Here we go again...
Jul. 22nd, 2011 02:44 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
maccadoleI've had a couple of requests to tell the story of how my video ended up in the hands of Rhett and Link.
I will tell the (not so) dramatic story of back-and-forths, and then I'll shut up about this whole thing! Here, people who asked for it, is the story:
Honestly, I have no idea at all how they found my video. Out of all videos on YouTube, and even out of all Harry Potter related videos if that's something they searched for specifically, I have no idea how they could possibly stumble on to mine. But I'm glad they did!
It all started months ago, really, when I decided to read the Harry Potter book series again before the release of the last movie. I started rereading them very early, because I've done scheduled rereads in pure stressful panic before, and this time I wanted to make sure I had time to take it easy.
I wanted to read a book a month, or something like that. If I read faster, so be it. I just wanted to make sure I had time in case I was lazy. Turns out it went very well!
As I read on, and spoke to fellow hardcore fans, and experienced the hype online, I started getting more and more emotional about it all ending.
Of course it ended properly when the last BOOK came out. But the premiere of the last movie was still a big thing. No more books, and no more movies now. The two big things would be no more.
I thought of all the things I've experienced both directly and indirectly related to Harry Potter. All the people I'd met, and the friends I'd made. For over ten years now, Harry Potter has been either a huge part of my life, or simply a small part in the back of my mind. It's always been there.
It is very nostalgic for me. I was a young girl when I started reading the books, and I am now 24 years old when a big part of the journey ends. Harry Potter lives on, but a part of it ended with the movie.
Never again can we go and view the intro, hear the theme music, and look forward to another half-assed movie that keeps getting things wrong.
I then watched the "HPLive" event, streamed online, airing live from the red carpet premiere in England. They interviewed the crowd full of energetic fans who'd camped out there for days, and the actors and actresses, and even J.K Rowling herself. (There were Swedes being interviewed WOOO!)
Towards the end there were beautiful speeches and tears, and it was emotional to watch. Previously to this I'd wanted to make a vlog to simply say "Oooh, I am excited for the last Harry Potter movie!" and not much else.
That evening at half past eleven I needed to take my dog Bell outside one last time before going to sleep. I grabbed my video camera as I left.
I walked her, and then I decided to record something. I'd wished for it to be calm, to the point, with good lighting, nice scenery, and somewhere steady to put the camera.
Instead I ended up outside, with a handheld camera view, with noise and bugs and horrible surroundings, while I was feeling very nostalgic and emotional!
I uploaded my video July 8th. Feeling bad about how ill-portrayed and silly I was in that video, I sat down and made another one as well, and I uploaded that one the same day, at the same time as the other one.
A couple of days later I got on a bus, rode it for an hour, and stayed at a friend's place. We had a blast, and on Tuesday the 12th of July, at midnight, we went and saw the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 2 premiere. (Yes, indeed, Sweden for once had an early premiere, a few days earlier than some countries!)
We went to bed early in the morning, technically the 13th at this point
A few hours later we wake up and have breakfast. I then check my phone for messages. I have two new text messages. I would quote them exactly, but I've deleted all my messages since.
One was from a fellow Swedish HP fan, at that time staying in Stockholm - I knew - experiencing their premiere on a grander scale than my friend and I did in our small town.
She told me she'd been tracked down via Twitter, since we follow each other on there, and that it was weird... but some YouTuber was trying to get a hold of me, or something. It sounded pretty urgent, so she recommended I go online to check it out.
I open the next message, and it's from my good YouTube friend Eddy. He understands the YouTube scene, and he says the same thing with a bit more excitement!
"Mac!" he says. "There are some pretty big YouTube people who wants to get in touch with you! It could be a great opportunity for you! They found me because they saw we'd written to each other on Twitter. Go check your inbox ASAP!"
I'm paraphrasing.
So I think "Wow... uh... What the...?" and show those texts to my friend. "I need to go online!" I say, excited, and confused.
She pulls out her laggy, crappy, little laptop. (Why do computers always break? It's only about a year old, and it suddenly can't handle anything and it's not a virus.)
