This article is from WeChat official account:Game Research Club (ID: yysaag), author: stone leaf young, from the title figure: two anchors Unus Annus of
What would you do if you knew you only had one year of life? Is it doing nothing or every second counts?
In order to find the answer, two famous YouTube game anchors, Mark (Markiplier) and Ethan (Crankgameplays) launched a bold experimental project: They want to start a video channel from scratch, but only give it a year of life. After one year, regardless of the development of the channel, the channel and its contents must be deleted.
On November 14 last year, they formally revealed this unique channel: Unus Annus in the video with a black and white look.
The introduction of the video reads: “This channel and everything in it will be deleted after a year. It will be unavoidable, unavoidable and irreversible.”
After 365 days, this channel finally ushered in its “dead period.”
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Unus Annus means “one year” in Latin, which means that this channel will only exist for one year.
Mark and Ethan also regarded this place as their last year in a parallel world. The content they upload has no fixed direction, and a large part of it is to try and have not experienced it beforeThings like learning drums, dancing, acupuncture and cupping.
It may also be some whimsical sand sculpture themes, such as turning the other party into a mummy, closing your eyes and putting on makeup, eating the most sour food in the world, and so on.
Sometimes they will challenge self-abuse projects that they were afraid to do before, such as being sprayed with pepper spray, being electrocuted by a stun gun, or eating bugs.
This channel is like a wish list, allowing them to desperately pursue exciting and novel death experiences in the video, even if they are unwilling subjectively, they have to try it, and cross out one of their regrets every day.
The format of each issue of Unus Annus is arbitrary, there is no fixed video structure, only one place is always the same: each issue of video starts with a countdown, and from the first issue, it has been one second by one second The passage of time reminds everyone of the remaining time on this channel.
The videos themselves are not terrible. Sometimes they may just be two people chatting in front of the camera. But Ethan and Mark believe that its core value does not lie in the content itself, but continues to make videos on the premise of knowing the end of the channel, and make full use of the remaining time.
Except for Unus Annus, both of them have their own channel to take care of. This channel has brought them considerable extra workload, but Mark and Ethan are still planning to require that they must upload at least one issue per day. Video, because they believe that only real investment can be exchanged for the ultimate “return.”
“It’s like stuffing gunpowder into a huge firework. The more stuffed, the more beautiful it will be when it explodes.”
“The more emotions we put in the front, the harder it is to let go in the end. We just have to work hard to make something that people don’t want to lose, and then choose to let go.”
The two anchors themselves are highly influential. Their devotion and the highly topical channel concept have allowed Unus Annus to develop rapidly, gaining 1 million fans in just one week. Years later, more than 4.5 million fans have subscribed to this channel.
Such a momentum of development makes many people wonder whether the two will actually choose to close the channel after the countdown is over. After all, closing a channel is not an easy task for the anchor. Let alone the potential loss of income behind it, the growth of a channel and the accumulation of fans are the painstaking efforts of the anchors. In a sense, these channels are their existence. The manifestation of value.
Some anchors once claimed to quit the tubing but did not take actual action. Some anchors were forced to return after quitting the tubing. Most anchors would not choose to close the channel even if they no longer produce videos.
The famous anchor Pewdiepie said in 2016 that he would close his channel when the number of fans reached 50 million, which caused a huge response at the time, allowing him to grow hundreds of thousands of fans in a short period of time. As a result, after reaching 50 million fans, he said it was just a joke, and then deleted one of his backup channels.
Now, his channel has 107 million fans.
Some people think that Unus Annus is just a gimmick designed by Mark and Ethan, and it will end up with a fake shot like Pewdiepie.
However, Mark and Ethan did not intend to joke.
On November 14, 2020, Unus Annus celebrated its first birthday, and it was also the last day of its life.
Mark and Ethan arranged a live broadcast to see off the channel, and there were still 20 hours before the deadline.
In a black-and-white two-color setting, Mark and Ethan are sitting in front of the camera in black and white suits. In the middle is the countdown to the channel closure. There is also a coffin painted in black and white.
A total of 1.5 million people watched the funeral live broadcast online.
In the last 20 hours, Mark, Ethan and the behind-the-scenes production staff reviewed the life of this channel together, revisited their favorite sections, and talked about interesting anecdotes and some good memories during the video shooting process. At the same time, they also talked about their respective regrets, which ideas have not been realized, and which projects have not had time to shoot.
They also selected interesting audience comments, fan works, and stalks circulating on the Internet to talk about everything related to Unus Annus.
Although both Mark and Ethan were calm, the atmosphere became a little heavier as time passed.
In the last hour, Mark watched as the largest unit of countdown changed from hours toMinutes, he said, “I suddenly felt that way, just want to let it go slower, stop first, wait a while.”
“We set aside 20 full hours to say goodbye, but now I don’t think time is enough.”
In order to allow Unus Annus to rest on time, they began to delete the content on some new media accounts in advance, Twitter, Instagram, Reddit, and erase the traces of Unus Annus.
“A lot of people in the comment area want us to stop the countdown and reset the time. But the problem is that we can’t control the time.” Ethan said, “We share the same watch. What counts down is not only our time, but It’s everyone’s time. No matter what, time is always passing by.”
