(comments booming)
- Yeah, we've started to get some hate lately.
When we started Jubilee Media two years ago,
it was maybe 350K subscribers.
Now that we're about to hit four million,
I think it's only recently we've realized
how powerful our platform has become.
We've dropped the ball a few times,
but we also want to be as honest and transparent
with you guys as possible,
show some new Jubilee faces, address some issues.
So enjoy the episode, and see you guys on the other side.
(tense music)
- [Facilitator] I regret a video we have released.
Three, two, one, go.
- We make what, like three videos a week,
so over the course of a year,
it's like 150 to 200 videos.
So obviously, we're not gonna make every single video
to the standard that, you know, we have for ourselves.
- But we should.
- We should, it's just more likely than not,
we're not gonna hit it out of the park every time.
We just try to go even harder the next time.
- I just know there are videos
that I feel like don't represent those communities well,
or represent the issues well.
We maybe cave to just like, it's better than nothing,
but we are trying to help represent a community,
and an issue, and we should always hold ourselves
up to a bar, even if that means not making quota.
- There's probably what, five to 10% of the videos
that we actually create, finish,
spend all this money, time on, and we don't put out?
That's also part of the process
that a lot of folks don't see,
and I'm pretty proud
that we do still keep the bar pretty high.
- What I really wanna double down on for our team
is like, we're 15 people,
but we literally affect millions of people.
People look to us to be the ones
who represent these people well.
So, we just have to realize the accountability we have.
- I think we do feel that.
At least, I do.
I'm like, no, I feel the 3.6 million subscribers
that we have like, on my back as I go to sleep at night.
I think if this prompt was like,
is there a video on our channel that I don't like?
Yeah, absolutely.
I think I've learned from the first video I put out
that there's someone out there who's relating to it,
who's disliking it, and and loving it, or whatever.
And so it's my job to make something
that can touch people in the right ways.
- [Facilitator] We cater to our audience too much.
Three, two, one, go.
- Ooh!
- Oh, Erin's going back and forth here.
- I don't know, I could honestly live between these two.
I originally went to somewhat disagree,
because if we really were going
with everything our audience dictated,
like on a views, I don't think we would be making
as much LGBT content as we do.
I know I wanna make a thing about Polynesians,
but I know in my head, I'm like ah,
but would the audience show up?
Would the views be too low?
And I see that actually affecting the choices I make.
- I think our channel can be so much more colorful
with the kind of content that we're creating,
and I think we're slowly getting there,
and doing, and going out there, and doing different things.
I don't think I'm fit to direct like a "Spectrum" Latino,
you know what I mean?
Like, do all Latinos think the same?
I feel like I'd rather be working on something else
that relates to my history, or my experience.
- But aren't we always gonna be under-prepared
to address lots of topics?
I don't know that we should not do a topic
because you're not Latino, right?
That you feel like maybe you could be
a little bit more prepared,
'cause you don't have all that background and experience?
But if we sort of did everything that way,
there's probably a lot that we probably, you know,
wouldn't be able to touch.
Maybe it's like the business hat,
I don't know what it is, but I feel like all these people
who are entrusting us, who want to see content from us,
our entire job is to figure out
how we take the mission we have,
and serve it in a way to them
that like, they care about.
I don't think that means they get to guide our company,
but I do think that they should be top of mind
in who we're serving.
- It's getting hot in here. - It is, a little bit of air?
- Metaphorically and literally.
- If you walk, you get a little air.
- [Facilitator] It is our responsibility
to protect everyone in our cast.
Three, two, one, go.
(Michael chuckles)
- I didn't register the prompt fully, sorry.
It's not like anything, like tension or anything.
I know you're gonna edit it to make it seem
like I was thinking about it,
but I wasn't thinking about it.
It's our job, okay?
- Yeah, I think it's our responsibility
to do all that we can to protect them,
and whatever that means on a case to case basis.
But, can we always protect them?
No, because I mean, we put them on the internet,
and millions of people watch it,
and we don't necessarily,
we can't protect them from everything.
- I can't control what you have on your Instagram,
or what you said on set.
I will make sure it's as accurately portrayed as possible.
But I've had a lot of cast members
who ask me before going on the show like,
oh I'm just worried about
looking bad in the edit.
And I said, well put it this way,
it's on you to conduct yourself
in the most mature, thoughtful manner possible,
and I will honor that.