There is a lot of waiting for pages to load, and signing in to email accounts, but I finally manage it and I check my inbox. Rhett and Link have left me a YouTube profile comment, a YT private message, an email, and a message in my inbox at LJ. It's simple: they want to use one of my videos, I should reply as soon as I can. And, so, of course, I reply via email as they asked. I say that they can indeed use my video and that I look forward to seeing what they'll make of it.
Phew, and WOW, I say, closing the laptop.
After that I feel more and more excited, and a bit unsure, and still EXTREMELY confused. It hasn't quite sunk in yet. My brain can't quite grasp the idea that those two creative, funny, entertaining 'Tubers I've been watching sporadically for ages (and known of even longer) wanted to use one of MY videos.
With over 700.000 subscribers, they are kind of big on YouTube, and seeing as how I used to be very into the whole YouTube community, keeping track of everything and everyone, it felt like a huge thing. Although, true, I'm not as active on YouTube these days as I was a year ago. But I'm still there!
My friend and I go on and about with our day. I send a few messages back and forth with the two friends who texted me about it in the first place.
We watched shows - Q and I - and movies, and hung out, and later we were going to meet up with another friend whom we have in common, and HER friend. Marika and Katrine. I realized I'd be with three other people, so I decided not to charge my phone until I got back.
We went to Marika's stable and took care of horses and rode them and did all of that jazz. When we got back from the short ride in the woods, and we're feeding the horses, my phone rings. It's Eddy.
He says that Rhett and Link contacted him again, and that they still haven't heard from me. They say it's getting urgent, because they'd want/need my permission to use the video within, say, 15 hours or so. I'm completely baffled at this point, a little panicked, thinking, hey, I emailed them! Why haven't they heard from me? (I later understood that perhaps they did hear from me but it was more about the fact that they needed to talk to me directly to explain things further, and get a more official O.K from me. And/or they never received my previous email. Who knows!)
Eddy encourages me to go along with it, since it seems like such a fun opportunity, and he asks if he can give my number to them. I hesitate, knowing I have low battery, but of course I agree within moments. My battery's been low before, and it's still lasted longer than I'd ever thought it would.
And so, a minute later, I get a call. I answer, and it's Rhett! He introduces himself, is very kind and polite, and asks if I'm excited for the premiere, and I surprise him by saying I'd already seen it the previous night. I explain that my battery is low, but that it should be okay.
He says they found my vlog, and that they want to use it to create a song, and as he goes on to explain it... aaaand that's when my battery dies. The conversation was cut short and didn't last long at all.
By this point I'm struggling with my painfully discreet excitement bubbling inside, and the TERROR of how badly things are going. But WOW I was just on the phone with Rhett! But OH NO, how rude and terrible, my phone battery died!
That second friend, Marika, asked who I was on the phone with, and... Well, gosh, I explain to her, sounding a little TOO casual I'm sure, that it was a pretty big YouTuber wanting to use my video and needing me to confirm that I give my permission to do so. She gets curious. She half-jokingly says that I should ask to be paid. I dismiss the idea because it's not about money. I'm basically honored to have them use my video. She asked how big they really are on the site, and I say they they're more or less high up, and she tells me "Okay, you can do it for free this time, but next time you should get paid!" and smiles, and I smile back.
It was tricky trying to stay normal and mature while going "AAHHHH OH MY GOD OH MY GOD!" inside my head. (I actually literally flailed in the car, a while later, when going grocery shopping with the friend I was staying at. I waved my arms around and was simply freaking out of joy [and nerves]! And as we were doing the actually grocery shopping I'd randomly go "oh my god!" completely unrelated to anything we were doing/picking up at that moment. I don't know if it got annoying, or weird, I hope not! Probably it did, though. And yet that's after I suppressed 70% of my excitement already. Hahah! Poor my friend, understanding why it was a big deal, but not understanding my one-track mind at all times.)
During all of this I am thinking about borrowing a phone, but I don't know how to contact them, and I don't know Eddy's number off the top of my head, so I don't really know what to do. Also using a friend's phone to get in touch with people in the Netherlands (since that's where Eddy lives) seems a bit crazy. Hence I don't. I figure I'd email Rhett and Link once I got back to the house.
