Welcome back to our interview with Dan Evans, a geography student at Royal Holloway, and now a rising TV star! In Part One, Dan told us about his love for Geography, and why he keeps making those delightful videos. Now, we’ll have a look at how he makes them, and his tips for anyone looking to do something similar.
Did your YouTube channel start as a passion project, a hobby you did for fun?
Well, I’ve always loved getting outdoors and exploring and I think my film-making emanated from that. When I was quite little, I used to make lots of home documentaries; from our back garden to the local area. Then, when we started going on more exotic holidays, I always used to take my tripod and camera and would spend my holiday with a script in my hand! Later on, when I was in college, I produced a series called Difference with Dan which took two similar geographical terms (such as rock and stone) and attempted to outline their essential differences. That went really well, and the rest as they say, is history!
What made you want to start your radio broadcast, Bandana?
Bandana really came off the success of a previous show I used to do in 2011/2012 called GeoPod, which was a ½ hour show I did on Sunday evenings. I decided to make Bandana a bit more professional so I expanded it to three hours, which allowed people to come and go when they pleased. I’ve always had a passion for radio, and listening back to Bandana quite recently, I do miss it quite a lot. Now, normally when I miss something, I tend to do it again, so watch this space!
How easy was it to set up your media channels? This is a question for our readers, who might also be thinking about starting their own channels on the web!
Oh, it’s extremely easy! YouTube is pretty much self-explanatory. In my case it helped having a blog site (geographywithdan.blogspot.co.uk) to direct people to my videos, but just linking your videos to something like Facebook or Twitter works equally well.
How do you feel about the recent surge in popularity, or even ‘internet meme’ status?
I think ‘surge’ is the operative word there; my popularity seems to come and go. A couple of years back Greg James from Radio One tweeted one of my videos which created a surge for me. Then I did some presenting at the end of an ITV2 Viral Tap episode. Recently, I was given a great boost of subscribers when I was featured on the LadBible website. It’s nice to know all these hours of hard work are being appreciated! But, when things die down and the surge drifts away, it gives me time to relax and channel my thoughts.
Do you have any plans to continue your media success?
I will continue to produce documentaries and like I said above, I am considering a return to radio. I’ve had a brief pause this past year since my 10-part series ‘On the Trail’ which aired last summer. It’s given me time to reflect on some new ideas and gauge where I’m at and what people want from TvGeog.
What would you like your future in Geography to look like?
Truth be told, an academic one; researching and lecturing in Geography somewhere. There are academics like Brian Cox who are able to continue their research alongside making documentaries for the BBC and ITV and perhaps I will go down that route. Whatever happens, my curiosity about the planet will never sleep and that philosophy of trying to discover more about the place we live in will follow me wherever I go!
Dan’s website is http://www.geographywithdan.blogspot.co.uk and you can find his documentaries on his YouTube channel, “TVGeog”.
Image credit: Alice Barnes-Brown
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