A long time ago I was already eyeing on the build up of the Youtube community here in Malaysia. I had no doubt that we Malaysians were most suited to jump onto the Youtube bandwagon, at least in South East Asia, after it became a big hit globally. Why? Because we’re a bunch of super creative, super talented people who, frankly speaking, have too much time in the world. That, AND coupled with the fact that we’re surrounded by hi-tech devices and very much improved internet connectivity (thanks UNIFI). All that was needed, are a couple of hardworking people, a lot of stuff to share, a little bit of video recording knowledge and lots and lots of balls and ego to break our unusually shy demeanour.
Below, is such an example of a beautifully rendered production that could come off as a rojak of Yasmin Ahmad’s familiar sentimental direction, collaboration of a few Malaysian Youtube stars ala US’s @Kevjumba and @nigahiga style, amazing cinematography with nothing less of a short feature film’s expectation and stitched together by an amazing soundtrack, if not just to give a lasting impression to the viewers. Watch.
My Generasi – JinnyBoyTV
But it didn’t always start out this way. Nope. A lot of experiments (and copying) of the different methods from the west were tested by our pioneering community, and while some got little or at best mild support by the rest of our Malaysian brothers and sisters, most got ridiculed by them. After all, aren’t Malaysians the best critics of their own nation, at all times?
I still remember, some 2 years back, stumbling across some our would-be rising stars, who were getting pretty decent hits and had so much talent to share. Some of them include Youtubers like @inianwarhadi and @themingfeed, who were some of the earliest vloggers/singers I encountered.
They were pretty good! @IniAnwarHadi was filling in voids and gaps that were existent for the Malay market, who by the way, makes up most of the online population here in Malaysia. His content, hilarious yet educational, made excellent substitutes for crappy TV shows, and the creative way he sees certain things which we can connect to as locals make it an even better watch! Ps- his videos can come up to 500k-700k hits, and that’s IMPRESSIVE!
As for @themingfeed, he had something else to offer – beneath the first few videos he created to showcase his singing prowess together with some guest singers, he showed that there was effort being made to be as good, if not better, than the other Youtubers on the net. He later went on to prove this by coming out with his own short film, which had garnered a lot of views and shares not only among Malaysians but beyond that too, using his uncanny ability to connect and reach out to you in the way he produces the video. Enjoy.
Alone, Forever? – DMingThing
Nice? Bet you it was. I had my eye on him when I first saw his old singing video, and thought hard on how to meet him so that I could help him expand on his vision. It wasn’t till @missycheerio’s birthday party that I got to see him, and boy was he surprised to know that he had a fan from all the way in the UK (I was studying in London back then). I wanted him to be a star, to be recognized for his talents. And Youtube, was the channel for him to do so.
You see, my understanding on social media, is that one’s influence, or reach, doesn’t just stop with their Facebook friends, Twitter following, or the most common denominator of all (at least to online ad agencies)- blog readership. Already various tools and platform are shared out there in the world wide web, free for us to use and thus allowing everyone to have a chance at creating content in their own preferred style, reaching out to the pockets of untapped demographics of a larger, invisible pie, thereby claiming that particular space for their own.
In the Youtube space, that is exactly what happened. The few pioneers in Youtube community are right now getting easily a 500,000 hits video, if one did everything right. That’s a HUGE number to many others!
Heck, even one vlogger by the name of Joseph Germani, or @GermaniPro on Twitter, grabbed Youtube by the balls and created a personality for himself on that channel! Starting off on humble beginnings, the guy managed to fight off haters (who hated him for his guts and his ability to be so self-absorbed in his videos) and have steadily gained an increasing number of fans who would now fight for him! Check the #LouSai out 😉
#LikeALouSai (Like A Boss) – Germani Productions
Yeap, he allegedly started the whole “#LikeALouSai” trend on Twitter, Facebook and many other places. He also started collaborating with many other Youtubers OUTSIDE of Malaysia. This guy really dreams big, and big dreams he definitely has. He has certainly created a following for himself on Youtube 🙂
Oh and speaking of dreams, a friend that I fondly know as one of the artists in Bolehland.net (a webcomic site) also shocked me with his ability to create short films! If it weren’t for collaboration between some of the Youtubers, I wouldn’t have found this really awesome video he did that reminded me of Counterstrike… and boy was it really well done! Check it out!
School of war – Dan Khoo Productions
Impressed? Well he’s not stopping there, for sure! Another wicked short film he created, this time involving my sister @SandraTock even! Ps- she’s now a celebrity appearing in almost every medium out there, from newspapers, to websites, to people’s Facebook wall, Twitter – she’s everywhere! 😛 Check out the video below:
Memories – Dan Khoo Productions
Seriously, thanks to Youtube, talented people like these guys get to show their stuff to the world. Here’s hoping that he’ll one day take the challenge to create a real blockbuster movie one day, a protege to some super director one day, who knows!
Of course, thanks to celebrities like @JinnyBoy, who also created his production team with some friends of him, the Malaysian Youtube scene has never seen so much light of the day. One of his very first work collaborating with @GermaniPro got so much attention that it literally went on wildfire on most Malaysian’s social media platforms – because his content was notoriously naughty and local to boot! For example, catch this typical scene at a shop in Malaysia…
Ah Wing – Malaysia’s Number 1 Salesman – JinnyBoyTV
As if that wasn’t funny enough, he and his team made another production featuring a very commonly used word among us youngsters – you’ve got to watch it.
ABUDEN?! – JinnyBoyTV
With all of that, the launch of Youtube Malaysia shouldn’t come as a surprise to Malaysians. Now that you know the community is really thriving, and much more effort is being done to help the community grow (both newcomers and existing players), we can certainly expect a lot more of our own content coming in and I really hope this will all translate to positive news for our country’s entertainment industry.
My only hope is that Youtube Malaysia will play a larger part in contributing to the community, giving more Youtube Partnership to those who earn it, for one thing, and not just focused on the advertising side of this really beautiful platform, as we can see bigwigs like @MAS and @ETP_ROADMAP taking advantage of this new ad feature, haha. Must be good money huh?
Rock on Malaysian Youtubers! I salute you!
