05.18.2017 www.thekirkwoodcall.com
PAGE DESIGN BY ADLER BOWMAN
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CASEY NEISTAT
T
he drone lifts from the ground, its propellers spinning as it hovers over the concrete and then heads into the air. It climbs higher, farther away from the pier from which it took off. It heads toward the mass of skyscrapers that make up New York City. Standing on the pier is Casey Neistat, YouTuber, the controller for the DJi Mavic Pro, a type drone, in his hands. Neistat is in the process of gathering more footage for his daily vlogs, in which drone footage has become common. It is details like this footage that draw more than a million people to Neistat's YouTube channel every day to witness what should be normal: Neistat's daily life, condensed into a 10 minute vlog. But to anyone who is one of Neistat's seven million subscribers, these vlogs are anything but ordinary. Neistat is like no other YouTuber I have ever seen. That is why I created a YouTube account just so I could subscribe to his channel. The amazing part of his story so far is that he got to where he is today simply by working hard. Throughout his 772 vlogs and other videos, viewers can learn quite a bit about Neistat. His work ethic stands out and inspires. He is a high school dropout. After working a number of odd jobs that barely paid enough, Neistat moved from Connecticut to New York City to pursue his dream of being a filmmaker. This was in June 2001, when Neistat was 20 and staying at a friend's apartment in the finan- cial district. Since Neistat was an aspiring filmmaker, he was filming the morning of Sept. 11. He shares the footage in multi- ple YouTube videos, including one titled "Draw My Life," in which he talked about Sept. 11. After the attacks on the World Trade Center, Neistat's career started to pick up. He found a steady job, and he and his brother Van made movies together. In 2003, the Neistat brothers made a video titled "iPod's Dirty Secret" and put it online. The video called out Apple for the iPod's irreplaceable battery, which only lasted 18 months. Neistat described the viral nature of the video in a recent YouTube video. "Now, this is like three years before YouTube, but that video exploded," Neistat said. "This is back in the day when the word 'viral' was used to describe an STD, not a video." The Neistat brothers gained notice and were funded to make more videos and projects. They made eight 25-minute episodes, which they called a TV show called The Neistat Brothers. In 2008, they sold the episodes to HBO for a little under $2 million. At some point, Neistat created a YouTube channel. One of the great aspects of YouTube is the authenticity of its uploads. Few YouTube videos are Hollywood productions; most of them are shot by an amateur on a second-rate camera and edited with iMovie. And Youtube seems to be flooded with vloggers who have ruled the video-sharing platform since its creation in 2005. But Neistat stands out; he somehow combines this feeling of authenticity with superior filmmaking and editing. His vlogs aren't perfect, but they're entertaining. The entertainment aspect is fueled by the fact that Neistat's career has taken off, and he manages to live a life full of adventure. Most vlogs seem to involve airports and trips to far-off places. Recently, he uploaded a video where he got upgraded to a $21,000 airplane seat on a flight from Dubai. The video has almost 36 million views on YouTube , but Neistat doesn't seem to be bragging. Even when vlogging a trip to Amsterdam or South Africa, Neistat's humble nature manifests itself in the footage. It's hard for seasoned viewers to forget that Neistat once lived in a trailer park and washed dishes for a living. A few months ago, after a year and a half of daily vlogs, Casey Neistat quit the daily uploads. In a video titled "I'm ending the vlog," he explained why. The rigor of the vlogging lifestyle compared with his notion that the vlogs were no longer a challenge to create prompted him to call it quits. When the notification that the video had been uploaded popped up on my phone, my eyes widened at the title, and raced home to WiFi during lunch to watch it. In the comment section, the standard YouTube overly critical comments were absent. People were lamenting the lost daily activity of escaping their own lives for ten minutes and watching the true American dream unfold. It seemed the YouTube community was grieving just a simplelittle vlog. It turns out the "end" of the vlog was merely a hiatus. Neistat's viewers weren't the only ones who missed the footage of New York City taken from a boosted board; Neistat missed the vlog, too. A few months ago, Neistat uploaded "THE VLOG IS BACK" and viewers across the globe rejoiced. Neistat's vlogs are uplifting. I once stayed up until 4 a.m. watching Neistat travel the world, and went to sleep more hopeful than I had in a long time. Neistat's videos are simply inspiring. Viewers feel motivated to work hard, play hard, and just get out there and do something, anything.
STORY: JAMIE JONES ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR ART: BRIDGET KILLIAN
" THIS IS BACK IN THE DAY WHEN THE WORD 'VIRAL' WAS USED TO DESCRIBE AN STD, NOT A VIDEO. "
- CASEY NEISTAT, YOUTUBER ENTERTAINMENT
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