How Cut and Jubilee have adapted during quarantine
How the new normal has taken production houses to look to video-chatting.
‘Minimum Viable Show’ (a term I caught wind on from Li’s Newsletter) basically describes how we’ve all been relegated to the same production equipment resulting in an equal leveling between the individual and the production studio. The new differentiator is the entertainment value.
YouTube channels with high-production that make formulaic content using ordinary people have been around for a while.
Most notably, Cut and Jubilee take up a big share of this real-estate at 10M and 5M subscribers respectively. I’ve always been very fascinated with this long-form and inquisitive approach to content. Tackling hard subjects and bringing different perspectives to the forefront.
These companies were renting large spaces for their trendy all-white, empty room aesthetic but now are relegated to the democratic webcam we all possess. With Tiger King’s bonus episode exclusively filmed on videochat and John Krasinski’s SGN (a show exclusive to the quarantine era) getting sold to ViacomCBS, it’s safe to say production houses have started to adapt.
Cut and Jubilee have put out a few new formats amid the quarantine era that feed into the benefits of self-isolation. And adapted their older formats.
My favorite’s being Jubilee’s Dating 20 Women From Around the World and Cut’s Around the World Series.
Here are my high-level thoughts:
All content produced is now globally-relevant. we’re all living in a similar situation due to self-isolation, relating to someone across the world has never been easier.
The ability to recruit people internationally. Before these production houses would literally ask you to drive to their LA-based studios without compensation. Now everyone is a call away.
More focus on audio since bad audio is hard to ignore. To a generation who is constantly watching massive creators film with their phones, production value doesn’t really matter but audio is where it counts.
Creators have started using zoom and I’ve seen a few videos on TikTok telling stories using them. My current favorite is the TikTok Bachelor by @tuckerdoss. It’s a 5-part TikTok series, with 3 parts out rn. Watch the first part here.
Here are my Future Predictions:
Since the barrier of entry is low to compete with Jubilee/Cut formats, more people will try to do it.
Agencies will come out with packages and pitch ideas based around zoom-formatted videos to brands.
More creators will take to zoom/video chatting to be a new normal type of media to edit with.
There’s definitely a bigger conversation here with even Bon Appetit making a bunch of ‘@ Home’ content pioneering a mix of webcam and camera style editing so I’d love to hear your thoughts!
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Thanks for reading and hearing out my takes. Here’s a few things I’ve been consuming this past week:
I helped brainstorm the title/thumbnail for Colin and Samir’s latest vid - The Disappearance of David Dobrik
I’ve watched this production TikTok probably 100 times. (Emma Chamberlain commented on it too)
Turner Novak’s deep dive on TikTok is an absolutely amazing read.