SALOME SALIA EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH YOUTUBER ERIC STRIFFLER

Eric Striffler, 18, is a successful YouTuber with over 33,000 subscribers - whatever you're interested in on YouTube, he probably has something for you!

Salome Salia brings FRESHI NOW this exclusive interview!

First, take a look at this video introducing his channel, at http://www.youtube.com/user/EricStriffler

Describe in a few words what you do and what inspired you?

To put it VERY basically, I make videos and put them on YouTube. I have two Channels; one for my short films and one for my entertainment news and reviews. What I really love to do is make films so I prefer my Channel EricStrifflerVids over ErickWithNoK, but both are a LOT of fun. I've been into making movies since I was VERY young, and it's happened to stick with me over the years!

What would you say is the key to YouTube fame?

If I knew, I would have a LOT more subscribers haha! I have never done anything specific to get subscribers so I really have no idea. I think it's just that people like to see consistency and to see people legitimately enjoying what they're doing. I have stuck with my Channels fully for years and I really do love doing all of it. I really think it shows.

What do you have to say to young filmmakers?

"Hello, I'm Eric and I'm just like you!" Haha I'm currently a Freshman at film school so I don't really have any leg up over anyone else if you look at it that way. I'm learning as well so I wouldn't really have any advice exactly because I could use advice sometimes too! Although I do think young filmmakers should really consider what they want out of their craft; do they want to make Hollywood movies or indie movies or TV shows? I do think it's important to figure out what you want and set your goal early. But like I said, I'm taking my own advice right now and I don't have any knowledge past that really!

When you started, did you expect to be so successful?

Never in a hundred million years did I expect to actually make money from making videos. Like I said, I've been making videos since I was really young, so it's crazy to me. I started uploading videos to YouTube for fun, as I still do now to be honest. I did it for over a year before I started to make money from it, and I'd continue to do it if the money stopped coming. It's what I love to do and I'd like to keep it going for a long time, so it's definitely nice to see that I can make money on doing what I've wanted to do all my life.

How much of your time does your Youtube account take up?

Well it depends really. On EricStrifflerVids, the videos can take an hour to shoot and two hours to edit, or a few days to shoot and 6 hours to edit. On ErickWithNoK, the videos usually take less than 15 minutes to film, edit, and post. The fun thing about ErickWithNoK is that news comes at random, so I could be watching TV and see that there's a new clip released from a movie I'm covering, so I literally run up to my room, look into it, film my video, and post it to YouTube immediately to get ahead of everyone else. In the reporting world, whoever has the first story is likely to get the steam from everyone passing their post around. It's very exciting and I find it to be a lot of fun!