Make a Nerdy Living

by Alex Langley

  Some friends who will work for free/cheap. If you’re running a solo channel—something more vlog-like—then doing it all alone is much more feasible. If you want to create short films or sketch comedy, however, get some dang friends in there to do it with you.

  Makeup. The Planet Earth documentary series debuted when HD footage was relatively new, and I still remember how disgusting it was to watch a bunch of lions tear into a fly-swarmed wildebeest carcass in full HD. If you go in front of an HD camera with no makeup, poor lighting, and poor set-up, don’t be surprised if you end up looking like that dead wildebeest. Even the most beautiful people in the world can look awful if you catch them unprepared—think of all those awful paparazzi shots of celebrities looking washed-out and double-chinned. If you’re going to have your face on camera, especially if you’re doing up-close work for vlogs and the like, you should know a few basic makeup tips: Use moisturizer, add a little contour to help your face pop better on camera, find a makeup shade one shade darker than your skin tone if you’re using a three-source light set-up, blend the edges, be careful not to make yourself look washed-out with too much powder, and minimize shiny skin because that’ll show up like a freakin’ lighthouse on camera.

  ANSWERING THE BIG QUESTIONS

  In the early days of getting your video channel going, you’ll have a few important questions you need to answer. First, decide who you want your audience to be. Are you hoping to entertain children with educational antics? Do you want to do in-depth analyses to appeal to academic adults? Prefer to keep it fast, furious, and full of curses to snag the ever-elusive tween audience? Figuring out a target demographic is point number one on pretty much any marketing plan, so think about who you want watching your content, to better create content that caters to their tastes.

  What kind of budget do you have to work with? Even seemingly inexpensive channels oriented around Let’s Plays and reaction videos require capture cards for non-Mac computers, high-quality cameras, microphones, etc., so you’ll have to work with whatever budget you have.

  What’s your plan for your channel? Do you hope to still be making videos ten, twenty years down the line, or are you looking for a fun hobby that may or may not lead to long-term success? There’s no right or wrong answer here, only the answer that fits you.

  If you’re having trouble moving beyond basic film set-ups, try enlisting young filmmakers who need the experience. We writers have the benefit of being able to go and write at any moment, should we so choose. An actor who is eager to act, however, can’t just sit in their room and act for a few hours.* Directors, editors, sound technicians . . . all those lovely folks who make videos happen need to work with a team, so scour around to see who might work for the sheer experience of getting some experience. Be willing to pay them back by working for them when they need it, too; if time is money, you can pay people with your time when you don’t have the money.

  WORDS FROM WORKING NERDS

  Lindsay Ellis, who, in her self-titled Youtube channel, uses video essays to garner in-depth discussions of films

  How do you explain what you do to others?

  The thing I’ve found about new media is that if [people are] not in the life, they don’t really care. I’ll try to explain it in the simplest terms, like ad revenue or crowdfunding, and generally they’ll be like, “Uhhh, that’s nice.” If I say I work for PBS or I’m an independent contractor, they understand that, so usually I’ll talk about freelancing for other vendors that people have actually heard of. That’s an option a lot of YouTubers do, that [others] understand.

  Your video analysis of the 2017 Netflix film Bright clocks in at nearly forty-five minutes, and your videos often are in the fifteen- to twenty-minute range. How long does it take to create such works?

  [Bright] was an outlier and should not be counted. That one only took about two weeks because it was fueled by hate and the knowledge that no one was going to care about Bright in a week. So for that one I sort of jokingly sent a message to Deron (YouTube’s Rap Critic) and I was like, “Hey, you should rap about this orc cop guy,” and the next day Deron’s like, “I did it.” Everything kind of fell together. That one was unusually fast.

  Normally it’ll be closer to two months. Like, the Hobbit videos, start to finish, we started in November—and [they were] three great big projects—and those were released through March and April, so that was closer to five months. On average, I would say for your basic twenty-minute video, one month. For the more research-heavy ones, six to eight weeks. For the really big projects, closer to three or four months.

  As someone who often collaborates with other video critics, what do you feel are the advantages of working with others?

  On the whole, collaboration is really the best thing we can do for cross-pollination, for growing your audience and helping other people grow their audiences—especially for YouTube, because that’s how it works. On YouTube, you find videos by similar creators, so if you have a lot of overlap with this other person’s audience, then they will probably eventually see your videos through the algorithm. It needs to be organic, though. There’s nothing worse than a collaboration that was very obviously put together by Google SEO. An audience can feel how inorganic it is.

  You have to be really careful when [being] approached by people you don’t know; try to have a good sense of people. I say no to about ninety-nine out of a hundred requests. The last person I did a collaboration with had a much smaller following at the time, but someone had recommended him to me before, so I knew who he was. When he pitched me, it was on a subject I was already versed and interested in, a subject I was already planning to do something on.

