8 ms·

> Linus Sebastian Something to understand, for those who might have just seen some youtube videos of him being goofy, is that he's an actor. The guy on camera

> Linus Sebastian Something to understand, for those who might have just seen some youtube videos of him being goofy, is that he's an actor. The guy on camera doing stupid stuff is a stage persona. It's an intentionally cultivated image and media persona to get as many video views as possible. I sort of see him as one possible aspect of the low/medium budget TV production stuff which is common in his home city, Vancouver BC. People who've met and worked with him in person report that he's a much more normal, calm, rational individual off screen. I won't judge him for being goofy on camera because it's hard to make a living as a working actor. For every person who gets a job in a vancouver-produced TV drama that might last 2 or 3 seasons, there's dozens more people who are working as restaurant servers while trying to get their big break.

Zak 6y ago
People watch videos largely for entertainment, even when the subject matter is a review of computer hardware or advice concerning technology. For pure informational value, a written format with occasional short illustrative video clips is usually more useful. I think every successful youtuber has a cultivated stage persona because that's more entertaining than just watching an everyday person talk about a mechanical keyboard for 15 minutes.
- leoc 6y ago
  You can in fact watch a professional chemist talk about a mechanical keyboard for 15 minutes on a pretty successful YouTube channel, but he's definitely going to be using his larger-than-life stage persona: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ui_wOiUDPvM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ui_wOiUDPvM .
leoc 6y ago
Sebastian and Linus Media Group seem to be pretty frank and open about a lot of this: see for instance https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzRGBAUz5mA&list=PL8mG-RkN2uTxJiNGHnLrb-i-XP6s3y87K&index=6 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzRGBAUz5mA&list=PL8mG-RkN2u... on putting up gurning thumbnails and navigating the YT algorithm (and that whole playlist, including a revenue breakdown https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t73wXF8IF-8&list=PL8mG-RkN2uTxJiNGHnLrb-i-XP6s3y87K&index=3 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t73wXF8IF-8&list=PL8mG-RkN2u... ), the Gamers Nexus video on LTT's production process https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdOBFu-mYpw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdOBFu-mYpw and the coverage LTT regularly lavishes on its own production setup and process, from a nearly-12m video about the awkwardness of ingesting video from their new 12K cameras https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pocfGBQZUSI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pocfGBQZUSI to seemingly quite genuine fly-on-the-wall coverage of temporarily losing their data to a RAID failure https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSrnXgAmK8k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSrnXgAmK8k . Obviously you always have to take anyone's self-presentation with a grain of salt. But they're certainly not hiding the fact that there's a more grounded reality behind the "on" personas.
- kortex 6y ago
  TIL the word "gurn". Never once heard it before and even just now autocorrect tried to insist it was "turn". The description is indeed apt for what I see in a lot of thumbnails. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gurn https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gurn
  - mprev 6y ago
    It's competitive in the UK: https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/41282197 https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/41282197
    - globular-toast 6y ago
      It's also quite well-known to users of certain psychoactive drugs.
- motogpjimbo 6y ago
  I wonder how many potential views he loses due to his gurning? I've never watched any of his videos despite YT constantly recommending them to me because I've got a personal rule about never clicking on a thumbnail that has a picture of someone pulling a face or which has a clickbait title.
  - jerrre 6y ago
    I would assume it's a net win for those people to have those thumbnails.
  - rcxdude 6y ago
    Far less than he gains from doing the same, which is the point.
  - corobo 6y ago
    You are in a tiny minority of users. If this didn't work they wouldn't do it. If I can be honest nobody wants the high maintenance viewer with personal rules about this and that little thing anyway. It's exhausting and they definitely use adblock haha
brailsafe 6y ago
Do you mean that he's an actor in the sense that he's acting while on camera, or that he's an actor in the sense that his aspirations from the start have been the actual profession and art of acting, but he just failed to get into it and this stuff is his backup? I get the impression that you mean the latter, but it seems far more likely that it's the former. Not that it's unlikely he didn't at some point try and get into film, but he's been in tech sales and reviews from before he ever would have had a real go at failing to get into acting gigs.
- walrus01 6y ago
  The first part. I didn't mean so much that he's a person who tried and didn't get a part on a Vancouver-produced TV show, but that his video production efforts are part of the whole general Vancouver and Toronto "hollywood north" industry scene of people who act, do camera work, set decoration, costume, cinematography, sound, rigging, grips, etc.
  - desiarnezjr 6y ago
    No, it's more "roll your own" but has worked well.
    - walrus01 6y ago
      From an outsider's perspective it looks like a "roll your own" using some of the existing knowledge base, talent pool and resources that exist floating around in the Vancouver video production industry... Undoubtedly some of what he's done in the past 3-4 years with a serious studio, cameras, editing, sound and lighting would be more difficult if he were not in Vancouver, but were in some location with much fewer constantly ongoing video productions (random example: Portland).
      - brailsafe 6y ago
        I never really thought of it that way, but I suppose you're probably right to some extent. Though I'd wager you could achieve similar technical/artistic results with a decent local college that has an arts program or an engineering school. I always thought it was a suprising success, because he's actually located quite a distance from Vancouver proper, in kind of a suburb called Langley. As a local, I've been there about once, but there have been locals that have made there way onto bigger productions like Silicon Valley. It would be too far for me to realistically work there even if I had a car, not that they're knocking at my door, but surely some of their staff have attended schools quite a distance from there.
desiarnezjr 6y ago
Linus learned all of this over the years, and optimized it over time. He's great at it now, but was pretty rough at first -- but he was never an actor, he was a geek that loved technology. He worked for a large computer reseller that gave him lots of resources when he was starting. He actually built this in spite of all the production resources that Vancouver has to offer, and is more a "growth hacker" than actor I'd say. SOURCE: Linus is a friend...
- globular-toast 6y ago
  I think comedian might be a more accurate way to describe him. "Actor" somewhat implies deception which I'm sure is not what is intended by the GP. Interestingly, in French comédien means "actor", while they have a different word for the newer English definition of comedian: humoriste. In any case, the point is who he is on screen is a character that he has developed. There's nothing at all wrong with that. In fact, such characters are usually celebrated!
- leoc 6y ago
  (Perhaps you should ping him just in case he might be interested in dropping in to this HN thread?)
Mauricebranagh 6y ago
Yeh he's just amping up aspects of his personality - and didn't Linus actually start as an employee of one of the lager Canadian pc suppliers.
philjohn 6y ago
Linus Tech Tips is essentially the "Top Gear of Tech" - it's over the top, hammed up, but eminently watchable and there are plenty of nuggets of useful information.
- globular-toast 6y ago
  It's more watchable than Top Gear for me. Maybe LTT employs better actors but in any case I believe in its candid elements more. On Top Gear it's completely obvious it's all scripted but we're expected to believe it's not. I find it very annoying and quite uncomfortable to watch.
  - theshrike79 6y ago
    They did Lampshade[1] the supposed scripting in an episode of Grand Tour[2]. They've got a huge crew and lots of stuff, so going over borders is a huge hassle without extensive preparation. Basically it needs to be scripted to some point to work at all. [1] https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/LampshadeHanging https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/LampshadeHanging [2] S2E4, Unscripted: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6068870/ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6068870/
- vianneychevalie 6y ago
  I was an avid reader of tech magazines, LTT has replaced them for me. Partly because those magazines' budgets have kept on being reduced year after year, and the quality has dipped, but also because of the quality of those "nuggets" that you mention. In French we say "veille technologique" which seems to coincide with "technology intelligence" in English, but it's a lot less intense: I just like knowing what's out there, keep informed, and LTT's format is just that: highly digestible updates on storage technology, network infrastructure, hardware and everything tech.

