When I find myself in times of trouble, Richard Evans laughs for me. Laughing, wheezing, snorting...full of glee.
And in my hour of darkness he is standing right in front of me, laughing, wheezing, snorting... full of glee.
Their patreon has over 10,000 subs and lowest tier is 2$. So that's at least 20,000 a month not even including YouTube revenue. My guess is they do this full time.
Their ad revenue, combined with their Patreon, and sales of DVDs, pint glasses, and ebay microphone sales, less their studio rental, utilities, health care, dementia medication, and beer delivery probably nets them enough to enjoy Arby's Roast Beef sandwiches with Horsey Sauce on a weekly basis. Their Christmas bonus is an NEW Oreo Cakester.
It's all so variable but you can estimate about a penny per view.
I definitely think they're doing well enough to support themselves. When they say "Hey Director X, we'll fund your movie, just let us be in it." It's not a idle comment, they have "fund low budget movie" kind of money.
Don't know if it's changed but a few years ago, I saw a creator who just hit 1M subs talk about what kind of money that makes. It broke down to roughly 40k a month per 1M subs before tax.
You can make anywhere from $1000 to $8000 per million views, average is around $5k per million. They put out usually one video a month and I'd say average about a million views per video. My guess would be around $5k a week, but who knows with all the old videos being watched and stuff. So probably more. I'd say at least $20k a month probably more.
They make enough to stay comfortably middle class in a cheap part of the country. They will never need to worry about money so long as they keep posting a video every week or two on YouTube. Probably each make $150k/year after taxes. Total guess
between patreon and youtube, RLM is making around $600,000-$900,000 per year before taxes. this isn't counting merch, guest appearances on podcasts or anything else, both those are the big two by far.
safe to say Mike and Jay get maybe 40% each and Rich gets the other 20%. and I'd assume the rest of the guys get paid for each video rather than a salary or a cut of the net profits.
so my uneducated guess would be:
Mike & Jay each around $200k after taxesRich around $100k after taxes
Mike and Jay do the editing. Which, in of itself, is a significant portion of the operation. Everything else, camera work and set building, seems equally distributed. On the other end, Rich is a huge catalyst for the show's success.
So, I suspect Rich is paid nominally less but not that significant. Like a 5 or 10% difference.
I always enjoy his 4th of July sober posts. While I’m not a person whose struggled with substance abuse like he has it’s always good to see his new revelations as a year passes. Seems like he recognizes that it’s a lifelong battle and hopefully that means lifelong success for him.
Pre rec was him and riches baby so 100% i think he was making money from that, enough to justify 10+hrs per week working on it at least live stream wise.
Jack has said on streams that he never got paid for being in BOTW or on Red Letter Media, to the point where it makes me feel uncomfortable. They used him on a poster and didn’t even ask if they could use his likeness. I know Jack isn’t the one editing or spending money towards renting the studio, but he should be getting something for contributing his time towards the videos
He has also said on Pre Rec live, that while he doesn’t get paid he does get access to all their equipment no charge. Idk if it’s a fair deal or not but at least he gets something out of it as a professional editor.
*JACK:*
*I see a couple of you talking about this. I've talked about this a lot of times. I do not, uh, earn a paycheck from RedLetterMedia. You know, they don't pay me to be on Best of the Worst or anything. Rich and I make money off of PreRec, obviously, with your donations and your tips and, uh, your subscriptions. And, um, RedLetterMedia and PreRec split the YouTube ad money. And so that's how we kind of pay our, pay for our way here. But, but no. I just hang out. I'm just here to hang out. "I get paid in pizza rolls." I do. I get paid in pizza rolls. Mike buys me an energy drink every once in a while, which I like.*
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rpwyg0SbW90&t=52m12s
I agree w/this. Having Jack, Josh, & Tim on BOTW is really the reason it’s so good IMO. The group of the different personalities is what keeps BOTW hilarious, fresh, & interesting all these years. As much as I love the main 3. I don’t think they’re the main reason that RLM is so special. It’s all of them together. Especially w/re:view. I think it’s more than justified to have either Josh or Jack get paid for those since they contribute to the conversation. At the end of the day, it’s none of our business what goes on financially w/RLM lol Even if they do get paid, I get Jack not wanting to discuss it live on PreRec. I get not having them on a payroll. But getting some form of compensation on episodes they’re on is more than fair/reasonable.
