Content creator Casey Neistat is arguably “the godfather of viral videos,” according to What’s Trending’s Shira Lazar. (That’s a title he accepts, assuming the association is only limited to the first two films in Coppola’s trilogy.)
During a wide-ranging, hour-long conversation with Lazar at the 2024 NAB Show, Neistat shared a lot of strong opinions.
On Virality
“A lot of the opportunity that…virality provided you back in the day, a lot of that’s been muted now.”
“There was a way you could formulate virality a decade ago, but I don’t think that that’s there anymore.”
“It’s very hard to stand out in the sea of content that we see today.”
“It’s more crowded now than it’s ever been. But it’s also better now than it’s ever been.”
On YouTube
“It was a direct path to your audience. And that had never existed before in all of media.”
“I still like YouTube because it feels much more like a utility now. OK, just this tool where you can post off. It’s the second biggest search engine in the world.”
On Making Good Work
“Virality fades. Fame fades. Attention fades. Like, all that stuff goes away. But if you make something great, it lasts.”
“I don’t necessarily think there’s a correlation between great work, meaningful, purposeful work, work that will last, and audience size.”
“If you’re trying to look to your audience to figure out what it is you should be making, I think that’s the first misstep. … It’s a very Rick Rubin-esque kind of thinking.”
“The only way to succeed in this space is to make something new, make something different, make something that’s truly unique, which is rare and hard to do. And then keep doing that until you succeed. And for some people, it might be six months. And for some people, it might be 10 years.”
“The very best content is when people are sharing stories from their perspective.”
On Gear and New Technology
“I do not care about gear. I don’t care about the fancy stuff. I don’t care. All I care is how well does that tool help you communicate your story? My least favorite YouTube genre are really beautiful, amazing videos that say nothing.”
“I’m so uninterested in the technical side of filmmaking, especially as it’s become so much more ubiquitous. That conversation — talking about gear and lenses and cameras — I don’t care about any of that.”
“For me, the most offensive question is, what did you shoot that with?”
“That has nothing to do with what camera you shot it on or what stabilizer you use or what platform you release it on. It’s purely about communicating that emotion.”
“It’s so easy to be distracted by AI, by these platforms, by comments, by technology, by all these fun, low hanging shiny objects that we all want to run to because they’re tangible. But ignore all of that. And put your head down and say… ‘How can I share something that will be meaningful to someone else?’”
“My enthusiasm when it comes to gadgets [is] are how accessible are they? And how far can they take you? And I think we’ve reached sort of a critical mass where, like, they’re accessible to everyone.”
On Being a Creator
“The creator space is …the top of the funnel. That is, the amount of people that have access to jump in has gotten so wide…. That is an amazing thing.”
“What has always worked no longer works is the greatest opportunity for all of us. Because it means we get to invent what’s going to work next. And it’s scary not to have a roadmap to tell you how to get to where you want to go. But it’s also a beautiful thing, because it means you get to pave that road.”
“As it gets more and more competitive, and people’s appetite for content changes radically, it can be very, very hard for people doing things that have been successful forever that are no longer successful.”
“I’m agnostic about my enthusiasm across platforms, because I think the top of that funnel just keeps getting bigger, keeps introducing new people, new styles, welcomes everyone. And I think that that is a really magical thing.”
“If you have this safe place, which is your job, which is your career, which is your income, you’re able to have freedom when you’re creating the content. And I think that’s how you really find your voice.”
On Failure and Persistence
”You can fail for 10 more years before you need to find any meaningful success. Just fail and keep failing. Keep making work that nobody watches, keep making work, because… you’re gonna progressively and consistently get better at what you do.”
“You will continue to grow and continue to find an audience and as the world changes and YouTube becomes something else and TikTok goes away and this happens, you will always be positioned because you never stopped creating.”
On Monetization
“The numbers and dollars being spent in the new media space, that social media and all the outlets that we were just talking about, is bigger than it’s ever been. And that’s amazing.”.
“Overall, I’m wildly optimistic about the monetization opportunities for all new creators.”
“AdSense is still meaningful. It still matters.”
“The idea that every single YouTube channel should also be incorporating ads, I don’t think is so far-fetched.”
‘Working with brands is an incredible experience for every creator. It forces you to think in a different way.”
“The space is so much more crowded. And there’s the disparity of the amount of money spent at the tip, tip tip top. I don’t mean like 1%. I mean, like 500 people, if there are a billion channels on YouTube and TikTok and everything combined, a couple 100 people are vacuuming up 95% of money being spent? Is that an issue? I guess it’s great for me, sucks for everybody else.”
On TikTok
“I try not to watch more than eight or nine hours a day of TikTok. Try to keep that down. I’m not even joking.”
“I have a horrible addiction to TikTok.”
“I hope they ban Tiktok. I’m against it because it’s a Chinese spy app. But that notwithstanding, I think that what TikTok has done or Reels is doing…It’s introducing an entirely new genre of content.”
On AI
“The freakout is necessary and warranted, and I think it’s going to have a huge impact in the landscape.”
“All reshoots are gonna be able to be done with AI. Not all but most I think like those are the low hanging fruit that AI is going to chip away.”
“The influencer marketing stuff that’s done with AI, that’s going to get chipped away at pretty quickly.”
“AI will get you right to where you can see the finish line.”
“If your work’s average, you’re screwed. It’s over for you. Be great… because AI is gonna have a really hard time being great itself.”
On Immersive Video
The Apple Vision Pro “is the most incredible, most incredible piece of technology I’ve ever used. OK? Like a religious experience when you use them for the first time. And I used mine nonstop for the first 48 hours. Since then they’ve been on a shelf right next to my Quest 3. So I am so excited about where that technology is gonna go.”
The Insta360 Camera X4 360 “looks like a stick of gum, and it’s fantastic. And what that little tool does is it enables you to film and capture in a way that you couldn’t prior. And I think that is where my enthusiasm lies.”
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