Your Tube July 2013
A YouTube love story:
Kaelyn & Lucy
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Plus City 2013
The Top YouTube Fails No t s uch a
g o l B s s e l t Poin
KickThePJ Becoming YouTube Epic Meal Time Vlog Brothers
y a D x e l A brought to you by
3011021993
Contents July 2013 4 6 8 10 12 16 20 24 26 28 30 32 34
YourTube
TOP 5 BEAUTY GURUS
Find out who to go to for the best beauty knowhow.
TOP 10 FAILS
We all enjoy a fail video. Find out the top 10 best ones.
SUMMER IN THE CITY
The event of the Summer. Find out who will be there and all you need to know.
EVOLUTION OF YOUTUBE
How did it all start? A journey from the start of the YouTube phenomena.
KICK THE PJ
We catch up with the monster- fighting, filmmaking man himself.
ALFIE DEYES
Not such a pointlessblog. Find out what Alfie has to say.
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KAELYN AND LUCY
Love from across the pond. How YouTube helped one couple stay together.
YOUTUBE: HOW TO
Camera edtion. The top tips on how to become a technical genius.
ALEX DAY
How one YouTuber conquered the charts single handedly.
BECOMING YOUTUBE
A mockumentary by Ben Cook and his journey to become a YouTuber.
THE VLOGBROTHERS The story of John and Hank Green. Nerdfighters unite!
TOP 10 OF 2013
Find out the top 10 videos of 2013 so far.
EPIC MEAL TIME
They make giant meals with giant calorific consequences.
FROM THE TEAM...
Welcome to YourTube, the brand new
magazine brought to you buy YouTube. We will be dedicating the next 36 pages to the wonderful world of YouTube including interviews from Alfie and PJ. Like us, you probably know the personal details and whereabouts of your favourite YouTuber more than you probably should as well as memorizing their current tweet to memory, it’s not obsession, they should be flattered. Enjoy the wise words of your favourite YouTubers. Until next time…
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THE YOURTUBE TEAM June 2013 YourTube
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Top 5 n Beauty Gurus on YouTube o As the beauty industry grows, so does the demand for the knowledge to apply the stuff. Luckily, a community of beauty obsessed people have embarked on a journey to educate the confused when it comes to beauty. Click and watch if you, too, are looking for the best when it comes to your face. Words by Emily Smith
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SprinkleofGlitter
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For all those glamorous mummies out there, Louise is the blonde, bubbly, happy- go- lucky mum here to teach you all about beauty. Famed for loving glitter (hence the name), Louise has a certain likeability factor that draws you in with her kind heart and intoxicating sense of humour. Her knowledge is extensive but not as profound as her beauty guru friends, but her personality makes up for that. And on a plus side, her two year old (dubbed ‘Baby Glitter’) is just so adorable! Also, being a mother, Louise shows you how to look good on a budget that has to support two which, in today’s restricted market, is a very big bonus.
FleurDeForce Fully equipped with one of the coolest name on planet earth, Fleur DeForce is one of the more knowledgable of the bunch. She keeps her watchers up to date with the seasons latest makeup trends. She covers all the ins and outs of getting that perfect makeup look. From lipstick to foundation. From Mascara to contouring. And if you have no idea what contouring is, she will teach you! She’s also known to film the odd hair tutorial. Of course, we can’t all be blessed with her platinum blonde, super sleek locks. But we can’t have everything.
Zoella
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The mouse-sized ombre sweetheart is one of the fastest growing YouTubers currently uploading today. She’s reached nearly 1 million subscribers and has her own business selling makeup brushes with her best friend Louise (Sprinkleofglitter). Famed for her ‘hauls’ she’s great if you’re looking for something new to buy to wear or to put on your face. She falls short of the whole “ teaching you how to put makeup on”, but if you’re searching for new products. Look no further! She also gives her audience an insight into her life with regular vlogs. So if you enjoy having a peak into someone else’s life, then click away.
Amodelrecommends Top for skincare tips and tricks, Ruth knows everything there is to know about keeping the skin looking young and glowing. She has even been known to go into the science of the products she reviews and recommends. So even if it doesn’t work well on you, she explains why it should. You may not completely understand what she’s talking about, but she’s as persuasive as she is knowledgable.
Tanya Burr
And at the top of our list of the top beauty brains on YouTube is Tanya Burr. The 23 year old started her career as a makeup artist working at the Laura Mercier cosmetics counter but soon turned to YouTube to spread her knowledge wider. Since then, she has graced the faces of MIC star Millie Mackintosh and Kitchenware marvel Emma Bridgewater with her expertise. If you’re looking for a medley of celebrity makeup looks which are beautifully crafted and clearly explained then look no further. She also gives her audience and extra insight into her life by filming vlogs and hauls for your viewing pleasure.
