"The first thing about making a successful YouTube series is that it’s not about how good your videos are…” says Rob Nelson, co-creator with Jonas Stenstrom, of the popular hit web series called Untamed Science, “That is only one small piece of it.” Nonetheless, his videos are good. In fact, they are really good. And numerous. Untamed Science has over 400 videos and more than 10,000 subscribers. But sometimes YouTube stats aren’t enough to measure a video’s impact. Untamed Sciencehas only 750,000 views on YouTube, yet approximately 6.5 Million students use them in class every year. The video series was created for a high school science textbook company. Each focuses on explaining a science topic in a fun way. They are designed and used by science educators in a classroom context. In one episode co-creator Jonas Stenstrom sniffs and eats the stinkiest fruit while we learn about the chemistry of smell. In another episode Rob describes several strange animal births including that of the Surinam Toad, which Rob describes as “the grossest animal birth…like a living version of Gremlins.”
Rob says that the most important technique for making a successful YouTube video is a surprising narrative structure. “I’m used to having a video build up to a big reveal later, but you have to have the reveal at the beginning. You have to put your best stuff right at the very beginning.” That leads to retention and YouTube is all about retention, or how long people are watching. Rob says that retention is even more important than views and suggests looking at the analytics. “I look for a steady curve. I’m looking to see where the line is flat. Where it is flat - nobody is leaving. When it is flat, I actually go to the video and see what is going on there. Most videos have a significant 20-30% drop in the first 10 seconds. But then I want it to level out.”
Rob suggested another helpful tip that is less about filmmaking, and more about socializing. “It is a conversation. This is the hardest thing for traditional filmmakers to wrap their head around. Doing stuff online is a conversation where you are interacting with members of the YouTube community. If there is no interaction with the community you may lose the people that stumbled across it. It is almost a full time job to be responding to commenters.”
Untamed Science recently won a Midwest Regional Emmy and the Special Jury Award at the Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival Science Symposium. Visit their IndieGogo campaign to see how they are raising funds to continue their effort to produce excellent educational videos for the science classroom. But despite their success with Untamed Science, like many accomplished artists, Rob still experiences the occasional uncertainty. “I don’t get depressed when I see a friend of mine get a TV show. But if I see people successful on YouTube I think, ‘How did they get this video to work and we can’t get ours to work?” He explains that the business model for YouTubers is very different than the model for traditional media. “If I’m trying to get a show commissioned all I have to do is convince five execs that my show is good. On YouTube you have to convince thousands and thousands of people that your show is great.” In some ways, I like it better because you have to convince a lot of people.” Need more expert YouTube info? Check out the YouTube Creator Playbook for helpful advice and browse the Untamed ScienceYouTube Channel for inspiring science videos.
Join the conversation! Follow Conservation Media Group on Facebook and Twitter.
"The first thing about making a successful YouTube series is that it’s not about how good your videos are…” says Rob Nelson, co-creator with Jonas Stenstrom, of the popular hit web series called Untamed Science, “That is only one small piece of it.” Nonetheless, his videos are good. In fact, they are really good. And numerous. Untamed Science has over 400 videos and more than 10,000 subscribers. But sometimes YouTube stats aren’t enough to measure a video’s impact. Untamed Science has only 750,000 views on YouTube, yet approximately 6.5 Million students use them in class every year. The video series was created for a high school science textbook company. Each focuses on explaining a science topic in a fun way. They are designed and used by science educators in a classroom context. In one episode co-creator Jonas Stenstrom sniffs and eats the stinkiest fruit while we learn about the chemistry of smell. In another episode Rob describes several strange animal births including that of the Surinam Toad, which Rob describes as “the grossest animal birth…like a living version of Gremlins.”
Rob says that the most important technique for making a successful YouTube video is a surprising narrative structure. “I’m used to having a video build up to a big reveal later, but you have to have the reveal at the beginning. You have to put your best stuff right at the very beginning.” That leads to retention and YouTube is all about retention, or how long people are watching. Rob says that retention is even more important than views and suggests looking at the analytics. “I look for a steady curve. I’m looking to see where the line is flat. Where it is flat - nobody is leaving. When it is flat, I actually go to the video and see what is going on there. Most videos have a significant 20-30% drop in the first 10 seconds. But then I want it to level out.”
Rob suggested another helpful tip that is less about filmmaking, and more about socializing. “It is a conversation. This is the hardest thing for traditional filmmakers to wrap their head around. Doing stuff online is a conversation where you are interacting with members of the YouTube community. If there is no interaction with the community you may lose the people that stumbled across it. It is almost a full time job to be responding to commenters.”
Untamed Science recently won a Midwest Regional Emmy and the Special Jury Award at the Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival Science Symposium. Visit their IndieGogo campaign to see how they are raising funds to continue their effort to produce excellent educational videos for the science classroom. But despite their success with Untamed Science, like many accomplished artists, Rob still experiences the occasional uncertainty. “I don’t get depressed when I see a friend of mine get a TV show. But if I see people successful on YouTube I think, ‘How did they get this video to work and we can’t get ours to work?” He explains that the business model for YouTubers is very different than the model for traditional media. “If I’m trying to get a show commissioned all I have to do is convince five execs that my show is good. On YouTube you have to convince thousands and thousands of people that your show is great.” In some ways, I like it better because you have to convince a lot of people.” Need more expert YouTube info? Check out the YouTube Creator Playbook for helpful advice and browse the Untamed Science YouTube Channel for inspiring science videos.
Join the conversation! Follow Conservation Media Group on Facebook and Twitter.