We say goodbye to the friend with the horse, and her friend Katrine, and we go back to the house.
I get back, I charge my phone, but my friend and I are going out again in a moment. She lets me borrow her old phone, which has battery, while I leave my phone at home to charge.
As I switch it on, though, I notice that Eddy's number is one of the few saved on the phone memory and not on my SIM card. Nor do I have any call history on this borrowed phone. I then have to switch phone again to look it up, and then I switch the SIM card back to the borrowed phone, let my own phone charge, and I then text Eddy again. (Because the call history didn't show the last number, so I had no way of returning the call directly.)
I explain the situation and say I'm out the door again, without internet or a direct number, and I ask if he could convey the message to Rhett and Link that I have a phone with battery again. I feel bad about it. And nervous that I'll have made a bad impression, somehow, or that I won't have time to get everything in order. Haha, because of course i wanted this badly.
Eddy texts me back saying he's sent the message to them and that I should probably expect them to call me again soon.
I reply and thank him for all his help.
And right as I've put my shoes on and am exiting the door to the house, Rhett phones back. He'd obviously gotten Eddy's message.
He finishes explaining about how they want to use my video, and he says that they could send people my way, perhaps increase my audience and such, and it sounds like he's making a point to convince me, haha! But I'd of course already made up my mind long ago. I tell him that they can, of course, use my video. He explains that they have this simple release form they'd like people - me, in this case - to look over and sign just so the fact that I gave my permission is more or less official (to avoid confusion and trouble for all parties in the future), and I understand that. Very professional!
We spoke for a short while and after this round of conversation I was much more calm. It was a relaxed chat, and he was very normal, bright, polite, and cheerful. It was very honest, and way different from how we usually connect to them when watching them on a monitor, whether it'd be live or pre-recorded videos on their channel. Which makes sense.
That's when I realized a thing we've all heard in the past is true; we ought to think about something more often; celebrities are "just" people. Whether they're a lot famous, or simply a little famous, and whether it's online, offline, or both. They're just like you and I.
After the errands my friend and I had to run, we got back and fought with her cranky laptop so I could print and sign the simple release form. I read through it and it was all very basic!
We then managed to scan it and send it back to them. It took time, but we managed it! I'm very proud of her laptop, haha! (And of us. And I thank her kindly for her help. She is![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
frejasanne on here, by the way.)
After that we ran out AGAIN, and didn't return until much later. Early the next day we left her house to stay at her cabin for a few days. Which means I was far from any sort of internet connection the day the video was released. Eddy texted me with bits of information to keep me in the loop. It was very surreal to hear about how many views the video had, and how many views my original video received because of it, and all the lovely comments people left me.
Sunday evening I finally make it home, and, days later, I'm finally able to go online. I had 1546 emails in my inbox, a MASSIVE amount of video and profile comments, a dozen PMs, several Twitter, LJ and Tumblr followers. It was EXTREMELY surreal. And very, very exciting!
I've come down from my high since then. Now I actually AM calm and mature about it all. But looking back I sure as heck do remember how I was geeking out, haha! It was amazing.
Eddy has made his own blog post about what happened on HIS end. To read that, click HERE
If you wish to see the video, click HERE
DFBTA
Mac
I will tell the (not so) dramatic story of back-and-forths, and then I'll shut up about this whole thing! Here, people who asked for it, is the story:
Honestly, I have no idea at all how they found my video. Out of all videos on YouTube, and even out of all Harry Potter related videos if that's something they searched for specifically, I have no idea how they could possibly stumble on to mine. But I'm glad they did!
It all started months ago, really, when I decided to read the Harry Potter book series again before the release of the last movie. I started rereading them very early, because I've done scheduled rereads in pure stressful panic before, and this time I wanted to make sure I had time to take it easy.
I wanted to read a book a month, or something like that. If I read faster, so be it. I just wanted to make sure I had time in case I was lazy. Turns out it went very well!
