netflix on February 26.
YouTube content creator Gaby Dunnrecently wrote an article for Fusion that spread rapidly across the online video community. In her piece, Dunn lamented her financial situation: Despite gathering more than 500,000 subscribers on her channel, Just Between Us, she found herself regularly struggling to make rent. She relayed stories from several other YouTubers with sizable followings, who are also currently starring in ironic pictures of online stardom mixed with real-life struggles.
A lot of Dunn’s fellow YouTubers were sympathetic to her plight, but at the same time, some members of the community have raised legitimate counterarguments. One of the people in the latter camp is Jared Polin, a photographer who releases videos on a channel called Fro Knows Photo. Polin, like Dunn, can be classified as a “mid-sized” YouTuber. His channel, which is filled with photography tutorials and adventurous shoots, has about 465,000 subscribers and 66 million views.
Shortly after we published our coverage of Dunn’s article, Polin reached out to me on Twitter. He had a very different story about life on YouTube. Despite having a similar subscriber count to Just Between Us, he is much more financially secure. I spoke to Polin about his online video career, and his response to Dunn’s article includes plenty of helpful advice for mid-sized YouTubers hoping to “make it.” Here’s our conversation:
[Note: This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.]
Tubefilter: Let’s start basic: What sort of revenue streams do you have?
Jared Polin: I have six or seven different revenue streams. Once you start to cultivate your following, and you interact with people day in, day out, you can offer things for sale like video guides. I’ve writtenthreeguides. Not everyone purchases them, but some people want to thank you for all the value you given them over six years.
Merch was the first thing I started selling. Ten days after I launched my website I sold my first t-shirt for 11.99. Everything I do has to be high-quality so that people want to come back for more.
YouTube is a nice little chunk of change. The split YouTube takes is sort of over-the-top, but what’s the alternative? YouTube gives me the ability to reach all the people I’ve reached, so that is kind of my payment. It’s a trade off.
Then you have brand deals with advertisers and sponsors, if you take them.
TF: What about other crowdfunding services or something like Patreon?
JP: I looked into it, but I don’t use it. I have things for sale so that if someone wants to thank me for the stuff I’ve done, I can offer them something for purchase. It helps me as a business. I want to give them something they can have, not just ask them for money.
TF: Let’s shift gears a bit and talk about Gaby Dunn’s article. She talks about the negative response she gets when she does a branded video. Has this been your experience as well?
JP: It’s all about transparency. It has to be the right fit. If you’re just gonna shill for Audibleand it doesn’t make sense for your channel, it sounds terrible. You have to pick the right sponsors to work with. It’s important to look out for yourself and your following, and be honest with your users.
You can’t worry about losing people. I’ll use my email list as an example. When I send an email, I’m delivering solid content. Some people unsubscribe, but the people you’re losing, you can’t worry about them, because they weren’t interested in the first place. And for every negative comment you get about a sponsored video, there’s probably a ton more people who believe in what you do. They just aren’t going to comment because they don’t want to get into a YouTube comment war with an angry 12-year-old sitting behind a desk with nothing better to do.
TF: Do you think, though, that it helps that you’re a photographer? You have a very specific niche, and there are some natural brand partnerships there. Does that make it easier for you compared to a comedy or vlog channel?
JP: Just because I’m a photo channel doesn’t mean I have to do photo channel sponsorships. I spend a lot of time editing. So music sponsorships, like headphones, are an option. Squarespace is a perfect fit for photographers who need to build a website for themselves. I have a friend who has a deal with Casper, the mattress company. If I were to do a deal with Casper, how easy would it be to turn that into a photography shoot? You have to think how you can make it work for your channel. You can take any product and turn it into a photo shoot and have people be like, “I gained value from it.” That’s what I would think if they came to me and wanted to do a video.
TF: It was interesting to me–and judging from yourinitial message, this was a reaction of yours as well–that you and Gaby Dunn have such different opinions about making money on YouTube despite having such similar subscriber counts. Because of that, I’m curious what you think is the main indicator of financial success on YouTube? What do you think successful channels have in common?
JP: I share a lot of the business side with my readers. I’m very transparent. Part of being a photographer is teaching people about business. At some point, you’re making this stuff that you enjoy, and it starts to show it has potential to be a business. I didn’t say going in that I wanted this to be my business, but I made it one because my viewers wanted more content more often. You have to run your channel as a business. You have to do well. There’s nothing wrong with going for the sell.
