Tom Fletcher

I was trying to decide who to write my next post about when up popped a notification that Tom Fletcher had a new video. So I watched his new video and it's obvious that he's up next.

So, I don't know as much history about Tom as I probably should. The reason being that Tom is a member of my very favorite band, McFly. [http://www.youtube.com/user/McFlyVEVO] However, I only discovered them within the last year and I typically don't obsess over bands, but rather just enjoy their music. Tom plays rhythm guitar, ukulele, piano, and shares lead vocals in the band made up of friends Danny, Harry, and Dougie. I've tried really hard to not pick a favorite band member without knowing enough about each one, but Tom makes YouTube videos and so I get to see his personality and creativity in the more personal way that the website allows. I don't know, Tom probably has the most favorite points for me just because of this.

Tom is 28 and lives in London with his wife Giovanna. Interestingly enough, Tom's little sister Carrie is a popular youtuber [www.youtube.com/itswaypastmybedtime]. Tom's own channel is called 'tommcflytwitter' [http://www.youtube.com/tommcflytwitter] which Carrie says the YouTube community laughs at, but Tom is a good sport and understands because he doesn't like it either. That's typically what happens to YouTubers.

Tom was brought the most popularity on YouTube when he uploaded a video of his wedding speech [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27WufdasQYs] which went viral, currently having over 12.2 million views. Watch this video. It will warm your heart.  Tom arranged a number of McFly songs to make his wedding speech and sang it to his wife and family and everyone involved in the celebration of his happy day. I watched it even before I started listening to McFly; you don't need any background to enjoy his sweet performance.

One of my favorite things about Tom is that he really is such a sweet guy. He's also quirky and fun and definitely creative. He vlogs a lot on his channel and also uploads songs he's written [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZYadKWDMDk] and even things like covers of the band's newest song, sung by him and Giovanna [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtRuvM89vbk]. His vlogs are very fun to watch now especially as he has gotten more into YouTube and since he and his wife are expecting a baby soon. He updates us on how planning is going for the baby and tells us about the parenting classes the couple go to [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2x9ageWn9o]. This is the baby announcement: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cRnOMuOEII.

Tom has got so much going in his life. He's really an inspiration, but one who doesn't have an ego normal for a famous band member. He's a very fun and down to earth guy and you can tell he's got a lot of love in his heart. Soon McFly is joining with Busted for a big tour they've dubbed 'McBusted.' Tom and bandmate Dougie have written a couple of children's books [http://www.amazon.com/The-Dinosaur-That-Pooped-Planet/dp/184941808X]. As these books are the 'Pooping Dinosaur' books, you can probably tell they're not all that mature. Upon watching his newest video, I've added another talent to Tom's list: he's an artist! [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LiUiRZrujes]


Tom's youtube: www.youtube.com/tommcflytwitter
Tom's twitter: https://twitter.com/tommcfly
McFly's Youtube: www.youtube.com/mcflyvevo

Jack and Dean

Jack has a quiff and Dean has a fringe, so Jack and Dean respectively.

Time to introduce you to my third favorite in the YouTube business, two more lads from England.
Jack Howard and Dean Dobbs made a channel together years ago called omfgitsjackanddean. This is a place of hilarious genius that has rightfully earned everyone of its subscribers. Jack and Dean mostly create sketches that hold true to their slogan: 'We make funny, you make laughy.' While Phil tells stories about his life and Dan lets us laugh at his failures, Jack and Dean provide the well-scripted comedy to balance out my favorites.
[Wow, want a video with all three of my favorites in it? Jack and Dean covered that for me: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=reDvcNPGLhQ]

Omfgitsjackanddean has about 300,000 subscribers at this point which makes them a bit of a hidden jewel.
They did just come off a bit of a break, Project:Library being something that Jack was working on in the meantime. [There will be more about Project: Library later, but here's the trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGFWuPgxR8g and the first episode: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwzqMjA5XSQ]

I can't express how funny I think these two are. What makes me so happy is that they're both funny in their videos, but in person as well. I got to meet Jack and Dean at VidCon in California this past summer. One of my favorite stories is about finding myself in an elevator with them at the hotel by the event. I had met them the d
ay before, but I couldn't just be with them in an elevator and not say anything, so when they stopped talking to each other, I asked if I could get a picture with them when we got to the ground floor and they said yes. This was followed by a bit of an awkward silence from everyone in the elevator, them, me, random VidCon attendees, and random accounting convention attendees. Jack acknowledged this and we laughed and right before the door opened, he said, "Run, Dean!" But of course, being lovely people they got off and waited for me and did take a picture with me.

Video Suggestions:

The always classic [and most popular] 'Pronunciation Frustration'

'Super Glued' 

'The Stairs'

'Silent Disco'

'Doggy Style'

'Toilet Man'

Check out their latest video, Dead Girl: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I61TDwbdKJk
They each do have separate channels to vlog on as well.
Jack: http://www.youtube.com/user/JackHoward
Dean: http://www.youtube.com/user/DeanDobbs
Jack's twitter: www.twitter.com/jackhoward
Dean's twitter: www.twitter.com/deanitsomfg

Dan and Phil

I wanted to start talking about specific youtubers starting with my favorites. I was going to write about Phil Lester first, but I realized that there is no way I could write about Phil without mentioning at length his best friend, Dan Howell. So, I'm going to write about them both now and maybe separately after this post. These two being my favorites and the guys that got me into YouTube to begin with, they'll come up a bit in my blog. Besides, I got to meet them this past summer and I'm sure I'll talk about that. I'm pretty fond of them.

 I do know more about Dan and Phil than any other youtubers, so I could go on with a blog post for forever, but I'll try to just introduce you to them here.

