Natsuki Vs. Drone Montage & My Favourite Spot in Japan | Patreon Vlog
Added 2019-10-19 15:33:30 +0000 UTCHey guys,
I hope you’ve all had a great week so far!
I’ve had a rather strange week; it's one of those weeks that started off badly but has progressively got better.
So last week I finally released the long awaited Fukushima Documentary and upon release - to my absolute relief - it was received incredibly well by viewers. In terms of comments and like the video performed well above the average for an AiJ video.
AND YET, Youtube just would not promote the video; in the usual homepage and sidebars it didn’t appear for many viewers, performing 30% worse than any video I’d produced in 2019.
It's difficult to put into words how disheartening it can feel when something you've worked on for a few weeks - and something you're relatively proud of - bombs so spectacularly. It felt like the whole affair would ultimately become the first chapter in the origin story of how I became a super-villain; disheartened by poor views in Youtube, perhaps I'd turn to a life of crime and terror.
Consumed which the question of WHY this happened, I reached out to half a dozen Youtuber friends, and the conversations started to build up a picture of betrayal on the part of Youtube. The key factor was potentially the videos controversial nature meant Youtube would struggle to monetise it with adverts, and thus suppressed it on the platform in favour of family friendly content - videos laced with cats, chocolate and unicorns.
I was so furious I contacted Youtube and discussed it with them, though there was little they could do. So I set about making changes; I changed the description box to get rid of potentially blacklisted words such as "destroyed", I changed the title and added a new thumbnail. I went berserk on Twitter, telling the world how pissed I was, and viewers and fellow Youtubers came to my aid to retweet and share the video far and wide - even one of Germany's biggest Youtubers kindly gave it a huge shoutout.
And to my relief after a few days the video started to appear on the platform - even Youtube's algorithm couldn't ignore the traffic it was getting - and thus started to promote it better. Since then, the video has got an extra 100,000 views and is steadily increasing and I feel like all the shouting I made online paid off to some degree. I did just about everything I could to promote the documentary, and now I'm ready to let go and move on.
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I did have one bit of good news on Youtube though! One of my favourite old videos from 2016 - which was removed due to copyright issues - seems to have had the copyright block wavered (hopefully it’s not temporary), and is available once again. Funnily enough, it actually ties in with this week’s Patreon vlog where I caught up with Natsuki in Yamagata, and wildly chased him around with a drone.
My Favourite Spot: Patreon Vlog
► Watch: https://youtu.be/xfRsG_AwEuU
It’s important to point out this week’s Patreon vlog is essentially one big plug for my favourite funky Japanese artist, Tatsuro Yamashita. The song is called Merry Go Round - but if you’ve never heard of him, maybe start with this compilation: https://youtu.be/GjIiKry7iYc
He’s very easy to listen to - I often have him on in the background playing most weekdays and it’s the reason I’m so happy, fun and smiley.
(At least, in my imagination).
My Favourite Place in Japan (2016)
►Watch:https://youtu.be/Ew8Zbdp3qvg
And here’s the video that Youtube seemingly brought back from the dead!
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This week I also tagged along on a short road trip of Tohoku with Sharla and Norm (Tokyo Lens). It was a lot of fun, and whilst I didn't film anything myself, I did help them both produce their vlogs and did most of the drone work! They were a lot of fun though and worth watching if you’re into north Japan.
TOHOKU ROAD TRIP
Sharla’s POV
► Watch: https://youtu.be/8_fOtVCK0mo
Norm’s POV:
► Watch: https://youtu.be/WITSMySIFKo
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I’m currently editing the rockstar documentary and scripting a video on Japanese Mascots, as well as the long awaited Journey Across Japan Epilogue. I thought it’d be cool to release it this month given how it was one year ago this month that the whole thing began!
I did actually script the epilogue back in August, but the entire video was me screaming, shouting and swearing about how fucking stupid I was for doing it. And whilst that’d be undeniably entertaining, it probably would have undermined the many wonderful things we achieved on our journey.
Only now do I feel like I’m truly ready to revisit the series one last time with a clear open mind.
Finally, in this week's Podcast Pete and I discussed an absolutely terrifying nightmarish Tokyo stalker situation, as well as the aftermath of the massive Typhoon Hagibis, which brought hell to Japan one week ago today. Catch up on the news with a listen!
► Listen: http://hyperurl.co/nhgr30
Hopefully that’s enough content to immerse yourself in before I’m back later in the week!
For now everyone, enjoy the weekend - I'm off to work out how to script a video (it's been so bloody long since I scripted a video that I've forgotten how).
Comments
It turns out I need to turn to stone, much better income 😂
2020-01-19 21:02:56 +0000 UTCReally cool to hear Tatsuro Yamashita in the video. I'm a big fan too. I even own the original vinyls of For you and Ride on Time. They're absolutely sublime to listen to.