But if you come acting in a certain way,
I'm not gonna try to fix that for you.
- A lot of times, we are actually airing on the side
of trying to make people look better,
because we do fear for them, right?
Like, we do wanna protect them.
We try really hard to make things feel balanced,
and I think it's why our edits are so difficult,
and take so long.
- The comments, though.
We don't really have control over the comments,
which is something we talk about often.
Sometimes they're brutal to us, like, you know what I mean?
And we tell our castmates not to read the comments,
but you gonna read the comments.
(all laughing)
- [Facilitator] Censoring our comment section is okay.
Three, two, one, go.
- The reason I want people to comment, and like,
if they say they're the wrong things,
and they attack people,
we talk about like white supremacists, and this and that.
We don't know who those people are
unless we are opening up the floodgates
for them to comment, and you know what I mean?
So that we can know their name, we know an account-
- I don't know, though. - We can get to them.
- 'Cause it's literally just,
you're behind a computer screen.
There is no accountability for the commenter.
- But I think if we shut them off,
that's ignoring the real problem.
- I mean for us, we might be able to look at those comments
and be like, oh these people are racist,
or these people have this problem,
and we might be prepared to handle that.
But like the, cast that are in our videos,
they're normal people, they don't work in media.
They're like, why are all these people saying I should die?
Do you know what I mean?
So I feel like, with that, it's a tricky balance.
- So I agree, actually, with keeping people accountable,
but if people are sending personal addresses and stuff,
and that, would you, do you feel like that-
- No, that's why I moved a little bit.
- Okay. - Honestly.
'Cause like the personal information?
- Like harm, and physical harm.
- That's different, for me.
- It's literally just where someone's safety is at play,
or when there's just no insight,
it's just pure attack.
- What's an example, though, of like an attack?
- So YouTube has something already,
like even without us doing anything,
called potentially flagged comments.
If you go read them, you'll know what I'm talking about.
(people laughing)
It is, it is like,
I hate this mother effer, I'm gonna kill 'em.
I hope they die.
Like, that's not a valuable comment.
- I'm sure the one that we're all thinking
about is Erin from the vegan episode, right?
Because that's the one time we've ever
taken down comments anywhere, and that was on Instagram.
This was like a big discussion within our team,
because we all kind of disagreed about like,
should we do that?
Because we're against censorship, obviously.
We want people to be able
to articulate their opinion in a safe way.
But in that particular scenario,
it seemed like there was personal information
about her workplace, or even home
that people were starting to share that we said, wow,
if this amounts like physical violence in some way,
we're responsible for that.
- For the Instagram post, we turned off all comments.
- Yes. - You know what I mean?
Like, we shut down conversation.
- Do you think we should have-
- It would've taken a lot more work,
but we could have gone and sort of taken down
things that were like explicitly,
so that's where I think maybe the audience
felt a little bit more
like we don't even trust them, you know?
- No, I think that's fair. - Nobody could say anything.
- Well, we didn't trust them at that point.
They were, you know?
I feel like we had reason to not trust,
and I mean, there were plenty of other places
they could have had dialogue.
I don't understand why we're getting so much heat
for turning off comments on one post.
- We wanna do things the right way,
and we wanna be authentic to our audience.
Frankly, like we disagreed with the way
that she handled herself on set, but she chose to do that.
- Well, I don't, I don't disagree with that.
- Sorry. - Sorry, I don't.
- I may not speak for everyone.
- I think the way she was acting on set was fine.
I mean, it's a game.
That's what people don't realize, you know what I mean?
She wasn't calling him names or anything,
she was just saying he's not vegan,
which I think is hilarious, so.
- It's funny, yes.
- I don't think that she was being disrespectful or rude.
I think like the way it was perceived, absolutely.
Just because I've been in "Odd Man Out,"
I think like, it is very competitive.
You're trying to find the person.
- [Facilitator] There are people
who should not have been in our cast.
Three, two, one, go.
- If you start to discriminate too much
of who comes on set or not,
and you just start having
all goody-goody two shoes people on set
who are very agreeable,
and you don't have the assertive people,
you don't have the conflict that causes
the interesting things to happen.
- On a practical level,
you can't predict what people are gonna do
when you put them in a situation like this
that can be kind of a pressure cooker.
People are, that have surprised me
who have come off very mellow in a phone call,
and the second you put 'em in an environment
like "Middle Ground," or "Spectrum," or "Odd Man Out,"
a whole 'nother side of them comes out
that even surprises them.
