April 15, 2016 - Sargon of Akkad - Carl Benjamin
09:57
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| Hello everyone, so I thought I'd give you a quick update on what's going on with me and what I'm doing in the future. | |
| And I'm quite excited about some of this, and I'd really like to get people involved because frankly I need your help, and I know that I have a lot of talented people following me, so I think we can do something quite cool. | |
| So to start with, I've been invited by Aura.tv to host my videos on their platform, which is part of a umbrella called Unsafe Speech, as I understand it. | |
| They host some quite big names, so it's quite an honour to have been invited. | |
| And initially I refused, because I was under the impression that what they were effectively was a YouTube network, and the last thing I was going to do was sign up to a YouTube network. | |
| However, it turns out that's not what they are, and I was misinformed. | |
| It turns out that they're actually a video streaming platform, much like YouTube, but a bit more exclusive. | |
| They've also got some really great people on there, so I thought, well, why not? | |
| It's somewhere else that I can take these ideas and infect people with them, hopefully. | |
| And so I've signed a contract with them, and I'm going to be hosting videos on there. | |
| Now, the terms and conditions of the contract are exactly what I would want. | |
| It is specifically written into my contract that they have no editorial control over my content, which is the reason I would never think of joining any kind of network or any kind of franchising system that might desire that. | |
| I'm sure you're aware, but my editorial integrity is paramount. | |
| If I can't say what I genuinely believe to be the truth, then there is no point doing any of this. | |
| And so I was very, this was the first issue that I made sure was settled. | |
| So basically, it becomes like a platform like YouTube. | |
| And the only real stipulation is that if I put a video on Aura, then they have exclusive rights to that video for 24 hours. | |
| So a day after I've uploaded it, I'm then free to upload it to my YouTube channel, which I of course will do. | |
| I don't think this is a particularly stringent requirement from them, and I thought it was completely acceptable. | |
| I'm actually genuinely impressed that the contract they offered, it was exactly what I would want out of a contract like this. | |
| I mean, there was nothing in it that I take any exception to, and I don't imagine that anyone else would. | |
| So I was quite pensive at first, but okay, I thought, why not? | |
| This might be a good opportunity. | |
| And so, this is what I'm going to be doing. | |
| So, I'll leave a link to aura.tv in the description, and when I upload videos to there, and after I've uploaded them to that, I'll put a link to the site on there if for some reason you want to go and visit it. | |
| I won't be putting all of my videos up on there, because some of the videos I do are just short ones for fun, you know, just easy, low-hanging fruit. | |
| But I'll be putting all of the ones on there that require a lot of work for me to do. | |
| If none of this interests you, I can guarantee you that nothing else is going to change from your perspective. | |
| I'll still be putting all of my videos on this channel. | |
| You'll get everything as usual. | |
| There'll be no costs or anything like that to anyone. | |
| So, I don't think it's going to change anything for anyone who's just not interested in this. | |
| So secondly, I thought I could probably do with new artwork in some way. | |
| And I could go and commission something from an artist. | |
| But I guess I thought it would be more interesting just to do a competition because I'm pretty creative. | |
| But when it comes to representing myself, I'm actually really bad. | |
| I just can't figure out how best to present myself, and that's why I tend to use fan art in the videos. | |
| And I really love fan art, it's really cool. | |
| It's nice to have a community interaction like that. | |
| So I thought I'd run a bit of a competition. | |
| So what I was thinking is I'll leave my email address in the description of the video. | |
| And if you would like to enter the competition, you can email me a piece of fan art that you've done, and then I'll choose the one that I like the most, and I'll use it as a replacement image for Sargon in my videos. | |
| Ideally, I guess I would like something nice, like really quite beautiful. | |
| And I don't really know what I'm imagining. | |
| I guess. | |
| I don't know like I guess I think a picture of Sargon sat on a throne or something deep in thought would be cool but it seems a bit egotistical so So I don't know, I don't know, I'm, I really wouldn't know what to suggest, you know, but something that captures the grandeur and the beauty of ancient Mesopotamia. | |
| There, there is a lot of art on Google if you have a look. | |
| That is just gorgeous, really gorgeous representations, and I guess I would quite like something like that. | |