In order to thank the live broadcast that received 1 million likes, they also showed the specially customized coffin on the spot, which was designed in black and white from the exterior to the interior. The two also took turns lying in the coffin and experienced it. One person lay inside, and the other person stated his life like a eulogy outside, telling how he worked hard, how to treat others well, and how to bring it to the world. Different, it seems to be experiencing their end in advance.
“Although we are seeing off the show and the characters we created, I think because we put all our efforts into it, part of us died with this channel.”
Soon, there are only the last ten minutes left, as if everything should be said. The two people browsed the videos on the channel one last time, telling their most memorable moments and fond memories.
In the last 10 seconds, Mark, Ethan and productionThe people gathered in front of the coffin.
“See you in the next life.” Mark said, and then the three of them pressed the channel delete button together, and Unus Annus disappeared.
The interactive topic #Memento Mori, which they set for this live broadcast, is displayed in the lower left corner of the screen, which means “remember that you will eventually die.”
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Although the theme of the video on Unus Annus is very casual, the content is not perfunctory. Each episode will have a lot of editing and shooting work, which often exhausts Mark and Ethan and the production team behind it. But even so, they I still fulfilled my promise to upload at least one video every day and delete it at the end.
This makes it a very unique existence. Some people say it is a social experiment or performance art. Some people say it is the greatest project in the history of YouTube.
But whatever it is, Ethan and Mark are quite proud of their work.
“No one has done anything like this.” Ethan said, “I believe it is something that cannot be copied and will be included in the history of YouTube.”
The idea of Unus Annus originally came from Ethan’sA simple idea, because tired of making similar game videos every day, he hopes to try some other content, such as opening a channel without a fixed theme and direction, and uploading only some content that he wants to share every day.
He told Mark about this idea, and Mark is planning to open a channel with a lifespan of only one year. In the end they decided to collaborate on a channel.
For Ethan, he can experiment with all kinds of strange ideas as he pleases, but for Mark, it is an opportunity to discuss life and death.
Mark is already one of the most famous anchors on YouTube, with 27.5 million fans. But while his wealth and reputation were being accumulated, he encountered many misfortunes. For example, his father died of lung cancer, his niece was killed in a car accident, and his friend left him due to suicide. These tragic events have repeatedly given him Bring a heavy blow.
“Unus Annus tells us that everything is temporary. Every second must be cherished, because we can’t take back one second of time. Whether you look at the watch or not, time is always passing by.”
Unus Annus’s explanation of life and death is very intuitive, but maybe everyone sees different stories from it. Some people may see regret, some may see cherish, and some may see timely pleasure Some people may have seen a dying struggle.
“I firmly believe that something can only be truly understood and cherished by people after it ends.Only after it disappears, people will think about its essence and connotation, and will To taste those details. “After Unus Annus was over, Mark said, “Now I feel great and satisfied with what we accomplished. “
“A few years ago, I felt that my path as a creator might come to an end. I seemed to see my limits and I was about to surrender.”
“But now I feel more enthusiastic about the future every day, and I want to keep creating until I lie in the coffin.”
“I hope that when I face my own death, I can feel the same satisfaction as I did during the live broadcast.”
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Nowadays, the channel Unus Annus no longer exists in the world.
Fans reacted differently to the disappearance of Unus Annus.
Many people commemorate it online, express their dissatisfaction in various ways, and give UNus Annus said goodbye, recalling the story of his acquaintance with it.
But there are also many viewers who cannot accept the fact that the channel disappeared.
They went to the Internet to find the previous videos. Some people have downloaded all the videos of Unus Annus a long time ago. They re-transmitted these old videos to the YouTube or established a resource library on the Internet, hoping to keep Unus Annus everything of.
Mark and Ethan are trying their best to prevent Unus Annus from resurrecting.
“In short, we will let them disappear. We are not joking about this matter.”
They insisted on erasing all old videos from the Internet, and warned those who tried to re-transmit the videos to YouTube. They would file a copyright complaint and take these videos off the shelves, which may lead to These channels are deleted.
“There may be viewers who want to keep our videos forever, but this is not the original intention of this channel. The videos are just videos. The most important thing is the experience you get.”
“Just like death, you can’t take it away.” Ethan said, “All you can leave is the memories in the process.”
But compared to their “threat”, some people seem to be more afraid of losing these videos. More and more people are creating new channels on YouTube, and videos are re-uploaded every day. The official strangulation speed may not keep up. The resurrection speed of these videos.
But Mark said that even watching those old videos doesn’t make any sense, because the channel is gone and these videos have no soul.
“UnusThe core of Annus is not that the videos and channels are deleted, but that everything around it disappears, and the experience you have this year will come to an end. ”
Ethan’s new tattoo
Most fans still followed the call of Mark and Ethan, instead of looking for past videos, they chose to face the disappearance of Unus Annus.
“I know that many fans feel sad for this. I am not trying to make fun of those who are sad, because sadness is what we want. This feeling of loss, this feeling of reluctance and having to let go is exactly what we want. Yes.”
In the eyes of Mark and Ethan, because of the limited life of Unus Annus, you will always miss something. But because of this, it is more like our life.
Now people’s reactions and attitudes also confirm the original meaning of this channel.
“Don’t worry about what will happen after it is gone, but think that it will disappear one day while it still exists.”
This article is from WeChat official account:Game Research Club (ID: yysaag), author: stone leaf young