2019-10-20 20:39:17 +0000 UTCIt is kind of a shame that YouTube made it difficult for viewers to see the Fukushima video especially when it's arguably a slightly more important topic that people should be made aware of rather than YouTube pushing videos of "cats doing silly things" so definitely feel that's a dick move on YouTubes part in general but am glad it got the push it needed from people willing to support the channel and whatnot. So good job nonetheless!
2019-10-20 19:15:15 +0000 UTCHey, you probably want to delete the http://www.shonaibase.com/ link in the 2016 video, looks like that website is owned by someone else and is trying to push malware.
NM
2019-10-20 16:26:12 +0000 UTCCan't wait to watch the Journey Across Japan Epilogue... been wondering when you'd release it.
2019-10-20 15:34:43 +0000 UTCIf there was ever a bucket list of things to do or people to meet, you and natsuki are on my top when I come to Japan in April. I could just imagine the fun times to be had! Love the video!
Rob Biberhofer
2019-10-20 10:38:11 +0000 UTCThanks for the fun Vlog. I'm glad YouTube is finally not burying your doc and hopefully more people will be able to see it. Also really liked the song in the Vlog. Definitely gonna check out the rest of their stuff.
Dusty B
2019-10-20 04:41:05 +0000 UTCHaha, ironically I suspect not even he knows what it means.
Abroad in Japan
2019-10-20 02:16:57 +0000 UTCI used to post all the videos to Vimeo for the first year - then I forgot about it! Until last year someone pointed it out and I was able to rewatch my old Fuji video. It's certainly tempting but I suspect they wouldn't get many views and it might not be worth it overall. Something I need to look into though.
Abroad in Japan
2019-10-20 02:16:08 +0000 UTCFantastic videos (And a blast from the past). I'm glad the documentary got more views....though not as many as it deserves in my opinion. Best of luck with writing the script!
2019-10-19 21:41:49 +0000 UTCI'm glad your Documentary video is finally getting more traction. I stand by the comment I made on the video itself that I genuinely believe it's the best video you've ever produced.
2019-10-19 21:19:09 +0000 UTCCan’t wait for the Rockstar documentary!!
2019-10-19 21:06:04 +0000 UTCNatsuki's sweatshirt in the video made me laugh so hard. Is it an endorsement of smoking, or motivation to quit?
2019-10-19 20:51:30 +0000 UTCI love your humorous and light-hearted videos, Chris, but your more serious work is also excellent and I hope YouTube will stop shafting you. The Fukushima and Sendai videos are easily among your best and deserve to be seen by a wide audience.
Grimbeard
2019-10-19 20:29:23 +0000 UTCIt was a great video Chris! Surely you’ll be chronicled as one of the few youtubers who put out thought provoking and curious content. Excellent filmmaking 👌
Oscar Sjöstrand
2019-10-19 20:13:57 +0000 UTCChris, just so it's clear: I really liked your Fukushima doc. I thought it was interesting, the topic was clearly discussed, the filming was excellent, and the editing was well-paced. My only "criticism" was it wasn't long enough. I know YT isn't the best place for hour+ long docs, but I do think you could have made a very interesting (and beautiful!) doc that ran an hour or so-- your skills have increased by leaps and bounds over the past couple of years. Good job, mate.
Michael Moore
2019-10-19 19:23:19 +0000 UTCI get so frustrated every time I hear my favorite creators are getting snubbed by YouTube, but I'm glad to hear things worked out in the end, Chris. The documentary was excellently done! Have you thought about posting your videos to other platforms too, like Vimeo or Bitchute? Unless YouTube has some sort of rule against it, I bet it'd help your reach.
Argus9 (Jonathan)
2019-10-19 18:46:49 +0000 UTCLove Tatsuro Yamashita! If you're looking for more city pop, I'd recommend Awesome City Club if you haven't heard about them yet. You can check out their song "Don't Think, Feel" for starters! Also, glad to know YouTube is finally getting the docu promoted. Great job on that one. I watched that with my fiance to try and make her understanding why I'm paying a few bucks a month on Patreon to some "random YouTuber" and I think it showed her the light hahaha. Keep doing what you're doing Chris!
2019-10-19 17:21:28 +0000 UTCWow, you've got a lot going on! It was nice rewatching your old Sakata video - ironically, the Buddhas were about the only thing that did not take me back in recognition :). Tatsuro Yamashita sounds great, I'm going to check out that compilation!
Nynke de Haas
2019-10-19 16:33:45 +0000 UTCThanks for the continued quality content. Thanks to you I feel more confident as I currently head to Japan. I'm a nobody on social media (#76,830,402 on famousbirthdays.com) but I'll do what I can to help promote your videos.
Chris Parsons
2019-10-19 16:01:46 +0000 UTC
