Utah County videomakers spark a viral explosion

Online video » Filmmakers from Provo and Orem are making a big splash — and making money — on YouTube.

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King and Marshall learned the hard way that a spoof that’s behind the curve will get ignored. In mid-September, they released a spoof of the Korean rapper Psy’s hit "Gangnam Style" in a song whose lyrics made fun of NBC’s coverage of the London Olympics.

"We were at the back end of his wave," King acknowledged, as well as spoofing an Olympics that many people had already forgotten.

"This video really taught us how important it is to stick to your audience. Our audience is really geek-themed," King said. "We know better now: Don’t piss off your audience."

The Warialasky group tried a sports-themed video once, and it bombed. Since then, they stick mostly with geek-friendly ideas, which they write on sticky notes in their shared Provo apartment — above the computer on which they edit their films.

About a year ago, Casen Sperry took a class in viral-video filmmaking from Utah County’s acknowledged expert in the field: Devin Graham, who makes the popular extreme-sports videos on the YouTube channel DevinSuperTramp.

According to his blog, Graham is also dating Utah County’s hottest YouTube sensation, "hip-hop violinist" Lindsey Stirling, whose popular videos — which Graham shoots — landed the former "America’s Got Talent" competitor a record deal and a U.S. concert tour.

"He knows the YouTube landscape so well," Landon Sperry said.

In Graham’s class, everyone had to start a YouTube channel. Warialasky was the only one to take off, and Graham called the members up to meet them and offer them more advice.

"He took us under his wing personally," Landon Sperry said. "One of the things he told us: ‘Your videos are way too long. … You need to cut it down a lot.’ "

The Sperrys and Brown learned from Graham the four "C’s" of YouTube success: consistency in the frequency of your videos; collaboration in working with good people; a call to action, to urge people to subscribe to your channel; and, most important, content.

"Content is king," Casen Sperry said.

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YouTube as community » King and Marshall learned about the supportive nature of the YouTube community this summer when they attended VidCon, a national convention in Anaheim, Calif., for online-video makers and fans.

"At the beginning of the day, it was like being the new kid on the first day of school," King said. Then people saw the Gotye spoof, which they had just posted. "By the end of the day, people were really talking to us. … The next day, they knew who you were, and they wanted to talk about your video."

The viral-video world isn’t a zero-sum game, Landon Sperry said, and one videomaker’s success doesn’t depend on another’s failure. Because of that, the YouTube community is quite welcoming of new talent. "They’ll tell you anything but what their next video is going to be," Landon Sperry said.

The filmmakers make money from ad revenue. YouTube gives them a bit of money whenever a viewer watches an ad attached to one of their videos. More recently, companies will pay filmmakers to use their products in videos.

None of the filmmakers would discuss how much money YouTube pays them. It’s enough, though, to let the Warialasky guys out of the wedding-video business and to pay off the debt on Hales’ investment in an Italian-ice cart business.

Teddie Films isn’t yet at the stage where it’s making money, King said, and for now "people are excited to work on something [for free] that might go viral."

So why did Utah County become an incubator for viral videos?

The Sperrys credit that to Orabrush, the tongue-scraping device — and the viral videos, starting in 2009, that the Provo-based company made to sell it.

As Orabrush’s corporate history tells it, the product’s inventor, Bob Wagstaff, went to a BYU market-research class for help selling the gizmo. The one student who took up the challenge devised an online video idea and got his roommate to shoot it. The roommate was Devin Graham.

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