Hi Sam,
Thanks for your email - I'm very flattered to be asked! Here are some answers to your questions:
Did you make videos for an audience when you were at college?
When I was at college I made mostly silly songs. I uploaded these to a rubbish free angelfire website account, and they became pretty popular on the net. The website is still up!
If you're curious you can check it out here:
http://www.angelfire.com/extreme3/grubnuts/
The songs are kind of in bad taste, so be warned.
I made a couple of videos around this time, but only one was successful. If you search in google for "Atari Geeks" you should be able to find it, as it spread all over the web!
Did you make productions for an audience just after college e.g. at university?
While I was in my first year of University, I became aware of Vimeo. It was in its infancy back then, and was more of a place for people to post videos from their digital cameras, for their friends to see, or for people across the world to share moving snapshots of their lives. I started posting small clips, mostly with a sense of humour, and started connecting with people on that site. As the website grew, the type of videos I made changed and I started posting more short sketch style videos.
At university I studied Creative Music Technology. In my second year I had the opportunity to take a module focussing on multimedia production. At this point I started making more videos with songs or music I had written, as that was the requirement.
If so, how did you get them known?
Just by being part of the community really, I've never been one to pimp myself about. I prefer to be friendly, and for people to want to tell other people about me just because they like what I'm doing.
How long have you been making videos?
I've been making videos since my parents got a home video camera when I was about 13.
How did the introduction of the internet change how you distributed your videos?
It's the only method of distribution I know, really! When I was making videos on my parents' camcorder I suppose I would just show them to my friends, but no-one really watched them. We made a couple of birthday videos for girls, and gave them those heavily compressed on a CD, but the internet became widely used as I was figuring out how to make videos and music myself, so it's really been a part of how I make and distribute things since I started.
How did the introduction of YouTube/Vimeo change your audience?
See above.
How has the internet and 'torrenting' changed your current career?
It hasn't really. I'm still very early on in my career, and I don't feel like I know what it is, or what I want it to be yet. However, for the first time in my life I am able to pay my rent through freelance work alone, video editing and composing music, and I suppose the internet is partly to thank for that. I get work through my friends, but they would have seen my stuff on the internet and thought I was someone they'd like to work with.
I do not make any money directly from my output on the internet. I have made about £100 through download sales of an album I wrote and put up for sale, but that's it.
I've been approached by a couple of advertising agencies asking me to remake a video they liked after it went viral, but so far I've declined as that's not the reason I make these videos. I make them because I think it's fun, and I like to share that fun with no ulterior motive woven in. I hate the idea of taking the joy my videos seem to bring people and abusing it by trying to sell them crap they don't need. Maybe this will change if I have kids and realise I can't feed them with just baked beans and expect them not to have serious problems!
How would you describe what you actually do?
I make silly videos and music for fun. For money I get hired to edit and compose music for videos, run workshops, and hunt vampires.
Has the way you advertise your products changed as the internet grew in popularity?
I don't really have any products to sell! I have an album up for sale which I sell via bandcamp.com. It's a pretty sweet site as it allows independent musicians to upload their music and sell it for whatever price they want. At the moment they don't even take a cut! All the money goes to the musician, less paypal transaction fees. It sure beats giving Apple more money!
Also, I don't advertise this album. This is partly because I don't like the album and I don't think it deserves promotion (I've got better stuff up my sleeves, I'm sure of it!) and partly because I figure my videos that get sent around to other people bring them to my website. I don't like this culture we're in of constant bombardment, from advertising, from people on myspace trying to get more fans by spamming them, it's all just noise! I feel like people will share stuff that they like, and if they don't share it I don't mind - I'll keep trying until I make something people do want to spontaneously share with others, without my constant self-promotion.
I hope some of this has been useful. My answers about why I make videos, and my reluctance to go with big companies or 'sell out' may well change in the future. I'm pretty conflicted and confused at the moment, trying to figure out what my principles are and all that hoo-ha. I quite like the idea of being an champion of independence, but I also have terrible business skills, so maybe I'll end up being a champion of homelessness.
Best of luck with your studies, Sam. Say hello to Barney and Tom for me!
Cheers,
Simon
Heres a screen grab of the email
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