Tag Archive for: marketing

Over 1 Billion Views – ShutterAuthority Interview

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A lot of us talk about the good old days of ‘Early Youtube’. We like to look back five or ten years and remember the ridiculous sketches, mind-blowing short films, awkward music videos and the initially unique but now tired gimmicks.

 

There were also the early VFX legends inspiring new waves of artists. Corridor Digital, FreddieW (now RocketJump), and VideoCopilot to name just a few. Videos with consistently more impressive and more creative visual effects starting to pop up all over the place. The industry that seemed exclusive to high-budget blockbuster films had somehow found a place online. I can’t tell you the number of times friends and family have sent me an ActionMovieKid video or one of the seemingly endless Zack King clips. Somehow VFX artists have found themselves at the forefront of this insane, exciting and extremely delightful industry.

 

More lately than ever before it seems like Youtubers are pushing out content faster and faster. Quantity over quality has been a surprising evolution for online media. It’s not all bad, I do enjoy a lot of the new content, but I can’t help but miss ‘Early Youtube’. That’s why when I found ShutterAuthority, I was instantly sucked in.

 

Raghav and his team create VFX heavy internet shorts. Creativity, quality, style and uniqueness are squeezed into each video. Each short is fun to watch, with well developed story and comedic timing. Their content is a lot of ‘In Real Life’ videos and dream-battles that would never happen otherwise. Titles like The Terminator VS T-Rex and Packman In Real Life give you a good idea of what to expect.

 

Shutter Authority has over a Billion Views and 2 Million subscribers. Their story is inspiring for all Youtubers looking to build an audience and make awesome content. Check out the full interview below.

 

Godzilla VS Packman (26,553,185 views)

 

Chris: Godzilla VS Packman, Terminator VS T-rex, these are fantastic and really out-there ideas. How do you decide what video to make next?

 

Raghav AK: It’s usually a combination several factors; topics I’m passionate about, CG/VFX aspects I’ve been experimenting with that match the topic and if the topic has any topical value at the time.

 

Chris: You’ve started adding breakdowns at the end of your videos, why did you decide to start doing this?

 

Raghav AK: We get a ton of comments asking us how we make these videos and a lot of people don’t seem to know anything about VFX and other filmmaking techniques, so we thought we’d take the opportunity to give the audience a little sneak peak into the making of to bring awareness on what’s possible even for a very small team like ours.

 

Check out this awesome breakdown for Mega-Godzilla: King of the Universe

 

Chris: It seems like you’re able to release a project roughly every month. With the level of work that goes into each, I have to assume this is your full time job. Do you do client work as well?

 

Raghav AK: Yes, its quite a bit of work to take a video idea to completion, because we try to do most of the tasks in-house. Of course, we do use stock footage and other assets from sources like ProductionCrate, VideoCopilot, ActionVFX, Film Riot etc, which really help us make better quality work at a shorter turn around times. Yes, I do this full time and I do take up a little bit of client work if the project is very interesting and I find the time to pull it off alongside the videos for my channel.

 

Chris: What was your most difficult project to-date, and why?

 

Raghav AK: We worked on a 360 video based on Temple Run as a collaboration with Google Daydream. It was our first time working on a 360 video. Every shot was a VFX shot involving 3D CGI and most of them were moving camera shots that needed loads of clean up too. It took us nearly 3 months of non-stop work to pull this off.

 

 

Chris: After Effects and Blender seem like your preferred software, are there others you’d like to learn?

 

Raghav AK: Yes, AE and B3D seem like a perfect fit for an indie creator like me who needs to be able to quickly create semi complex shots for my short films. I’m currently working on improving my sculpting and texturing skills in Blender, but I’d love to learn Substance Painter to take the realism to next level. I’m also very impressed with TyFlow which is extremely powerful for simulations. Another tool that interests me EmberGen to create fluid sims in Real time.

 

Chris: You seem to start things off with a lot of preparation and planning. Can you explain what your process is like from idea to completion?

 

Raghav AK: Thank you! As you have seen in our making-of segments, I always like to break down a task into as many small tasks as possible. Our process is as follows:

 

  1. Writing the script
  1. Making storyboards. Run VFX tests in parallel to make sure what we’re aiming for is even possible
  1. Prepare for the shoot- and Shoot it
  1. Editing a rough cut, identifying and categorizing the VFX shots
  1. VFX Process
  1. Editing, colour grading and sound design.

