Pop Arena

Hey everybody. I currently have a Sample Platter double feature completely blocked by copyright bots and I'm not sure when they'll finally be available. I didn't want to go through all of November with no videos, so I'm temporarily making them available through my Patreon, free for everyone! Just be sure to watch, like and/or comment on the Youtube versions when they finally go live. Thank you for your patience!

The Fairly OddParents: "Channel Chasers" - Nick Knacks Sample Platter
www.patreon.com/posts/fairly-channel-144684858

Danny Phantom: "The Ultimate Enemy" - Nick Knacks Sample Platter
www.patreon.com/posts/danny-phantom-144686437

1 week ago | [YT] | 138

Pop Arena

Transparency time. The first of the month rolled around, so we finally have a look at the damages from the transition from per-video to per-month. So, I'm down $1300 a month on Patreon, more than a third of what I was making in the per-video era. I'm not sure how that happened, I knew I'd lose some, but that a real kick to the checkbook. Please, if you're a patron and you haven't already, check if you're payment was declined, check to see if you're in the tier you want to be in. There's a lot I need to work out.

1 year ago | [YT] | 144

Pop Arena

Well, they were weeks late, and they didn't inform me that it happened via e-mail like they said it would, BUT the Pop Arena Patreon has now switched from a per-video format to a per-month format. Patreon has automatically adjusted your payments, so be sure to go through everything and make sure you're spending what you want to spend.

My apologies for any confusion, this has all been very much out of my hands. If you have any questions, I'll do my best to answer them.

www.patreon.com/pop_arena

1 year ago | [YT] | 131

Pop Arena

Important video for patrons on the future of this channel and my Patreon.

TRANSCRIPT

Hey everybody, Gregiffer here, with some major updates that’ll affect the channel and everyone watching, but will especially affect those who have been generously subscribing to my Patreon and have been supporting the channel financially. Recently, Patreon has announced changes to acquiesce to the Apple App Store’s policies, meaning that a) if you subscribe to Patreon through the Apple App Store, you’ll be subject to a 30% store fee, so maybe think about subscribing through your PC instead, and b) Patreon will no longer be supporting the per-creation billing model, which is what I’ve been using from the very beginning.

This has been incredibly frustrating, and counter to my philosophy as a video creator. I average about three videos a month, but if something comes up and I only make two videos that month, you pay less for less work. That’s been very pertinent this year, which has seen a great decline in videos because of my living situation. Now I simply have no choice, and if everything goes as it should, my Patreon will switch to per-month billing sometime in the first week of November, sometime between the 4th and the 8th.

Unfortunately, I can’t give you an exact day, because the process of making the change is needlessly complicated on the side of Patreon. You can’t just flip a switch, you have to get in contact with a Patreon employee through email, who may or may not be a robot, and they schedule the switch months away. I tried to get this going on September 2nd, and it took them more than a month to tell me that the switch will happen vaguely within the first week of November. Thanks a bunch, guys.

So what will this mean for you? First off, you will all want to consider how much you’ve been giving. If you subscribed at $1 per video, with the expectation of three videos a month, you may want to consider updating your subscription to $3 a month once the switch over has happened. Obviously, how much you subscribe for is entirely up to what, whatever you’re happy and comfortable with. Second thing to consider is time of billing. It is my understanding that for Patreon’s per-month billing model, you are billed the day you subscribed, instead of the end-of-the-month system the per-creation model uses. So for example, if you subscribed for a Patreon on the 15th of a given month, you’ll be billed every 15th.

So if you have certain times of the month where being billed would be inconvenient, like before a paycheck, you may want to consider unsubscribing, waiting until a more appropriate date, and then resubscribing.

Now let’s talk about subscriber reward tiers. They’re going to have to be readjusted. Once the switchover happens, it’ll shake out like this: $1 a month will still get your name in the credits, just as before. Getting the little advertising spots at the end of most of videos, where you can promote your channel, podcast, book, etc, that will now set at $3 a month, and I’ll be needing those who wish to continue with that reward to send me fresh links and information, or at the very least a “keep things the same” message so that I can get all of that sorted.

For early access and extra content, yes I know I need to do better at the extra content stuff, that tier will be bumped up to $10 a month, which is actually theoretically cheaper than when it was $5 a video and I was making three videos a month.

So, there’s a lot to think about, and further adjustments may need to be made as this switch develops. Keep an eye out for further updates on my social medias, I'll try to answer all the questions I can, and I’m sorry these changes are being forced on us. However this ends up shaking out, thank you so much for supporting me and this channel of mine, being able to support myself making silly little videos has been a privilege that I don’t take lightly. Here’s to the future.

1 year ago | [YT] | 28

Pop Arena

Okay, now I'm just full-blown evicted. Fuck.

1 year ago | [YT] | 159

Pop Arena

Just an update, construction on my apartment is going to begin tomorrow, following massive flood damage back in January. I'm going to be displaced for at least few weeks, during which I'm not sure how productive I'm going to be with videos. Depends on where I end up, what internet access I have, if I have space to set up my PC, etc. This has been a very difficult first four months of the year, and video production has dropped off considerably, for which I apologize. Hopefully we'll soon be able to put all of this behind us. If you've been holding off on commissioning a Nick Knacks Sample Platter, this would be a very good time for it, but regardless, thank you all for your support, and hopefully we can get things moving again soon.

