Casey Neistat
Casey Owen Neistat is an American YouTube personality, filmmaker, vlogger and co-founder of the multimedia company Beme, which was later acquired by CNN. In 2018, he founded 368, a creative space for creators to collaborate with each other.
Early life and education
Neistat was born in Gales Ferry, Connecticut, to Barry Edward Neistat, then a commercial kitchen appliance salesman, and Amy Louise. They later operated the Muddy Waters Cafe in New London, Connecticut. His paternal grandmother Louise Neistat was a professional tap dancer and instructor who primarily worked at Radio City Music Hall in New York City.He was brought up in Reform Judaism. He dropped out of high school during his sophomore year at the age of 17. He eventually left his family and had a son named Owen, at age 17, with his then-girlfriend Robin Harris, in 1998. Between the age of 17 and 20, he lived in a trailer park with Harris and Owen. It was during this time that Neistat decided to move to New York City.
Before moving to New York City, Neistat worked as a dishwasher at a seafood restaurant and was a short-order cook in Mystic, Connecticut.
Early filmmaking career
Work with Tom Sachs
In 2001, Neistat and his brother Van began working with artist Tom Sachs, ultimately making a series of films about the artist's sculptures and installations.''iPod's Dirty Secret''
Neistat first gained international exposure in 2003 for a three-minute film titled iPod's Dirty Secret, criticizing Apple for not having a battery replacement program for their iPod line of portable media players. The film received national media attention and brought broad attention to the company's policy towards iPod battery replacements. The film was posted to the Internet on September 20, 2003, and quickly attracted media attention. The film was praised as "wonderfully renegade" by The Washington Post.Apple announced a battery replacement policy on November 14, 2003, and also announced an extended iPod warranty program on November 21. Fox News set the date of the policy change at "two weeks" after the posting of the clip and Neil Cavuto called it a "David and Goliath story" on Fox News's Your World. Apple spokeswoman Natalie Sequeira denied any connection between the film and the new policy, stating the policy revision had been in the works for months before the film was released.
''Science Experiments''
In 2004, Neistat and his brother produced a film series titled Science Experiments. The 15-minute series featured a number of short films documenting various experiments. The series was included in the 26th São Paulo Biennial in São Paulo, Brazil. The work was popular, and was eventually featured in Creative Time's 59th Minute program showing a one-minute excerpt from Neistat's film every 59 minutes on the Panasonic Times Square Astrovision.''The Neistat Brothers''
In July 2008, HBO purchased an eight-episode television series, The Neistat Brothers, for just under $2 million. The series was produced by Casey and Van Neistat, and Tom Scott. Independent film producer Christine Vachon served as consulting producer. Written and directed by Casey and Van, the show is autobiographical and told in the first person. Each of the eight episodes is made up of short stories about the brothers' lives. The show premiered June 4, 2010, on HBO.The Hollywood Reporter likened the brothers' charm, wit and simplicity to that of Dr. Seuss. Hank Stuever of the Washington Post praised the brothers' joie de vivre.
Career
YouTube
On February 17, 2010, Neistat uploaded a video about when to use the emergency brake cord on train cars in the New York City Subway. Neistat criticized the way that the MTA did not make it clear when the emergency brake cord should be pulled. According to the video, one should only use the emergency brake system when the motion of the train poses an imminent threat to life or limb.On February 23, 2010, Neistat released a six-minute film on Vimeo about the Internet site Chatroulette. It explained what the Chatroulette site is, how it works and why people use it. Various experiments are conducted in the video, with the findings presented in stop-frame animations. One experiment found that people on Chatroulette are much more likely to talk to a woman. While 95% "nexted" Neistat, his female friend Genevieve was clicked away by only 5%.
