Re: Finding your Youtube audience. Posted by The Director on Jul 17, 2012
You have to expect anything when exposing yourself to the world. We've gotten a little off subject. However on a positive note.  I got a responce from this kid,(from another land) How can you not just cheer for him. The smile at the end is priceless.
Re: Finding your Youtube audience. Posted by Rikka on Jul 17, 2012
Yes, it is. Made me think about elementary. Well all played the flute. But I couldn't do it anymore and if my life depended on in...
Re: Finding your Youtube audience. Posted by The Director on Jul 18, 2012
Well for better or worse it's done. (The Bath Salts PSA) I have to say that filming in the bathtub with lots of soap suds was not easy LOL! This is also the debut of the puppet on my profile.  I purchased him on Ebay after I went on break. His name is Klooky Martinez. So I will have to learn a few Spanish words.  I think his charactor will add energy as he is a little hyper.
Re: Finding your Youtube audience. Posted by Rikka on Jul 19, 2012
my cat would have killed the puppet! I like Klooky's hairdo and Patsy's bath cap!
Re: Finding your Youtube audience. Posted by Na on Jul 19, 2012
Posted by: The Director on Jul 18, 2012
Well for better or worse it's done. (The Bath Salts PSA) I have to say that filming in the bathtub with lots of soap suds was not easy LOL! This is also the debut of the puppet on my profile.  I purchased him on Ebay after I went on break. His name is Klooky Martinez. So I will have to learn a few Spanish words.  I think his charactor will add energy as he is a little hyper.


I had two thoughts:

1. It seemed a bit too 'light' - I got to the point where there was the kitty, and I have to say that just up to there if I were a teen thinking about taking drugs, this would only make it seem like it's harmless fun. I think it actually *encourages* rather than discourages.

2. We're told that the drugs are dangerous, but all we see is the puppet being 'weird'. Quite clearly the issue is that they're *more* dangerous than your average drug. Here's an opportunity to talk about dosages, about how everything has risks, and how some things are so dangerous we shouldn't try them.

Also, you may be interested in this:
http://scienceandentertainmentexchange.org
and these:
http://traffic.libsyn.com/tokenskeptic/Token_Skeptic_9_-_On_Skepticism_and_Communication.mp3
http://traffic.libsyn.com/tokenskeptic/Token_Skeptic_10_-_Skepticism_and_Communciation_Part_Two.mp3
(note, they're mp3 files)
Token Skeptic has 2 great interviews on how to communicate science. It's really worth listening to, as it talks about how to make tough discussions appealing to a wider audience.

In general, I think it's a good effort... maybe you should be looking at other videos by scientists, skeptics, etc and seeing how they turn their content into comedy. There's one that I was going to link to but I have no idea what the name of it is and I can't seem to find it... It's a superhero skeptic...
Re: Finding your Youtube audience. Posted by The Director on Jul 20, 2012
In responce to Na's thoughts.  I purposely did not get too heavy, but I think Patsy spoke about people on the drug attacking and eating people. I also think that ending up strapped to an ironing board in a convulsion should not make anyone want to use the drug LOL! Here is a video I found where someone got graphic with their puppets. They're information was inaccurate. However it was meant to be a parody. I also got a call last night from my nephew who saw my video and said that after it finished, related videos popped up and he watched and said he was unaware of how dangerous and a growing issue this was.  He proceeded to send my video to his facebook friends. So it led to more serious information. There are some pretty graphic related videos from real experiences that come up.  I may add another video of what I will call "deleted footage" that may ramp it up a bit. I appreciate the comments.
Re: Finding your Youtube audience. Posted by Shawn on Jul 20, 2012
The related videos brings up a good point I think. Maybe even within your video and in the description of it you should add links to more "serious" information on what your PSA is about. As you mentioned you became aware of this issue via a local article or news program. You put links to those as reference for your video.  You could also add any other sites you looked out while researching the topic.  By having them both in the video and in the description when you upload you make sure that the links get out there. I think if it was me I would but them in the end credits then maybe use the YT annotations feature to actually add a links to them that are clickable.
Re: Finding your Youtube audience. Posted by Na on Jul 20, 2012
Posted by: The Director on Jul 20, 2012
In responce to Na's thoughts.  I purposely did not get too heavy, but I think Patsy spoke about people on the drug attacking and eating people. I also think that ending up strapped to an ironing board in a convulsion should not make anyone want to use the drug LOL! Here is a video I found where someone got graphic with their puppets. They're information was inaccurate. However it was meant to be a parody. I also got a call last night from my nephew who saw my video and said that after it finished, related videos popped up and he watched and said he was unaware of how dangerous and a growing issue this was.  He proceeded to send my video to his facebook friends. So it led to more serious information. There are some pretty graphic related videos from real experiences that come up.  I may add another video of what I will call "deleted footage" that may ramp it up a bit. I appreciate the comments.