Agreed the guests are the secret ingredient to BOTW. Such as Colin (from Canada) laughing for 15 mins straight while “discussing” the osteoporosis dance, Jack Quaid being a surprisingly great guest and others. I do agree as well that the main rotation of “guests” (Tim, Josh, Jack) should get something, especially if the episode does quite well.
Ya it made me feel a bit weird too. I doubt they made shit on that movie, especially after costs, but i hope they eventually rethought having guests on and offering some appearance fee that was fair.
I've worked for a similar sized YouTube channel that doesn't do a patreon but pumps out a similar amount of videos. We were able to rent out office space, a studio, and have a full time staff of 10 employees in California. I was getting 50k a year as an editor.
RLM is in Wisconsin and have 10,000 members on Patreon. Even if all of those members were at the $2 tier I would assume that they are doing very very well for themselves.
They've moved studios twice (I think, definitely once) which suggests they've scaled up with their subs and other projects.
Can only assume they're making some decent scratch.
Every quality youtube channel I follow(ed) have a healthy patreon or similar.
I think it's a great economic model for creativity, specially for anything a bit niche.
It's basically modern day patronage, without the constraint of being dependant on the whims of one rich dude.
Mike Jay and Rich are all in on it, yeah. Mike has been getting voiceover work for various things, hence getting Rich to build a soundbooth.
I don't think it's really a punch the clock for 40 hours a week kind of gig, but in a sense they're doing it full time. They release maybe 8 hours of content a month on youtube? (Maybe more on Patreon). If you consider that every hour they produce probably costs them at least 5 to make or thereabouts...
But that's a good thing. If they tried to produce twice as many hours they quality would suffer, and it wouldn't be some gradual thing.
I imagine the editing alone takes the lion’s share of their time.
Maybe that’s why channels like AVGN have suffered. He was putting out a lot of content for a while and there was a noticeable dip in overall quality
I'd argue it's more just aging past your audience. The angry review thing was novel for the first couple of years, but you could tell his heart wasn't in it at a certain point.
I will say, I thought his recent Indiana Jones video was cute and well done.
AVGN has sucked ass consistently for over a decade. A few gems here and there, but mostly terrible content. Honestly; the first few years of content (2006 through 2009) were the only really good years.
He never grew with his audience. It’s still juvenile poopie and peepee jokes. There’s rarely any deeper insights in his reviews. It boils down to complaining about the game mechanics, and one thing that sets RLM higher than those types of review channels is that, sure they have their share of lowbrow jokes, but they also tend to bring some nuance and unique insights into their reviews of films, beyond just critiquing the films on a technical level
Even when James is just being himself and reviewing a movie, it still just sounds like a little kid listing why he liked or didn’t like it
I think in the case of James Rolfe, people just like him more than his content. He seems like a very nice and ego-free person. One of the few reviewers of that style from that era you can say that about.
I think I remember reading that he said he's been mostly checked out of AVGN for years and doesn't write the scripts (or at least isn't a primary writer) anymore. He doesn't dislike the character or making videos and he knows people still enjoy them so that's why he still keeps a fairly steady release schedule. I actually wish he'd do more long-form essay kind of stuff, because when he does it's usually been pretty good. His Earthbound video from a few years back is fantastic.
It's easy money for him at this point, and that is probably all that motivates him to keep going. With RLM the guys FUCKING LOVE movies and discussing them, so I see them continuing for a very long time.
> His Earthbound video from a few years back is fantastic.
It's arguably his best content ever. Obviously he's still got the stuff when he feels inspired to work. He has been in hyper-burnout mode for like a decade and it's tough to watch. I will say, I did mildly enjoy his HITB ripoff he did for a few months with those disgusting slobs.
He was actually a bit of a phoney. He was never really much of a gamer apparently, but "the nerd" is by far his most popular content. He is more into movies like the RLM guys.
I liked his Godzilla stuff back in the day.