Dan and Phil, respectively

Phil Lester, aka AmazingPhil, is sometimes referred to as a YouTube dinosaur. He made videos way back in the beginning and he's been doing it for eight years this March. He started with a black and white, non-edited video filmed on a camera he won and he refers to it as embarrassing, but really, everyone's first video no matter when it's made is going to be awkward. You can watch it here: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0dsyXzmHFM].

Phil grew to be more popular and started picking up fans, when in 2009 he met one named Dan. Dan and Phil became best friends and Dan started appearing in Phil's videos. Sometime later, danisnotonfire uploaded his own first video, encouraged by Phil and other YouTube friends he had met. His first video is this: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3q26mIsk1M]. Later, they collaborated regularly with a project called The Super Amazing Project which had a few seasons and has since been on hiatus with only the possibility of irregular season specials. [http://www.youtube.com/user/superamazingproject]

Both guys have grown more and more popular in the last year especially. Dan hit his one million subscriber mark in February and Phil in July. Here is Dan's one million celebratory video: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZg5-2Cz-m0] and Phil's: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TxD7WOIypk]. Currently, as of January 2014, Dan has over 3.1 million subscribers and Phil has just reached 1.5 million. A lot of people struggle with the fact that Dan is more subscribed and has only been making YouTube videos for half as long as Phil and only because Phil prompted him to start. I have struggled with this, but I found a wise post from another favorite youtuber and fellow Dan and Phil fan. [http://megangorewrites.tumblr.com/post/54924994748/why-danisnotonfire-hit-1-million-subscribers-before] Here is an excerpt from it:

"It may be fair to compare the types of videos they upload on their respective channels. 
While their video styles are very similar, using the same music, font, and overall editing style, their personalities are what set them apart as individuals. Phil focuses on a story telling type of video in vlog format, where he sits in his bedroom and tells his audience about childhood memories, his teenage chat logs, and many occurrences he comes across in his daily life. Phil has a very bubbly personality, earning him the title ‘man-child’ which everyone around Tumblr uses lovingly to describe him. Across the spectrum, Dan’s videos focus a great deal on what may be popular online at the moment where he discusses shipping, high school, fictional characters we may care too much about, and lists. There are a lot of list/how to videos on his channel I just noticed this. What we see here on Dan’s channel a little more than on Phil’s channel is that Dan tries harder at engaging his audience in his videos. He talks about their problems in videos like Internet Support Group, informs them of what to do/not to do in certain situations, and hits on topics that are relevant in social media at the moment, which I think is where we see more views to Dan rather than Phil." 

Megan does a good job to point out that Phil and Dan are two different people with very different types of videos. And she goes on to talk about how Dan seems to traffic more to the outside audience, whereas Phil's viewers are mostly going to already be fans as his video are more talking and about his own life. I'd never thought about the situation like this, so when I read this tumblr post, I finally got a sense of understanding I'm grateful for Megan providing.
[Here is Megan's youtube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/megangore]

But continuing on, Dan and Phil became flatmates a couple years ago and moved to London from Manchester a bit over a year ago. They had started working with BBC Radio 1 by making a visual and audio show for two Christmases and so when they moved they were given a radio show on air [which can also be watched on www.bbc.co.uk/radio1 on Sundays from 7-9 p.m. GMT]. Their show is a request show and is heavily focused on interaction with fans sending in homemade music videos and chatting and competing on air. In May, just five months after starting their show, Dan and Phil went to the 2013 Sony Radio Academy Awards and walked away as winners of the Golden Headphones award, a great accomplishment for the new DJs.

fan art by Dreen Alyse
[http://down-the-youtube-rabbithole.tumblr.com/]

Their speech: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3jO1Ns0nCo

As time has gone on they've worked on many things for BBCR1 including introducing artists and having backstage interviews at events like the Reading Festival, The Teen Awards, and most recently The Brit Awards.
They work at the radio, but still regularly make videos and do liveshows. They say they'll never leave YouTube and if it came/comes down to it, YouTube is more important than their BBC Radio positions. They have created a wonderful YouTube community and fandom. It's nice to know they plan on always being ours.

Dan and Phil at the Brit Awards

Check out Phil's channel trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58ecz3v6OcI
Check out Dan's channel trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T--ucraJWkY
Phil's twitter: www.twitter.com/amazingphil
Dan's twitter: www.twitter.com/danisnotonfire
Phil's tumblr: amazingphil.tumblr.com
Dan's tumblr: danisnotonfire.tumblr.com

There's this website called YouTube

     The internet is a wonderful thing and has grown amazingly from my parents' generation to mine. There are so many things to explore and find in this world of endless knowledge and creativity. One of my favorite places to go is to a place called YouTube. I'm sure you have heard of this place before. Who hasn't?

     I remember my first memory of YouTube was years ago when I was in early middle school, I think. My friend showed me a Weird Al parody video at Church and I didn't like it one bit. Sometimes I look back at that day and shake my head at how little I knew about something that would later come to be such a big and wonderful part of my life.

     I don't make money off of YouTube videos or anything like that, but just watching the people who do has inspired me in so many ways. YouTube is different from television and movies in the way you can connect with those 'broadcasting themselves' and it's definitely why I love the site so much. These people who just sit in their bedrooms sometimes and talk to a camera--they become my friends and some...my heroes. YouTube is a place to look up music videos and sports clips for some, but there is a lot more there than you may realize. When I found some faces of the website, that is when it started to become a home.

     So here I am, starting a blog for my Digital Media Convergence class. I'm doing it about something I love and am familiar with. I don't know if you want to join me because you're grading this or are interested in discovering YouTube or are just a fangirl like me, but if you do, welcome to this place where I'm blogging about vlogging.

~Lizzie

[www.youtube.com]