Zak 6y ago

People watch videos largely for entertainment, even when the subject matter is a review of computer hardware or advice concerning technology. For pure informational value, a written format with occasional short illustrative video clips is usually more useful. I think every successful youtuber has a cultivated stage persona because that's more entertaining than just watching an everyday person talk about a mechanical keyboard for 15 minutes.

leoc 6y ago
You can in fact watch a professional chemist talk about a mechanical keyboard for 15 minutes on a pretty successful YouTube channel, but he's definitely going to be using his larger-than-life stage persona: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ui_wOiUDPvM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ui_wOiUDPvM .

leoc 6y ago

Sebastian and Linus Media Group seem to be pretty frank and open about a lot of this: see for instance https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzRGBAUz5mA&list=PL8mG-RkN2uTxJiNGHnLrb-i-XP6s3y87K&index=6 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzRGBAUz5mA&list=PL8mG-RkN2u... on putting up gurning thumbnails and navigating the YT algorithm (and that whole playlist, including a revenue breakdown https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t73wXF8IF-8&list=PL8mG-RkN2uTxJiNGHnLrb-i-XP6s3y87K&index=3 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t73wXF8IF-8&list=PL8mG-RkN2u... ), the Gamers Nexus video on LTT's production process https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdOBFu-mYpw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdOBFu-mYpw and the coverage LTT regularly lavishes on its own production setup and process, from a nearly-12m video about the awkwardness of ingesting video from their new 12K cameras https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pocfGBQZUSI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pocfGBQZUSI to seemingly quite genuine fly-on-the-wall coverage of temporarily losing their data to a RAID failure https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSrnXgAmK8k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSrnXgAmK8k . Obviously you always have to take anyone's self-presentation with a grain of salt. But they're certainly not hiding the fact that there's a more grounded reality behind the "on" personas.