  If you’re approaching someone you don’t know, it’s best to have a pitch. And be prepared for that pitch to be rejected, because most pitches are, and that’s okay. It’s nothing personal, because there are only so many hours in a day and the collaboration needs to work for both parties. If you’re going to be in the creative field, you gotta get used to rejection.

  What has surprised you about your work?

  When I first started in 2008, a twelve-minute video was unheard of. People were like, “Twelve minutes, that’s huge!” And now that’s considered short. Like I didn’t really change my format, but my profile started to rise when the algorithm shifted toward longer-form [videos]. I just got lucky, and YouTube started trending in favor of longer videos with high engagement rates.

  I guess it was a surprise that eventually doing what you do could eventually pay off, not because you were good but because the algorithm deemed your length and engagement the right combination to recommend other people [to] your videos.

  What tool could you not do without?

  Assistants [laughs]. I have my co-writer and editor, Angelina; I have Antonella, who does my finances; and I have Eliza, who takes care of my Patreon and monitors my comments.

  Are there any particular obstacles you’ve overcome to get where you are?

  The problem with the narrative of any creator is the idea that you’ve overcome things. I can’t think of anything I’ve overcome. I could say imposter syndrome, but the truth is I live with that constantly. Most things are just kind of things I didn’t get over; I just learned to live with [them].

  As someone who has been an online content creator for more than ten years, how do you feel audiences have changed over time?

  The truth is, [audiences have] gotten worse since I started. At first I was like, “It can only get better from here,” but the truth is the longer I’ve done this, the worse the comments get, the worse the harassment gets. You just get used to it. I know that sounds terrible. It’s why I don’t look at comments anymore, I don’t look at Twitter mentions anymore, I do not search myself, I don’t go on Reddit. In order to stay sane, I have to focus on the work and not the feedback, and that’s become a necessity. The truth is you just get used to it; you have to live with it. So I wouldn’t say I’ve overcome things. I’ve figured out how to live with it because
it’s, uh, not great.

  Who are your inspirations?

  [There] was a segment on a show on Current TV called “Target Women,” and it was hosted by a woman named Sarah Haskins. She’s kind of a proto–Jenny Nicholson, if you will, only she didn’t talk about Star Wars; she talked about ads targeted at women, and in terms of actual Internet content, I would say she was my first real inspiration. I wanted to make real, cutting, pithy videos where the media I was talking about kind of spoke for itself, and she was really, really good at that.

  There are other writers, too. Film Crit Hulk—I’ve bagged on him in my videos, but his style of writing, like the sort of empathic approach he takes to film writing. Todd VanDerWerff, too; he did work for the AV club [and] now he works for Vox.com. Nowadays I feel like I take the most inspiration from people who do what I do—people like Becky Newman and Dan Olsen and ContraPoints and hbomberguy and Jenny Nicholson and Captain Disillusion. [Captain Disillusio’s] got one of my favorite YouTube channels, because he never follows the same formula even though he talks about the same topic. I think seeing your peers always trying to raise the bar makes you want to do the same. That’s one area I feel lucky about right now, I feel like I’m in a place where I really respect my peers and they’re an inspiration, and I think that speaks to how far video essays have come as a medium—that there’s a validity building and we can inspire one another.

  What tips would you offer newcomers to this industry?

  Since I’ve been doing this for so long [and] the industry changes so differently from year to year, I’m gonna borrow what ContraPoints said fairly recently: You need to pay close attention to the conversation you want to be a part of and figure out the thing that’s not being said and the perspective that’s not saying it. Since [video essays are] a visual medium, you need to figure out a way to make yourself visually distinct from everybody else. The people who fail tend to be the people who are just aping what’s already there. There is a box, because people like what they like, but they also like new stuff, so stick a foot outside of the box and have a keen sense of what your tone is and who you are and what your personality is. People like personality. Going off and being bland and trying to play to what you think people want to hear? People sniff that out immediately and tend to get really bored by it.

  [Corporate buyouts] happens all the time in this industry. Current TV was a tragedy because it got bought out by Al Jazeera America, which then disappeared. The same thing happened to Blip.TV—it got bought out by Maker [Studios] and then Maker got dissolved and now Blip is just gone and it’s a complete waste. I’m kind of waiting for the other shoe to drop with Patreon. I’m like, “Patreon’s gonna get bought out and then it’s gonna be Blip all over again.” So hoard your nuts, squirrels!

  CLIMBING THE TOWER OF VIEWCOUNTS TO REACH THE GOLDEN HEIGHTS OF A METAPHOR I GOT LOST IN

  OR

  TIPS FOR GETTING MORE VIEWS AND SUBSCRIBERS

  Once you’re past the Herculean effort it takes to get started on a new project, you’ll begin encountering new obstacles, not the least of which is “How the hell do I get people to watch the stuff I’m putting out there?” Well, dear reader, there’s no magic formula for increasing viewcounts. There are a few things you can do to nudge things in an upward direction, though.

  CUT THE WHITE NOISE

  Track down and cut out the waste from your video, things like “um,” “uh,” deep inhales, moments where you’re lost in contemplation, burps, sneezes, and pretty much any other type of bodily expulsion.

