My Unfinished Thoughts on No Nourishment in Entertainment

Almost everything in this day and age of being hurry-hurry-hurry, rush-rush-rush, faster-faster-faster, there's something crucial that's getting lost in that hustle and bustle of having everything in an instant. In listening to an interview that he did with SIDE BY SIDE, renowned filmmaker Martin Scorsese brings up a very interesting point that I believe really hits the nail on the head:

"The danger, especially in our culture, is that cheaper, faster is consumed, bang, goes away. There's no nourishment."

I may be a so-called "Millennial," but even I remember a time growing up in which when a new movie would be released, it would stay in the theaters for several weeks - sometimes a couple of months, or even longer - if it was a movie you really enjoyed, you could see it more than once . . . and, of course, there's also the communal aspect of seeing a movie with other people, it brings you together in an experience of enjoyment and entertainment. Afterwards, it could be a year or even longer before that movie would be released on home video, but it would always be worth the wait. Fast-forward to today, where a movie may last only a week or so in a theater (maybe up to a month if it's particularly a box-office smash), then released on DVD a couple of months later, then that's it. That's all, folks!

Aside from the fact that almost everything produced in the world of mainstream entertainment today is rotten content anyway (remember, this is just an opinion piece), after listening to Scorsese's point, I really believe he's got a grasp of why it's so hard to really get into any new movie, or even TV show or episodic series in this day and age: it comes and goes so quickly, it leaves behind something of a void where you find yourself still wanting more . . . and no, I don't mean wanting more in terms of an endless string of sequels and franchising (that's another problem we can discuss another day). I would dare say this is one of the major problems with streaming services like Netflix or Hulu, releasing all of the new episodes of a new series at once: it's like pigging out at an all-you-can-eat buffet, without even really savoring what you're consuming.

Other filmmakers, on the other hand, disagree with Scorsese's sentiment, and even feel that the age of having everything in an instant is actually a great advantage. George Lucas, one of the biggest and most influential filmmakers of all time, responsible for the STAR WARS franchise, among other ground-breaking films since the 1970s, also shared his thoughts with SIDE BY SIDE in regards the age of film-making we live in now:

"We have gone from a presentation in a presentation venue, where it's presented to you, and/or it's hyped in your home at a particular place, at a particular time [ . . . ] It's kind of a presentation way of looking at things. We're not in that world anymore. Now we're in the world of you can have anything you want whenever you want, and it's like a supermarket [ . . . ] How do you get the shelf space? Because there's another thousand movies every week that look exactly like your movie, how do you stand out from all those other things?"

All of this taken into consideration could also be something that's applied to the current state of YouTube. Yes, yes, I know, I know -- I keep ranting about YouTube like a broken record, but hear me out on this one, because this is one aspect of YouTube that I haven't necessarily discussed in greater detail on Scarblog before. . . . Much like what's become of mainstream entertainment, YouTube is no longer the place for the little guys who want to create and produce their own, original, quality content for the world to see as it was when it started out; YouTube is no longer in the world of small-time filmmakers and content creators like James Rolfe or Terence Krey - YouTube is in the world of trends and the zeitgeist. Whenever you look on YouTube, almost all of the videos you see being promoted and postured on the homepage are vlogs or some sort: gaming, make-up tutorials, drive-thru escapades, equipment reviews, and the like. On top of that, the so-called "experts" of YouTube seem to think they have it all figured out: the best way to thrive on YouTube is the make as many videos as you can, and not only in a short amount of time, but the shorter the actual videos are, the better . . . and, to a certain extent, this is sadly true. As Lucas pointed out, it's a lot like supermarket shelf space: YouTube has become a sea vlogs that you can hardly tell apart at a glance, and in order to get noticed, you have to crank out as many short videos as you can to keep up with the Joneses. This is where Scorsese's point also comes into play: because of this, there's really no nourishment . . . and because of this, certain YouTubers like myself have been hurt by this shift in mindset.

Getting back to the point I made about the so-called YouTube "experts," there really is some truth to what they say - to the point that YouTube, in recent years, has further hindered the growth of smaller channels in many internal ways: for instance, if they perceive a channel isn't "active" (as in they don't upload at least one new video a week), they perceive said channel to be "dead," and will do one or both of two things: 1. Automatically disable/de-activate the subscribers' notifications, or 2. Automatically un-subscribe them altogether. This makes it hard for smaller channels that actually take the time to create quality content to maintain an audience, because again, it doesn't fall in line with this world of needing supermarket shelf space, and to churn out as much content as you can to get and keep that shelf space in a sea of other similar content creators. This puts people like me at a disadvantage; being an artist who maintains an artistic channel, people don't take into consideration the old saying: "you can't rush art." And you can't. Although it may not seem like it, even some of my shortest videos (four minutes or less) can take a surprisingly long time to put together: sometimes even weeks . . . and as such, it's nearly impossible to create and upload this kind of content on such a regular basis . . . so what ends up happening? We don't get the shelf space, we fall by the wayside, and we get swept up. Try explaining this to the so-called "experts" who keep telling you, "you need to make more videos more frequently." As Will Smith once put it in regards to parents, back in his Fresh Prince days: they just don't understand.

It fascinates me to see how sometimes the world of mainstream entertainment can also apply to something like YouTube, and how you can see the parallels between the two. That being said, however, while I can see the angle that Lucas is coming from from a business aspect (and even Scorsese agrees with that sentiment), I feel inclined to side more with Scorsese in terms of the art of film-making suffering from a lack of nourishment, which the consumer world doesn't even seem to miss anymore in this day and age of having what you want, when you want it, then it goes away.

