You Tube Streak!

I don't know why, but all of a sudden I have that sudden urge to do videos on You Tube. Within the week or so, I was able to put together and upload NINE videos! The fact that You Tube recently instituted new standards for monetization had nothing to do with it because I've since demonetized all my videos. That means, I assume, that you can now watch all my videos without ads. Why demonetize? I'm seeing a lot of people quitting You Tube saying it's the end of the website because small time video makers can't make money from it anymore. The monetization standards are too high. I've been seeing "This is the end of You Tube " comments for 10 years now. Whenever You Tube institutes a change, people say it's the end, but it never is.

I understand if You Tube is a means to make a living and I'm sure it's a legit way of doing so. There's absolutely nothing wrong with that. It's just not for me. I guess I've just seen too many content on the site that's compromised by products. You really can't talk honestly about a product if the company making the product is paying you.

There's also the "freebie" mentality that goes along with the "influencer" mentality. Hey, I'll review your restaurant in one of my videos but I would like to eat for free. Oh my God, it's something I would never find myself doing. It would juts be too embarrassing. Some people see nothing wrong with that. It's not as if they're begging or asking to eat for nothing in return. If that's how you want to live, then that's fine. I just want to say it's not for me.

Anyway, here's one of my most recent videos. Click below that video for my channel.

Komikero on You Tube
https://www.youtube.com/komikero

Flattered, but NO.

When I woke up this morning, I opened a link Ilyn told me about the night before. It’s a link to an article at the Philippine Daily Inquirer’s website where I’m named as one of “5 Filipinos Who Owned Their Dreams”.

My initial reaction was surprise, and well…joy that I was chosen to be featured in this article. I felt it was quite an honor. At the back of my mind I was thinking, “Why me?”. In the field of Philippine comics, there are quite a number of people who have probably owned their dreams more than I did. I can think of a few right now.

In any case, I had someone buy me a copy of today’s Inquirer just in case there’s a print version, but unfortunately, there’s not. And then I forgot all about it, concerning myself fully with a frightening deadline at hand.

But something about the article kept bugging me. I felt that there was something a little “off” somewhere. For one, the article didn’t say who wrote it.

Earlier this evening I decided to take a second look at the article and was quite surprised to read, at the very bottom:

“Led by its mission to Build the Filipino Dream, Filinvest Land, Inc. (FLI) has launched its new campaign called “I own my Dream”. This campaign fortifies FLI’s tagline, “We Build the Filipino Dream”, as it aims to inspire more Filipinos to dream and own their dreams. And through its residential properties, FLI continues to help millions of Filipinos achieve their dreams of owning a home.”

Then it clicked. I realized that it wasn’t a true article, but an advertisement for Filinvest. People who know me closely would be familiar with my stance on appearing in commercials and advertisements. That stance being I don’t want to be in them. That I don’t want to appear in ads selling products. I’ve declined to appear in advertisements before. Because of a viral video I uploaded at You Tube, I’ve received invitations to appear on TV commercials. I’ve declined them all. If you ask me why, all I can say is I don’t like it.

Flattered as I am at being chosen (and I admit it did feel great), I wish Filinvest would have gotten in touch with me first to ask if I would be willing to be attached to their product in this way. But they didn’t ask my permission and instead used an old photo and collected information about me online. I would have politely said no and I would have gladly recommended other people in my place.

For the record, I do wish to say that I am not endorsing Filinvest in any way.

Videos and Me

It’s been months since I made a video on You Tube. One or two people have missed me and asked on Twitter why I don’t upload new ones. I’ve thought about that. In the past couple of years I have attempted to restart vlogging and you can see my efforts up at my You Tube channel. I made videos saying “It’s been a while since I’ve made videos”, after which I’d say why and they all involve me being busy with this or that.

To date I’ve uploaded six hundred and fourteen videos, counting a few that are private. When I realized how much videos I’ve done, I’m surprised. 614. Holy Shit. Where did I find the time?

I realize now that my burst of You Tube activity coincided with my hiatus from inking for Marvel/DC. I had quit inking in 2005 and soon after I was doing these videos on You Tube with seemingly crazy abandon. It also coincided with the time I got my first digicam and I was giddy with the thought that I could make my own little films. It was something I dreamed about when I was younger. I really enjoyed making these little videos. I particularly enjoyed editing it all together. I think this is one of the videos that I enjoyed editing the most:

But by far the most notorious video of mine is THIS one:



Right now it’s up to 5.8 million views. That’s kind of crazy. All of a sudden I’m seeing this video on TV on shows both here in the Philippines and abroad. The Japanese got a little excited about it which led to this:



And THIS:



The good stuff starts at 9:43m.