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Caravan Fail In an attempt to get a caravan out of the garage, it all goes horrendously wrong as the undercarriage of the caravan is ripped apart from the rest of the vehicle. After all that hard work only half the caravn makes it out of driveway Epic failure.
5. Jump Fail This 47 second video of a 43 inch jump involves 44 seconds of preparation and 3 seconds failure. He did not nail the landing or the jump for that matter. Fail.
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Glass Door Fail Poor guy with s cup of coffee works unsuspectingly into a glass door. Hot coffee goes everywhere. The man ends up on the on the floor whilst onlookers look at him with sympathy trying not to laugh… hilarious.
4. Nunchuk Fail This one speaks for itself really. What do you get when you combine some nunchucks and a cocky guy? Some crushed male reproductive organs, that’s what. This one looks like it hurt.
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Puddle Fail A relatively short guy and a puddle with unknown depth combine to create a magic trick of man dissapears into puddle. The puddle turned out to be very deep, the short man completely goes under, never to be seen again.
3. Wii Fit Fail This failure would have cost this Wii fit fan a considerable amount of money when he catapults into his flatscreen television. The condition of the Wii and television are currently unknown, it doesn’t look promising.
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Ice Fail Who jumps onto frozen water? This guy does. After beginning with a very confident dive onto the ice alongside some cocky display of masculanity he smacks into the ice.It does not break and looks rather painful.
2. Comic Relief Fail Charlieissocoollike and Tim Minchin make a video for comic relief. After spending four hours with Tim Minchin, YouTuber Charlie McDonnell comes to the realisation the microphone was not turned on.
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Hammer Throw Fail Whilst practising his hammer throw, this full grown male forgets to release the hammer resulting in an immediate injury to various parts of the body. Funny but painful, definitely been put off hammer throwing.
1. Hair Tutorial Fail Whilst showing her viewers how to achieve the perfect curl she burns her hair off. Obviously not how the video was intended to go judging from the shock on her face after a clump of hair has become unattached from her head.
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17th - 18th August 2013 1. Danisnotonfire 2. AmazingPhil 3. Hank green 4. Mr weebl 5. Tom law 6. Jack and finn 7. Emma Blackery 8. Crabstickz 9. jimmy0010 10. Ben Cook and the Becoming Youtube panel 11. KickThePJ
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gathering of YouTubers, video creators and fans in a celebration of the internet, it’s Summer
in the City.
Since starting in 2009, Summer in the City is now in its fifth year and this year is set to be the biggest one yet. Organised every year by Tom, Liam, Dave, Luke and Jazza, the combined efforts of these YouTubers brings you the most exciting weekend in the YouTube world, starring some of YouTube’s most loved stars. Summer in the City 2013 will take place on the 17th and 18th August
at the London Alexandra Palace. Tickets cost £10 (+£2 VAT) and will give you admission for the weekend. It’s advised that you book travel and accommodation in advance to get the cheapest offer available. Over the weekend you will be able to take part in a range of exciting workshops, Q & A sessions with YouTube’s finest. You can always relax and chill out in our open mic room or meet new people. You’ll be able to meet and greet your favourite YouTuber’s in a safe environment. There will also be entertainment throughout the day on the main stage that will be
released closer to the time. Several popular YouTuber’s have already been mentioned in the line-up for Summer in the City 2013. If you’re travelling alone, visit the Summer in the City Facebook page and they can help you find groups near you to travel with. The YouTube community is very welcoming so if you are travelling alone you’re sure to meet some fun and interesting people on your travels. Buy your tickets at https://sitc.ticketbud.com/ sitc. See you at Summer in the City 2013! Words by Jenny Weller
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Image by Vecteezy.com
YourTube
It’s odd to believe that the first ever YouTube video “Me at the zoo” was posted on April 23rd 2005 and received a mere 9,968,665 views.
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espite thinking that YouTube has been around forever, it’s only been within the last ten years that someone has had the opportunity to become YouTube famous. So, we thought why not make a magazine, so here’s YourTube. A magazine dedicateda to YouTube. We love you. These millionaire man-boys are Chad Hurley, Steve Chen and Jawed Karim, believe it or not, the founders of YouTube. Who knows if there’s a “The Social Network” story behind the finding of YouTube that will come out in ten years times as the latest blockbuster hit but for now the real story. Both Chen and Kari studied computer science at the University of Illinois; Hurley studied design at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. Chen left university a semester and half early to work for a different online giant, PenPal. Three twenty-something’s just out of university; all began working at PenPal and within two years become billionaires. Piece of cake, just need to come up with a genius idea that no one else in the
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history of the world has thought of, easy. In the winter of 2005, the boys came up with the idea after they had difficulty sharing videos online whilst at a dinner party. Despite all three being named as co-founders of YouTube, there has been speculation as Karim has said the dinner party never happened however Chad and Steve disagree. Maybe Justin Timberlake would play Chad, who knows. It’s difficult to say what happened behind the hype of YouTube, the important thing is that you can watch things like a hamster playing dead or a ten hour video of Voldermort laughing. The important things in life. “Youtube.com” became official on February 14th, 2005. The three exemployees of PenPal had some money for their new venture but were yet to make them a substantial amount of money in the first few months despite it being extremely popular in a short amount of time. Sequoia Capital invested $3.5 million; all that technical stuff is expensive. The bandwidth needs to be big enough to share videos online, upkeep of servers etc.