As I read on, and spoke to fellow hardcore fans, and experienced the hype online, I started getting more and more emotional about it all ending.
Of course it ended properly when the last BOOK came out. But the premiere of the last movie was still a big thing. No more books, and no more movies now. The two big things would be no more.
I thought of all the things I've experienced both directly and indirectly related to Harry Potter. All the people I'd met, and the friends I'd made. For over ten years now, Harry Potter has been either a huge part of my life, or simply a small part in the back of my mind. It's always been there.
It is very nostalgic for me. I was a young girl when I started reading the books, and I am now 24 years old when a big part of the journey ends. Harry Potter lives on, but a part of it ended with the movie.
Never again can we go and view the intro, hear the theme music, and look forward to another half-assed movie that keeps getting things wrong.
I then watched the "HPLive" event, streamed online, airing live from the red carpet premiere in England. They interviewed the crowd full of energetic fans who'd camped out there for days, and the actors and actresses, and even J.K Rowling herself. (There were Swedes being interviewed WOOO!)
Towards the end there were beautiful speeches and tears, and it was emotional to watch. Previously to this I'd wanted to make a vlog to simply say "Oooh, I am excited for the last Harry Potter movie!" and not much else.
That evening at half past eleven I needed to take my dog Bell outside one last time before going to sleep. I grabbed my video camera as I left.
I walked her, and then I decided to record something. I'd wished for it to be calm, to the point, with good lighting, nice scenery, and somewhere steady to put the camera.
Instead I ended up outside, with a handheld camera view, with noise and bugs and horrible surroundings, while I was feeling very nostalgic and emotional!
I uploaded my video July 8th. Feeling bad about how ill-portrayed and silly I was in that video, I sat down and made another one as well, and I uploaded that one the same day, at the same time as the other one.
A couple of days later I got on a bus, rode it for an hour, and stayed at a friend's place. We had a blast, and on Tuesday the 12th of July, at midnight, we went and saw the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 2 premiere. (Yes, indeed, Sweden for once had an early premiere, a few days earlier than some countries!)
We went to bed early in the morning, technically the 13th at this point
A few hours later we wake up and have breakfast. I then check my phone for messages. I have two new text messages. I would quote them exactly, but I've deleted all my messages since.
One was from a fellow Swedish HP fan, at that time staying in Stockholm - I knew - experiencing their premiere on a grander scale than my friend and I did in our small town.
She told me she'd been tracked down via Twitter, since we follow each other on there, and that it was weird... but some YouTuber was trying to get a hold of me, or something. It sounded pretty urgent, so she recommended I go online to check it out.
I open the next message, and it's from my good YouTube friend Eddy. He understands the YouTube scene, and he says the same thing with a bit more excitement!
"Mac!" he says. "There are some pretty big YouTube people who wants to get in touch with you! It could be a great opportunity for you! They found me because they saw we'd written to each other on Twitter. Go check your inbox ASAP!"
I'm paraphrasing.
So I think "Wow... uh... What the...?" and show those texts to my friend. "I need to go online!" I say, excited, and confused.
She pulls out her laggy, crappy, little laptop. (Why do computers always break? It's only about a year old, and it suddenly can't handle anything and it's not a virus.)
There is a lot of waiting for pages to load, and signing in to email accounts, but I finally manage it and I check my inbox. Rhett and Link have left me a YouTube profile comment, a YT private message, an email, and a message in my inbox at LJ. It's simple: they want to use one of my videos, I should reply as soon as I can. And, so, of course, I reply via email as they asked. I say that they can indeed use my video and that I look forward to seeing what they'll make of it.
Phew, and WOW, I say, closing the laptop.
After that I feel more and more excited, and a bit unsure, and still EXTREMELY confused. It hasn't quite sunk in yet. My brain can't quite grasp the idea that those two creative, funny, entertaining 'Tubers I've been watching sporadically for ages (and known of even longer) wanted to use one of MY videos.
With over 700.000 subscribers, they are kind of big on YouTube, and seeing as how I used to be very into the whole YouTube community, keeping track of everything and everyone, it felt like a huge thing. Although, true, I'm not as active on YouTube these days as I was a year ago. But I'm still there!
