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.
 |
| 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/] |
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 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
No comments:
Post a Comment