video. Filming himself playing the piano anyway, the YouTube video brings him the jackpot

Elliot got bored one night in June 2018. To pass the time, he filmed himself playing the piano at random, and put the video on YouTube. First, it was secret, seen by nearly 70 million people, and Elliott brought in enough to pay for his studies (first published in July 2021).

This is the story of a boring summer night in Arles (Buchs-du-Rhone). We are June 19, 2018. That evening, Elliot He decides to spend the time filming himself (pretending) playing the piano in any way: Rush-E (rush means “rush” or “rain” in English). The student still does not know that this little joke will make him rich and famous … well, more or less.

But let’s not rush: let’s continue the story. Rush-E This is the title of the music he originally composed Boss sheet music (literally “king of degrees” in English) on cynthia. and broadcast on YouTube, a video sharing site. Synthésia allows you to play piano on the computer, but above all compose and listen to these pieces that are physically impossible to play (unless you have four pairs of arms).

Popular Youtube videos that unite a huge audience. example with this An impossible copy of Edward Gregg’s famous piece : In the den of the mountain king. Don’t try again at home, at the risk of breaking the piano…and your fingers. In short, Elliott set his sights on Rush E and filmed himself rebooting it (which is a rarity). The result was posted on YouTube. his nickname: “Rush E but played by a real person” (video less).

In French, the title translates to “Rush E, but played by a real person” (that’s impossible, let’s remember). The video is three minutes long, and we watch young Elliot play softly at first…just in the beginning. After that, the piece is carried away, and the teenager begins to wave his arms in all directions and hit the keyboard with his fists (however, he did not suffer any piano during filming). The concept is basic, but it had to be thought about.

In short, it’s like a musical. We enjoy watching (and listening), then we turn to one of the countless other videos of the same proverbs on Youtube. But the peculiarity of Elliott’s video is that it went from a hundred views in two years … to several tens of millions during the summer of 2020. So, without explanation. As of this writing, nearly 70 million people have watched the video. It keeps going up…

What made you ask Elliot so many questions? Who is he ? Why did he do this? What are their (social) networks? France 3 Alsace managed to find this 22-year-old from Mulhouse. He was a programmer at the end of his studies at Nim (Garde) and is currently in an internship At the handicraft studios in Villeurbanne (Ron). The future ex-student heads to small independent video game studios.

“I was browsing Youtube, and I saw this music… and I thought: Oh, it would be funny if I couldn’t play this music on the piano… I act like I play it. So I put my piano on, I did it in one take, and a bit of editing, and presto there.” In three hours, it was fine.

Synchronization is more or less perfect. “I still listen three or four times to think of the beat, and know when and where to hit the keys…because I don’t know how to play the piano, for real.”

Suddenly, in July 2020, it exploded. The gear started.

Note among the special effects (zoom in/out, blur effects due to speed) … the head studs of former President Jacques Chirac (still alive when the video was released, looks far away). why then ? “I don’t know at all. It was totally ridiculous and made me laugh a lot at the time.” It’s ridiculous that the tone of this video definitely makes you laugh.

Silly concepts make videos satisfy the audience. Such was the case with Strasbourg Youtuber Ken, who was able to swap out a paperclip for the iPhone thanks to a series of swaps. Also ridiculous is the staggering number of people who watched Elliott’s video. “Suddenly, in July 2020, it exploded. The gears started.” At first, he didn’t even know it: it was his close friend who noticed.

Elliott has a theory about this sudden explosion of views. “It took Youtube in its head at one point to highlight short videos, where when you watch them, you watch others straight. I think my video ended up there, recommended by Youtube. People were browsing it, and I was getting views.”

Note: This popular video is taken from no less famous music, composed in honor of a very famous band Internet meme (Funny picture instructed to simplify), titled E. Chaotic music, for the sake of a picture no less chaotic, combined:

• President of the American YouTube
• The corpse of Prince Farquad is in it partner
• Mark Zuckerberg’s test room (from Facebook)
• The letter E is superimposed
• The fuchsia blur for the photo

You didn’t understand anything and find this meme completely ridiculous? It’s totally normal, it’s the core of internet culture and many old (and absurd) memes. For more local and understandable memes, we refer you to France 3 Champagne-Ardenne and its “decentralized” memes honoring French regions.

