In the shadow of the Disney studio lots and Warner Bros., a plane fuselage section was reused inside an industrial park near Burbank airport.
The plane section is now a shoot, where the creator of popular videos Dhar Mann uses it to shoot the original scripted dishes, all embracing his philosophy to try to “inspire, raise and bring a little more positivity to the world”.
In a quick April afternoon in Burbank, Mann leads a small caravan of golf carts on his campus, which now totals three buildings and more than 100,000 square feet, with several sets for schools, restaurants, a shopping center, a street in the city, a courthouse, a prison and “rich” and “poor” houses. At one point, eight videos run, keeping its staff nearly 200 occupied.
“At the beginning, when we shoot my apartment out of my apartment and needed different filming sets, my dining room was a restaurant, my room was a patient room for a hospital, everything in my apartment was used for production sets,” recalls Mann, noting that her apartment furniture always provides some of the sets.
It is far from its current studio, which has a fleet of cars (including several police cars), not to mention this plane section.
“These are real sets of cinematographic level. We use the same equipment, we have the same types of resources as the same production companies on television, well now, you see that on YouTube,” he said, adding that his business produces content to what he considers to be 1 / 100th the cost of traditional production.
Dhar Mann in his Burbank studio
Dhar Mann Studios
A few kilometers away on a hidden Burbank street, a pastel classroom was transformed into a scientific laboratory. A producer asks the actors wearing white laboratory blouses and safety glasses to react to something out of screen (a giant experience of “elephant toothpaste” is involved). The scene is for a next episode of The universe of AlanA scripted series developed by the popular Youtuber Alan Chikin Chow, who looks closely behind the camera operator.
Inside its studio building, the palette of colors inspired by chow of chow of roses, purple and blues flows in each room and set, in a corridor filled with lockers which imitates a high school, with rooms and bathrooms which – despite the bright colors – would be familiar to any teenager.
“We used to make eight -minute videos. They were very vignettes, they were not focused on history.” But now, because of this space, because of the cameras that we have, because of the level of narration and the details that we have put in our writing, I can certainly say that what we do now is something that you could have seen as an original Disney Channel film.
Chow and Mann are part of a new universe of professionalized creators emerging across Los Angeles and throughout the country, taking advantage of the scope of their social audience and the monetization offered by YouTube to create appropriate studio companies. A new studio system under construction next to the old.
And Wall Street and Madison Avenue took note. Chow and Mann say that there have been major investors' interests in their respective activities, affirming a trend through the sector: sports creators MEC Perfect raised $ 100 million in an investment round last year, and MRBEAST seeks to raise $ 200 million to an evaluation of $ 5 billion for his business.
“All the friends I have who are creators, they are now buying houses, they get married, they have children. Many of these people try to think, how can I have a career? I built this incredible YouTube channel, but how could I have a kind of outing, which does not allow me to live, “says Mann, says Mann. “They want to earn more money while controlling their business in a creative way, and not having a media business that has never executed a YouTube channel and may not understand how digital content works.”
The Youtuber Alan Chikin Chow set for The universe of Alan.
Advertisers, on the other hand, impatiently move their budgets to the content of creators, not only recognizing the improvement in the quality of work, but the relevance of young consumers.
“I think everyone has come to recognize that our creators are really new generation media companies,” explains Brian Albert, sales director of senior YouTube. “They are writers, they are producers, they are directors, all wrapped in one.”
On the west side of Manhattan at the end of March, when the sun was sleeping on the Hudson river, many of these best creators met during an advertising event organized by the creative service company. The personalities of YouTube Colin and Samir organized, noting how the landscape changed under the feet of the entertainment company.
“YouTube CEO Neal Mohan said that creators are Hollywood startups, and today, many of these startups are starting to look more and more like the studios,” said Samir Chaudry on stage, while business marketing specialists like Uber and Shopify have gone to the head.
And more and more, just like in traditional Hollywood, these studios are starting to flourish outside the Metropolitan region of Los Angeles.
To date, it is well known that MrBeast has transformed the Caroline of the North of Greenville into a real corporate city, where its unicenized concepts on the top come to life; But in Birmingham Alabama, Kinigra Deon built his own scripted entertainment studio.
“In 2021, I moved [from L.A.] Back to Alabama, so as not to escape Hollywood, but to build my own Hollywood, “said DEON to the participants during the Spotter event.
And in the sprawling city of Frisco, Texas, just north of Dallas, the sports creators MEC Perfect have built a head office of 80,000 square feet, including an interior lawn football (with rights), a solid basketball field (with motorized nets for elaborate punches), a game center, the first floor). Guys also build a permanent set for their emission of YouTube varieties Over time.
During a recent visit to the establishment, with the leaders of YouTube, marketing specialists and local managers exploring space (many with their trailer children), the guys used a device to explode giant smoke rings above the participants and made visits.
“I think that people's expectations with regard to a YouTube channel can be very different when entering this building,” explains Coby Cotton, one of the members of Dude Perfect, in a conference room located a few steps from the basketball court and putting green.
MEC Perfect is also the owner of the building next to it, and the company plans to transform it into a production installation which can be used by other creators, with virtual production between the plans.
“This is the first part, but I think I also think a huge component, where others can film and produce content,” explains Andrew Yaffe, CEO of Dude Perfect.
Already, athletes like Tom Brady came in space to draw content for their own social platforms or make a video of collaboration, and Cotton says that it expects that it increases.
“Because we are in Dallas where each athlete and major celebrity take place at a given moment in a calendar year given for a concert or a competition, we hope that perfect guy will be a place where they will want to stop just for pleasure, perhaps bring their children, draw a piece of content, thinking about the way they could already think of a late evening program,” he said.
MEC Perfect's Soundsstages in Frisco, Texas.
If studios are a physical representation of how the creators' economy has developed, offices adjacent to these studios represent the way it has matured. During the visit of his Burbank facilities, Mann noted how many crew members joined in places like Disney and Lionsgate, and that the CEO of his company Sean Atkins was previously president of MTV. At Dude Perfect, Yaffe joined the NBA, where he directed digital efforts of the League as an executive vice-president.
While the traditional media are trying to survive the tumult with an impact on its commercial models, the studios of creators become in many ways the hot place so that the veterans of the media land.
“We have a casting director who worked for Nickelodeon, she was the casting director for Thundermans“Said Chow.” And sometimes we get setbacks of people who are not so open -minded. I still think, what is the difference? Our casting director is from Nickelodeon, our program was shot with a budget similar to a Nickelodeon show, the construction of the world and the scripts are just as good. I think it really comes back to people who slowly start to understand that this is the new era. »»
Atkins, the CEO of Dhar Mann Studios, was one of these people, having left the traditional media at MTV and Discovery to serve as president of the company focused on Jellysmack creators before joining Mann.
“It reminded me of the first days of the cable, or the first days of non-scheme, where someone has an operational and creative advantage and prices, and they generally go up the value chain over time,” explains Atkins about the current moment. “I think that the thing that makes these creators different is that they were born in a world where they had to do everything. They just have a different state of mind. ”
Mann is a perfect example. He said that last year, he received an offer to sell his business, but refused it, betting on himself, and the future of content focused on the creator launched by YouTube, who paid more than $ 70 billion to those who downloaded videos on his platform.
“The money was on the table,” recalls Mann. “I just realized, what would I prefer to do with my life?” This is the most incredible career that I could never dream of. ”
This story appeared for the first time in the May 7 issue of the Hollywood Reporter Magazine. To receive the magazine, Click here to subscribe.