On June 7, 2011, Neistat criticized the New York City Police Department's ticketing of cyclists in New York City for riding outside of the marked bike lanes. In a video titled Bike Lanes, Neistat encounters an officer and receives a $50 ticket for not riding within the lanes. Neistat then proceeds to comically ride his bike in the lane crashing into various obstructions, supporting the argument that lanes aren't the safest at all times and are even sometimes unusable. In response, New York Magazine called Neistat a "Bike-Lane Vigilante" and the film was covered by most mainstream media outlets. Additionally, Time named Bike Lanes number eight on their Top 10 Creative Videos of 2011 list. In 2022, Neistat uploaded a YouTube video titled NYC BIKE LANE BOUNTY, discussing a proposal in which New York City residents can report cars illegally parked in bike lanes for a percentage of the violator's prospective fine. In the opening of this video, Neistat pays homage to Bike Lanes by abruptly crashing his bike into an illegally parked van while stating statistics about bicycle accidents in NYC.
In 2014, Neistat was listed on New Media Rockstars Top 100 Channels, ranked at #82.
Daily vlogs
Neistat started to post daily vlogs on YouTube on March 26, 2015. Neistat stated that he sees his vlogs more as a forum as opposed to a daily journal. On January 19, 2016, Neistat posted his 300th vlog, although between November 2016 and March 2017 Neistat stopped making vlogs to focus more on short films.Particularly popular videos have included snowboarding on New York City streets during the January 2016 United States blizzard. The video had 6.5 million views on YouTube within 24 hours.
On September 6, 2016, Neistat won GQ
In October 2017, Neistat met with Indonesian president Joko Widodo.
By July 2018, Neistat had released 936 vlogs and other films since the channel started on February 15, 2010. In August 2015, Neistat reached one million subscribers, and reached four million by August 2016. By February 2023, his channel has 12.5 million subscribers.
In March 2022, his film titled Under the Influence, a documentary following David Dobrik and examining various controversies around him, premiered at SXSW.
Advertising
In addition to his career in television and film, Neistat has also directed and starred in television commercials, having worked with clients such as Samsung, Nike Google, Finn Jewelry, J.Crew, and Mercedes-Benz.''Make It Count''
Make It Count is a video written, directed and starring Neistat for Nike. The video begins with scrolling text that reads: "Nike asked me to make a movie about what it means to #makeitcount. Instead of making their movie, I spent the entire budget traveling around the world with my friend Max. We'd keep going until the money ran out. It took 10 days."The video then begins in earnest with Neistat and his collaborator Max Joseph traveling to the airport. Fast editing of their travels with interludes of inspirational quotes make up the film, ultimately ending with Neistat returning to New York City where the story began. On April 8, 2012, Nike launched the video on their official YouTube page titled Make It Count. The next day, Neistat launched the video on his own YouTube channel. Neistat's posting went viral, and within the first three days, the film had been viewed over 1.5 million times. By October 2022, the video had over 32 million views.
Mashable's Zoe Fox commented that it was "The Best Branding Story Ever Told". A number of mainstream outlets referred to Neistat's production of the film as "going rogue" including CNNGo, Fast Company and Conde Nast Traveler.
Beme
In a July 8, 2015 vlog, Neistat announced that he had been working with Matt Hackett on building a video-sharing app called Beme. Designed as an alternative to highly edited content found in social media, the app enabled users to produce unedited four-second videos, which were immediately uploaded and shared with the user's subscribers, without the ability to review the video. Users could respond to shared content by sending "reactions", photographs of themselves, back to the video uploader.Beme released the first version of the app on July 17, 2015. Shortly after the launch, BuzzFeed described Beme's minimalist design as "deceptively simple and decidedly weird." The New York Times described Beme's user experience "as if the phone becomes a stand-in for one's body, the camera facing outward to capture what the user is experiencing." Within eight days of the app's release, Beme users had shared 1.1 million videos and logged 2.4 million reactions.
On November 28, 2016, CNN announced that it would acquire the Beme company, reportedly for US$25 million. At the same time, Hackett announced that the Beme app would be shutting down on January 31, 2017, saying: "Beme as a single product failed. Beme as a vision for the kind of technology and media that must be built is just getting started."
On January 25, 2018, Neistat and Hackett announced that they were severing their ties with CNN, but that most Beme employees would continue to work for CNN.
368
On April 5, 2018, Neistat announced a new project: 368, a creative space for creators to collaborate. On April 12 of that year, Patreon CEO Jack Conte announced a potential collaboration with Neistat on the project.On February 16, 2024, 368 announced its closure on Instagram.