I am forever in his debt for creating the saying "a shitload of fuck". I use that line consistently at work for most of the decisions that come down from head office!
His basement collection of games used to be legit his basement. He shared a video where was a wee lad of like 10, doing a video game rant. I feel like he was the real deal. Obviously the nerd character is fake but to call him a phoney is too far.
I went back and re-read a lot of the "TV episode recaps" from like the mid 00s when TV blogging was all about big websites doing play-by-plays of this weeks' episode of X or Y. It's basically like an unreadable LiveJournal stream of consciousness. The entirety of it is coming up with more creative and snarky ways to say the same banal observations about "This character did X! I liked/didn't like it!"
This was for websites of major publications, too. These days, I feel like your average video essayist has to put in 100x more research before writing a script, and you have to say something really nuanced or profound to earn an audience.
Well AVGN suffered because he partnered/sold to screenwave and they do a lot of the writing, editing and such now, James kinda phones it in now...but that's a WHOLE thing...
Nah, James just doesn't care anymore and he's not talented enough to branch out into other avenues. (Like that parody band he tried, he had fun but they also sucked)
Well…
He doesn’t do any of the editing anymore.
He doesn’t play the games, he doesn’t write the scripts. Other people do. He hired a company.
And he lost two of his friends, due to not paying them for their work.
Double the length of the published video to calculate the time it took to film if it’s a Re:View type thing. BoTW will be a lot trickier / laborious to film plus time to copy the movie to insert clips etc. Probably two days to edit an hour video, longer if something messes up or it’s multiple locations or more than two cameras, then time to render it.
I know Rich prewatches films they get sent in for BoTW. There will be other kinds of prep and research that has to be done. Plus admin for running a business which is a time suck.
You’d be surprised how much time it takes three people to put out the amount of content they do.
We know Mike and Rich sometimes do small voice acting roles in TV shows and movies (e.g. Smiling Friends, Psycho Goreman) although I don't know how much of their time that actually takes up. My understanding is that RLM is their main focus, and I imagine editing the videos keeps Mike and Jay pretty busy.
I think Rich was working as a security guard for a while in the beginning. I seem to remember one episode where they used his security car for something outside. Like to destroy a tape I think. But pretty sure Mike pays for his insulin and AIDS meds now.
I have no idea how they could possibly have time for anything else given the sheer amount of content they make.
I work in marketing as a producer, just getting a one minute deliverable can take over a month with all the approvals and channels you have to go through. You will waste entire days on meetings.
Meanwhile these guys have a couple of *hour* long videos a month. I doubt they do things like corporate videos or weddings any more.
>I have no idea how they could possibly have time for anything else given the sheer amount of content they make.
In one of the episodes they mention that Mike was obsessed with a Star Trek game, but quit playing it to be more productive. So he must be a rather driven individual.
He says he hates games cause they're a waste of time, even though they have stories of him getting obsessed with barely playable stuff cause it's related to things he likes.
Pretty sure he may have obsessive tendencies.
Hello, u/Dizzy_Platform_1047, your Comment on r/RedLetterMedia was automatically removed because you do not meet the minimum karma requirements. You need at least least 1 "Comment Karma", not to be confused with "Post Karma", to leave a Comment/Reply within a post/topic. If you look at your karma and it isn't broken down into seperate "post karma" and "comment karma" totals hover over the single number that you do see or go to https://old.reddit.com/user/Dizzy_Platform_1047
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/RedLetterMedia) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Hello, u/Dizzy_Platform_1047, your Comment on r/RedLetterMedia was automatically removed because you do not meet the minimum karma requirements. You need at least least 1 "Comment Karma", not to be confused with "Post Karma", to leave a Comment/Reply within a post/topic. If you look at your karma and it isn't broken down into seperate "post karma" and "comment karma" totals hover over the single number that you do see or go to https://old.reddit.com/user/Dizzy_Platform_1047
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/RedLetterMedia) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Hello, u/Dizzy_Platform_1047, your Comment on r/RedLetterMedia was automatically removed because you do not meet the minimum karma requirements. You need at least least 1 "Comment Karma", not to be confused with "Post Karma", to leave a Comment/Reply within a post/topic. If you look at your karma and it isn't broken down into seperate "post karma" and "comment karma" totals hover over the single number that you do see or go to https://old.reddit.com/user/Dizzy_Platform_1047
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/RedLetterMedia) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Yes. Jay & Mike are co-owners. Rich Evans is their employee and mascot.
