Make ME a Youtube Channel

In our first Make Me blog, we announced that we would start a YouTube channel. This would be the vlog component of our vlog/blog and a key part of our rebranding as Make Me. Well, here it is:

Why are we on YouTube? Before the rebranding, we were making things all the time, but so much of it remained out of the public eye. There were several reasons for this: clients or collaborators distributed it through their channels, projects came up short of our expectations, or we felt there wasn't any good place to share it. We also had a habit of moving on to the next project, too busy to celebrate the accomplishment or learn from it—more importantly, sharing those learnings and building a community for those interested in what we are doing. Making things is hard, and you can run out of steam if you forget to learn from your mistakes and continue to build a community around that work. We've been fortunate to have that strong community of support in real life, but a few positive experiences have made us reconsider our approach online and the power of YouTube.

First, there was a simple realization that we use YouTube ourselves. We use it to watch music videos, documentaries, behind-the-scenes featurettes, and how-to's. Where else can I watch PT Anderson doing camera tests for Phantom Thread, old Radiohead videos, and instructions on how to fix my dishwasher?

Secondly, we've already been finding an audience on YouTube. Through other channels, videos we've been a part of like We the Bereaved, Steve Benjamins - Mushroom, and Young Neighbours - Hell is Made Up, our content has been viewed thousands upon thousands of times. We haven't hit the 1 million yet, but maybe if we start trying, we can.

Short Doc - Directed by Ryan Bouman, Cinematography by Michael Janke, and Music by Eric Pauls and Sarah Houston.

Finally, the craziest experience we've had with YouTube happened in the fall of 2023. This was our biggest wake-up call to get on the platform. Earlier in that year, famed documentarian and friend Dan Olson contacted me to ask if he could use music I had recorded when I was 19 in his next film. This was a big deal—if we are happy with thousands of views, Dan consistently gets millions with the two-hour-long documentaries he releases every six to eight months. Using these old songs in his documentary would mean putting them in front of a massive audience. I agreed, and a few months later, Dan's film This is Financial Advice was released. 

Immediately, the film blew up with the audience Dan had fostered over the last decade and, to a lesser but still shockingly large extent, an audience grew for my music. This experience taught me two things: First, there are a lot of people in the world with a lot of different interests, and we can connect with the community that shares our interests through YouTube. Secondly, the music Dan used was hiding on my hard drive for years. If it wasn't for Dan, it would have disappeared. What else is sitting on our hard drives that somebody on the other side of the world is eager to experience? Maybe there is nothing, but I'm not going to be my own gatekeeper anymore. The Make Me channel will be the way we work out loud, share the things we've made, and share the process of making it.

Don’t forget to Like and Subscribe. www.youtube.com/@MakeMeCreativeStudio