There might be a million people doing what you’re doing, but you’ve got to establish yourself. You can’t worry about what other people are doing. If you’re writing comedy skits, then you need to figure out how you can reach your audience in a way that works for you. How can people thank you for the content you deliver them? It’s a value proposition. It’s what you do.
When you get as big as someone like Casey Neistat…it’s pretty insane what can happen, but it’s not the norm. For the guys chugging along with normal channels, you just figure out what works for you. I know one channel that has 250,000 subscribers but is bringing in multi-millions per year off of selling product. That’s the world most YouTubers don’t understand. Marketing.
TF: So in terms of brand deals, what works for you?
JP: I want to work within a long-term partnership. I won’t do a one-off. I want it to be good for me, good for my readers, and good for the sponsors. It has to work for everybody for it to be successful. Brands see long term value in working with me. When I choose to work with you, we’re the right fit together and there quantifiable results. If I do a code for a discount with a printing company, it’s great for everybody.
TF: What about the business side you’ve talked about? How did you teach yourself that?
JP: I was born into it. I have salespeople as a family. For other people, sometimes they may not be cut out to do it. If you’re afraid to ask for the sale, then you may not be cut out to ask for it. There are photographers who may not be the best photographers in the world, but they’re unbelievable at schmoozing, and they get great deals.
One of the best ways you can learn business is to embed yourself with someone who is successful at what they do. Mentoring is a strong thing. If there’s someone in your field, see if they would be amenable to mentoring you.
And then, it’s trial and error. You’re gonna fail. Then you’re gonna succeed. Then you’re gonna fail again.
Check out Polin’s channel here and Dunn’s channel here.
Tastemade has a new influx of cash to help it reach more people with a culinary bent. The food-based digital video network has closed a $40 million Series D funding round, led by investment firm Goldman Sachs.
Tastemade will use the new round of funding to grow its technical team and improve its systems and multiple digital platforms, like its Apple TV and Android apps. The network, which boasts over 500,000 subscribers on its YouTube channel, will also bring original content to more markets around the world. In addition to Goldman Sachs, existing investors Raine Ventures, Comcast Ventures, Redpoint Ventures, Liberty Media, Scripps Networks Interactive, and Tohokushinsha Film Corporation also contributed to Tastemade’s Series D funding round.
Tastemade currently claims to reach more than 100 million monthly viewers across all its social and digital platforms. Including previous investments from Allen DeBevoise and Third Wave Digital, the culinary-centric network has raised over $80 million in funding.
UTA’s latest announcement reveals its latest push into the online video world. The Hollywood talent agency, which represents online video stars like Toby Turner, EleventhGorgeous, and Flula Borg, has added three more digital media notables to its roster. According to The Hollywood Reporter, UTA’s newest partners are Lance Stewart, Skyy John, and Rahat Hossain, whose channels are called Lance210, TipsyBartender, and Magic of Rahat, respectively.
Though they all now share the same talent agency, Stewart, John, and Hossain run very different channels from one another. Stewart is a Vine star who has more than 5.6 million followers and 3.4 loops on the Twitter-owned six-second video capture app.
John, on the other hand, prefers more of a party atmosphere. On his channel, he shares drink recipes, including one that caught our eye this past Thanksgiving.
The third newcomer to UTA’s roster plies his trade in the world of magic. Hossain’s Magic Of Rahat channel is home to some of the most technical pranks on YouTube, including a famous stunt where he pulled up to a drive-thru window as an “invisible” man. He’s also a genuinely kind-hearted person, as we learned when he raised money to help buy a home for a previously homeless man.
As it does with all its digital clients, UTA will help its new signees explore new opportunities across multiple platforms. They will also retain their previous representation. Stewart is represented by former Fullscreen and Big Frame talent exec Larry Shapiro, while Hossain is represented by law firm Ginsburg Daniels LLP.
Now, however, Netflix has a new strategy for upping the quality of subscribers’ streams. Instead of paying ISPs more to cover bandwidth usage or invest in upgrading its own network and systems, Varietyreports Netflix will re-encode all its titles by hand to improve overall streaming quality.
Here’s a bit of background for non-technical internet users. Encoding is a way of converting data into an easily-transmitted or stored format. The larger the amount of data, the larger the final encoded file will be. These larger files (like movies on Netflix) then use up more bandwidth when subscribers stream them at their optimal quality. If subscribers don’t have enough bandwidth from their ISP, however, their streaming titles will start to take on a grainier, low-quality look because the stream is bottlenecked.