 

Chris: What is the most surprising or exciting thing that has happened with Shutter Authority?

 

Raghav AK: We’ve had a lot of exciting things happen over the last few years, and some of them include going mega viral with more than half our videos, and accumulating 1B views in total on our channel, where 3 of our videos have surpassed 120M views. This to me is absolutely insane and I’d really love to thank our audience for supporting our work!

 

Chris: Whats advice can you give aspriring Youtubers?

 

Raghav AK: I’d encourage creators not to hesitate when experimenting with multiple ideas at the start to figure out what exactly they’d like to do on Youtube. Also make sure its something you truly love doing, because you might have to do it for a while before anything happens. I started my channel back in 2006 and it took me 7 years to hit 1,000 subscribers and 9 years for 10K. It only sped up later and took off to 1M in just 2 years after that.

 

It was only possible for me to stick around doing this kind of content for that long because I love making films with VFX and I’d be willing to do it regardless of whether I made money from it or not. Its ultimately about find a common intersection between something unique that you love to create and what people would love to watch.

 

Chris: What’s next?

 

Raghav AK: We have a bunch of cool short film ideas lined up for 2020 that involve Sci-fi, Robots and Dinosaurs. We’d love to do something bigger involving larger productions in the future around similar topics. Until then, Stay tuned for our youtube vids 😉

 

Make sure to visit ShutterAuthority on Youtube and subscribe if you haven’t already!

 

 

 

 

Youtuber Raz “Mr. AMG” Rehan Interview

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Youtube has it all. Big studio work, family videos, instructional tutorials of every kind, cats, more cats, meditation walkthroughs, music videos, gaming screencap, reviews and so much more. It’s absolutely massive. Youtube, more than any platform, has helped of connect people through their curiosity. It enables you to pursue, learn, teach and be entertained.

 

I don’t consider myself a ‘car person’, but that might be changing. I have watched an absurd amount of Remove Before Race in a very short period. It’s a Youtube channel that utilizes VFX, humor and impressive production-quality to review awesome cars. I had the privilege of interviewing Raz Rehan, the host of RBR. He tells us how he built a growing and successful Youtube channel, with over 150K subscribers, and where he wants go go next.

 

Here’s a great episode of RBR, full interview below!

 

 

Chris: Can you tell our viewers a bit about your channel?

 

Raz: Sure! Remove Before Race is on the face of it a car review channel like many others, but it has a big twist!

 

Alongside seeing reviews of the latest and greatest cars, we also use VFX to take the traditional car review to the next level. So if we talk about the engine then we’ll strip the body away in front of your eyes, or if we talk about another car we‘ll teleport it there in seconds. Its car reviews, just more fun!

 

Chris: What motivated the idea of using visual effects in your videos?  

 

Raz: I’m a big geek! I love film, TV, video games and comic books. So back when the channel was younger I experimented with incorporating that side of me into the content. It ended up really resonating with our viewers, who also love Star Wars, Mario, the Avengers and whatever else we throw into our videos as a surprise.

 

It’s given me a great USP, hence why FootageCrate is so invaluable to me: I just end up getting so many ideas from here!

 

Chris: That’s awesome to hear! Do you have any FootageCrate Effects you couldn’t find that you want us to create?


Raz: The more movie, super hero and video game effects the better for my channel! Really helps create themes around videos and keep things exciting. Perhaps even simple things like more animal renderings. Though top of my list would be a service that allows you to request the creation of a unique effect : that would be special!

 

Chris: For creators looking to build a Youtube Channel, do you have any suggestions?

 

Raz: Too many to give in one answer, but I’ll try! First and foremost, chase excellence of product, and success will follow! If you chase numbers you’re sure to fail, but make excellent content and it’s hard for viewers to ignore you.

 

Secondly, be yourself! It’s cliche, but by harnessing the power of my own nerdiness I  stumbled on the perfect unique niche for my channel. And don’t let what others are doing in your area of the market dissuade or effect you, focus on your craft.

 

Chris: Where do you want your channel to be in 5 years?

 

Raz: I’d love to have expanded the type of content we do, into some episodic car review series with our signature VFX, or heck even into things non-automotive!

 

But really most of all, I hope our library of old videos by that point, will be a joy to watch back.

 

 

 

 

Chris: I noticed you had some great sponsors for your videos, do you have any tips for finding sponsors?

