GRM needs more on the YouTube page

There are currently 211 videos on the Grassroots Motorsports YouTube page but the content could be so much better. I know how time consuming it is to shoot and edit videos but I would love to see some longer videos on the 2017 Challenge, Lemons Racing, projects, readers rides (readers could submit their own videos for this playlist) etc. Please give some thought to developing this little corner of the GRM world. https://www.youtube.com/user/GRMtv

As an avid consumer of automotive youtube content, i agree with this. I watch content from the full spectrum of content creators from the guys that hold their own camera while driving to professionally shot and edited 'web shows' from major media companies borrowing millions of dollars of cars for a single video.

I would venture a guess that a major factor for GRM is that noone i've met on staff seems the type to be eager to get in front of the camera and be visually entertaining. I get that. I could probably write most paid speakers into a corner, have a pile of semi-hilarious projects and a penchant for all kinds of amusing antics when working on cars. I even teach automotive for a living which means being the center of attention and conveying useful information all day. Still, in spite of encouragement from friends, i've never made the leap of trying to become a youtube content creator.

So i cannot say do as i say and not as i do, but I know that there is a huge youtube audience that has an unsatiable appetite for entertaining automotive content and i would be excited to see GRM make real efforts in that sphere. If GRM wants to start a focus group around this idea, I demand to be included!

I also agree, this is a huge market for GRM that they are under utilizing right now.

JG was entertaining on the Facebook live stuff.

JG's got a great radio face!

Thanks for the feedback guys. We're actually actively working on this. JG is testing some software for facebook live that will allow him to edit it afterwards and upload it to YouTube.

yea, needs moar rocket motors and a black powder segment too.

I don't think you guys realize how much the GRM crew accomplishes with such a small staff. Two fairly substantial magazines totalling 16 issues a year plus four major events (Challenge, UTCC, Rolex, Mitty) - it's a heck of an output. They've got the skills for video, but do they have the time?

In order for YouTube to be worthwhile, they'd have to be able to make money off it.

I understand the aspect of production difficulties and th new fun ways YouTube is taking money from content creators, but I do also agree. After the challenge last year, I was hoping to find some videos of past challeges to show my friends who were still confused about the concept.

Maybe something, that would require a bit of participant action, would help out. A lot of us already have GoPros and GoPro knockoffs for racing, maybe we could record our cars at the challenge and then upload them to Dropbox or something after the challenge for GRM to use? Or just give copies of the memory cards to staff at the end of the event, so that some footage compilations could be made?

I'm not skilled enough with video editing to offer to do it, and I know it would be a bunch of work, but if we all worked together it might not be as difficult to pull off.

I hate being in front of the camera so on most of my videos, I just point at the car or part in question and talk about it, that's all it takes. Just strap some GoPros on staff, do some quick editing and post to YouTube. I bet GRM could find an intern that would do it for free. To kickstart this, add a "readers projects" Playlist and ask for submissions. I could easily put together a short video of the Pink Panther and I'm sure others could, too. I would love to see the videos that some of the 2017 Challengers came up with.

is there any way to get the video from the live challende feed this past year? I had to work, and really want to show it to a couple of folks that are calling BS on our build.

I think the problem is monetizing it. It's one thing to make things and post them for fun as an individual but to do it as a business is different. The content you produce reflects on your company and in effect on your advertisers. Finding a natural flowing easy way to produce content that is also reflects well on you professionally in an amount of time that doesn't take away from actual revenue streams.....it's hard.

Well, you can always host the videos on actual GRM servers and just post teasers/trailers on Youtube that lead to a GRM page with ad space on it. Or, put the videos on youtube, but don't make them public and then embed them on the GRM website. A teaser vid brings viewers to the GRM page with GRM ads that has the youtube video embedded in it. Some users might hit the button to view on Youtube itself, but by the time they've done that they've at least already loaded the ads on the GRM page, and maybe one of them will even click one. I only have a vague understanding of the financials of it, but i can certainly say that i've seen very entertaining youtube videos where the most costly aspect of creating it was just the time that the creator spent being in the video instead of doing something else.

Even if you just flew one person around interviewing some of the forum regulars, i'd bet almost every damn person on the forum would watch every one of those videos and then propagate them out into the wider car internet that we're a part of. Some of us have extremely interesting projects or ways of fitting cars into life. As we've seen, some of the GRM forum member content is capable of propagating across the entire 'car internet'. Some (more) of those clicks could be paying GRM's bills.

Vigo wrote: ... i've seen very entertaining youtube videos where the most costly aspect of creating it was just the time that the creator spent being in the video instead of doing something else.

Thing is, to a business that is a legitimate cost.