  KEEP DOWN THE BACKGROUND SOUNDS

  If you want people to watch your videos, you’ll need to be able to be heard and to cut out typical racket such as fans, loud music, traffic sounds, vociferous animals, and the endless moaning of the undead.

  PROMOTE, THEN PROMOTE SOME MORE, THEN PROMOTE SOME MORE AFTER THAT

  Be shameless in your self-promotion. No one is going to promote your brand as hard and fast as you.*

  BE CAREFUL OF YOUR MUSIC

  YouTube and other video sites can be weird about copyrights, letting entire channels of ripped music go scot-free while striking someone’s account because a game’s soundtrack was going in the background while they were playing that game. If you want to be a professional, you’ll need to play it safe, so try to use music that is either completely original or something in the public domain—i.e., free for everyone to use. Despite what many people seem to think, posting “no copyright infringement intended” in your video description doesn’t give you permission to use other people’s music (or video) content and can still lead to your stuff getting yanked.

  MAKE PERIODIC “BEST-OF” COMPILATIONS

  Best-of compilations are the YouTube equivalent of sitcom flashback episodes—they are easy to throw together, make nice money for the cost and effort, and often can draw in new viewers by showing off the best of what you’ve got. Conversely, unless you’re building your videos from contents of livestreams your YouTube audience hasn’t all seen, don’t make best-ofs too frequently—or your regular viewers will get tired of seeing what amounts to reruns on your channel.

  BE CONSISTENT

  If there’s one thing the Internet likes more than quality, it’s consistency. If you’re upfront about your posting schedule and stick to it, you will have a far easier time building your subscriber base.

  MAKE IT CHEAP

  As with any new business, you’re not likely to see much of a return on your investment for a while. The lower you keep your early costs, the sooner you’ll be able to profit.

  BE CLEVER WHEN NAMING YOUR ONLINE VIDEOS

  Whether you’re naming an online article, a new blog, or a video, keep it brief. Short titles that immediately give potential viewers an idea of what your video is about are your best bet; open-ended questions implied to be answered by your video can work, too (unless you don’t actually answer the question—because that’s clickbait). Do a keyword search for words related to your video to see what’s trending that week and build on it. Lastly, keeping your title under sixty characters (give or take a few) makes it easier for it to pop up in search engines.

  DESCRIBE THE HELL OUT OF IT

  While short titles are best, descriptions are a place you can fill to the brim with information. If someone clicks the full description for a video, they already want to know more, and it’s your job to make that as easy as possible. Only a small number of characters are visible in YouTube’s search results, so lock in the most critical keywords and URL links to your social networks and website. From there, your description should be filled with things such as links to your other popular/related videos, friends’ channels, alternate channels, and general information about how you made your video and what your channel is about. If someone clicks your video’s description, it’s your chance to make a regular viewer out of them and keep ’em coming back for entertainment and information.*

  SMART TAGS

  Tags are the words search engines use to categorize your videos. When you post something, do some research to find the most popular and relevant keywords for that particular video to up its chances of being discovered.

  LEARN THE RULES

  No matter what style of video content you’re making, there will be a set of rules on how to best create and present said content. The time-honored art form of sketch comedy, for example, has a whole slew of rules you should know. There’s the rule of three, which states that three beats of a gag should end with the third being an unexpected variation of the gag for maximum impact.† Then there’s the rule of the question, which states that a good way to end a sketch is with an unexpected answer to the who, what, where, why, or when of a situation. And the rule of heightening, which states that you need to heighten the situation somehow during the sketch, rather than simply maintaining the same level of comedic tension. And the rule of space, which states that you should never heighten a joke until it goes to space, because it shows you’ve run out of ideas on how to heighten the situation and h
ave settled for the obvious maximum.

  See? That’s a lot of rules, and I’ve barely scratched the surface of what it takes to make a single type of video. Whatever your genre, if you want to make something worth watching, it’s going to take some serious study.

  WATCH FOR STOLEN CONTENT

  Now, hopefully you’re not the kind of person who would stoop to stealing other people’s content (and if you are, knock it off, dick!). However, the dusky shadow of content theft will still loom large over you in the form of other people taking what you’ve made and trying to profit from it themselves. YouTube and other big video sites generally have quick and painless reporting systems, though they’re not flawless in terms of speed and effectiveness. Your best bet is going to be to keep an eye on your stuff by doing periodic searches of your own videos and related keywords.

  There also may be times where larger channels and brands ask to repost your work, like if you get a popular YouTube video, they might repost it on Facebook with some kind of giant caption telling people how they should feel about it. You know, “THIS IS SO PERFECT!” or “OMG SO CUTE I CAN’T EVEN!” or “WAIT FOR BATMAN,” that sort of thing. Rarely, they’ll offer to pay you, which can be a nice deal to take (although it should only be taken if they pay you and give you full credit/link to your page, otherwise it’s not going to build your brand at all).