It all costs money and Youtube. com wasn’t really making money, well not in the beginning anyway. Back in the days when you could watch a fail compilation without being bored by the minute long ad for car insurance even if you don’t own a car. At the beginning, Chad and Steve made the decision not to have pre-roll ads. They decided not to force their users to sit bored watching ads before every video. Despite the immense financial support that would have come from the advertisers and it would have. There was pressure from advertisers but they believed the site wouldn’t have gained its popularity in the numbers and in the short space of time like it did. It would have been like any other media, advert-filled website. In April 2006, Artis Capital Management and Sequoia Capital added another $8 million into the company after
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seeing its huge popularity and growth. Roelof Botha, former CEO of PayPal joined the YouTube board of directors. YouTube was set to be huge. So, a year after building your first company after leaving University, things are going well, you have more than $10 million invested, you’re in your twenties, you’re being noticed. Does it finish there? No it does not. #Need to come up with a billionaire idea before I’m 25 or my life is over When anything big starts happening on the internet, who comes along? Google that’s who. In the summer of 2006, users were uploading more than 65,000 new videos onto YouTube; videos would be going viral, millions of clips being viewed daily. In 2006, the website was averaging nearly 20 million visitors each month. So that’s pretty much the population of Australia
going on YouTube in a month. Crazy. YouTube was bought for $1.65 billion in stock by Google on October 9, 2006. YouTube co-founders and Google came to an agreement which would hopefully allow YouTube to remain independent. Chad, Steve and Karim were having issues with copyright infringement and needed a way out of any lawsuits that could potentially shut them down, along came Google to the rescue. Napster anyone? A peer-topeer file sharing online service focused mainly on music. The original company which released Napster in 1999 came up against some legal difficulties over copyright infringement. The original site was shut down until acquired by another company at a later date. That couldn’t happen to YouTube, so, luckily they worked it out in enough time to give us Dan and Phil, Zoella and Jenna Marbles. Thank you YouTube. Two years after YouTube first came online, the founders are filthy rich. Google remain to say YouTube is completely Independent
of the search engine giant. However, the original idea of YouTube not being just another media site filled with prerolled ads is clearly still going strong. The actual word “YouTube” should be in the dictionary, you can now be YouTube famous, a Youtuber. YouTube has its own convention now. If it has a convention celebrating it, it should definitely be in the dictionary. The video sharing website continues to grow maybe as it reaches its tenth birthday, the real story of YouTube might be aired, hopefully with Jesse Eisenberg playing a founder of YouTube. It shall be called The Video Network. Then again…maybe not. The most recent data shows YouTube is the third most visited website after Google and Facebook with over 800 million users a month. If you tried to watch every video on YouTube, you would be sat there forever, literally. 72 hours of video are uploaded to the site every minute. Words By Jenny Weller
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niversity student PJ has been making YouTube videos under the name ‘KickThePJ’ for 7 years. The 21-year-old’s passion for both art and filmmaking has led to him creating some of the most visually aesthetic stories ever made. PJ also has a passion for music, and along with creating music videos; he has released an album, called Stories Somewhere. PJ’s talents as a filmmaker were recognised in November last year, when his short film ‘Tiny Plant Explorer’ won the People’s Choice Award in the UK’s biggest short film awards, the Virgin Media Shorts. PJ’s film was among 13 others that were shortlisted for the award, and later judged by industry experts. PJ is currently balancing his YouTube career with his third year of university studying Digital Film and Screen Arts in the University for Creative Arts in Fareham.
PJ LIGUORI
Professiona
What made you first decide to start making YouTube videos? Back in 2006, I was already making videos, I just had no-where to post them, I stumbled upon YouTube and decided that would be a good place to show my friends what I was making. Where do you get your ideas from? Usually dreams, whether they’re night dreams or day dreams, the
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With over 275,000 YouTube subscribers, over 14 million video views and a Virgin Media Award under his belt, it’s fair to say that PJ Liguori has found his calling in video making.
imagination is a powerful tool. Are you influenced by any other YouTubers? Not really, I take more influence from video games, music, dreams and life experiences. Do you ever struggle to come up with video ideas? Not at all! Do you ever get put-off by negative viewer comments? Nope, I’ve been doing this for long enough to understand not everyone is going to like my content, I have a lot of respect for what I make to hear negative opinions as well as positive ones. Does being in University make it difficult for you to find the time to make videos? Not at all, my Digital Film course goes hand in hand with the content I make.
