bennjordan
patreon
Onward!
🕑 Added 2021-02-26 07:52:26 +0000 UTC-So, that's done. 😅♀️
It's kind of weird to see such a huge project, creating so many comments and offsite links, somehow perform only half as good as the Cobalt8 review did in the first day. I'm not sure I'll ever figure out what makes YouTube's algorithm tick!
Obviously the response to the last video is both horrifying and glorious. Fortunately the unexpected comments and messages were all extraordinarily positive. Not like "oh yah other men are douchebags" messages, but like "this video made me realize I do these things, and now I can't unsee it."
Like, how tf is that obtainable in the 2020's. That's huge to me. 🙏
I do plan on following up with a blog post, but I think it'd be best to prioritize some female creators as guests on my stream. I feel like maybe since this video has created a bit of a zone where folks aren't tolerant of toxic behavior, it could be productive and encouraging!
- Possible vids in the immediate future include:
A. Analog-digital clocking. Yep. Zzzz. But it's something that is way more important for quality than what people prioritize, and I don't see anyone else covering it in am easily digestible way.
In general it'd be nice to do a video on how exactly audio gets digitized and decoded.
B. Ambient Nature Sounds! This one is easy, because I hike in the woods upwards of 5x a week. Or....is it? Roads and planes REALLY mess things up, especially once I hear stuff through the preamp.
B1. So I was like "Alright. I've been mountain biking this past year. What are the chances I could just push things and do a 20-30 mile day trip away from roads?" Of course this sounds easier than it is, since we're not talking about paved, even paths. But hey, it'd make me look cool on YouTube.
It turns out if I really want to get away from roads and out of flight paths, it'll have to be way up in the mountains on 40 mile+ unmaintained, super steep trails, or it'll have to be on a coastal island/nature preserve that doesn't even have primitive amenities like water wells, and require a multi-day Naked And Afraid experience between ferries or charter boats.
One way or another, my mountain bike won't safely survive unmaintained trails, nor would I be able to ride with 2 days worth the food, water, audio, video, and camping gear on an island. So poo.
Well, as luck would have it, a cheap electric bike company has been bugging me to do a video on their tiny bike. Naturally I said no, but I name dropped them to manufacturers who make actual rugged, fat tire electric bikes. Apparently, one of them is going to outfit one with extra large tires for offtrail and extra weight + a 60 mile pedal-assist range 1000w battery.
So that's actually pretty excellent if it all works out. All I have to do is show the bike in the video, which would obviously be the case anyway even if I used my own.
I'm not sure which route to go. I think if I do the mountains I'll try and do a 6am-8pm thing. If I go to an island, I'd like to hire someone to help with camera stuff and generally be a safety precaution as I wouldn't have mobile reception or a way off the islands. What would you want to see more?
C. I have a few meetings with some audio companies next week regarding upcoming projects or products. Nothing really seems to jump out at me, but hopefully that changes.
- Finally, the most recent video was a good test of what I can and can't healthily handle with long-term projects. I absolutely should have had a partner or assistant for that video as I was a bit nutty for the last 2 weeks putting in 14 hour days most of the time. The Existentialism project will be this level of work X 5 or 6 episodes. So I'm glad that I'm understanding the structure of how this can work.
I had a meeting regarding the Existentialism project for a major streaming service. I haven't gotten an offer yet, but it'll come down to creative control vs. budget. It'd be amazing to go to CERN and have a team of artists visualizing things, but at the same time, once external money comes into play, a lot of times science takes a back seat to entertainment, and that's not really fulfilling for me (other than, you know, having a comfortable amount of money lol). So we'll see. Once that discussion is over, either way, then I can be a step closer to actually starting the writing.
I'm writing this from my phone in bed while dozing in and out of sleep, so I should probably just press "send". Thank you for you support as always. ❤️
Comments
Ryan Kotler
Also, this is probably obvious, but low #s with high positive engagement and/or conversions to Patreon, BC, etc., is a different story than just low #s by themselves.
Ryan Kotler
I’m late to the conversation, but I’m here as a new Patreon subscriber, specifically because of that video (which, incidentally, it took me 2 sessions to completely watch, because it’s heavy and worth actually paying attention to).
re: the low #s on the big Female video, I think you could do some marketing for that video, some sort of tie in to "March is women's history month", a collab with feminist producer channels or their social media, or even a second short highlights reel video. it definitely deserves a half million watches and I bet it will get there eventually but it's just not hitting trending at the moment. I bet it feels good to be done with it but give it some marketing love and it will get out to a bigger audience.
Khaargh
Benn, wrt the algorithm, I may not be alone in that I was unable to watch the entirety of the Female Producers video in one shot. It's a great, but heavy, subject that hits pretty close to home and I wanted to give it to the attention it deserved, not just sort of zone out on it late at night. Other videos with lighter fare or that can be viewed more objectively may collect different "attention" data. Just an idea.
Louis Pilfold
Loved the last video. It has prompted some great discussion with my friends and we've all been checking out the artists you linked in the description. Both video ideas sound grand. The island sounds more adventurous, but the bike trip sounds like a barrel of fun (and I'm always interested in hearing more about e-bikes after modifying my own last summer).
Your last video is very well made and important. Thoroughly researched video essays like that are exactly the reason why i became a Patreon of your channel. I recently watched the documentary „Sisters with Transistors“ and while it’s disheartening that we still have to talk about discrimination i am glad you did it, especially in the way you did it. It reminds me to take a look at myself and my prejudices every once in a while. Thank you!
Daniel Pirone
Thank you Benn - I really value and appreciate the attention and care you put into all your videos- but especially the last one.
World society is still struggling to figure out pros and cons of fascism. But you and people like you are taking right steps to give all us a chance to live in a better world tomorrow. Thank you for that
I love gear, but more than that I love that you are about the community, The female producer video is a gut punch, the monologue in the patreon video is genius.
dreamer
I've been thinking of how we can make the science we do at our company "audible", as an extra insight into the physics. Inspired a bit by https://www.livescience.com/nasa-data-sonification-supernova-dark-matter.html - yet to figure out how to give proper physical meaning to sound in our context (meso and micro scale simulations). And particularly make that useful as a tool to the listener that is an intuitive addition. Also our lead data scientist has a major vision deficiency, so I was trying to think of other avenues to understanding scientific data than just pretty graphs and pictures.
M.S. Patterson
A potentially useful reference for thinking about recording nature sounds, though you might already be familiar with the man's work: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/27/opinion/silence-forests.html
Amy Gleixner
I'd love the island variation of B, if only because i was water in a past life. :) I collect ambient recordings on my lil zoom recorder and yes. Planes and cars. Sigh. Sometimes i want them, but not when all i want to hear is birds, buzzes, burbles, and the wind through branches. Haven't watched latest video yet, but looking forward to it! Now go get some sleep!
