Game Changer: YouTube NextUp

A miracle occurred at Socratica Studios last month. Actually, it happened in Playa Vista, which is about an hour east of Socratica Studios.

Playa Vista is the location of YouTube Space LA (YTSLA).  We spent an entire week there, because Socratica was chosen to be in the 2016 class of YouTube NextUp.

What is YouTube NextUp?  It’s a program run by YouTube to identify and support promising up-and-coming YouTube channels.  Hundreds of YouTube channels applied, and 16 of us were brought to YTSLA for an intensive week-long course in filmmaking and growing your channel. Each channel had an experienced mentor,  and we worked all week with experts in the fields of cinematography, lighting, sound design, set design, greenscreen work, etc. etc.

It’s sort of like finding the golden ticket and being adopted by Willy Wonka.

 

Previous winners include ASAP Science (we’re big fans), Ingrid Nilsen, and Cassey Ho (who we actually got to meet and hear about her experience).   So many of them are now well over a million subscribers. It really seems like this is a turning point for the channels in the program.

One of the best things about the NextUp was getting to meet and work with other YouTube creators.  Working by yourself can be a kind of an echo-chamber, where you ask yourself, “Self, is this a good idea?” and you answer, “of course it is!” and you don’t question it. You always do things your way, in your comfort zone.  Watching the other creators work and helping them with their shoots was an incredible education in how many ways you can go about getting great videos.

Our 2016 Class of YouTube NextUp:

Next time, I’ll include videos from my classmates and tell you more about their channels.

Remember to tell your friends about Socratica Studios, and encourage them to try our videos and subscribe!

KHH

Subscribe to Socratica Studios

Subscribe to Socratica Kids

 

 

 

A Visit to YouTube Space Los Angeles

Socratica Studios recently took a little field trip. We were invited to come visit YouTube Space Los Angeles, a giant facility Google has created for production of YouTube videos. There are other locations in New York, London, and Tokyo.

There were many stages we will be able to reserve and record on. One massive stage had a cut-up piece of an airplane that was available to use as a set. We just missed the gorgeous Hallowe’en set that was made in collaboration with Guillermo del Toro  – I hope they do something similar this year!

Socratica Studios is located on the east side of sprawling Los Angeles, California, and it feels like quite a shlep to get out to Playa Vista (close to LAX). In good traffic, it might take an hour – on a bad day, closer to two. But while we were there, we saw a lot of cars with license plates from Oregon, Washington, Utah, Texas…it made me wonder just how many people are up and moving themselves to LA to follow their dreams and become the next big YouTube star.

On this visit, a very nice fellow from Google picked our brains about how we are trying to grow our channel. What have we done to monetize? YouTube ads. What else have we tried for funding? One Kickstarter campaign, which failed – hopefully we can try another one now that we have a better idea what we’re doing. FanFunding is enabled on our YouTube channel, and we have had one donation (thank you, anonymous donor!). What sort of “branding” do you have, and have you tried merchandising? Hmm, not sure we want to be in the T-shirt selling business, but we’ll keep that in mind.

We asked for feedback – what else should we be doing, what are the strategies that have worked for other channels – but we really didn’t get many straight answers. I completely understand that they don’t want to give us advice and then be held responsible for that, in case it doesn’t work out, but…we could use a little concrete help here!

KHH

Click to subscribe to Socratica on Youtube

Free Android Apps from Socratica on the Google Play Store