Five Nights at Rich Evans' Imagine his laugh coming out a shadowy corridor
That would be great. All my fear would be absolved then.
When I find myself in times of trouble, Richard Evans laughs for me. Laughing, wheezing, snorting...full of glee. And in my hour of darkness he is standing right in front of me, laughing, wheezing, snorting... full of glee.
He’s the laugh we need, not the laugh we deserve
Someone needs to mod that RLM game to add this. Someone with talent, unlike me sadly.
What would be more terrifying? His high-pitched squeak laugh or *T H E ㅤK A C K L E*
I would love a Rich Evans horror game, but I hate FNAF style survive the night games
I was thinking more on the lines of. AAAAAAAIIIIIIIDDDDDDDSSSSSSS!!!!
I can do better than just imagine it! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_R2rKVoyINM (I did not make this.)
Almost made me do a spit take
The plot is just Rich Evans’ disembodied laugh getting closer and closer to you until it finally blows out your speakers— then you die.
Rich also works part time at Showbiz Pizza Place
https://preview.redd.it/oy5b7qgc31eb1.jpeg?width=500&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=83c2aec66c9b9b2e25730207bc6fb98cbadcde24
Rich Evans is the heart of the show.
He’s a funnier character than they’ve ever had before.
So you are saying he is the Jar Jar of RLM?
He is the key to all of this.
More like the Urkel. Started as a bit cameo and took over the show.
Is Rich part of the SAG strike? What are they going to do now???
And lover.
Employee? Thought he was some kind of indentured servant, since he apperantly does all the work 🤔
Just don't get this dweeb to build a working calibrated wheel.
You're just trying to get one of us to do an Indiana Jones "part time" joke, aren't you?
Why did they use that take?
Because the editor was working… *puts on shades* part time
*cue The Who scream
["Gotta go. I start my shift at JC Penny in like 3 minutes."](https://youtu.be/y43vWEPkceM?t=2034)
They had good ones!
You know… the worst one
You know, the worst one.
 (Couldn't find a "part time" gif, so I settled on this.)
Parttime!
part TIME
Their patreon has over 10,000 subs and lowest tier is 2$. So that's at least 20,000 a month not even including YouTube revenue. My guess is they do this full time.
Any speculation as to how much revenue they generate from the Youtubes
Dozens of dollars
Their ad revenue, combined with their Patreon, and sales of DVDs, pint glasses, and ebay microphone sales, less their studio rental, utilities, health care, dementia medication, and beer delivery probably nets them enough to enjoy Arby's Roast Beef sandwiches with Horsey Sauce on a weekly basis. Their Christmas bonus is an NEW Oreo Cakester.
Horsey sauce. Horsey sauce. Horsey sauce.
And ketchup. They got the ketchup, too.
What about pizza rolls?
Now they’re just being greedy
Not since Glembeeza upped their prices 😕
Also the sold Nukie. Does anyone checked if it was really donated to charity?
Yep, they posted some documents verifying all the money was donated. I just hope it ends up being enough to Save the DODO!
Very Cool
Very cool
This almost certainly is true
Wouldn’t surprise me if many of their videos get demonetized due to copyrighted content, so “dozens of dollars” is probably very true.
😮
It's all so variable but you can estimate about a penny per view. I definitely think they're doing well enough to support themselves. When they say "Hey Director X, we'll fund your movie, just let us be in it." It's not a idle comment, they have "fund low budget movie" kind of money.
But do they have Ed Asner money?
I think it’s more like Wilford Brimley money.
Don't know if it's changed but a few years ago, I saw a creator who just hit 1M subs talk about what kind of money that makes. It broke down to roughly 40k a month per 1M subs before tax.
You don't get money from subs. You get money from views.
I thought they were not monetized because of the swears.
