Shoot, share, star

For every person that assumes YouTube is merely about babies, cats and people falling over, there are scores that know it holds a lot more than that. As IndieWire states, “Google has quietly been building itself a series of channels for its long-standing TV brand. The idea is simple: Google TV will be app-based and supported by original programming that mirrors a traditional television channel structure, but with YouTube as its platform.”

A new wave of video ventures is harnessing the growing appetite among young people for trendy and original online content. Here are three of them.

Model Files

The thumbnail: The parody “Sh*t Fashion Girls Say” mixed with Lauren Ezersky’s Behind The Velvet Ropes

The script: The 12-part mockumentary follows host and casting director Preston Chaunsumlit as he scouts for talent in New York City. Whether he’s searching for the perfect shirtless male model to stand outside a Hollister store or attempting to stage a high fashion version of Toddlers in Tiaras (“Do you think she could lose maybe, like, a few ounces by Friday?”), his sass, while subtle, manages to permeate each episode.

Now in its second season, the humorous faux-reality show is arguably the best part of VFiles, a “social media platform for fashion, style, and pop culture enthusiasts.” As editors Tyler Benz and David Toro told Fashionista.com, “We wanted to comment on the industry we’re all in but at the same time to poke fun.”

The Most Popular Girls In School

The thumbnail: Mean Girls meets South Park

The script: Created by Mark Cope and Carlo Moss, and produced by Lily Vonnegut, the web series takes a look at the lives of the cheer squad at Overland Park High School, Kansas. As it’s acted out by stop-motion Barbie dolls and peppered with crude, NSFW language — the girls, when not discussing Gossip Girl, The O.C. and Teen Wolf, call someone’s period “Shark Week” — it’s possibly Mattel’s worst nightmare. Hundreds of thousands of subscribers, however, can’t be wrong.

Though it first hit the Internet in October 2011, a Tumblr post in January 2013 linking to the pilot triggered much of its online fandom. All 13 episodes of season 1 and 12 episodes of season 2, which began in March, are on their official YouTube channel along with bonus features.

JacksGap

The thumbnail: A double act with business smarts and posh accents

The script: What began as a way for Jack Harries to document his Gap year in 2011 for family and friends has swelled into a channel with close to two million subscribers. The success caught the attention of the Google-owned video platform, which has since made him a YouTube partner, a program that enables popular content creators to monetize their work.

The now 20-year-old told The Telegraph that the idea of connecting with an audience out of his bedroom in Chiswick, south-west London blew his mind. “I thought nobody would watch a random kid making movies, and for four months, nobody did.” He shares that when he put his identical twin brother Finn — older by two minutes and the brains behind the branding and logo — in a clip, the views “suddenly shot up.” 

You can’t blame UK Tatler either for devoting a few pages of its April issue to the Harries duo, alumni of the high-performing Harrodian School: they certainly are “boy-band pretty” with their “white teeth, Tintin quiffs and suspiciously groomed eyebrows.”

While the twins appear to enjoy the support of their parents — television and film producer Andy Harries, and author and director Rebecca Frayn — they are determined to make it on their own. The fact that both have left school “shows the potential profitability of online media to those who are willing to risk their time, and occasionally dignity… to such an enterprise,” reported the Epigram, the independent paper at the University of Bristol, where Jack was a former student. Finn left Leeds University.  

* * *

ginobambino.tumblr.com