1 year ago | [YT] | 313

Pop Arena

I imagine, being one of Youtube’s “Nickelodeon Content Creators”, you want to know what I thought.

QUIET ON SET, the new four-part documentary detailing inappropriate behavior and abuse on the set of Dan Schneider’s various Nickelodeon shows, starts off on its worst foot, with all the earmarks of trashy tabloid journalism. A couple of gossip journalists walk us through events and interject how you’re supposed to feel about them. There’s one moment where Leon Frierson, former ALL THAT cast member, talks about how uncomfortable some of the costuming made him, about how the noses on a nose-themed superhero costume has some unfortunate phallic resemblances, and then we cut to a writer from Buzzfeed going “and then the sneeze gag is basically a cum shot joke!”

Frierson never says that. In a later episode, a similar comparison is made to a gag on ZOEY 101, but there it’s actress Alexa Nikolas making that connection from the workplace environment she had found herself in. It’s an authentic observation, where in the earlier example it was outsider sensationalization, playing to the “crusaders” on Twitter and Tiktok where the public side of Schneider drama has mostly lived over the past decade. They bring on Marc Summers, Nickelodeon elder statesman who had virtually no presence in this era of the channel, for all of twelve seconds so that he can watch a clip of a Schneider show and go “oh, wow, they aired that?”

You can imagine how the producers' eyes must have lit up when they learned that Brian Peck, former Nick dialogue coach and convicted sex offender, owned a John Wayne Gacy painting. I mean, yeah, that’s fucked up, but it has virtually nothing to do with anything. It is, however, a perfect “can you believe this” moment that can be clipped and shared on social media for shock value. It’s something that the documentary can ride as a viral moment.

QUIET ON SET was produced for Investigation Discovery, whose bread and butter is schlocky true crime documentaries. Shows like EVIL LIVES HERE and WHO THE (BLEEP) DID I MARRY. Not exactly tasteful television. The channel is owned by Warner Bros Discovery, and was simultaneously released on Max. Warner Bros Discovery owns Cartoon Network. The documentary puts emphasis on Nickelodeon being on the top of the children’s cable game, and often brings up the Disney Channel as Nick’s main competitor. At no point is Cartoon Network mentioned, because, well, nobody wants to say their competitor is doing better than them, and saying you’re doing better than Nickelodeon would defeat the documentary’s narrative.

My point is that I do not believe QUIET ON SET comes from a genuine place. It’s cheap schlock shock documentary filmmaking that wants to attract the same crowd who watch serial killer shows for fun.

However.

It’s also a space where a lot of people who were hurt during this time at Nickelodeon have come forward to tell their stories, and that pretty much nullifies all the gross exploitation elements present in the early parts. When these people start speaking for themselves, the documentary has no choice but to let them speak, and its more garbage instincts fade away. By the time Drake Bell starts telling his story, the gossip journalists all but vanish until the end, and there’s a stronger sensitivity to everything.

The topics raised are harrowing. Workplace discrimination, sexual harassment, child abuse, sexism on set, racism on set, and general mispractice paint a meaningful picture of the toxic environment Nickelodeon was allowing at this time. The stories told by AMANDA SHOW writers Christy Stratton and Jenny Kilgen are infuriating. And then the sexual assault of Drake Bell by Brian Peck. Not an easy watch. It shouldn’t be an easy watch. What a fucking awful thing. It’s heartbreaking to watch.

The documentary handles it with an unexpected tact and evenhandedness. It doesn’t excuse Bell’s later behaviors, and it allows Schneider to come off as one of the few adults who handled the situation correctly, even if the rest of the documentary is largely against him. I wish this had been the tone of the entire piece.

QUIET ON SET is an important document of a terrible entertainment workplace. It’s a shame they dumped a bunch of trash on top of it. It’s not an easy watch, but it’s one of those things that’s going to be referenced to a lot over the years, and I hope that the people who make children’s television were learn the right lessons from it.

1 year ago | [YT] | 361

Pop Arena

Just to keep everyone up to date who don't follow me on socials, I recently had an apartment flooding, real nasty in-the-walls stuff, which I fear could result in delays or even me having to find a new place to live. I can't account for how productive I can be during this time. Thank you for your patience.

1 year ago | [YT] | 376

Pop Arena

A semi-regular reminder that Nick Knacks Sample Platter requests are still open!

If you'd like to make a Sample Platter request, send $50 and the following information through Paypal:
-Name you wish to be credited by
-Show and episode you want to see a video on
-Source of episode (DVD Amazon link, name of streaming service, Youtube video, etc)

Paypal!
www.paypal.com/paypalme2/poparena

List of episodes already chosen:
docs.google.com/document/d/1Ej36ff_-PUx2m6wEN3vnF_…

2 years ago | [YT] | 87