It’s really helped me come out of my shell and be more ambitious. What has been the best experience you’ve had as a result of YouTube? The people I have met through the progress of my career has been incredible. What advice would you give to aspiring YouTubers? Make things you enjoy and would watch yourself, don’t try to become famous and make a lot of money, you’ll burn out faster than a candle in the wind. What are your aims for the future? Keep making cool stuff for people to enjoy! Also London, I wanna jump into London in the next few months. Words by Laura Dronfield
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pointles s blog not such a
How pointless can over 700,000 subscribers be?
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aming a YouTube channel is a difficult task, because that one name will define a YouTuber for the rest of their life. Choosing a name that has the perfect description is absolutely vital. Which of course begs the question, why did Alfie Deyes decide to name his channel PointlessBlog? Modestly, Alfie replies, “at the time I was unsure what video topics I would be creating content about and secondly if anyone would even watch them and soon after I thought about how my videos would probably just be pointless” Alfie began making his own videos in 2009 thanks to his love of watching other YouTuber’s content. He admits he would spend hours a day watching their videos, until eventually he realised his desire to join them. “I began to feel the need to not only watch content, but to start myself.” He says. As with most other YouTubers, Alfie started off by making small vlogs in his bedroom, which he quickly became very passionate about. “Not having to act in front of a camera, but instead just be yourself is what I love about vlogging. My viewers know me for me and are not watching
a professionally filmed/acted piece.” Understandably, Alfie admits that for him the hardest part of being a YouTuber is coming up with new video ideas. With viewers constantly wanting more and more frequent videos, Alfie is required to always be thinking up new ideas to try to keep up with the demand. And of course, YouTube subscribers aren’t the most patient of people. Alfie also feels that he needs to always be doing everything he can to improve his videos due to his subscribers increasing in their thousands every single day. No pressure then. He says, “not only am I constantly pressurising myself to make better quality content, but as my audience is growing I feel the need to step up my game each video to please everyone.” Luckily, video ideas come easily to Alfie, who admits that he normally gets inspiration from things that occur around him in everyday life or just from random thoughts that pop into his head. It seems as though Alfie is a natural when it comes to vlogging, as he doesn’t often have trouble coming up with ideas. Unlike a lot of YouTubers who seem to go through some sort of vlogging
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Vlog crisis and completely reinvent themselves, Alfie’s videos haven’t drastically changed over time. His passion has always been vlogging and that is something he has stuck to ever since the beginning of his YouTube career. But his style of vlogging has become a lot more polished since the start, which Alfie says is a result of his longing to be constantly improving his content. Alfie confesses that he looks back at his older videos and laughs at them, due to how much he has grown as a YouTuber. Aside from improved camera and lighting skills, Alfie also notices how much more confident he is since he first started making videos, thanks to how second-nature video making has become for him. He says, “when starting, talking to a camera felt very odd, but as I’m now doing it nearly every day and so many of my closest friends do the same, it would in fact be strange not doing so.” The growing popularity of YouTube now means that content creators have their own fanbases, some of which can rival that of popstars, although not quite on the Belieber level yet. Alfie is no exception to this, and now has a hugely dedicated fanbase, which he admits he still isn’t used to. He says he prefers to think of his viewers less as fans and more as a loyal bunch of friends. “Each time something big happens to me I think to myself how nothing could possibly better it, yet my viewers will always prove me wrong and step up!” A huge must-have for YouTubers is the ability to take criticism, as Alfie has experienced over his years of making videos. It is very unlikely that a YouTuber will receive absolutely no negative comments on a video that they upload, but that is something Alfie explains he has learnt to accept. He admits he sometimes finds it hard to take in the negative comments, but thankfully the good responses far outweigh the bad ones. “I do feel it’s just as important to spend time reading the slightly more negatives and doing my best to change the opinions of those holding these views,” Alfie explains, proving you don’t need to be thick-skinned to be a YouTuber, you just need to be slightly more tolerant.