Up until now, Netflix was providing subscribers with titles in a few different encoding formats, automatically streaming the appropriate format (low, medium, or high) according to a particular subscriber’s home bandwidth speed. However, Netflix has realized not all movies and TV shows (and even individual episodes of a TV show) are created equally, at least in terms of encoding. For example, an animated show like My Little Pony won’t need the highest-quality encoding available like The Avengers would, because there’s less detail (and therefore less data) in an animated film or TV show.
“You shouldn’t allocate the same amount of bits for My Little Pony as for The Avengers,” explained Anne Aaron, Netflix’s Video Algorithms Manager. “A one-size-fits-all model doesn’t give you the most optimal quality.”
So the streaming platform will re-encode titles to optimize them individually for best quality, which should result in about 20% less data usage overall across streams. All titles will still be available in 1080p HD quality, but those same titles’ bitrates (how many bits per second can be transmitted digitally) will be lowered to use less data on titles like the aforementioned My Little Pony, where the picture difference won’t be noticed. This means Netflix subscribers with slow internet, who previously would’ve only been able to watch shows in regular SD quality, may have an easier time viewing all content in HD despite their low bandwidth, all thanks to a lower bitrate encoding strategy on the part of Netflix’s.
Variety reports Netflix’s teams have been working on this new technology since 2011. The streaming platform hopes to have all of its titles re-encoded by the end of the first quarter of 2016.
As Christmas draws closer, a recently newfound online video phenomenon is transitioning from an ember of internet ephemera into a flaming institution. Interpretations of the Yule log tradition are popping up all over the web.
The 11-hour branded Yule log video from Jimmy Dean literally pulls back a digital curtain to introduce viewers to a fireplace surrounded by the company’s boxed products and a tree with Jimmy Dean ornaments. In the center of the fireplace, a rack holds a cast iron skillet full of sausages, which crackle and sizzle as they slowly cook. And as if that wasn’t mouth-watering enough, Jimmy Dean’s Yule log video also makes sure to intersperse close-up shots of the browning sausages to entice viewers to go out and buy some of the meat for their own holiday festivities.
For a completely different feel, internet users can opt for BenjaminApple’s Yule log video. That clip features five full hours of Darth Vader’s suit burning up on his funeral pyre after he saves his son Luke Skywalker from destruction on the Death Star. At first glance, the nostalgic moment in Star Wars: Return of the Jedi may seem inappropriate for a holiday Yule log video. However, it’s a cheeky (and opportunistic) nod to the fact that the newest film in the Star Wars franchise will hit theaters just a week before Christmas on December 18, 2015.
Jimmy Dean and BenjaminApple’s videos are not the first Yule log clips to catch the internet’s attention. Earlier this month, internet users obsessed over Nick Offerman’s whisky-themed Yule log featuring Diageo’s Lagavulin scotch brand. And of course, back in 2013, one of the internet’s favorite felines Lil Bub made viewers “awww” over a full hour of her purring in front of a fireplace. Of course, with internet users’ penchant for creativity, we wouldn’t be surprised if a few more Yule log videos arrived before the season is over.
As election season begins to hit its stride, YouTube is taking advantage of its quadrennial opportunity to serve as a public forum. On January 17th, the video site will host a live stream of that night’s Democratic primary debate, which will take place in Charleston, South Carolina.
NBC will broadcast the debate on TV, and the online stream will be available on the NBC News YouTube channel. While several other broadcasters have offered up live streams of 2016 primary debates, NBC’s will be the first network to go live on YouTube this election season.
By hosting debate coverage, YouTube is echoing its strategy from four years ago, when it streamed the policy battles between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney. During the last presidential election, YouTube also boasted in-depth analysis from eight different channels. That package doesn’t seem to be an explicit part of YouTube’s coverage of the upcoming Democratic debate, but you can bet that the site’s top political channels will have plenty to say about Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. The Young Turks, for example, has gotten a lot of mileage out of the craziness of the Republican debates.
YouTube’s debate duties will go beyond merely hosting NBC’s stream. “With so many YouTube fans following this election closely, of course there will be an opportunity for you to get involved,” reads a blog post from YouTube. “Along with Google Trends data, the debate will feature questions from the YouTube community. Look out for more information on how you can engage in the coming weeks.”
