Dan Brown & Revision3 On The Dan 3.0 Web Series [Interview]

YouTuber Dan Brown, who first achieved YouTube fame with his crazy Rubik's Cube shenanigans, launched his own web series earlier this month, along with Revision3. In Dan 3.0, Dan is putting his life in the hands of viewers, putting out a video every day for a year and taking suggestions from fans about what he will do and how he will live his life. So far Dan 3.0 has been a hit, with Revision3 traffic doubling with the show's launch. I had the opportunity to ask Dan, as well as Ryan Vance, VP of Programming and Production at Revision3, some questions about the new hit web series. Find out what they had to say after the jump! The first thing that struck me when I heard about Dan 3.0 is that this is a humungous undertaking for Dan. A video a day for an entire year is a big responsibility, not to mention that aside from shooting and editing each episode Dan has agreed to basically give his viewers control of his life for the next twelve months. I was curious to find out how his day-to-day life would look for the next year, as well as whether he was having any second thoughts. Here's what he had to say: ST: What is your day-to-day life looking like since you've started Dan 3.0? Do you still have any time for your non-Dan 3.0 life? DB: Mornings and early afternoons are pretty much entirely dedicated to the production of that day's Dan 3.0. What happens with afternoons and evenings depends on what the viewers are having me do. So far on most days I've been able to still do my own thing in the evenings, but as everyone gets more and more used to Dan 3.0--as we get comfortable doing bigger and bigger things--it'll be interesting to see how my personal life pans out. One thing's for sure though-- the community cares about my wellbeing. I don't think they'd let the project get to a point where my social life completely falls apart. ST: Are you having any regrets or freakouts? If so, how are you dealing with them? After all, this is a huge undertaking!! DB: "Regret" isn't exactly the right word, but I've spent a fair amount of time thinking to myself "THIS IS CRAZY! WHY AM I DOING THIS!?" It was particularly bad in the weeks just before Dan 3.0 began-- everything was set for the launch and the only thing left for me to do was stress out about all the things that could potentially go wrong. I dealt with/continue to deal with the stress by talking to people-- my mom, my girlfriend, my manager, other YouTubers, etc. Everyone's been incredibly supportive and now that the project's begun what my life is going to look like on a day-to-day basis is taking shape. Things look good from here on out. Dan shares his daily Dan 3.0 routine with viewers in the following episode, 'My Routine, Danielle, and A World Record!' I also had the opportunity to ask Ryan Vance a few questions about Dan 3.0, from Revision3's point of view. I wanted to know everything from how the project came to fruiting, to the success of the series thus far, and how it's been promoted. Here's what he had to say: ST: How did Dan 3.0 come about? Did Dan Brown come to Revision3 with the idea or was it a joint effort? RV: Dan came to us with the idea of giving his life over to his fans and his community. In that first meeting with Dan, I was immediately sold on not only the idea, but Dan as the right guy to pull it off. The success of an idea like this is really predicated on the host of the show. Do people want to take part in his life and see what happens? Dan is an exceptionally intelligent, articulate guy and that was what sold me in our meeting. We created the "decision engine" based on Dan's specs and have been been working with him to further develop the show. ST: We heard that Revision3 traffic doubled when Dan 3.0 launched. Congrats! Have you seen this same sort of success with web series in the past? RV: We always see a nice spike in traffic when we launch a show and we're always excited to see that. Our goal is to continually bring new viewers into Revision3 and with every new show can come new viewers. In this case, a lot of Dan's YouTube audience came over to our site to start using the decision engine, which was exciting. ST: How is Dan 3.0 being promoted? I know that Dan announced the show at VidCon and promoted it through his own YouTube channel, and that it has received a lot of blog coverage as well. Is Revision3 doing anything else to promote the show? RV: We have put our PR machine into opreraton, helping get the word out about Dan through traditional and non-traditional media. We saw write ups all over the place from NPR to local media in Dan's hometown to all the new media outlets. We've also promoted the show on our site and across our other shows. ST: Can you provide any statistics? How many people are watching? Is viewership growing with each episode? RV: We don't share internal views statistics unfortunately, however you can see the views on YouTube and they've been significant! We've definately seen interest and viewership stay steady or increase with each episode...we haven't seen a lot of falloff at all. I think people are really engaged with Dan and this revolutionary project. ST: Are there any rules about "tasks", or will Dan literally do anything that is voted up to the top? RV: As long as it's not illegal, hurts Dan, hurts his family or his girlfriend, anything goes! However, Dan is the arbiter here and will decide what suggestions go too far and which are things he can and will pull off. ST: It's only the beginning and it seems like dan is already cracking under the pressure with technical difficulties and other stresses. Do you think he'll make it? If he goes crazy it will probably be great for traffic, eh? RV: I think Dan is learning and experiencing this project right along with the audience. He's going to have his good days and bad days, and part of what makes this so engaging is his honesty as he lives his life! This is really an unprecedented show and event and we're just as excited as everyone else to see what happens next!

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Dan Brown & Revision3 On The Dan 3.0 Web Series [Interview]

Megan O'Neill

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Megan O'Neill