My friend and I go on and about with our day. I send a few messages back and forth with the two friends who texted me about it in the first place.
We watched shows - Q and I - and movies, and hung out, and later we were going to meet up with another friend whom we have in common, and HER friend. Marika and Katrine. I realized I'd be with three other people, so I decided not to charge my phone until I got back.
We went to Marika's stable and took care of horses and rode them and did all of that jazz. When we got back from the short ride in the woods, and we're feeding the horses, my phone rings. It's Eddy.
He says that Rhett and Link contacted him again, and that they still haven't heard from me. They say it's getting urgent, because they'd want/need my permission to use the video within, say, 15 hours or so. I'm completely baffled at this point, a little panicked, thinking, hey, I emailed them! Why haven't they heard from me? (I later understood that perhaps they did hear from me but it was more about the fact that they needed to talk to me directly to explain things further, and get a more official O.K from me. And/or they never received my previous email. Who knows!)
Eddy encourages me to go along with it, since it seems like such a fun opportunity, and he asks if he can give my number to them. I hesitate, knowing I have low battery, but of course I agree within moments. My battery's been low before, and it's still lasted longer than I'd ever thought it would.
And so, a minute later, I get a call. I answer, and it's Rhett! He introduces himself, is very kind and polite, and asks if I'm excited for the premiere, and I surprise him by saying I'd already seen it the previous night. I explain that my battery is low, but that it should be okay.
He says they found my vlog, and that they want to use it to create a song, and as he goes on to explain it... aaaand that's when my battery dies. The conversation was cut short and didn't last long at all.
By this point I'm struggling with my painfully discreet excitement bubbling inside, and the TERROR of how badly things are going. But WOW I was just on the phone with Rhett! But OH NO, how rude and terrible, my phone battery died!
That second friend, Marika, asked who I was on the phone with, and... Well, gosh, I explain to her, sounding a little TOO casual I'm sure, that it was a pretty big YouTuber wanting to use my video and needing me to confirm that I give my permission to do so. She gets curious. She half-jokingly says that I should ask to be paid. I dismiss the idea because it's not about money. I'm basically honored to have them use my video. She asked how big they really are on the site, and I say they they're more or less high up, and she tells me "Okay, you can do it for free this time, but next time you should get paid!" and smiles, and I smile back.
It was tricky trying to stay normal and mature while going "AAHHHH OH MY GOD OH MY GOD!" inside my head. (I actually literally flailed in the car, a while later, when going grocery shopping with the friend I was staying at. I waved my arms around and was simply freaking out of joy [and nerves]! And as we were doing the actually grocery shopping I'd randomly go "oh my god!" completely unrelated to anything we were doing/picking up at that moment. I don't know if it got annoying, or weird, I hope not! Probably it did, though. And yet that's after I suppressed 70% of my excitement already. Hahah! Poor my friend, understanding why it was a big deal, but not understanding my one-track mind at all times.)
During all of this I am thinking about borrowing a phone, but I don't know how to contact them, and I don't know Eddy's number off the top of my head, so I don't really know what to do. Also using a friend's phone to get in touch with people in the Netherlands (since that's where Eddy lives) seems a bit crazy. Hence I don't. I figure I'd email Rhett and Link once I got back to the house.
We say goodbye to the friend with the horse, and her friend Katrine, and we go back to the house.
I get back, I charge my phone, but my friend and I are going out again in a moment. She lets me borrow her old phone, which has battery, while I leave my phone at home to charge.
As I switch it on, though, I notice that Eddy's number is one of the few saved on the phone memory and not on my SIM card. Nor do I have any call history on this borrowed phone. I then have to switch phone again to look it up, and then I switch the SIM card back to the borrowed phone, let my own phone charge, and I then text Eddy again. (Because the call history didn't show the last number, so I had no way of returning the call directly.)
I explain the situation and say I'm out the door again, without internet or a direct number, and I ask if he could convey the message to Rhett and Link that I have a phone with battery again. I feel bad about it. And nervous that I'll have made a bad impression, somehow, or that I won't have time to get everything in order. Haha, because of course i wanted this badly.
