Casey Neistat - what's the draw?

Casey Neistat - what's the draw?

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Ari

Original Poster:

19,328 posts

214 months

Wednesday 28th September 2016
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Let me say straight from the off, this is not a 'knock the youtube blogger' thread at all. I came across this guy via a post in the photography forum about the GoPro Karma drone - in between arguing over the near certainty of my drowning a DJI Phantom, someone posted a link to a video where Casey Neistat had been loaned a prototype to try. And following that, I watched a few other of his videos.

Now I have to say that the actual production and editing are really good (I think he is/was a video producer). And he comes across as a nice guy with a sense of humour, so good for him.

But he's not a magnetic personality, his videos aren't exactly state of the art, and most of all there's a real sense of quantity over quality (and by that I mean subject quality rather than production or presentation quality).

Some of them are interesting, he got an upgrade to a £20,000 Emirates first class flight, the voyeur in me can't help but have a peak and see what that's all about. But a lot of them really are about nothing much at all - and not a snappy 2 minutes of nothing much - 10, 12 minutes of it.

So what's his draw? As I said at the beginning this isn't intended to knock him, I think he's doing great and seems a nice enough fellow, so good for him. But I just can't quite put my finger on why millions and millions of people are watching everything that he puts out there, and I seek perspective.

ApOrbital

9,942 posts

117 months

Wednesday 28th September 2016
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confused

HD Adam

5,144 posts

183 months

Wednesday 28th September 2016
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So it be onto this.


TheRainMaker

6,306 posts

241 months

Wednesday 28th September 2016
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I think he's fantastic personally, I'm not sure how he gets so much done in one day.

Normally I watch his daily blog when feeding the little one before bed.




Spare tyre

9,460 posts

129 months

Wednesday 28th September 2016
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A year ago I couldn't stand him, now I look forward to the next vlog. He keeps me Upton date with all sorts of things.

Recommend watching him

ReaperCushions

5,951 posts

183 months

Wednesday 28th September 2016
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Its all about Mo Volgs guyyyyssssssss oh my gosh....

Shakermaker

11,317 posts

99 months

Wednesday 28th September 2016
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Spare tyre said:
He keeps me Upton date with all sorts of things.
I'm guessing what's in your search history with your autocorrect set to that.

She is rather lovely wink

Spare tyre

9,460 posts

129 months

Wednesday 28th September 2016
quotequote all
ReaperCushions said:
Its all about Mo Volgs guyyyyssssssss oh my gosh....
Can't stand him, om my god goshhhh guys

anonymous-user

53 months

Wednesday 28th September 2016
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I only discovered him yesterday on the GoPro thread and really like his delivery and seemingly genuine enthusiasm.

Seems to appreciate what he gets and not big headed.

I'll be watching more.

ashleyman

6,963 posts

98 months

Wednesday 28th September 2016
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I used to follow his videos before he started vlogging daily and I love the fact that he posts something every day.

I think with Casey the more you watch, the clearer the draw. Regardless whatever he's doing, he's doing right as he's the fastest growing YouTuber out there right now.

Start by watching bike lanes, then the iPod movie and some early stuff, perhaps watch his first ever daily vlog where he explains what he's doing. Give it chance and you'll see the way!

sidekickdmr

5,065 posts

205 months

Thursday 29th September 2016
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This is the same guy that gets locked in a german waterpark with his son overnight isnt it?

Seems a little lacking of a personality but a watchable enough guy with the right content.

gp1699

402 posts

203 months

Thursday 29th September 2016
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If you like his vlogs its worth having a look at his older stuff, i'd say they have more quality over quantity.

weeboot

1,063 posts

98 months

Thursday 29th September 2016
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I enjoy his stuff, along with videos from Ben Brown, Louis Cole, even Roman Atwood from time to to.
Jon Olsson and his girlfriend Janni are keeping me entertained at the moment.. wink

burritoNinja

690 posts

99 months

Thursday 29th September 2016
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I'm into Bodybuilding so one of my guilty pleasures is watching Rich Piana.... right babe. God damn it he is a hard worker and a self made millionaire but he has implants in his biceps and triceps that look awful. Muscle never ever contracts or changes shape.

Casey guy is doing what he loves so fair play to him.

100% agree, MO VLOGS is the best on YT ever. He is soooo cool. Hangs about with his sister and even shows off his 8 polo shirts.... yawn fest.

