October 10, 2022. Two days have just passed since the GP Explorer, this Formula 4 race organized by Squeezie and which brings together about twenty content creators. Amixem, a youtuber with almost 8 million subscribers and a participant in the race, publishes a new video.
Titled “THE RACE OF OUR LIFE – GP Explorer Part 2”, this twenty-minute sequence retraces the epic lived by the creator and his companions on October 8 at Le Mans. More than the content of the video, it was above all the speed with which it was published that generated controversy.
In a comment, on YouTube, Amixem specifies that “the editors have not slept for several days to get this madness out.” The statements, shared on Twitter by the journalist Vincent Manilève, created a controversy over the working conditions of the installers.
Concerned by the denounced comments, Florent Bodenez, editor of Amixem, then decides to clear things up on Twitter. “It’s the only time this year that we’ve done it. […] The event being so exceptional, we said to ourselves ‘yes, we will do this 48-hour challenge,’ “explains the editor.
Florent Bodenez also clarified that his team was made up of six full-time people, himself with an indefinite contract for more than three years, and that all of them worked “appreciable” hours.
A persistent lack of recognition
A few days before the Amixem episode, it was Michou who suffered criticism from netizens, but especially from her editor. The young cameraman then released a video titled “I FIND OUT WHAT MY FAMILY THINK OF ME!” where Wekyt, his editor, answered various questions about his daily life with Michou.
To the question “Has Michou ever bothered you?”, Bogdan, Wekyt’s real name, replied “yes, he has already annoyed me. He doesn’t realize the amount of work. He asks for things that can sometimes be undone with time. He makes comments to me that are not pleasant, things that are not bad at the time but that can hurt.”
Comments thrown in a rather benevolent tone but still reflect a deeper problem. Some youtubers, even if it gets weirder and weirder, tend to forget to thank or give credit to their editors. An oversight that is not necessarily voluntary but results from the way most content creators have built themselves.
“Youtube’s rise comes partly from the ‘homemade’ side. Almost all YouTubers started out by editing their own videos. So for some, there is sometimes this desire to make people believe that they are still doing everything, alone, and not they do.” Not even putting the editor in the description”, explains Julien Valen, known under the pseudonym Hibz and editor of the youtuber Joyca, with Tech&Co.
Organization, a key aspect of a good relationship
At the rate of one video per week, or even more, good organization continues to be an essential variable for the work to develop optimally. This was notably one of the other criticisms made by Wekyt towards Michou.
Contacted, neither Wekyt nor Florent Bodenez, mentioned above, responded to our requests to know more about their daily life.
However, some have known how to adapt to lighten the workload of their installers. Hibz has a permanent contract for two years with Joyca, 5 million subscribers on the counter. The latter releases one video per week, every Sunday, usually shot on the Monday before. But the hours have recently been adjusted to allow more time for editing.
“We recently switched to two editors so we can have two full weeks of editing. This allows us to produce more quality video content. We have a philosophy of telling ourselves that we take the time to do things right and if you need more time, we postpone it,” Hibz explains to Tech&Co.
A much deeper problem
But for some, the problem goes far beyond recognition and organization. He would reside in the Internet medium in general and not just in the relationship between publishers and youtubers.
“There is a problem linked to the world of the Internet and audiovisuals, with the best of both worlds on the one hand and the worst on the other. We have this start-up part, with a lot of billing, where we have to go fast all the time. We are a ‘family’ but we try to rip you off on your schedules, even if it always ends up working out. We also have many people who enter this environment out of passion and who, as time goes by, forget about it”, estimates a source who has worked with several youtubers, questioned by Tech&Co.
Some editors claim to work 40-45 hours a week, or even 70 hours on very rare occasions to complete a project. “It is not hell, we are not in the mine. It is a life adventure, we are attached to the project. When someone makes a feature film, they are glued to the project. With YouTube, we are attached to the people, with a project that is continuous”, says another source close to the environment, who also wanted to remain anonymous.
Some hope that the environment will evolve, others hope that the truth about working conditions and the underbelly of the internet world, sometimes described as “carnivorous”, will come out. “I can’t say anything bad, nobody can say anything bad” we heard. Proof of the deep malaise that remains between youtubers and their environment.
Source: BFM TV