And there are lots more! I’ve gotten offers to appear at commercials and things like that. I’ve always declined because I don’t know… I feel that it’s just not my thing.

I wouldn’t say it changed my life, but it has been quite an interesting experience. I do get recognized once in a while, but not as often as you would expect. Earlier today a tricycle driver recognized me and asked how my comics work was going and I said it was just going fine. I didn’t know the guy. I don’t think I’ve met him. But I keep wondering if I have. I don’t know. I guess when people recognize me, I always assume it’s someone I’ve already met before.

In those days I was active at You Tube I would get all these ideas for videos. I guess that’s why I kept making them. My most favorite video of mine is this one, from August 2008:



I had this rough idea for a topic. All I did was switch on the camera and just started talking. I didn’t have a script. It was just stream of consciousness stuff. I think it came out pretty well. To this day I had no idea how I did it. I seriously doubt I can come up with something like this now.

When I started working for Marvel again in 2009, I continued to make videos, but the enthusiasm for it became less and less. I don’t think I’ve made any videos at all this year and it’s already August. I guess you can say I’m pretty much retired from it. It wasn’t a conscious decision to quit. It just happened. I think it’s got to be like falling out of love with someone. You probably wouldn’t want it to happen, but it does. And you just don’t know why.

I remain grateful to all those who have followed my videos, watched and left comments. I’ve met a lot of people through it with whom I remain on friendly terms to this day. It was a great experience and although I’ve made a damned fool of myself in a lot of those videos, I regret nothing. It was fun.

An Open Letter to You Tube and Viacom

In 2009 I created and uploaded a video called “Hey, Baby!” to You Tube. It’s just a series of short shots of me around the house smiling at the camera. That’s it. I didn’t use content created by another party, nor did I use music created by any other party. In fact, my video didn’t contain any kind of music at all. The last time I checked, my video had up around 5.8 million views. Which is just incredible. And so unexpected.

People made their own versions of the video, and some of them even used my video and added music and other things. That was done without my permission, but that’s OK. That’s the nature of viral videos on the Internet.

Because the video became so popular, TV shows started showing it in viral video themed programs. Some of them asked for permission, but most of them didn’t.

Tosh.0 was one such case. This show used my video a lot as a punchline to jokes. I didn’t mind it too much. They didn’t ask for permission to use it nor did they compensate me for it. They linked to my channel, but they spelled my channel incorrectly.

A couple of weeks ago You Tube took my video down citing copyright infringement on a complaint from Viacom. They were waving a big ass finger in front of my face, saying I shouldn’t upload content created by other people, threatening me with the closure of my channel if I had another copyright strike. And I’m like, what the fuck are they talking about?

Hey, Baby is owned 100% by ME, and no one else. I think what happened is this: Tosh.0 used my video without permission and compensation. Tosh.0 is owned by Viacom and now Viacom thinks my video belongs to them. Screwed up right?

This is not the first time it happened. ABS-CBN here in the Philippines used my video as well in one of their programs. Later, they tried to claim ownership of my video on You Tube. So for a while there was a notice that this video was owned by them.

Of course I went berserk. I filed a counter copyright infringement notice and got in touch with the Viacom contact person “Brad” cited in the copyright strike notice. I was angry, but I tried to keep it in control. Times like this logic over anger wins out. But I gotta admit, there’s nothing more infuriating than a big media corporation trying to grab something you own, threatening legal action.

A week or so later, my video is back online, without any note or even an apology from You Tube OR Viacom. Figures.

First, a word with You Tube: You Tube…. I spent years creating original content for my Komikero channel, working hard on each video. Do you understand this? YEARS. Couldn’t one employee spend one God damned minute verifying if some greedy media corporation actually have grounds to cite me for infringement? ONE GOD DAMNED FUCKING MINUTE.

Viacom… couldn’t you have “Brad” have less of a copyright infringement trigger finger and ask him to actually LOOK at the video and see if it’s actually owned by them? When you create viral video shows like Tosh.0, you are going to be using content NOT CREATED BY YOU. And as in my case, you most likely DIDN’T EVEN ASK FOR PERMISSION. How many copyright infringement strikes have you given original content creators on You Tube just because their videos appeared on shows that you own?

Arghh… I wish I could…. but I’ll just move on.