kortex 6y ago
TIL the word "gurn". Never once heard it before and even just now autocorrect tried to insist it was "turn". The description is indeed apt for what I see in a lot of thumbnails. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gurn https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gurn
- mprev 6y ago
  It's competitive in the UK: https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/41282197 https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/41282197
  - globular-toast 6y ago
    It's also quite well-known to users of certain psychoactive drugs.
motogpjimbo 6y ago
I wonder how many potential views he loses due to his gurning? I've never watched any of his videos despite YT constantly recommending them to me because I've got a personal rule about never clicking on a thumbnail that has a picture of someone pulling a face or which has a clickbait title.
- jerrre 6y ago
  I would assume it's a net win for those people to have those thumbnails.
- rcxdude 6y ago
  Far less than he gains from doing the same, which is the point.
- corobo 6y ago
  You are in a tiny minority of users. If this didn't work they wouldn't do it. If I can be honest nobody wants the high maintenance viewer with personal rules about this and that little thing anyway. It's exhausting and they definitely use adblock haha

brailsafe 6y ago

Do you mean that he's an actor in the sense that he's acting while on camera, or that he's an actor in the sense that his aspirations from the start have been the actual profession and art of acting, but he just failed to get into it and this stuff is his backup? I get the impression that you mean the latter, but it seems far more likely that it's the former. Not that it's unlikely he didn't at some point try and get into film, but he's been in tech sales and reviews from before he ever would have had a real go at failing to get into acting gigs.

walrus01 6y ago
The first part. I didn't mean so much that he's a person who tried and didn't get a part on a Vancouver-produced TV show, but that his video production efforts are part of the whole general Vancouver and Toronto "hollywood north" industry scene of people who act, do camera work, set decoration, costume, cinematography, sound, rigging, grips, etc.
- desiarnezjr 6y ago
  No, it's more "roll your own" but has worked well.
  - walrus01 6y ago
    From an outsider's perspective it looks like a "roll your own" using some of the existing knowledge base, talent pool and resources that exist floating around in the Vancouver video production industry... Undoubtedly some of what he's done in the past 3-4 years with a serious studio, cameras, editing, sound and lighting would be more difficult if he were not in Vancouver, but were in some location with much fewer constantly ongoing video productions (random example: Portland).
    - brailsafe 6y ago
      I never really thought of it that way, but I suppose you're probably right to some extent. Though I'd wager you could achieve similar technical/artistic results with a decent local college that has an arts program or an engineering school. I always thought it was a suprising success, because he's actually located quite a distance from Vancouver proper, in kind of a suburb called Langley. As a local, I've been there about once, but there have been locals that have made there way onto bigger productions like Silicon Valley. It would be too far for me to realistically work there even if I had a car, not that they're knocking at my door, but surely some of their staff have attended schools quite a distance from there.

desiarnezjr 6y ago

Linus learned all of this over the years, and optimized it over time. He's great at it now, but was pretty rough at first -- but he was never an actor, he was a geek that loved technology. He worked for a large computer reseller that gave him lots of resources when he was starting. He actually built this in spite of all the production resources that Vancouver has to offer, and is more a "growth hacker" than actor I'd say. SOURCE: Linus is a friend...

globular-toast 6y ago
I think comedian might be a more accurate way to describe him. "Actor" somewhat implies deception which I'm sure is not what is intended by the GP. Interestingly, in French comédien means "actor", while they have a different word for the newer English definition of comedian: humoriste. In any case, the point is who he is on screen is a character that he has developed. There's nothing at all wrong with that. In fact, such characters are usually celebrated!
leoc 6y ago
(Perhaps you should ping him just in case he might be interested in dropping in to this HN thread?)

Mauricebranagh 6y ago

Yeh he's just amping up aspects of his personality - and didn't Linus actually start as an employee of one of the lager Canadian pc suppliers.

philjohn 6y ago

Linus Tech Tips is essentially the "Top Gear of Tech" - it's over the top, hammed up, but eminently watchable and there are plenty of nuggets of useful information.

globular-toast 6y ago
It's more watchable than Top Gear for me. Maybe LTT employs better actors but in any case I believe in its candid elements more. On Top Gear it's completely obvious it's all scripted but we're expected to believe it's not. I find it very annoying and quite uncomfortable to watch.
- theshrike79 6y ago
  They did Lampshade[1] the supposed scripting in an episode of Grand Tour[2]. They've got a huge crew and lots of stuff, so going over borders is a huge hassle without extensive preparation. Basically it needs to be scripted to some point to work at all. [1] https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/LampshadeHanging https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/LampshadeHanging [2] S2E4, Unscripted: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6068870/ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6068870/
vianneychevalie 6y ago
I was an avid reader of tech magazines, LTT has replaced them for me. Partly because those magazines' budgets have kept on being reduced year after year, and the quality has dipped, but also because of the quality of those "nuggets" that you mention. In French we say "veille technologique" which seems to coincide with "technology intelligence" in English, but it's a lot less intense: I just like knowing what's out there, keep informed, and LTT's format is just that: highly digestible updates on storage technology, network infrastructure, hardware and everything tech.