Eddy texts me back saying he's sent the message to them and that I should probably expect them to call me again soon.
I reply and thank him for all his help.
And right as I've put my shoes on and am exiting the door to the house, Rhett phones back. He'd obviously gotten Eddy's message.
He finishes explaining about how they want to use my video, and he says that they could send people my way, perhaps increase my audience and such, and it sounds like he's making a point to convince me, haha! But I'd of course already made up my mind long ago. I tell him that they can, of course, use my video. He explains that they have this simple release form they'd like people - me, in this case - to look over and sign just so the fact that I gave my permission is more or less official (to avoid confusion and trouble for all parties in the future), and I understand that. Very professional!
We spoke for a short while and after this round of conversation I was much more calm. It was a relaxed chat, and he was very normal, bright, polite, and cheerful. It was very honest, and way different from how we usually connect to them when watching them on a monitor, whether it'd be live or pre-recorded videos on their channel. Which makes sense.
That's when I realized a thing we've all heard in the past is true; we ought to think about something more often; celebrities are "just" people. Whether they're a lot famous, or simply a little famous, and whether it's online, offline, or both. They're just like you and I.
After the errands my friend and I had to run, we got back and fought with her cranky laptop so I could print and sign the simple release form. I read through it and it was all very basic!
We then managed to scan it and send it back to them. It took time, but we managed it! I'm very proud of her laptop, haha! (And of us. And I thank her kindly for her help. She is
frejasanne on here, by the way.)After that we ran out AGAIN, and didn't return until much later. Early the next day we left her house to stay at her cabin for a few days. Which means I was far from any sort of internet connection the day the video was released. Eddy texted me with bits of information to keep me in the loop. It was very surreal to hear about how many views the video had, and how many views my original video received because of it, and all the lovely comments people left me.
Sunday evening I finally make it home, and, days later, I'm finally able to go online. I had 1546 emails in my inbox, a MASSIVE amount of video and profile comments, a dozen PMs, several Twitter, LJ and Tumblr followers. It was EXTREMELY surreal. And very, very exciting!
I've come down from my high since then. Now I actually AM calm and mature about it all. But looking back I sure as heck do remember how I was geeking out, haha! It was amazing.
Eddy has made his own blog post about what happened on HIS end. To read that, click HERE
If you wish to see the video, click HERE
DFBTA
Mac
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2011-07-22 07:10 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-07-22 11:22 am (UTC)It was mad.
no subject
Date: 2011-07-22 09:25 am (UTC)Lol bro just for the record I did get it, I got that it was a big deal, I just wasn't quite, uh, as much with the one-track mind so it was confusing at first.
Mac why do I have like six Klaine icons oh my god go away
no subject
Date: 2011-07-22 11:21 am (UTC)Like we're the same person. I thought about writing something about how you most likely understood it but... Well, yeah, even now I can't phrase it. Like you get everything else. You get most things. Like the HP hype, and fandom stuff, and internet stuff, and just. Yeah. More like you got it but didn't feel the same XD
I didn't think you'd read all of this! Wow.
Q. ...Q. WHY do you have six Klaine icons? HOW long has it been since you-- I-- Q...
no subject
Date: 2011-07-23 10:05 am (UTC)Afaik they're all from NBK? You know, back before I hated Blaine with a fiery passion and all? I really don't have any LJ icons from anything later than that, anyway, since I mostly shifted focus to GF and then Tumblr, lol. I even think I realized once before and was all OMGWTF then too idk idk. I should actually remove them this time.
no subject
Date: 2011-07-23 06:46 am (UTC)I didn't think you had anything to feel bad about in your original HP video. It felt very natural, and gave an outlet to your emotions at the time. ;-) Besides, we all need to "geek out" once in awhile. I've expressed similar excitement over great events in my own life.
no subject
Date: 2011-07-23 03:06 pm (UTC)You're right. Wise words. I guess it just surprised me, because I didn't expect to making that kind of video. I had it all planned out. But then I realized I'd never get around to making the video if I wanted it to be that perfect.