W00DY

15,467 posts

225 months

Thursday 29th September 2016
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His production quality for daily uploaded videos is incredible. I think from the outside you look at it as perhaps a tad dull, but if I had to make a video every day of my life it'd be exponentially worse. His videos are closer to mini-movies which are beautifully shot and always manage to tell a story.

He's quite candid and honest about what he does and where he's come from and he really does inspire me to do more and try to achieve something. He really does appear to have got to where he is through hard work and determination.

I don't watch many of his vlogs any more and they definitely fluctuate in quality, but in terms of youtube celebrities he's got to be one of the better ones.

devnull

3,746 posts

156 months

Thursday 29th September 2016
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Caisey popped onto my recommended youtube page, and i started watching a couple of videos - cool music and cinematography.

Makes my life in a corporate seem a little dull at times, but we're all different. And the the most free stuff i get is bluetooth headsets.

Orchid1

877 posts

107 months

Thursday 29th September 2016
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He does make some good videos that keep you entertained however two things irk me slightly.

First is when he talks about how busy he is during the day and how he starts work before dawn however most days it's as if he goes to his office for all of five minutes then spends the rest of the day getting coffee and playing with his drone.

Second is how a lot of his stuff is just bandwagon jumping eg with the whole pokemon go craze he made a funny little video that went viral of him trying to catch a man in a pikachu costume which is of course a relevant and up to the date thing to do however it's as if he just trawls social media all day looking for what is popular right now and tries to incorporate as much stuff as possible into his videos like someones dad trying to be hip and down with the kids constantly.

sjg

7,444 posts

264 months

Thursday 29th September 2016
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One of the key things about getting an audience (and thus making money)on youtube is putting out content regularly - hence the whole "vlogging" thing to keep putting stuff out even when there's not always something interesting.

There is a huge audience of people (myself included) who spend time on youtube every single day. Some of those will watch his daily videos. I dip and out of his stuff occasionally when it looks interesting (so things like the gopro drone) but I can skip a lot of his stuff.

gp1699

402 posts

203 months

Thursday 29th September 2016
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Orchid1 said:
He does make some good videos that keep you entertained however two things irk me slightly.

First is when he talks about how busy he is during the day and how he starts work before dawn however most days it's as if he goes to his office for all of five minutes then spends the rest of the day getting coffee and playing with his drone.

Second is how a lot of his stuff is just bandwagon jumping eg with the whole pokemon go craze he made a funny little video that went viral of him trying to catch a man in a pikachu costume which is of course a relevant and up to the date thing to do however it's as if he just trawls social media all day looking for what is popular right now and tries to incorporate as much stuff as possible into his videos like someones dad trying to be hip and down with the kids constantly.
And in between all that he runs BEME too! But i dont think that's working too well...

Otispunkmeyer

12,558 posts

154 months

Thursday 29th September 2016
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I quite like him.... if only for the fact I find him an easy listen/watch when I just want some background noise.

BTW, that $21k air plane seat video got 20 million views in 7 days and netted him half a million new subscribers. Bloody insane. And he himself is under no illusion that viral stuff like that is almost completely down to luck. (though he does seem to understand about 80% of the ingredients for making a video with a high chance of becoming viral)

I can't figure his background out mind. I am sure I read somewhere his networth was $40m due to parents business/real estate but I can't find that now (perhaps I googled the wrong person). Most bios have him down as coming from being a bit of a deadbeat who got his lass pregnant whilst they were teenagers and he lived in a trailer park. The guys done well for himself.

And the thing about YT, you do almost need to go for the quantity over quality. Its a fine line at least. But if you aren't very regularly pushing some content to keep people tuned in... you fade away. This is why some of the most popular YT people are gamers because they can pop out hours of content and even just stream live on a whim quite easily. Folks like Casey, Trey Ratcliffe (who makes a living from travelling it seems!) and channels like Tested, FroKnowsPhoto spend a long time editing and producing quality videos. That they can get so much stuff out at that level is quite an achievement.

I quite like that BaronVonGrumble guy (though haven't seen much from him lately). He reminds me of Richard Porter and I like his videos where he just rides around or is commuting and is just ranting about nonsense. Its total nonsense, but I like it.

Edited by Otispunkmeyer on Thursday 29th September 12:36


Edited by Otispunkmeyer on Thursday 29th September 12:42