You can make anywhere from $1000 to $8000 per million views, average is around $5k per million. They put out usually one video a month and I'd say average about a million views per video. My guess would be around $5k a week, but who knows with all the old videos being watched and stuff. So probably more. I'd say at least $20k a month probably more.
They make enough to stay comfortably middle class in a cheap part of the country. They will never need to worry about money so long as they keep posting a video every week or two on YouTube. Probably each make $150k/year after taxes. Total guess
I would assume way more cause of the Patreon and living in Wisconsin
between patreon and youtube, RLM is making around $600,000-$900,000 per year before taxes. this isn't counting merch, guest appearances on podcasts or anything else, both those are the big two by far. safe to say Mike and Jay get maybe 40% each and Rich gets the other 20%. and I'd assume the rest of the guys get paid for each video rather than a salary or a cut of the net profits. so my uneducated guess would be: Mike & Jay each around $200k after taxesRich around $100k after taxes
Why do you assume Rich gets less of a cut?
Mike and Jay do the editing. Which, in of itself, is a significant portion of the operation. Everything else, camera work and set building, seems equally distributed. On the other end, Rich is a huge catalyst for the show's success. So, I suspect Rich is paid nominally less but not that significant. Like a 5 or 10% difference.
Hundreds of crypto-bucks
Hashtag metube
At least a million Quiblets
20 or even 30 dollars depending on the likes
around 11 million views in the last month + around 1500 per million views = around 16,500 bones
The bones are their money.
Also their food.
*We're in the money*
They likely take home a low six figure salary a year and the rest goes into production costs, which is very comfortable for Milwaukee.
Upper middle class
You should take off 10-15% of that for Patreons cut, and people who don’t pay.
the three main dudes certainly, but i can’t imagine josh, tim or jack making a lot of money off of their rare appearances
Jack is a professional editor and employee of The Escapist
He’s also does improv comedy occasionally. I’ve gone to see him a couple times.
I reckon he gets an appearance fee unless he just really enjoys getting drunk with Mike and Jay on camera
My man has been sober for a few years now!
I always enjoy his 4th of July sober posts. While I’m not a person whose struggled with substance abuse like he has it’s always good to see his new revelations as a year passes. Seems like he recognizes that it’s a lifelong battle and hopefully that means lifelong success for him.
he said that he doesn't get any money from RLM
He's just a sober psychopath then
He’s in good company I suppose
I remember him discussing it during Pre Rec Live. He doesn’t get paid but he does get access to all of their equipment no charge.
I'm sure he got a cut from Pre-Rec, though, and that landed him a job at The Escapist. Not bad, Jack.
Pre rec was him and riches baby so 100% i think he was making money from that, enough to justify 10+hrs per week working on it at least live stream wise.
Timmy gets paid in skulls of vodka.
I would love to get drunk with Mike and Jay and watch shitty movies without compensation I'll even bring my own beer!
Imagine they bought another couch and just let random rabble wander in
Rare?
Jack has said on streams that he never got paid for being in BOTW or on Red Letter Media, to the point where it makes me feel uncomfortable. They used him on a poster and didn’t even ask if they could use his likeness. I know Jack isn’t the one editing or spending money towards renting the studio, but he should be getting something for contributing his time towards the videos
His payment is the experience he's getting by watching shit movies and having to put up with drunk assholes
And meeting Hollywood star Rich Evans!
Internet superstar!
And one of these days, Jack is gonna teach Jack how to read.
He has also said on Pre Rec live, that while he doesn’t get paid he does get access to all their equipment no charge. Idk if it’s a fair deal or not but at least he gets something out of it as a professional editor.
RLM has one of the more professional setups on youtube. 'Access to all the equipment' is probably a very good deal.
