My last real video about Bambu is pulling some gangbuster numbers, and I don’t get it. I criticize Creality and I get pretty good numbers. I criticize Bambu and my view numbers go up an order of magnitude. I guess Bambu is the one to hate on these days. And I guess if I were a good YouTuber and wanting to make sure my channel continues this meteoric rise, this video should have benn “10 big mistakes Bambu Labs has made”. Instead I decided to leverage my newfound audience to put out what is essentially a cry for help into the universe and see if I can use this brain trust to do something constructive.
And, don’t worry, the follow up to my Bambu video is coming. But the working title is “I was wrong about Bambu”.
This video was very hard to make.
For one, it’s very personal. I’m really putting myself out there with this one, and I don’t know if anything will come of it.
But, it’s also difficult technically. With the multiple angles and awkward split camera work, I had to do something for this video I haven’t done in a long time. I had to write a script. I know! I didn’t feel good about it. But it was the only way. However, I didn’t read the script when recording. I just read the paragraphs to keep me on track and still riffed off of them. Don’t worry, I’m still the same off-the-cuff guy I always am.
I feel so ashamed.
However, writing a script meant that the actual filming was very origin zed. The part at the beginning and at the end was filmed in one go. Then I changed costumes, filmed the second half of the effects shot (pretty proud of how the dialog lined up on that part) and then filmed the Option 2 angle, then back into the first costume to film the Option 1 angle, then put it all together in the edit. Looking back now, filming Option 1 first would have saved me one costume change, but over all I managed what is actually a pretty complex video with ease. I don’t know if I’ll be making a habit of this, but it worked this time.
I did cut a scene I planed where I would be play acting the makerfair encounter, wearing a wig for the woman and having a table with exactly 1 printablok on it. It would have required me playing back the telling so I could lip sync with the voice over. But in the end I decided that while that would have been funny, it might have been a little too much effort for this silly little video.
Now, I gotta be honest. There’s another reason I’m considering this right now, and it’s a very real reason that I think a lot of people are feeling. And that’s money. BattleMecha’s kickstarter kind of underperformed what I was hoping. It was successful, but not as successful as I hoped or expected it would be. These kickstarters allow me a day job which is a lot of fun and joy, but underpays just a little of what I need to support my family. And with BattleMecha’s underperforming, I had to think hard and come to come to some hard realizations.
The first realization is that the 3D printing professor doesn’t have the audience he once had. It’s true. My videos don’t get the views that they once did.
Another realization is that people don’t print these projects. Some do, but I don’t see printablok kits out there like I see articulated dragons. Giving people a 3D file as a reward is giving people homework, and people don’t want homework. I don’t blame them. So maybe I should stop giving digital rewards and focus on making physical rewards. It’s worth a shot.
The problem with money as a motivating factor is I have very little control over what others spend. Yes, the whole point of marketing is to create an urgent need in people, and I’m lousy at that. But if I pin my success on something I can’t control, that’s a recipe for depression. And the truth is it’s hard all around for people right now, so maybe pinning my hopes on frivolities in an economic down turn is a bad idea at the root of it. But I’m gonna give it a shot, and I’m not going to base my goals on how much money I make. I mean, obviously I gotta make money or I can’t do it, but if I don’t get rich, hopefully I can still enrich.
Yup, still cheesy.