It’s probably somewhat easier to take the negative comments that YouTube brings when it also brings such amazing experiences as Vidcon and Playlist Live. Alfie was able to attend both events in the past year, as well as visiting New York for 2 weeks, all as a result of his ‘pointless blogs’. It seems as though he still can’t take it in though, saying “each and every day I’m being shocked with new projects and amazing opportunities being offered to me.” Alfie has also met some of his best friends through YouTube, including his London flatmate Caspar Lee. Not bad for someone who said he would probably be working in a retail shop in his home town if it weren’t for YouTube. The idea of the future is very vague for Alfie, which is understandable for someone whose life has changed so dramatically in the past year. YouTube is everchanging and as a content creator Alfie needs to be changing with it, how ever that may be. He has a keen interest in collaborating with more YouTubers in the future, but “sometimes oceans and countries get a little in the way.” However, what Alfie does know is that he wants to stick to creating content, but perhaps across different platforms such as external websites or TV. “What I do know is that what ever I get up to, I’m bringing my audience along with me to enjoy the ride.” Words by Laura Dronfield
To anyone wanting to start YouTube, I always have three simple bits of advice: Firstly create content you yourself enjoy so that you’re interested. Secondly ignore the views and likes and put all your effort into the content. And lastly just have fun! Enjoy it!
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YouTube is a platform for many things. For laughter, for beauty, for nostalgia. It brings people together so they can laugh over clips of kittens falling over, impressive basketball tricks and the disturbing consumption of female hygiene products.
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ne day in August 2011, amongst you’re good looking’. And with Kaelyn the conglomerate of footage and Lucy, it was the request to do film uploaded to Youtube everyday, a ‘Coming out’ video. With the goal to came a video. A video documenting the help other people come to terms with reunion of two girls. Two girls in love. their ‘coming out’ process, both Lucy Their snappy- patter idiolects and bright, and Kaelyn decided to tell the stories of inquisitive faces drew people to them their very own experiences, with every and their promise of support and advice itty- bitty- gritty detail. This was something kept them around. Nowadays, they have that earned them a joint total of over half totted up nearly 4 million video views and a million views and the acknowledgement have gathered over 50,000 cat- loving, of celebrity Chely Wright (who Lucy sushi- munching subscribers (it’s a bit of credits as her inspiration for coming out). a private joke for them...) But they never set out Perhaps I should “We realised we had to achieve this level back up a bit, those two of admiration, Lucy some responsibility claims that: “We never girls are called Kaelyn and Lucy and they are in being good role set out to help people, together. Like... together, models and show- but we started getting together. They also live subscribers and people ing people that life began emailing us around 4,000 miles gets better for the away from each other, and we slowly realised Kaelyn lives in Chicago LGBT community.” that we could actually whilst Kaelyn is currently make something out of studying in Plymouth. this, and help people”. Their Youtube journey started as a cheap Kaelyn adds: “we realized we had and easy way to communicate with each some responsibility in being good role other: “Originally, we put our videos on models and showing people that life YouTube so we could each watch them. gets better for the LGBT community.” Video files were so large we couldn’t Unfortunately, with great e-mail them so we resorted to YouTube.” openness and freedom, comes the Kaelyn tells, “we would watch them when predictably vile backlash of comments we felt lonely or drowning in the distance.” and criticism that threatens to soil any Sometimes, it’s hard to pin point good intentions that people do. Just like an exact time in which people start to Newton’s law of motion, with every action, take notice of a particular YouTuber. With there is an equal and opposite reaction. Jenna Marbles, it was a the charmingly Well... YouTube is similar to that. “we honest ‘How to trick people into thinking do get negative critics, especially from
religious individuals and people who think they have a say in our relationship” Kaelyn says. But they are educated individuals, luckily both know how to construct snappy witticisms that show the critics that they where to stick it. And it makes for good reading entertainment. As the age of social networking is upon us, and people find comfort nestled comfortably behind a computer screen, it is clear that the internet is the new platform for help and advice. Kaelyn and Lucy know more than anyone how successful and beneficial it can be: “I would absolutely say that YouTube is a great platform for helping people. People get a glimpse of our lives and see that we are happy, successful in love, As much as they say we have changed their lives, they have changed ours just as much, if not more. We are lucky that YouTube gave us the platform to create a change.”
Words by Emily Smith
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Technical
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How to:
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here are many things that contribute to being a good YouTuber. Charisma. A sense of humour. The ability to hold on to an audience no matter how momentary their attention spans may be. But if you don’t have the right equipment, your wonderfully choreographed content could be overshadowed by a blurred picture, fuzzy sound and bad lighting. And if you’re like the average newly- fledged YouTuber, you may get lost in the maze of different cameras and lighting names (and numbers). Luckily, a lot of the work has been down for you. We have tried and tested some of the best (and worst) cameras available and combined it with expert advice and discovered the best and most affordable cameras on the market today. First of all, you have to identify what kind of videos you will be making. We shall start with the sat down variety: The best camera for this is the Panasonic HDC-TM700. Famous in the YouTube world for being as reliable as it is
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Photo credit to MallieEppie (SXC.hu)
Sometimes, you just need the know how.