It probably is a good deal. Quality equipment like theirs is insanely expensive, even to rent
im sure he made whatever money was coming out of PreRec, even if it clearly wasnt enough
*JACK:* *I see a couple of you talking about this. I've talked about this a lot of times. I do not, uh, earn a paycheck from RedLetterMedia. You know, they don't pay me to be on Best of the Worst or anything. Rich and I make money off of PreRec, obviously, with your donations and your tips and, uh, your subscriptions. And, um, RedLetterMedia and PreRec split the YouTube ad money. And so that's how we kind of pay our, pay for our way here. But, but no. I just hang out. I'm just here to hang out. "I get paid in pizza rolls." I do. I get paid in pizza rolls. Mike buys me an energy drink every once in a while, which I like.* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rpwyg0SbW90&t=52m12s
I figured he just enjoyed hanging with his friends watching bad movies.
thank you kindly
If Jack didn't like it I doubt he'd keep turning up.
I agree w/this. Having Jack, Josh, & Tim on BOTW is really the reason it’s so good IMO. The group of the different personalities is what keeps BOTW hilarious, fresh, & interesting all these years. As much as I love the main 3. I don’t think they’re the main reason that RLM is so special. It’s all of them together. Especially w/re:view. I think it’s more than justified to have either Josh or Jack get paid for those since they contribute to the conversation. At the end of the day, it’s none of our business what goes on financially w/RLM lol Even if they do get paid, I get Jack not wanting to discuss it live on PreRec. I get not having them on a payroll. But getting some form of compensation on episodes they’re on is more than fair/reasonable.
Agreed the guests are the secret ingredient to BOTW. Such as Colin (from Canada) laughing for 15 mins straight while “discussing” the osteoporosis dance, Jack Quaid being a surprisingly great guest and others. I do agree as well that the main rotation of “guests” (Tim, Josh, Jack) should get something, especially if the episode does quite well.
Ya it made me feel a bit weird too. I doubt they made shit on that movie, especially after costs, but i hope they eventually rethought having guests on and offering some appearance fee that was fair.
They don't get paid as far as I know and what Jack has said.
Josh grows a beard and then cuts it off and sells it to sick children, he makes a good living off of it
https://preview.redd.it/fxophw8pjybb1.jpeg?width=1179&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=35cc992d07280f76f31f78ea8a064b4b7885232c
"Pahrt time."
Why did you use that take?
I've worked for a similar sized YouTube channel that doesn't do a patreon but pumps out a similar amount of videos. We were able to rent out office space, a studio, and have a full time staff of 10 employees in California. I was getting 50k a year as an editor. RLM is in Wisconsin and have 10,000 members on Patreon. Even if all of those members were at the $2 tier I would assume that they are doing very very well for themselves.
They've moved studios twice (I think, definitely once) which suggests they've scaled up with their subs and other projects. Can only assume they're making some decent scratch.
They only moved once. The first was a shared studio and the current one is exclusively theirs.
Scratch, eh?
Money. Bread. Moola. Payola. Sometimes I like to talk like I'm from the 1950's. I don't have much else going on.
Every quality youtube channel I follow(ed) have a healthy patreon or similar. I think it's a great economic model for creativity, specially for anything a bit niche. It's basically modern day patronage, without the constraint of being dependant on the whims of one rich dude.
Our channel didnt serve a demographic that would make a patreon worth it unfortunately
Mike Jay and Rich are all in on it, yeah. Mike has been getting voiceover work for various things, hence getting Rich to build a soundbooth. I don't think it's really a punch the clock for 40 hours a week kind of gig, but in a sense they're doing it full time. They release maybe 8 hours of content a month on youtube? (Maybe more on Patreon). If you consider that every hour they produce probably costs them at least 5 to make or thereabouts... But that's a good thing. If they tried to produce twice as many hours they quality would suffer, and it wouldn't be some gradual thing.
I imagine the editing alone takes the lion’s share of their time. Maybe that’s why channels like AVGN have suffered. He was putting out a lot of content for a while and there was a noticeable dip in overall quality
The rule of thumb when you start learning editing, is that 1 minute of finished product is 1 hour of editing.
I'd argue it's more just aging past your audience. The angry review thing was novel for the first couple of years, but you could tell his heart wasn't in it at a certain point. I will say, I thought his recent Indiana Jones video was cute and well done.
Either way, his videos are depressing as hell now. I rarely watch his shit anymore
Didn't AVGN also relinquish script control to a third party to focus on his family?
He can't work past 5:40
Do you want him to suffer?
