Youtube Analysis Of VFX Documentary Viewers.
In 2008 I added a Youtube Channel, dedicated to collecting, and favoriting links to documentaries and inspiring visual effects. I uploaded several of the documentaries that I enjoyed as I was growing up (and had to take a few of them down — thank you Lucasfilm). but it seems to have a reasonably popular following. When I started doing this there were no channels of this type I could find, but there is now a plethora of content in this realm, and the channel subscriptions follow many of those. The uploaded content has been fairly static, except for the removed videos, and it provides an unique opportunity for analysis.
Youtube provides analytics of who is watching, and they are posted below. Some conclusions can be derived from this, as to the centers and general ages of VFX professionals. It is still a male dominated field worldwide, although actually working in several shops, I see that the practice of VFX is far different these days with more female artists every year — at least in the United States. The Star Wars documentaries likely skew the demographics a bit, but the general content in the favorites is broader in scope. The demographic for the video with the broadest content that I uploaded, shows similar numbers to the ones below
The sharp drop off in the twenty-somethings is interesting. The 45-54 year olds were mostly inspired by Star Wars and 2001 , the 35-44 year olds were likely the Terminator2 and Jurrasic Park influences. With all the VFX we now see on the screen, it is shocking that more interest in the younger demographics is waning. That might be due to the fact that these are mostly documentaries about practical effects, which the upcoming generations have little experience with. It could also be that they are so ubiquitous, that no one questions how they are made any more, but just accept them for being part of regular filmmaking.
If you have any conclusions you would like to discuss about this, please add to the comments below.
AG