How I Became a YouTuber
Hi guys! “Welcome to YET another Romsky video!”
Some of you may have heard me say that nearly 70 times by now. But for those who haven’t, you should check out my channel at “Romsky” on YouTube! Shameless plug.
In all seriousness though, my journey through the world of YouTube seems to be a common question for many people. So perhaps here I can explain how I got there.
From a young age I always had an interest in different forms of technology. It could have been anything from computers to little gadgets. But eventually I stumbled upon cameras. I want to say I was roughly 8 years old when the first Transformers movie came out. And like any other 8-year-old boy, I thought it was the greatest film of all time (it really wasn’t). As a result, I demanded my parents to get me the transformers toys. At some point I wanted to “bring them to life” and re-enact scenes from the movies. That’s when I discovered stop motion. I would take a picture of my toy, then move it 1mm, then take another picture, and then move it another 1mm… on and on that process would continue until I was able to playback those images quickly to give the illusion that my toy transformer was transforming itself. It was extremely time consuming, but what else did I have to do? At some point I was unhappy with the quality I was getting and wanted to step-up the production quality of my stop motion. This is where I begged my dad to buy a proper DSLR camera. Eventually he agreed, but stop motion wasn’t that appealing to me anymore. However, the camera got me more into photography.
I played with that camera for a few years when I was around 10 – 13 years-old. Honestly, I had no idea what I was doing. I was just snapping pics left and right on school trips or family events. For the most part, I thought I looked really cool. Then when I was around 14, I got more into filmmaking. I followed several YouTube channels sharing the secrets and tricks behind Hollywood films. YouTube became HUGE educational resource for me in this field and I kept watching hours and hours of instructional videos. I decided to take a photography/broadcast course in high school. I don’t mean to sound conceited, but after all those hours studying on YouTube, I didn’t really learn much from the course. But the one thing I did learn, was that I loved going to that class every day.
Following that, I didn’t do much to take advantage of the knowledge I had. It’s not like 14-year-old me was going to start my own movie production. But then a new genre on YouTube started booming. Vlogging.
The idea of vlogging wasn’t anything new, but in my opinion, Casey Neistat revolutionized it. It was an interesting way of following someone else’s life and hearing their thoughts and opinions. It almost felt like you knew the person, which is why I think the genre took off. It’s like reality TV but in this case it’s actually real (I suppose this depends on the channel). I was engrossed in his videos, as well as travel filmmakers like Sam Kolder. It got me thinking, “I want to do this.”
My next big trip was the 2017 Junior World Championships in Taipei. And I decided to bring the same camera that my dad bought years ago. I made a short montage clip of the city and posted it on Instagram. The responses were incredible. I made a promise to myself that once I graduated high school, I’d have some extra time in which I could dedicate to a YouTube channel. In the meantime, I started brainstorming how I wanted my channel to look like and what kind of content I wanted to create. I began researching the current camera market and deciding on what equipment would work best for me. I spent hours and hours searching. Then on my 17th birthday, I piled some money together and got myself a new camera.
Soon after, I graduated high school. So, I was about to start my channel, right? Wrong. I got nervous. I wasn’t sure how people would react to it. I began doubting myself. When making a channel, you’re really “putting yourself out there.” Most viewers are anonymous, but as the creator, there’s no hiding.
It took me almost 3 months before I could bring myself to post a video. I settled on ‘Romsky’ as the channel name. It’s the first 3 letters of my first name, and the last 3 letters of my last name. It was simple, but I felt like it had a nice ring to it. I posted my first video around midnight and quickly went to sleep afterwards. I figured I’d wait 8-10 hours before checking how the internet would react. The internet loved it.
It’s been 4 years since, and I’ve made over 70 videos now. I did my best to post as often as possible. If I were to summarize to someone what my channel is about, I would just say, “it’s about me.” Because at the end of the day, that’s what it is. It’s an amazing way to connect to my fans and show them the behind the scenes of my training. The audience only sees the polished product at competitions. They don’t really see the process it took to get there. And that’s what I love sharing with the world. I try my best to put my honest self in my channel. I always want it to be authentic and have my actually personality in it. I got to say though, it took some time getting used talking to a camera. Obviously, there is still a level of privacy when it comes to my training regime. A magician never fully reveals his secrets. But for the most part, I try to be as transparent as possible.
I’m still learning with every new video that I make and I’m constantly thinking about how I can produce more content and produce better quality content. You’d think that the initial investment is the camera and you’d be done! But I’m constantly experimenting with different tools all in hopes of giving my audience the best viewing experience possible.
My viewers over the years have been insanely supportive and I wanted to give a MASSIVE thank you to all of you! At the end of the day, I make these videos for you guys! And on that note, I hope to see you guys on the other side, SUBSCRIBE TO ROMSKY! 🙂
-Roman Sadovsky