And a 'business' is the only type of 'person' (thanks Supreme Court!) that takes the sincere view that another person's time is worth as little as $2/hr (plus dem tips tho!), maybe $7 if you want to be totally legit. It doesn't have to be fancy or something that an energetic (and entertaining!) young person couldn't do the majority of for very little money. Some content more or less sells itself! For example, I just spent about one minute approximating how many youtube views are on the more popular youtube videos of turbo Caravans. Millions. I couldn't really tell you that any one of those videos is a supremely executed piece of videography or took much effort to make, and ive seen them ALL. The views on videos about just the 2 vans that little old me currently owns? Nearly one MILLION. I honestly dont think I have anywhere near the most interesting stuff on this forum, but people made some little videos of a couple of vans and hundreds of thousands of people made someone else some ad money by loading them. Some of this stuff is just money waiting to be made.

loosecannon wrote: Just strap some GoPros on staff, do some quick editing and post to YouTube. I bet GRM could find an intern that would do it for free.

If I had a nickel for every time I heard this one...

Motion picture production is an immensely resource-intensive undertaking to do on any sort of self-sustaining level. I've got lots of experience in front of the camera and behind, as well as in the post-production realm and while I agree that we could produce some fantastic content, just launching a heavily produced show that would be up to our editorial standards would not be a sustainable effort.

Which is why we're easing into it with the live broadcasts. Those have been in the beta phase for months and there's still plenty of bugs to work out before we "officially" launch it as a legit part of our editorial cycle. That time is coming, though. From there the hope is that we can leverage the live broadcasts to reboot the podcast and produce some legacy video content.

TL;DR: It's coming, but it's coming slowly so we can find a level where it's sustainable and profitable as part of our mix.

Vigo wrote: I couldn't really tell you that any one of those videos is a supremely executed piece of videography or took much effort to make, and ive seen them ALL. The views on videos about just the 2 vans that little old me currently owns? Nearly one MILLION. I honestly dont think I have anywhere near the most interesting stuff on this forum, but people made some little videos of a couple of vans and hundreds of thousands of people made someone else some ad money by loading them. Some of this stuff is just money waiting to be made.

This is another trap it's easy to fall into. There's countless videos shot on vertical phones that have got millions of views and cost noting to produce. But that's not a repeatable model. You could easily spend $40,000 duplicating the same video with higher production values and hobbits and wizards and E36 M3, but you might not get a fraction of the hits.

We could easily dump tons of time and money into amazing productions that would get a tiny fraction of the views of a video of a guy getting hit in the nuts with a golf ball.

Mazdeuce also nails it:

Mazdeuce wrote: I think the problem is monetizing it. It's one thing to make things and post them for fun as an individual but to do it as a business is different. The content you produce reflects on your company and in effect on your advertisers. Finding a natural flowing easy way to produce content that is also reflects well on you professionally in an amount of time that doesn't take away from actual revenue streams.....it's hard.

Right now, I'm basically producing the live shows almost as a subcontractor. Once I get all the bugs worked out, I'm going to do some training with the staff, we'll build an editorial calendar, and feel comfortable actually spending money and effort promoting the show. Until then, like I said, it's public beta.

In my experience there is no such thing as "quick editing". I would watch all of it, though.

I like loosecannons idea of reader submissions or linking, we have a pretty fantastic readership who are already there doing it.

JG says they are working on it and that's good enough for me. I can't wait to see the content because I'm just a bit addicted to YouTube

JG Pasterjak wrote: This is another trap it's easy to fall into. There's countless videos shot on vertical phones that have got millions of views and cost noting to produce. But that's not a repeatable model. You could easily spend $40,000 duplicating the same video with higher production values and hobbits and wizards and E36 M3, but you might not get a fraction of the hits.

This is so true. I've got a crap video of the MG backing out of the garage for the first time and basically idling around with no bodywork on it. Then I put together a drive video of the car with multiple camera angles shot on great roads. I've got a video of the V8 ND firing up for the first time, shot as I basically ran across the shop, then another that shows the finished car on a 0-150 acceleration run and chirping fourth. Guess which ones have all the traffic?

I think Matt Farah's got a good thing going with his "one take" videos. He does almost no editing, it's almost all a single continuous shot. Takes very little time to shoot once you've got the cameras mounted to the car and he can put out a lot of quality product quickly. But he does have to schedule the cars, deal with all the usual "I can't make it because x broke" crap and he's good at driving, evaluating and talking live. He's also hustling all the time.

loosecannon wrote: JG says they are working on it and that's good enough for me. I can't wait to see the content because I'm just a bit addicted to YouTube

Just subscribe to AvE in the meantime :)

JG Pasterjak wrote:

loosecannon wrote: JG says they are working on it and that's good enough for me. I can't wait to see the content because I'm just a bit addicted to YouTube

Just subscribe to AvE in the meantime :)

This ^. Once you learn to understand really thick Canuck, the dude is hilarious.