Casey Neistat - what's the draw?
Discussion
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.
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.
jazzybee said:
Love his videos, and have been watching daily for the past year and a half.
Its his attitude and ability to clearly communicate what he wants to get across.
You need to see some of his earlier videos to see what he is about. Below are my two favorites - the second one was the reason I started going through all his movies and then his daily vlogs.
life explained in 27 seconds
My Kid and me
Those are excellent! Its his attitude and ability to clearly communicate what he wants to get across.
You need to see some of his earlier videos to see what he is about. Below are my two favorites - the second one was the reason I started going through all his movies and then his daily vlogs.
life explained in 27 seconds
My Kid and me
Interesting to see this one crop up again. I've been watching a bit more of his stuff - mostly because of that 'Meaning of life in 27 seconds' one that someone posted up further up the thread, which I thought was genuinely brilliant!
It's here, to save you scrolling up and looking for it - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9VBpbnXhWk
He's actually a really creative and clever guy, I love the way he puts films together, the energy in them, the story they often tell.
Against that, his need to put a video out every day means that the content can be really patchy. You can watch an entire 10 minute video in which literally nothing happens! 'We're up early cos we're going on a plane. We're in a taxi. We're at the airport. We're drinking coffee, we're on the plane, Candice is asleep, we've landed, thanks for watching'
Pick the good ones and they're genuinely excellent, even inspiring occasionally. But you have to wade through some dull stuff he punts out (just for the sake of putting something out).
Nature of the business I guess, in order to keep the fans engaged. But if he just put videos out when he actually had something to say or do, I think it would be a massive improvement.
It's here, to save you scrolling up and looking for it - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9VBpbnXhWk
He's actually a really creative and clever guy, I love the way he puts films together, the energy in them, the story they often tell.
Against that, his need to put a video out every day means that the content can be really patchy. You can watch an entire 10 minute video in which literally nothing happens! 'We're up early cos we're going on a plane. We're in a taxi. We're at the airport. We're drinking coffee, we're on the plane, Candice is asleep, we've landed, thanks for watching'
Pick the good ones and they're genuinely excellent, even inspiring occasionally. But you have to wade through some dull stuff he punts out (just for the sake of putting something out).
Nature of the business I guess, in order to keep the fans engaged. But if he just put videos out when he actually had something to say or do, I think it would be a massive improvement.
Haven't worked out his Beme thing. It's an app that allows you to upload unedited videos (indeed you can't edit them) then other people can see them and 'interact' by uploading their reaction.
There's an interview with him where he mentioned having 11 staff that cost $200,000/month. Then there's presumably the cost of the New York office and so forth so it must be costing $1/4 million a month.
But I'm not sure where the income comes from - advertising maybe? Can you get over $1/4 million worth of advertising income off an app like that? No idea, but presumably someone's done the maths.
There's an interview with him where he mentioned having 11 staff that cost $200,000/month. Then there's presumably the cost of the New York office and so forth so it must be costing $1/4 million a month.
But I'm not sure where the income comes from - advertising maybe? Can you get over $1/4 million worth of advertising income off an app like that? No idea, but presumably someone's done the maths.
Incidentally, having started this thread querying why so many people want to watch a bloke quite often doing not very much, I've since become a bit of an addict!
I'm still not entirely sure what the draw is, and some of them you get to the end of and think 'well that was a load of complete nothing', but it's always artfully shot and produced nothing with a great soundtrack, and frequently there is something worth watching. Quite a pleasant way to burn ten minutes.
I'm still not entirely sure what the draw is, and some of them you get to the end of and think 'well that was a load of complete nothing', but it's always artfully shot and produced nothing with a great soundtrack, and frequently there is something worth watching. Quite a pleasant way to burn ten minutes.
I ended up watching quite a bit of his stuff and enjoying it. But his problem was exactly what I said further up this thread. You just can't put out a video a day and have them all interesting and entertaining.
More and more it was 'had a run, went to work, grabbed a smoothie, rode my boosted board, the end'.
All the timelapses and cool music in the world can't stop that going stale eventually.
If he puts out a video a fortnight that's actually about something, that will be hugely better for him and for his audience. Less lucrative though.
More and more it was 'had a run, went to work, grabbed a smoothie, rode my boosted board, the end'.
All the timelapses and cool music in the world can't stop that going stale eventually.
If he puts out a video a fortnight that's actually about something, that will be hugely better for him and for his audience. Less lucrative though.
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