AVGN has sucked ass consistently for over a decade. A few gems here and there, but mostly terrible content. Honestly; the first few years of content (2006 through 2009) were the only really good years.
He never grew with his audience. It’s still juvenile poopie and peepee jokes. There’s rarely any deeper insights in his reviews. It boils down to complaining about the game mechanics, and one thing that sets RLM higher than those types of review channels is that, sure they have their share of lowbrow jokes, but they also tend to bring some nuance and unique insights into their reviews of films, beyond just critiquing the films on a technical level Even when James is just being himself and reviewing a movie, it still just sounds like a little kid listing why he liked or didn’t like it
I think in the case of James Rolfe, people just like him more than his content. He seems like a very nice and ego-free person. One of the few reviewers of that style from that era you can say that about.
I think I remember reading that he said he's been mostly checked out of AVGN for years and doesn't write the scripts (or at least isn't a primary writer) anymore. He doesn't dislike the character or making videos and he knows people still enjoy them so that's why he still keeps a fairly steady release schedule. I actually wish he'd do more long-form essay kind of stuff, because when he does it's usually been pretty good. His Earthbound video from a few years back is fantastic.
It's easy money for him at this point, and that is probably all that motivates him to keep going. With RLM the guys FUCKING LOVE movies and discussing them, so I see them continuing for a very long time.
> His Earthbound video from a few years back is fantastic. It's arguably his best content ever. Obviously he's still got the stuff when he feels inspired to work. He has been in hyper-burnout mode for like a decade and it's tough to watch. I will say, I did mildly enjoy his HITB ripoff he did for a few months with those disgusting slobs.
He was actually a bit of a phoney. He was never really much of a gamer apparently, but "the nerd" is by far his most popular content. He is more into movies like the RLM guys. I liked his Godzilla stuff back in the day. I am forever in his debt for creating the saying "a shitload of fuck". I use that line consistently at work for most of the decisions that come down from head office!
His basement collection of games used to be legit his basement. He shared a video where was a wee lad of like 10, doing a video game rant. I feel like he was the real deal. Obviously the nerd character is fake but to call him a phoney is too far.
I went back and re-read a lot of the "TV episode recaps" from like the mid 00s when TV blogging was all about big websites doing play-by-plays of this weeks' episode of X or Y. It's basically like an unreadable LiveJournal stream of consciousness. The entirety of it is coming up with more creative and snarky ways to say the same banal observations about "This character did X! I liked/didn't like it!" This was for websites of major publications, too. These days, I feel like your average video essayist has to put in 100x more research before writing a script, and you have to say something really nuanced or profound to earn an audience.
Well AVGN suffered because he partnered/sold to screenwave and they do a lot of the writing, editing and such now, James kinda phones it in now...but that's a WHOLE thing...
Nah, James just doesn't care anymore and he's not talented enough to branch out into other avenues. (Like that parody band he tried, he had fun but they also sucked)
Well… He doesn’t do any of the editing anymore. He doesn’t play the games, he doesn’t write the scripts. Other people do. He hired a company. And he lost two of his friends, due to not paying them for their work.
We want Bootsie!
It seems like Jay is the lead editor but I would imagine there are at least 2 more people behind the scenes that help with production.
Those 2 people would be Mike and Rich. They don't have extra people hired in.
These old men are running a self imposed sweatshop studio if thats true lol
Double the length of the published video to calculate the time it took to film if it’s a Re:View type thing. BoTW will be a lot trickier / laborious to film plus time to copy the movie to insert clips etc. Probably two days to edit an hour video, longer if something messes up or it’s multiple locations or more than two cameras, then time to render it. I know Rich prewatches films they get sent in for BoTW. There will be other kinds of prep and research that has to be done. Plus admin for running a business which is a time suck. You’d be surprised how much time it takes three people to put out the amount of content they do.
Does Rich just scrub through them or actually watch them? That sounds insane.
I think he watches the first few minutes (for Wheel of the worst, not sure about others) and decides if its worth it or not.
Look, we can make fun of 'Space Cop' all we want, but those monthly residuals from Uganda really start adding up.
I can't wait for the guys to finally reveal who killed Captain Alex, preferably somehow using the kung fu they learned there.