However, the magic of Youtube’s algorithm has had its effect. “I go see, and I find 10,000 views. And I say to myself: What ????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? On the homepage. For a while, when someone opened Youtube, it ended up in front of my video.”

And the It is not over, as others will say. Elioth continues to garner views, though his pace has slowed. He even inspired other members of the Youtube community (he didn’t define himself as a Youtuber who regularly produces content). “Other people I prepared the same concept. Some even base their entire chain on this principle. However, with much less success: we often prefer the original over the cover. Note: Other people have filmed themselves watching and interacting with Elliott and his buddies’ video…

Don’t stop me on the street, I don’t have any fans.

Elliot, who stays on Earth

However, Elliott kept his cool. “I did not become influentialI don’t stop in the street, I don’t have any fans. My contours are mainly concentrated in the United States, and in Asia: Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam. France ranks only fifteenth in the ranking, and the Japanese watch it more than, for example, the French. It’s still very strange…”

Elliot’s daily life hasn’t really changed. If not in his evenings, sometimes. “They present me as the friend who has achieved 50 million views. And we talk about it for fifteen to twenty minutes.” His studies were also affected after this video…very positively. “I warned the people who made the music in the base to warn them that Youtube wants to monetize the video. I asked for permission: 50% of the video is theirs.” Monetization allows content creators to make a living from their videos when there are a lot of them, like Mastu, a Champagne Youtuber who made his job.

Financial assessment of monetization: €25,000 [Montant qui correspond à la première publication de l’article en juillet 2021 quand la vidéo n’en était “qu’à” 47 millions de vues]. Not just pops. And invested very wisely. “My video game trading school, Creego in Neem, at a cost of 21,000 euros. Most of them went there. So it’s great, I don’t have any debt after four years of school, it was practically free.”

in the opening His Youtube ChannelElliot could never have imagined it and trusted his beginnings. “I chose ‘The guy in pajamas’ as my nickname. I wore one when I played the piano. In fact, the Attic player said that if you want to get a string working, you need a suit that’s easily recognizable.” [dans le cas de ce célèbre Youtubeur, c’est une chemise hawaïenne jaune; ndlr] . I respected that for about a year, before I stopped. And I renamed myself Elliot, because it’s in my mail [ courriel; ndlr] Pro, marked “The Man in the Pajamas”. It was bad for her to enroll in my school…”

I renamed myself Elliot, because in my professional email, “The Man in Pajamas” was flagged. It was bad for her to enroll in my school…

Elliot, the former pajama player

“At first, I wanted to talk about animation. I did anything that came to mind. Podcasts, short films. Theme: school, like all young people who have no idea. And also Trailers For video games…not to mention loads of videos – not included – where I sing for my friends. “ And to be sarcastic. “In the end, the rate of posting was very sustainable, about one video per year.”

else Short film, directed by “A strange hour” During the competition, related to mysterious “SCP Foundation” (See below). SCP Insurance, Containment and Protection. “SCP is a world I love”young man says.

“this Online collection of short stories Scientifically speaking: It’s the world’s greatest collective history. Anyone can report on a paranormal phenomenon [ fictif; ndlr] that will be hidden from the world. The SCP Foundation secures them so that ordinary people can live normally.” To read, the Report SCP-087 on an endless staircase. “Obviously I didn’t win the competition, we won’t lie to each other…”

He also re-tried the piano theme In another video where he splits this time. It “just” racked up 1 million views for this other piano piece two years after the first. So success isn’t always there, but don’t worry: once is really good.

Elliot too Twitch accountfor broadcast video games (Like strategy games civilization or pioneerwithout forgetting Heartstone). But he’s not very resourceful: he used it mainly during confinement to pass the time. Therefore, it is preferable to create video games rather than distribute them.