I don't mean you should be 'heavy' - I meant that it was not satirical enough. Remembering conversations from friends at high school, the majority of activity that your puppet presented is exactly *why* they wanted to take drugs. They wanted to experience being "out of it". One of my friends not only wanted to do the drugs, she went ahead and researched the effects/side effects and still decided that being "out of it" was a good enough benefit... even if she could end up in hospital. So for her, that video would only bring out "hey, cool, I need to try it" and not "hey, that looks dangerous, I should avoid".

Speaking from that side of things, your video's not very persuasive, and that's what I meant: I should have clarified.

The second half of what I meant had more to do with getting me to think. Maybe it's because I'm not the target audience, but I didn't find the video informative enough, funny/satirical enough, or covered any points of logical fallacy enough, to make me want to learn more. That your nephew did is perhaps reason to think that different tactics work for different folks and WTF do I know

Of course the problem is.... Youtube will suggest other videos to watch based on keywords, not accuracy. So did your nephew watch *accurate* videos...? And those friends of his, will they have enough critical thinking to view *inaccurate* videos and judge for themselves the content; or will they be like so many conspiracy theorist/etc people who get sucked in by 9/11 truther videos and so on?

People get sucked in partly because they're uneducated in a certain area, and partly because they *are* educated. Anti-vaccination is largely coming from middle class parents, educated enough to question medicine, not educated enough to know why their reasons for turning down vaccines are incorrect. They read science-y sound websites and think "yeah, that makes sense", but to doctors, it doesn't. So what I mean by mentioning related videos, is that you've also got to deal with this issue that those promoting pseudoscience are going to *sound* like they're knowledgeable. You have to point out why and how they're not. --- Related videos may actually end up sending people down a rabbit hole of misinformation, and unless you've given them some education on logical fallacies, they may assume that your one video is in the minority of opinion, inaccurate, and wrong; as compared to 100 videos they watch afterwards that share the same keywords but are inaccurate and assumed to be correct.

The trick is a fine balance where you want people to be curious to learn more, but you also need to encourage them to *think* and *question* what else they see on the subject...

I guess it depends also on what you're aiming for. Are you aiming for entertainment more than education? Are you aiming to get people curious? Are you aiming to change minds? Are you aiming to be comical more than serious? Etc.

It's interesting because amongst skeptical communities there's always an argument about the best approach to changing minds and getting more people interested in accurate info. Some think the best way is with more information; others think with comedy, satire, and often, yes, outright rage. Most I gather, come to the conclusion that not all approaches work with all people. To sum: figure out exactly which approach and which audience you're aiming for (and figure in Youtube's particular audience, which is different from other places)... then write for that.

(Shawn has a good point: add references for those who wish to review it. There are usually people "on the fence", who genuinely want accurate info but don't know where to look.)
Re: Finding your Youtube audience. Posted by The Director on Jul 20, 2012
Wow you guys are deep. Shawn I've never used the annotations but that's a great Idea.  If anyone has followed Patsy Hoolahan from the beginning you will see that she never quite gets it. When she visits Occupy wall Street she misses the point. when she talks about hoodies after the shooting of a teen, she makes a fashion statement. The texting video is serious yet she is hitchhiking at the end.  LAUGH OUT LOUD! The real concern should be that they allowed Millie Haskins who just got back from rehab(Whitney Houston Tribute)to be a test subject.  The folks who want to take drugs, or put any unhealthy things into their bodies will still do it. Thanks again. I hope I'm not missing your points. I love all comments and consider them all, but I only have so much control over these puppets.
Re: Finding your Youtube audience. Posted by pagestep007 on Jul 20, 2012
Well 'The director' I just took the clip as it came and had a good laugh. (I must say your production levels are coming up). Loved the shower cap and suds in the mouth...and the double belt setup on the ironing  board (for some unknown reason)  I don't think you will change  the world in a hurry. Supposedly intelligent people, end up making dumb decisions like taking drugs, knowing it is  bad for them... if someone saw your vid and decided to go out and try doing bath salts... they were already in  need of serious help. Keep up the good work. I look forward to the next clip.
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