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a great quality camcorder. But if you are looking for a more versatile piece of equipment, for example a camera with a recording option, then both Canon and Nikon are good sturdy options. Just make sure they have a prime lens like an 18- 55. If vlogging/ not sat down videos are more your fortay then the panasonic is definitely your best bet for quality. Understandably, they can be a bit bulky. So if it’s a case of size over quality, then any small digital camera with a filming option will be suitable for mobility reasons. If you’re one of the lucky ones and money isn’t a problem, then a Canon T3i is one of the best cameras you can get for vlogging. But once again, it’s still a little on the bulky side. And of course, the top thing to remember when it comes to camera use, keep it steady. Not so much of a problem if you’re a sit down vlogger, but for all you adventurers out there, keep it still. We don’t want you audience getting motion sickness now do we?
Words By Emily Smith
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For an unsigned artist to even attempt to get a track to Number One in the charts is courageous, but to attempt to get the Christmas Number One is just madness. However, Alex Day clearly isn’t the type of person to say no to a challenge.
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n December 2011, Alex began his campaign to get his self-penned song Forever Yours to the Christmas Number One spot, using his influence as one of Britain’s best-known YouTubers to get it there. Alex spent weeks approaching radio stations, newspapers and TV executives who might be able to help him promote his song, but to no avail. It was all thanks to the help of his YouTube fanbase, the ‘Nermie Army’, that he managed to successfully secure the Christmas #4 spot in the UK Charts, something no unsigned artist has ever come close to before. This incredible
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feat earned him a Guinness World Record for the top charting unsigned artist, and suddenly Alex found himself inundated with media attention. Since then he has had 3 UK Top 40 hits and over 500,000 sales on his songs, all without the help of a record label or management company. But how exactly did a relatively unknown vlogger manage to successfully take on the UK charts, completely on his own? Alex’s success in the music industry all comes down to his hugely popular YouTube channel. In 2006, 17-year-old Alex Day first set up a YouTube channel under the name Nerimon. Alex didn’t originally create the channel for any music related purposes; he first started the channel to create humorous videos for his friends and family. However, Alex quickly got noticed on YouTube for his quirky style that shone through in his frequent vlogs, and found himself becoming more and more popular on the site. He developed a large dedicated fanbase, which he nicknamed the ‘Nermie Army’. His high number of subscribers gave Alex the perfect platform to showcase his music, his real dream, and at the age of just 22, he used his YouTube channel to distribute and
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promote Forever Yours. Within one week Forever Yours had over 100,000 downloads and was only beaten in the charts by the X Factor winner’s single and the 2 singles that were being backed by Radio 1 and Radio 2. All in all, an incredible achievement from someone with no industry help whatsoever. The Official Charts Company recognised Alex’s accomplishment, stating: “‘Forever Yours’ is certainly one of the most successful self-released tracks we have ever seen, the Official Charts are based on sales, and sales alone, so Alex’s achievements this week are a genuine reflection of the passion of his army of fans, and of course, the power of social media.” Alex repeated his success in 2012 with another 2 of his songs making it into the UK Top 40; Lady Godiva at #15 and Stupid Stupid at #25. Again, Alex had no industry help with this, and completely relied on his ‘Nermie Army’ to get his songs into the charts. Alex has also been able to take part in other musical projects as a result of his popularity on YouTube. In 2008, Alex, along with fellow YouTubers Charlie McDonnell, Chris Beattie and Liam Drydon, created a band called Chameleon Circuit. The band was known for creating music
Photo by Christine Hayter
Music Music based around the sci-fi TV show Doctor Who, which they labelled as ‘Trock’ (Timelord Rock). Alex once again used YouTube to promote the band’s songs, which resulted in the second album charting on the UK iTunes Album and Rock Album charts and on the Billboard Heatseekers chart in the United States. The band also received recognition from former Doctor Who actor David Tennant, who described Chameleon Circuit as ‘proper decent music’. In 2009, Alex was also given the opportunity to take part in a BBC documentary called Chartjackers. This was a TV series based around 4 YouTubers attempting to write, record and release a song in the hope of getting it into the charts. Alex and his fellow YouTubers Charlie McDonnell, Jonny Haggart and Jimmy Hill were given 10 weeks to create a song that they thought could do well in the charts and to successfully promote it in the hope of getting a #1. Although Alex didn’t perform or write the track, he was heavily involved in the production and promotion of the song. The goal was for the track to reach number #1, however it only charted at #36 in the UK Top 40, which Alex was openly disappointed about. However, Alex was able to showcase his talent on national TV, something he would not have been able to do if it wasn’t for his YouTube status. At the age of 17, Alex Day was just a teenager dreaming of becoming a musician who had just discovered YouTube. Now, at the age of just 23, he has had 3 UK Top 40 hits entirely on his own, over 650,000 subscribers and over 100 million views on his YouTube channel. Alex now describes himself as a ‘musician first and a YouTuber second’, however he also acknowledges that for him, they go hand-in-hand.
