Who is Gareth Witty?
Interview With Spinfuel’s Newest Video Partner Gareth Witty
Gareth Witty has been vaping for 5 years. In that time he has become somewhat of an expert in the ways of vaping, building coils, battery safety, and even ohms law. His videos on YouTube, and on his own website, number hundred and fifty plus, and each one is insightful, knowledgeable, and even amusing.
It’s Gareth’s personality, along with his very apparent knowledge, that sold our publisher, John Manzione, on bringing Gareth’s videos to Spinfuel eMagazine. We decided that our readers, that would be you guys, deserve to hear from Gareth himself, so that you can get to know a little more about him, and understand him like we do. Here’s a short interview we conducted with Mr. Witty. Enjoy!
Spinfuel: Gareth Witty, welcome to Spinfuel! It is a real pleasure to include your video in our publication. To start things off, when did you begin making vaping videos?
Well, I was vaping for about a year when after trying lots of rubbish I found a forum called UKVapers and saw the name JACVapour mentioned several times who had some great reviews. I ordered the VP1 kit and some coffee eliquid and from there found it worked great! Also the service and support is top notch. Impressed with this I decided to make a review video as I was already doing review videos for some magic dvds (yes, I was into magic and sleight of hand stuff but that’s another story, but I have my name on a few dvd credits as well as a signed Jay Sankey photo) and from there it started to take off.
I was also doing podcasts for online poker back then with itsawinner.co.uk as well as screencasts and streaming of poker games. Alas after I had a few more videos up the account got lost due to an “unknown” fault and I had to start again. I started to work with JACVapour on reviews and this lead me to start reviewing other products as well and over the next few years started to make my small mark in the reviewing vaping community. A few other companies started to send me stuff to review now as well as buying products for myself to review and now here we are.
Spinfuel: What do you use to make your videos? What hardware and software are you using currently?
Ah the secret behind the forth wall, believe it or not I use some very simple and free methods. First the videos are shot with my trusty Nokia Lumia phone (it has a really good lens and a decent mic) this is then uploaded to YouTube in a Main View (the one with my ugly mug in the video) and a Close-up view (the one with just my hands and device). Then using the video editing in YouTube’s own cloud service on my trusty Samsung Chromebook I can do basic editing and add titles and transitions and then the video is ready. Its simple method but for me works well.
Spinfuel: How long does it take for you to make a video and get it up on YouTube?
Well I will test the devices sent to me for about 10 days and eliquids about 2 days, during this time I use EverNote to record my daily thoughts and observations of the device, often looking for niggles and problems as well as the things I love about the device.
This then gets written as a basic bare bone script (I like to free style my reviews but the basic list keeps me on track… well sometimes), then record, edit then publish on YouTube. The actual recording is about 20 mins, editing is about 30 minutes then its up to an hour for the file to process on YouTube.
I may have to reshoot the main review if I make mistakes when reviewing but if I find anything funny I leave it in but I try to be a one take wonder. It used to take a lot longer but I think I am getting better on that front. Then for about 20 minutes I am reading the script to create the text for the video and its done, just gets shared on the social networks ready to inform and entertain.
Spinfuel: How do you choose your reviews? Is it haphazard choices or do you have a deliberate schedule? Like, do you ever say, “I need a new mod review” or “I need to do an eliquid review”?
Nothing is really planned, often its dictated by companies who send stuff out for review, but if I have some vape budget left I will buy something new for myself and it gets reviewed.
Spinfuel: Why do you do it? What satisfaction is there in doing reviews like this?
Well for me the main reason is to help others avoid my early mistakes. When I started vaping there was (and still is) a lot of bad products, its took me a year to find something that worked and if I had a place to go to see what devices can and cannot do it would have helped.
I also noticed that a few vapers had started to do video reviews and I like the idea of doing my own. I think it helps new vapers to see how and why these devices work and which ones have the feature they may want or need; video is a great medium for that.
Spinfuel: Do you have a favorite video that you made? One that you can still view and go “Yea, that was good one!”
Well to be fair I don’t really watch my own videos after I have edited them and give them a final test viewing, but I think there is one where the cat was playing up and I managed to adlib a few lines.
Spinfuel: On the same note, do you have one that makes you cringe? One that you maybe wish you never made?
I would think my very early ones I did, I had no emotion in my voice and feared the camera LOL but after a while you start to ignore the camera and relax.
Spinfuel: Very few reviewers make a living with their videos; they have “real” jobs during the day. Do you want to get to the point where making videos provides a good living?
A big YES!!!, I would love to be able to that, but I would settle for a job as a vape store manager for a side line 🙂
Spinfuel: You seem very relaxed and you definitely look and sound like you’re having fun. What does it take to be good at this, like you are? Is it all personality?
A good question and not one I have really thought about! If you watch many of the great vape reviewers out there like John, Phil, Dmitri, Scott, Todd and many others I think it helps a lot and is akin to Public Speaking but its also a skill that can developed and polish over time. I hope one day to get there.
Spinfuel: Where do you see the video review segment of the community going? Will there be more people joining the fray? Less? The Same?
Hmm, I think as vaping becomes more mainstream I think there will be an increase, with YouTube and other online video services it’s easy to start. I would think many would watch review videos and decide to give it go.
Also with online social media it has become easier to put your name out there and this could be a good thing. It will make reviewers up the ante and make their videos even better so they can keep “on top” as it were. I think the more honest and quality information out there the better buying decision vapers can make.
Spinfuel: We always like to end our interviews by giving the interviewee an opportunity to say anything to our readers that we might not have thought to ask. So, now it’s your turn; would you like to tell our readers anything we haven’t asked?
All I can ask is that my fellow vapers fight for their right to vape, talk to the vape shop owner, get letters to local governments and lets make sure no matter where you are in the world that we can vape on 🙂 All hail The Vaping Greek!!!
Spinfuel: Thanks for taking the time to answer our questions, and once again, welcome to the Spinfuel family! We look forward to seeing all your future videos!
Cheers everyone, lets just have fun and #vapeon its been a blast and made me do some work for change 😉