| But again, I completely leave it up to the freedom of the artist to submit anything they want and what I'll do is I'll have a cash prize for this. | |
| I'm not probably something around 200 pounds, so about 300, 300 euros. | |
| So I mean, if that's not enough, let me know, but I mean that seems like a reasonable amount and that will go to the prize winner, obviously. | |
| But what I'll also do is showcase the arts of anyone who enters and I'll leave a link to your Twitter or contact information. | |
| So if people want to get in contact with you because they particularly like your artwork, then they can do so. | |
| It's a way of also advertising yourself, because I won't obviously be able to use them all, although I might if there are like three or four that I particularly like. | |
| I'll probably do a sort of gradient of you know 200 150, 25 or something and hand out prizes like that, because I might find myself with a lot of artwork that I simply can't choose between in any meaningful way and I really would like to use, maybe in future, videos or different kinds of videos or something like that. | |
| So I'd really like to, I'd really like to see what what you guys produce, to be honest, if anyone's interested, and I'd like people to be compensated for their time as much as reasonably possible. | |
| So I've got a few stipulations, um, the image has to be 1920 by 1080 pixels, preferably where possible, and I think the the successful image would probably have these properties. | |
| But there would be the image of Sargon. | |
| That could be. | |
| I guess I would need the image layered so there would be a background and then there would be the image of Sargon that I could take out of this and put over something else, if possible as a PNG with transparency, where the image of Sargon isn't, because I might need to use it on top of a video that's paused or something like that, I don't know, and I might want to use the background independently just as a nice background for something in a video. | |
| So, if possible, I would appreciate it if any submissions can come, either two distinct pieces, what that can be placed one over another, or a piano, a sort of a Photoshop or GIMP file that is layered so I can distinguish between the two, so that that would definitely be a good thing to send and that would be a probable requirement just for video making in future. | |
| I haven't thought about animations or anything like that, but I certainly wouldn't turn down animations. | |
| If people wanted to do something animated, I wouldn't have any problem with that. | |
| A video clip could be used in place of an image. | |
| Again, I literally don't know. | |
| But I leave it open to you guys, and anything that comes through that's good, that's really high quality, that is definitely worthwhile, will definitely be put into the competition. | |
| Yeah, so if you're interested, I would really appreciate it. | |
| And you can contact me on my email address, which I'll leave in the comment in the description. | |
| And please put as the heading art submission. | |
| So then I can just do a search in my email for art submission and find all the submissions. | |
| And yeah, and I'll compile them all into a video. | |
| I'll choose the winner. | |
| And the email you send it, please send it from the email that is also your PayPal information. | |
| Because that way, when I've decided who the winner is, I can just send the money across to whoever needs to have money sent to them. | |
| And I can guarantee that I get there without being worried that I've got the wrong email address or something like that. | |
| What I'll do is, I'll start it today on the 15th of this month, and it'll close on the 15th of next month. | |
| And it will be shortly afterwards, because I'm going to be preparing some good work for Aura. | |
| I really want to make sure that if I'm reaching a different audience, then I want them to understand what I'm doing and why I'm doing it. | |
| So I've got to prepare accordingly. | |
| So some of the things that I was planning to put out in the near future are going to be pushed back a little, but I don't think it's going to change because the things that I'm talking about are kind of constants. | |
| But anyway, I've rambled on enough now. | |
| So yeah, so if you're interested, please do email me at the email address found below with any piece of artwork that you think you would like to submit. | |
| And I will be giving everyone, of course, a full credit. | |
| I'll be giving links to all of your stuff. | |
| And any links to any sort of deviant art pages or something, do put in, and as well as the title of the image, because in the description afterwards, I'll leave all these links so people can find you if they want to find you. | |
| Because even if you don't win, you might be producing something really great that people would want to see more of. | |
| And I really want to help people out like that as well, because why not? | |
| Anyway, thanks for watching. | |
| And if you submit something, thanks in advance. |
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