Ten years ago, if people had suggested that it was possible to gain 6.8 million subscribers and get millions of views on YouTube from videos centered around daily life, no one would have believed them.
Today, a top YouTuber, Casey Neistat, has done exactly that through following his motto, which is tattooed on his arm: “Work Harder.”
Neistat is considered a revolutionary in the world of daily vlogging, or making daily videos about the everyday events of a person’s life.
Unlike most vloggers, Neistat was a filmmaker for many years prior to this endeavor, affording him the technical knowledge to make high-quality content every day.
His following has grown so quickly because of the professional storytelling, entertainment and production value of his work.
“Story is king,” Neistat explains in one of his nearly 500 vlogs. The stories Neistat tells are fast-paced, chronological accounts of his daily, unconventional life.
While a normal person might see walking as the best way to get around Manhattan, Neistat prefers taking his motorized skateboard into traffic – with a camera and tripod.
Other people might see running 10 miles, building a small business, making a short movie and finding family time in one day as an impossible workload, but Neistat sees it as daily life.
Neistat’s stories aren’t just empty entertainment. While taking questions from his audience on Twitter, a staple of the vlog, Neistat shares his past experiences to explain his current lifestyle. Throughout his childhood, Neistat felt his creative potential was crushed by the authority he faced in school. Constant rebellion led to him dropping out of high school and having a son at 16.
The lessons he learned about making money, raising a child and fulfilling his dreams were perhaps the most formative in his life. Whether through his work ethic, relationships with others or direct retellings, Neistat’s story of working harder to better himself is a common theme in his content. His story and its implications are both inspiring and uplifting, transforming his entertaining thoughts into art.
Though the stories are king on Neistat’s channel, technical aspects of the vlog are not ignored. Rather, they are used to further the story.
Neistat has always used high-end camera gear to give his audience the best viewing experience. The cameras are bulky and expensive to replace, but Neistat is prepared to use all tools at his disposal to make his ideas most accessible and interesting to the viewer.
Season three of the vlog displays this principle as much as ever – the resolution has been upgraded to 4K.
The desire to make the highest quality content has led Neistat to experiment with a variety of camera gear, including drones, GoPros, DSLRs and even phones. For this reason, companies send him gear to try out, adding another interesting element to the vlog: tech reviews.
The cinematography and look of the vlog are always pleasing, but they change as Casey tries new gear, keeping the viewer interested in both the stories and aesthetic of the short movies.
With this interest in aesthetic comes a noticeable attention to detail. The color grading, framing and movement in each scene are all visually appealing and help move the story along. Similarly, the audio edits are carefully chosen to keep the vlog fast and entertaining.
Even when noticing all of the work that goes into each vlog, it still seems magical. The ability to make short, daily films that are inspirational, energetic, fulfilling and entertaining is a craft that Neistat is perfecting and invites anyone with an internet connection to enjoy.
