Just as sophomore Ethan Sims sips his coffee, an idea pops into his mind and he grabs a camera. He plans to upload his creation onto his YouTube channel. Sims, along with sophomores Micheal Kabtimer and Hunter Chavez make videos for YouTube, both collectively as a group and individually. Usually though, Sims works on scripts and films others, instead of appearing in videos himself.
“What inspired me to make my first video was, I hated cat videos,” Sims said. “I never have liked them. They make the Internet stupid. I wanted to make high quality films.”
Most YouTubers tend to focus on one type of format, but many also branch out to do different things. The videos on Sim’s channel vary.
“The videos that we collaborate on [Sim’s] channel are either very controversial in the sense of twisting the sense of right or wrong, or we just make fun of social topics,” Kabtimer said.
While Sims drinks coffee to get ideas for their videos, Kabtimer gets his ideas at random times.
“A random thought pops into my head, I try to build off of it,” Kabtimer said. “I call up [Sims], I go to his house, I eat his food, I play with his dog, and I make a video.”
Chavez, a YouTube rapper who uploaded his first rap in 2011, also feels different behind the camera.
“I am very rude and outgoing on camera; I’m shy in real life,” Chavez said. “On camera, I’ll say anything I want to, and then I will even run around shirtless on camera if there’s money around.”
While Chavez has a different ‘persona,’ on YouTube, Sims stays the same while recording others.
“I’m not on camera,” Sims said. “However, if you know me in real life, I am the same as how I write my scripts.”
Sims would like for people to relate to his videos while watching them and to make an impression on people who watch his videos.
“I like the people who are misunderstood to watch my videos, the outcasts,” Sims said. “I want to be the guy that I guess, take for example Seth MacFarlane, someone that people love and someone that people hate.”
Kabtimer does not particularly care who watches his videos and is not trying to attract a certain group of people.
“My target audience is basically anyone trying to get a laugh at 3 a.m.,” Kabtimer said.
While Kabtimer would like to attract everyone, Chavez wants to narrow his viewers down to hip-hop lovers.
“I target people with good senses of humor and the ones that really appreciate hip-hop as an entire genre,” Chavez said.
YouTubers may be trying to get fame, fortune, subscribers, views, or they may just be doing it for fun. Chavez is striving for his work to become known.
“I want to reach past YouTube fame,” Chavez said. “I don’t want to be known as just the YouTube rapper.”
Chavez also wants other things that would come from YouTube success.
“I want that YouTube paper, or I want that YouTube cake,” Chavez said. “I want to go on a date with Jenna Marbles.”
However, Sims has different things in mind about YouTube fame.
“My goal, I guess, isn’t to become YouTube famous, it’s just to enjoy what I’m doing in my adulthood,” Sims said.
Kabtimer has YouTube goals in mind for the future, but he does not want to get carried away.
“A lot of people, when they start YouTube, they do it just for the rush of it,” Kabtimer said. “I don’t want to get too caught up in it. Then again, it is still a priority. I want to be [YouTube famous], but I still want people to just watch my videos.”
Read about another Youtuber here: https://www.raiderecho.com/features/2013/11/26/youtubers-nathalie-urbina/