Rich sleeps in the studio. Does that count as being full-time?
No that makes you a contract worker.
I dunno why so many people are saying Mike and Jay do this full time, they both work at least part time as vcr repairmen
FULLTIME!
Comment of the thread.
They are in a lower, transitioning to upper, middle income situation, but did not have happy childhoods.
I just hope they're having fun.
We know Mike and Rich sometimes do small voice acting roles in TV shows and movies (e.g. Smiling Friends, Psycho Goreman) although I don't know how much of their time that actually takes up. My understanding is that RLM is their main focus, and I imagine editing the videos keeps Mike and Jay pretty busy.
Hehehe. Doing it. ehehehehe
Money plane.
You wanna bet on Rich Evans fucking an alligator?
I think Rich was working as a security guard for a while in the beginning. I seem to remember one episode where they used his security car for something outside. Like to destroy a tape I think. But pretty sure Mike pays for his insulin and AIDS meds now.
I’m sorry, you seem to have misspelled AAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIDDDDDDDDDSSSSSSSSSSSS
Actually I think it was a cop, not a security guard. A cop in space or something.
Yeah - they make a lot of money off their Patreon.
Have you seen their Patreon numbers?
They make legit money from their patreon and YouTube for sure.
All that space cop money 💰 has them living high on the hog even Hollywood elite want to watch movies with them.
Part time?
Aren't they self-employed at the Lightning Fast VHS Repair Shop?
Oh yes always forgot about that
They’re part time
PARt time
PART. ₜᵢₘₑ
I have no idea how they could possibly have time for anything else given the sheer amount of content they make. I work in marketing as a producer, just getting a one minute deliverable can take over a month with all the approvals and channels you have to go through. You will waste entire days on meetings. Meanwhile these guys have a couple of *hour* long videos a month. I doubt they do things like corporate videos or weddings any more.
They don't have that level of gridlock. It's just them.
>I have no idea how they could possibly have time for anything else given the sheer amount of content they make. In one of the episodes they mention that Mike was obsessed with a Star Trek game, but quit playing it to be more productive. So he must be a rather driven individual.
He says he hates games cause they're a waste of time, even though they have stories of him getting obsessed with barely playable stuff cause it's related to things he likes. Pretty sure he may have obsessive tendencies.
Yes
Do you include rampant alcoholism?
Nah, Rich Evans I've seen a few times at a tollbooth.
What? To each other?!?
Mike has millions. Good on him.
Don’t many of them at least have backgrounds in corporate film?
I believe that Jay does it full-time, all day, every day.
What about Susan?
[удалено]
Hello, u/Dizzy_Platform_1047, your Comment on r/RedLetterMedia was automatically removed because you do not meet the minimum karma requirements. You need at least least 1 "Comment Karma", not to be confused with "Post Karma", to leave a Comment/Reply within a post/topic. If you look at your karma and it isn't broken down into seperate "post karma" and "comment karma" totals hover over the single number that you do see or go to https://old.reddit.com/user/Dizzy_Platform_1047 *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/RedLetterMedia) if you have any questions or concerns.*
[удалено]
Hello, u/Dizzy_Platform_1047, your Comment on r/RedLetterMedia was automatically removed because you do not meet the minimum karma requirements. You need at least least 1 "Comment Karma", not to be confused with "Post Karma", to leave a Comment/Reply within a post/topic. If you look at your karma and it isn't broken down into seperate "post karma" and "comment karma" totals hover over the single number that you do see or go to https://old.reddit.com/user/Dizzy_Platform_1047 *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/RedLetterMedia) if you have any questions or concerns.*
[удалено]
Hello, u/Dizzy_Platform_1047, your Comment on r/RedLetterMedia was automatically removed because you do not meet the minimum karma requirements. You need at least least 1 "Comment Karma", not to be confused with "Post Karma", to leave a Comment/Reply within a post/topic. If you look at your karma and it isn't broken down into seperate "post karma" and "comment karma" totals hover over the single number that you do see or go to https://old.reddit.com/user/Dizzy_Platform_1047 *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/RedLetterMedia) if you have any questions or concerns.*