Day Alex
Words by Laura Dronfield
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BECOMING YOUTUB E
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p until recently a YouTuber was just thought of as a teenager sat in their bedroom filming themselves talking to a webcam, but all that has changed. YouTubers are no longer just kids with a hobby; they’re now lucrative businessmen earning big bucks. With over a million YouTubers earning money from their videos thanks to the YouTube Partner Programme, it’s no wonder that so many people have started uploaded content to the site. Journalist Ben Cook is seemingly the first person to discover the ‘secret’ that is YouTube, and when he decided to investigate the phenomenon he opened the world’s eyes to what is fast becoming the next big thing. Ben’s satirical mockumentry, Becoming YouTube, depicts his attempt at becoming ‘crazy internet famous’ and joining the ranks of established YouTubers such as Dan & Phil, Charlie McDonnell and Thomas Ridgewell, to name just a few. After all, what better way to understand YouTube than to become YouTube? Ben started the series in December 2012, using his vast range of journalistic skills to pry into what makes vlogging so popular. The episodes, which are unusually long for YouTube videos at around 25 minutes long each, document Ben’s attempt to discover everything he can about YouTubers, and exactly how to make it as a successful vlogger. It also helps that Ben seems to be friends with every single YouTuber ever, and uses this to his advantage in finding out what he needs to do to become one of them. Indepth and sometimes invasive interviews with YouTubers make up a large chunk of the ‘weekly’ series, alongside sketches
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that mostly ridicule the YouTubers, but in a lighthearted way (Marcus Butler’s spoof of Charlie McDonnell is a must-see!) Each episode Ben looks into a different aspect of YouTube, in his attempts to become part of it. Despite the tonguein-cheek nature of the series, he does look into some of the more serious topics, such as the male to female ratio of YouTubers. But of course, as with anything even slightly controversial on the Internet, this sparked a huge debate about why female vloggers aren’t as popular as males. Don’t worry though; before things could get too profound it cut away to a special YouTube rendition of Modern Major General performed by Hazel Hayes and PJ Ligouri. With over 72 hours of content being uploaded to YouTube every minute, it’s fair to say that there are a lot of content creators out there. It’s even captured the attention of Simon Cowell and Jamie Oliver, both of whom have discovered the huge potential that lies within YouTube. So it’s no wonder that Ben is doing everything he can to try to understand just how to make it as a vlogger. After all, Justin Bieber started out as a kid uploading videos to YouTube and look where he is now. So should you be desperately trying to become ‘crazy internet famous’, your first step should be to check out the useful series that promises to give you all the best advice to help get you there. Or it will just make you laugh a lot and want to dye your hair fire-truck red.
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e o p t The B Vlogbrothers YouTube has many success stories such as Justin Bieber and famous YouTube personality Charlie McDonnell but no-one like this. This is the story of the VlogBrothers.
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ou wouldn’t think that YouTube could one day help you create a complete franchise but that’s exactly what John and Hank Green have done. The brothers have come a long way from vlogging on their YouTube channel. They first got their name out in the YouTube community after they launched the Brotherhood 2.0 project in 2006. The videos were based on the boys cancelling all text-based communication for one year and only talking via video blogs every day. The Brotherhood 2.0 was a huge success amongst viewers so the brothers continued to produce videos for their fans. After finishing the project the brothers set up a website known as nerdfighters for
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their community. The website was originally maintained by Hank Green himself but is now moderated by a group of volunteers known as the ‘Ningmasters’. The VlogBrothers have a huge international following known as ‘Nerdfighteria’. John Green is not only part f the duo, he’s the author of The Fault in Our Stars and Looking for Alaska, amongst others. He won the 2006 Printz Award for his first novel, Looking for Alaska and his latest novel currently resides on the New York Times best seller list for children’s books, The Fault in Our Stars. Hank Green is also the creator of EcoGeek, an online
environmental technology blog. The two brothers have a list of accomplishments and contributions they’ve given to the online world. Including the creation of VidCon, one of the largest and first conferences dedicated to online medium. In 2012 the conference hosted to 7,000 video creators and viewers. They didn’t stop there. DFTBA which stands for ‘Don’t Forget to Be Awesome’ is not only the Green Brothers catchphrase but the name of their record label. The record label and distribution company helps produce music for independent groups. Obviously that wasn’t enough. Hank and
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John Green launched Crash Crouse, an educational channel. The videos were part of a mini-series on Literature and Ecology. Another year-long series is being produced for the channel, Hank doing Chemistry and John, American History. The channel is funded by YouTube’s $100 million original channel initiative. As well as Crash Course, Hank launched another original channel known SciShow which is a series of sciencerelated videos. Seven years on from the launch of Brotherhood 2.0 project, 2 more channels, a record label and 1,075, 003 subscribers later and the VlogBrothers are international names. Words by Jenny Weller
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April Fools Prank on Mom Gone WrongVitalyzdTv’s idea to prank his mother for April Fool’s day went horribly wrong after she reacted far worse than he expected. Over five million people have watched as he cowered behind a canvas whilst she showed she wasn’t best please. Let this be a lesson: never fool a parent into believing you need money to fund a drug addiction.