And This is Why I Never Advertise (and Other Stuff)

In the almost nine years I've been producing content on YouTube, not once have I ever asked anybody to subscribe to my channel. Never. In fact, I don't even go around advertising my channel in general, unless somebody expresses interest and asks about it - otherwise, I just stay quiet and let people find it on their own.

One of my biggest pet peeves is when people talk to me about advertising and ask what I do about it. What people don't seem to realize is that advertising does nothing but make enemies for yourself: I learned that the hard way in the days before I even began creating original content for the web - when you advertise what you're working on, all it does is tick people off at you, because they see it as nothing more than shameless, desperate cries for attention, and thus are actually less likely to look at your work . . . and if they do, it's usually just to troll and tell you how much it sucks.

Unfortunately, when you don't advertise, you're really not getting much notice, and as a small channel on YouTube, that can be problematic - especially when YouTube itself just loves to hawk these bigger channels, and in the process, sweeps the smaller channels under the rug. In fact, YouTube has not-so-subtly been reserving more and more special features for bigger channels with thousands and millions of subscribers. Sure, small channels can access certain features like being able to upload videos longer than fifteen minutes, and using custom thumbnails - both of which are wonderful and helpful (even though it took me a year just to get YouTube to send me a verification code to unlock them) . . . but certain other features are unavailable to you unless you have an insane amount of subscribers (like a 100,000 minimum). For example: YouTube had formally announced that they were retiring tags a year or two ago, but apparently it was only for small channels, because apparently bigger channels have been unaffected by this (because in speaking with different owners of bigger channels, apparently tags still work for them) and don't even realize it. Also, notice how whenever you log into YouTube, the first thing you never see are the channels you're actually subscribed to, but rather, what trending videos YouTube wants you to watch. The bottom line is that if you have a small channel on YouTube, you're basically screwed.

So, when the opportunity arose to speak out about this issue, the end results were explosive. A big YouTube celebrity, Casey Neistat, had announced he was ending his daily vlog, and it apparently was such big, earth-shattering news that almost all of the internet exploded over it. It, apparently, was a really, really big deal. Why? Because Casey Neistat is a really, really big YouTube celebrity. How did he get to be a big, YouTube celebrity? Because all he does is just talk about his life. That's it. Come to think of it, this is apparently how a lot of YouTubers end up becoming big celebrities, by just sitting around and talking about random stuff. YouTube has become a sea of people just sitting around and talking about themselves. Who knew YouTube became NarcissismTube? But anyway, the main reason Casey Neistat's retirement was such an explosive news story was because he has a following of over 6,000,000 subscribers. That's all well and good, but what does this say about the smaller channels out there who are struggling to even be noticed? You think the earth would shatter if Tim Kelly announced he wasn't going to do anymore ZOOK & MAX? You think the world would end if Thomas Ferranti decided to give up any of his multi talents like voice acting, character acting, singing, and orchestrating? Julio Robles is planning on a SCRAPSTV reboot, and I don't see this trending on social media.

Since Casey Neistat's retirement was exploding all over social media, I decided to take an opportunity and address this very issue of the struggles of smaller channels on YouTube, the smaller channels that are swept under the rug, the smaller channels that are never seen, the smaller channels that are never given a chance. That turned out to be a mistake. While a few people actually understood the point I was trying to make, other people flipped out, you would have thought I was advertising my own channel . . . and some people actually thought I was, and sure enough, some of those people went out of their way to seek out my channel to attack it. See now why I don't advertise? But here's the thing: in trying to raise awareness of an actual issue on YouTube, a large number of backlashers saw this as a shameless and desperate cry for attention . . . and not once did I ever tell people to look at my channel, and not once did I ever tell people to even subscribe to my channel. Why? Because I don't advertise, because when you advertise, crap like this happens. Some people were even accusing me of accusing Casey Neistat of stealing subscribers away from me (uh . . . what?), which is absurd.

But still, the point remains: why is it that people like Casey Neistat, and others get posturing by YouTube simply for talking about random things going on in their life? In fact, why is it that YouTube has become about trends? Vlogs, reviews, people just talking about nothing . . . I mean, if this is all it takes to be on YouTube, then what's the point of amateur and independent animators, artists, cartoonists, filmmakers, producers, storytellers, and yes even puppeteers, to even bother trying to share any of what they create with other people on a platform that seemingly only caters to people who sit around giving out promiscuious relationship advice, or reviewing why a certain movie sucked, or talking about who they voted for and why you should too? Wasn't YouTube supposed to be an outlet for creative people to share their art and creativity with the world that would otherwise hide it under a bushel? Oh yeah, that was before it was sold to Google, I forgot. There's no room for anything like that on YouTube. But even so, what's so fascinating about talking about your everyday life and having millions of people listen? Are some people's mere existence just so spectacular that it must be shared with the entire world? I guarantee you if I talked about my life everyday, not only would nobody be interested, I'd bore myself.

And you know what's ironic? Why is it also that big channels always beg for subscribers? Getting back to Casey Neistat again, he once did a video begging people to subscribe to he can reach 3,000,000. Dude, you've already got millions and millions of subscribers as it is, why do you have to make a big spectacle about needing even more? And all of these other big YouTubers: how many of their videos always end with them squealing, "Please-please-please subscribe!!! I need more subscribers! Please subscribe! Please subscribe!" Gosh, it's like rich people: they always want more money when they've already got more money than they know what to do with! In a sense, you could actually argue that I at least have something bigger YouTube channels lack: integrity. Because, once again, I never beg, or even ask for subscribers.

But that does beg the question: why is it that advertising actually works for some people, but not for others? Big YouTubers constantly beg for more subscribers and get them; small YouTubers try to earn new subscribers and make enemies in the process. What gives?