Weekly Round-Up: 29 January – 4 February 2018

February is a short but important month.

In February, different parts of the world celebrate the history of two marginalised sections of society: in the US, it’s Black History Month, and here in the UK, it’s LGBTQ+ History Month. (Fun fact: they’re the other way round in October!) Over the years, both groups have used YouTube as a platform to share their experiences, which in turn educate all of us that have not gone through them. For those lessons and your truthfulness, we thank you all.

Watch Black Panther. Watch Call Me By Your Name. Watch the new Cloverfield film which has been dropped on Netflix like a Beyoncé album, directed by and starring numerous people of colour. Show support for art that champions and highlights different, engaging narratives. Let your wallet do the talking for you.

Even if February is the shortest month of the year, we’ll just shout twice as loud.

Anyway, on with the Round-Up!

I spent 4 weeks in Hospital | Hannah Witton

Hannah Witton has been away from our subscription boxes throughout the first month of 2018. Her followers on Twitter will know why, but she has now uploaded a video to tell everyone where she’s been.

She has had ulcerative colitis for a long, long time, and in the past few months, she experienced a flare-up of the illness which eventually hospitalised her over Christmas. One major operation later and she’s started to get back on her feet, on the road to recovery.

The level of detail that Hannah goes into in the video is refreshing to see – taboo-breaking as she always has. The open and honest way that topics such as defecation are discussed is what will keep you engaged for the entire runtime of the video.

As well as that, a really interesting thread was sparked on Twitter as Hannah pointed out that her treatment was free at the point of access thanks to the NHS. Worth a read.

My Response To The Fight | Joe Weller

The world and its mother watched the KSI vs. Weller boxing match, with over 21 million views so far – they saw Joe Weller lose in three rounds at the Cobble Pot Arena in London.

A short video uploaded within the first 24 hours of the result shows the class in defeat that can sometimes be seen to be lacking in professional sport. Black eyes are rugged and cool, so that’s something!

Aspects of Introspection | Daniel J. Layton

PMS is no more – for Daniel J. Layton, at least. This is an evolution of that format and it is called Aspects. This month’s theme is “Introspection” (January will do that to you).

With this new(ish) format, Dan will be filming something each day and putting it together for our ears and eyes to enjoy. 2017 was a hard year, and the absence of the last three months of PMS was a result of that. A refreshed Mr Layton starts this year off with a video that stands against any other monthly vlog in terms of heart and honesty.

Tell Me Something I Don’t Know (feat. Dan NerdCubed) | Thomas ‘Tomska’ Ridgewell

So, like, TenEighty takes complete credit for this collaboration video between two YouTube behemoths, Thomas ‘Tomska’ Ridgewell and Daniel Hardcastle. We featured them both in an article about our dream collabs and as if by magic, here they are! We’d like to collect our share of the ad revenue, boys – if that’s even still a thing.*

This sketch features something that needs to be blurred out on the end of a power drill – need we say more? As with all sketches from Turbo Punch Productions, the less you get told, the better it is going to be on that first watch. Suffice to say, this one feels like one that will stick in your head, with the twist causing you to laugh days later when you remember it while waiting at traffic lights stood next to a random stranger. (That is a completely made-up story.)

*The lawyers that we don’t have have told me to confirm that we don’t actually take any credit, as it takes a lot more than just saying something to make it solely ours. We at TenEighty are just super happy that Tom and Dan have worked together!

A Day In The Life Of An Olympic Athlete | Katie McDonnell

The Winter Olympics are happening this year in Pyeongchang, North Korea. Team GB is going with its biggest party of athletes ever, and they all need to be kitted out to the nines.

Katie McDonnell, professional free-runner, went along to the Adidas base in Stockport to show us around that kitting-out process. This is a video that shows a side to athletics that you don’t see very often, and it is fascinating because of that. The kit is so damn nice as well – we’d like to buy it all!

Want more? We’ve got you covered.

Jack Dean is back at it again with a discussion of YouTube culture. With the countdown in the bottom left of the screen, he goes through 50 questions about various facets of what we may or may not hold close to us. As always, he doesn’t hold back, unless you count that one thing, which is understandable. The audience has a real insight into YouTube when they watch Jack, and this is no different. Are fans being exploited by creators? It’s always hard to argue no when you watch his videos.

A bucket list is the reason for Becky James’s most recent video. Retrieving an old notebook from a box long forgotten, she found a list which had three bullet points on it: make a YouTube channel, reach 10,000 subscribers, go to New York. This video is the centre of the Venn diagram of those three things – she found out that she hit 10,000 subscribers in Times Square, lucky her. Congratulations on the milestone Becky, what an achievement!

Jon Aitken is a name that is known well around these parts, and we are excited to see that he has decided to go completely freelance. In his video, he talks about how he came to that decision, how he manages his time to be the most efficient, and so much more. He talks about self-worth with regards to being paid for your work, which is something that creatives deal with in a very real way. The Prince’s Trust comes highly recommended by Jon for any budding businesspersons. Also, a big fan of the Bristol shoutout!

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