Rohit and Samar have been on You Tube since 2017. They have two successful channels, Go Guwahati Gone and Enei Olop G3, putting out trending videos almost every other week. Content creation is part of a complex and standardised business model, with its real time impacts not limited to social platforms. This interview with Rohit and Samar was to try and understand how they take part in this process while maintaining a consistent flow of meaningful, funny and relatable content across different social media platforms.
When you started out, what did you want your YouTube channel to be about? Have you been able to hold up to those ideas?
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We started our channel back in 2017 with prank videos. They were low effort, took really less time, and the creation process was quite easy. Since then, we’ve been able to increase our budget to introduce concept-based creations on our channels. We ourselves have matured emotionally and experienced a lot through the years. It’s been quite an interactive learning process. We’ve acquired a lot which is reflected in our content across different platforms now. We’ve made it a point to imbibe our videos with important socially relevant messages while keeping true to the entertainment quotient.
From the very beginning, the idea behind our channel has been to entertain people and, in the process, be popular and recognised for our work. Our channel has changed a lot and our content is much more varied today than when we had started. So, in some sense, yes, we have let go of our original ideas of just making prank videos and have been able to explore many new ideas and concepts. We have been quite successful in developing various aspects of our personal and professional selves with the help of this channel, and that’s something that really counts.
How do you negotiate with different platforms? Is it easier to create videos for Instagram?
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Instagram, YouTube and Facebook are 3 very different platforms with a different set of audience for each. So, when we make content for Instagram, it isn’t based on some broad concept or a story. Rather on topics of everyday life and simple ideas that people can relate with. You can make a really good Reel or IGTV video quickly but YouTube is different and so is Facebook. Conceptualisation takes a lot of time. You’ve got to think about the algorithm, views and watch time. You have to take into account people’s interests and their willingness to spend their time on your content. The content we create on Instagram doesn’t need a lot of conceptualisations that way. While it is easier to make videos for Instagram, as compared to Facebook or YouTube, they come with their own challenges. YouTube is a more complex and standardised process. Unlike YouTube which merely plays the role of a mediator, Instagram involves a bit more personal relationship between the creator and the audience.
How would you describe your process of content creation?
The process starts with a simple idea. We tend to look at the topics that are trending at the moment, our personal humorous incidents, and, of course, our own creative capabilities to solidify simple ideas into meaningful videos. The writing process starts with brainstorming, discussing and conceptualising that idea. We often have our little disagreements during this process as well, and we try and take our time through it. Going over an idea repeatedly helps. We conduct our own little experiments and try them on people around us. We often try out the jokes to see how they land. It’s a bit complex and repetitive but part of the writing process, which works out really well for us. We continue with it till we get a complete screenplay, props and characters, all included. The next part is shooting the content. We do have a team of cinematographers who help us with this process. Both Samar and I direct the scenes, and we have a manager who helps us a lot with sponsorships and production-related tasks. Once that’s done editing and post-production takes place. The final step is, of course, uploading and sharing. The process is repetitive, so dividing the work is helpful. But since we are the people behind the channel, we tend to take a lead throughout the process.
Does it bother you that there are things apart from your content which ultimately decide the success of a particular video, or do you have a way around it?
Yes and No. Definitely, there are things that bother us. Like, if there is a cricket match, that’s not a good day to upload a video. Then there’s the algorithm, if we take long breaks between videos that really affects our reach. New topics and experiments may not always land the way we envision, as the subscribers tend to be set in their ways in terms of what they expect from us and our channel. While all this is tricky, new ideas have worked out. Controversial topics will often bring negative impact. At the end of it though, external factors don’t affect as much if we are able to produce good content and trending videos consistently. Content is the king after all. Audience-based engagement and interaction plays a great role in ensuring that success.
With the overwhelming availability of content across different digital platforms, how would you guys want to stay relevant?
Today, there are multiple social media platforms and creators, putting out wonderful content everywhere. What, we hope, will continue to keep us relevant is our fresh and unique takes, and the time that we have dedicated to these platforms. We have been able to build a very strong subscriber base, and we consistently engage with them. We really do treat them as a family, and make it a point to reply to their comments. We do use new techniques, CGI and VFX etc, and give equal importance to editing and post- production which helps us create our niche. Our consistency and capacity to experiment will surely help us set apart. We are very dedicated to our ‘G3 gang’, and to deliver good content to our audience across multiple platforms. And that’s really all we can do.