This guy has so much (too much?) youtube energy. It's exhausting. Do people act like this in person, or is it solely their youtube persona? what makes this silent movie over acting level of over the top something that is such a thing on youtube?
There's an adage in producing video or being on TV that you need to act 2x "more" than your usual self to appear mildly engaging due to the limits of the medium. Some people go a bit further than that, but the idea of being far more intense and full-on than you would ever be in real life is pretty standard in modern video production. Makeup, lighting, and other factors will often be dialled up too.
I've seen plenty of shy, geeky folks who've become YouTube famous talk about the necessity to do this as they progressed. You can see it for yourself, too, if you find a successful channel and go back to the oldest videos. The energy and style of talking will ramp up over time. Quite few folks will talk, act, and look entirely as they might naturally.
I don't think that it's the energy of the acting that's jarring. I think it's the frequency of the cuts. This could be to cover up mistakes in diction (you only need to remember less than a few seconds of your lines at a time!) or just to hold the viewers attention with unnatural movements.
One example of what you describe is GreatScott, a videomaker covering DIY electronics. He has definitely developed a more intense style, but he still gets through a paragraph of his lines without a cut. He doesn't need to turn his image upside-down to be engaging.
This is actually not the case in credible acting class. No acting teacher will tell you to act like a buffoon for the sake of being engaging unless you're trying to be a children's programming buffoon. Even then, if you look at what's popular for longer than a hot minute in children's programming, the people don't act like that. The people on TV that act like that are usually trying to sell you something. People believing "over the top == good" probably grew up liking JarJar Binks.
This is more an idea around presenting than acting, but I wasn't talking about being a buffoon, as such, but using more energy to overcome the limitations of the medium and to, ironically, appear more "normal" on screen.
If you watch a lot of popular YouTubers' early vs later videos, you can see it in effect. It's common to see radical developments in elocution, projection, and energy from their natural state, and it's nearly always for the better.
If you think this doesn't make them look like a buffoon, then you are much more generous than I.
"always for the better" that's definitely a matter of opinion, and I'm not buying it. it's just another in the long list of reasons why i don't spend a lot of time watching these types of "creators"
For the record. I get like this when I'm really geeking out over something. I also know that I can be exhausting to listen to when I'm like this, and try to tone it down depending on my audience. Though, if I was a youtube personality I would probably try to lean into it slightly.
It's a youtube persona. One of the most effective ways to increase your chances of success in modern media is to be loud and emotive. It's way past trend phase and is now endemic on all platforms among content creators who hope to have any younger viewers.
My concern is that people will actually start acting this way in person every day. I've known a few people that are larger than life over the top whenever they do anything, but they luckily have been rare. These type of people would definitely make me refuse to RTO if my coworkers were like this.
Yes. Coming across whilst browsing, or being recommended, anyone that talks 'like this' (overacted, yes, overreacting too), plus is edited so frenetically, is a turn off. The talk is deliberately longer than it needs to be. Feels like being doorstepped.