Dance Pony DancePhone network 3’s advert of a shetland pony dancing to Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Everywhere’ has fast become one of the most popular adverts to appear on television. It currently has over six million views on YouTube since it was uploaded in February, which is very impressive for a clip that is shown over and over again on televison.
Headless Drive-thruOver 10,000,000 people have watched as magician prankster MagicofRahat terrorised various fast food restaurants across his local town. Sparking hilarious reactions from the surprised employees, he was somehow able to make himself appear to be headless while he ordered food from the different drive-through restaurants. With a hilarious outcome.
Mila Kunis talks to Chris Stark off the Scott Mills show on Radio 1- Radio 1 DJ Chris Stark’s interview with Mila Kunis went viral due to his unorthodox interviewing technique. With only 10 minutes notice, Chris nervously rambled about his own life throughout the interview. The video currently has over 11,000,000 views.
How Animals Eat Their FoodThis video, which depicts some very interesting imitations of various animals eating food, gained almost 50,000,000 views in its first 2 weeks of being uploaded. It is easily the most popular video created by the MisterEpicMann channel and has already been parodied countless times by other YouTubers.
My Wedding Speech- Ruining weddings for every other person on the planet, McFly’s Tom Fletcher decided to upload the video of his wedding speech in January and the video quickly went viral. The fifteen minute long video of Tom remixing his own songs to sing his thanks to his friends and family and serenade his new bride currently has over 9 million views.
Bedtime BanditOver four million people have watched what happened when Kyle Moser’s parents set up a camera to catch their son in the act after discovering he had been stealing things from his sister’s bedroom. The video captures the 2-yearold using a pair of nail clippers to unlock the door to his sister’s room and steal a toy in the middle of the night like a true toddling thief.
Harlem Shake (Original)- The Harlem Shake took the internet by storm in February after Australian teenagers TheSunnyCoastSkate uploaded their original video. Their video has since received over 25,000,000 views and started the trend that took over the internet and resulted in thousands of Harlem Shake videos being uploaded to YouTube every day.
Mozart vs Skrillex. Epic Rap Battles of History Season 2- In any other situation, Mozart vs Skrillex would make absolutely no sense, but for Epic Rap Battles it seemed almost inevitable. The video of two grown men dressed up as a composer and a dubstep musician rapping gained over 17 million views in the first two weeks alone.
Ultimate Goat Edition Supercut2013 quickly became the year of the goat after ‘I Knew You Were Trouble’ by Taylor Swift was remixed to include a screaming goat. It quickly went viral, resulting in hundreds of goat remixes to other songs. CompilarizTV created the Ultimate Goat Edition Supercut, which now has over 8 million views.
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Some may think it wasterful, some may think it genius. It will probably make you hungry. It’s... EPIC MEAL TIME! Words by Emily Smith Made up of Harley Morenstein, Alex Perrault, Tyler Lemco, David Heuff, Josh Elkin and Ameer Atkin. This group of Canadian, bacon enthusiasts have created an empire of over 4 million subscribers. And of course, no YouTube phenomenom would be complete without their merchandise. Consisting of a cookbook, hats and t-shirts (which they wear in their videos) all of which are available on their online store. On their impressive resume of culinary extremities they have created are:
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A fast food lasagne: Made up of 45 take out burgers, a litre of Big Mac sauce and bacon strips and bacon strips and bacon strips. This masterpiece accumulated over 9 million, 71,488 calories views and probably crippling stomach acid for the crew. They layered burgers, ground beef, more burgers, bacon strips, more burgers, onion rings and cheese in a giant rectangular tray. This one tops the charts with over 18 million views.
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A giant burger: One of their most impressive achievements to date, is the breaking of the 100,000 calorie barrier. Clocking in at approximately 138, 226 calories and consisting of over 20lbs of meat, a giant bun (branded with a poppy seed Epic Meal Time logo), a whole block of melted cheese, Jack Daniels infused BBQ sauce and (wait for it) 20lbs of bacon strips. This one earned them a mammoth sized 9 million views.
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A candy pizza: Stepping away from their usual savoury taste, the team decided to venture into the world of candy. Made up of a cinnamon roll and chocolate chip cookie base, a rolo stuffed crust cherry sauce, cotton candy ‘cheese’, candied bacon (bacon sprinkled with sugar and maple syrup) and rainbow candy strips. And on the side? Deep fried mars bar with a cotton candy marinara dipping sauce. Altogether, it has been viewed over 9 million times.
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