 

Raz: Sponsors are firmly linked to quality of content for me, so as I said about, chase the quality and the demand will follow. There’s also no harm in asking companies that you see synergy with, and just starting a conversation!


Chris: Thanks, Raz!

If you’re into cars, or just want to see some high-quality work, check out RBR on Youtube.

How We Increased Our Youtube Subscriber Count

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We started our Youtube Channel in 2009, 10 Years ago.

ProductionCrate’s subscriber count is just around 68,000 today. In the last 365 days we have grown by 44,369 subscribers, about 65% of our entire subscriber count. That’s about 9 years of little to no growth, and then an awesome turn of events.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I know we are not a massive channel. We’re not quite at the 100,000 Subscribers mark, or anywhere close to the Gold Play Button’s 1 Million. But we are growing, and most of that growth has happened really fast. I’ve received a few requests asking ‘How do I grow my Youtube Channel?‘ and ‘How do I get More Youtube Subscribers?’ so I figured this was a good time to share what we have learned so far. Keep in mind, this is what worked for us, it won’t necessarily work for all creators!

get more followers on youtube

Format is key. Trust the format.

This is my holy mantra. The words that bring me back anytime my brain goes off on a tangent or if I’m not sure of my next step. You need to develop a format for your channel, show, series, whatever. There is a very direct, very clear connection between our formatted series and our Youtube channel’s growth.

Some of you are familiar with the Saturday Morning Tutorials, a weekly tutorial series we have developed. The first episode went live Jun 8, 2018. Right about the time our subscriber count turned for the better. It was different from other tutorials we have made in one big way, it has a tight format.

By format, I mean a system of steps, rules, branding and consistency that keeps the entire series cohesive. We start each episode off with our title animation and the exact same Voice Over, then jump right into the narrative sketch. After is the Channel’s title animation and then we jump into the tutorial. The series always has the same two hosts, which allows for some ad-lib banter. It has an ongoing story with recurring characters, which connects episodes. We try to shoot with a regular schedule, shooting two sketches in a day and releasing them over the next two weeks, on the same day of each week, and the same time. The system allows us to create faster content but also helps us stay true to the overall concept of the series. If you want to learn more, check out this Making Of video.

In with the Good, Out with the Bad.

We didn’t start the series with an extremely tight format. Things evolve naturally, if something worked, we stuck with it. If it didn’t, it was scrapped and we tried something new. Don’t stick with something if it isn’t working, try a new angle or concept. Saturday Morning Tutorials didn’t start with a title animation or a conscious choice to maintain character arc, those are just things that seemed to work well, and so we made sure to maintain consistency with  them in each episode. Things got progressively better and tighter, and our audience continued to grow. Now we are trying to apply this success to new series, like VFXperiments and Davesplanations, both shows with an active format but still loose enough that we can adapt them as they develop.

Play to your strengths.

Don’t try to mimic another channel’s personality. Adrian and I work together every day, we have developed our own banter and that translates well for the tutorials. Our rhythm works because it is us, if we were trying to mimic Bob Ross we would fail horribly.

You’ll never find success if you’re making content you don’t care about. Follow your interests, passions or curiosity. If you’re bored making your videos, anyone who watches them will be bored too. It will be nearly impossible to maintain consistency and you’ll dread having to edit each one. Don’t do it.

Get Better.

Your audio needs work. You can get better lighting. Your edit can be tighter, or maybe you can let that shot sit for longer. Your workflow is slow or maybe you’re using outdated techniques. Your work will never be perfect. Don’t get cemented in your ways. Keep learning, stay up to date on your equipment, and keep trying new things. If there is one glaring, obvious annoyance you feel about your work then change it. It is too easy to be complacent, you need to be active to grow.

Don’t Burn Out.

Some of our episodes are awesome. We went above and beyond, polishing every cut and fine tuning every scene. Other episodes are just so-so. The latter usually happens when we’re reaching a burn out point. Too much work, not enough passion. If your heart isn’t in it, it’s going to show. For us, we took some time off. We tried new shows, wrote new characters, and found the passion again. It won’t last forever, but that’s okay. We’d prefer to take a moment to fall in love with the work again instead of forcing ourselves to hate it.

 

Do you have any tips and tricks you use? Or any questions you would like to ask? Disagree with everything I have said or found a bit of value? Let me know if the comments below!