I also recognize that there is value
in taking a risk with someone
who might be a little bit unpredictable,
but has something really strong to say, and is passionate.
Everybody I've put in, I've believed in that.
Did some people not give me what I was hoping?
Sure.
But, I hesitate with the word of
should I never have included them in the first place.
Like, with that idea.
- Looking in retrospect is how I answer this question.
Let's just take "Middle Ground," for example.
The whole point of "Middle Ground"
is to show the world
how to have a conversation with opposing sides.
So for me, a person that would be a poor choice
to have in that video
is someone who's constantly cutting people off,
not letting anyone else talk, just like yelling.
You know, like that's the extreme example.
- The fact that they show up? - Yeah.
- The two opposing sides
is like the start of the conversation.
So I think that's also like a great example of the fact
that they showed up. - They even show up, yeah.
- And I also think that the way that we dialogue
shouldn't be controlled.
I think sometimes we get angry, you know what I mean?
And conversations look ugly,
but at the end of the day,
someone's walking away more informed than they did before.
And so, I don't wanna control the way people like, dialogue.
I don't know.
- People aren't seeing the air between those moments
of when we're taking breaks,
and chatting with each other,
when we're checking in with each other.
Those aren't in the edit,
because we're not gonna watch two hours of people chilling
as we redo the lighting.
- [Facilitator] This job is emotionally exhausting.
Three, two, one, go.
- Oh! (Erin laughs)
- It's the only time I went to extreme.
- [Taylor] Oh dear.
- There have been times
I've been incredibly emotionally taxed.
Like, I've pulled multiple all-nighters.
But I feel like the more I've taken on,
the more I've found ways to just be more effective,
and take care of myself.
- We're in this space, this digital space,
but we're artists, and we're sen,
I'm sensitive about the work that I create,
and to see outside yourself is exhausting, is tiring.
But at the same time, I love my job.
I love being an artist,
and I wouldn't change it for the world.
- I base my self-worth a lot off what I do.
And so, if a video doesn't do well,
or it's not hitting the bar I expect of it,
as far as the quality of the video,
and maybe not always the views,
I look at that as a reflection of my abilities.
That I did the best I can,
and that wasn't good enough.
And so that can be difficult to deal with mentally.
The hardest part is that I recognize for myself,
my purpose is to serve our community, and serve people.
And I don't always feel like I'm doing that well.
And so, that can be a little difficult to swallow
when I think I've missed the bar,
and I'm letting this community down,
and I'm letting people down.
I just wanna do right by our communities,
and our people, and help talk about our struggles,
and what we're going through in the world.
And I get frustrated when I don't do that right,
and I expect myself to do better, and so.
- I think, like the directors,
I totally understand how you guys are standing over there
in terms of like your self-worth.
We look at you guys,
and we're like, you guys are doing like so far,
like above and beyond like what we could
ever expect, or hope for,
so I don't want you guys to be on strongly agree forever.
But yeah, just want you guys to know that we see you guys.
- The reason I stand here is like (sighs).
I'm not gonna get emotional now.
For me, it's not even about videos,
or about like our performance.
It's really about people.
And it's hard, like when I see you guys struggling,
and stay up late, and like killing yourselves
making these videos, it's like,
I'm both incredibly proud, but I'm also,
it hurts me because I'm like, oh,
are we loving and honoring our directors?
Are we loving and honoring our team?
I feel accountable for everyone.
Like we need to pay, feed, insure all these people
because they're our families, and we want people to grow.
And how do you balance those things,
and how do we just get everyone to the level
where we're thriving?
It's emotionally exhausting in some ways,
but I also think it's like the greatest honor that I have.
We're trying to build something great,
and we're getting better.
Bring it in!
- Erin! - Good job.
- Hey guys, thank you so much
for watching that episode of "Spectrum."
It was a little weird to direct that.
Yeah.
- I don't know, it's just like very meta.
I think it was really good for us, honestly.
- Yeah, I think so.
It's good to talk about it openly, too.
- Yeah.
- You know, nothing hidden behind closed doors.
I feel like I said some idiotic things
I'm gonna regret later.
- It's okay.
Be nice to Ien in the comments.
- Yeah, be nice.
- All right, thank you guys.
We'll see you next time.
- Bye.
(pleasant music)