About the author
kkds is a creator active since 2016 interested in the culture and history of YTPMV and Otomad. They have been active as both host and participant in a variety of projects, such as 秋のメロディー ~Autumn’s Melody~.
1. Show interest in the collab
As a participant, nothing kills my motivation faster than when it starts to feel like the host simply doesn’t care about the collab. Spontaneous and uninformed decisions being made, invitations to fill empty parts slowing down, and overall mismanagement are all things that plant the seeds of doubt in participants’ minds. Slowly, people start to wonder if the host would even notice that their parts aren’t finished… so they never finish them. Watching participants synchronously stop working on their parts due to reasons like these is so painfully common that there should honestly be a term for it. In my experience, the way to prevent this is sort of obvious: give a shit. Encourage discussion and sending previews, send relevant updates, and try to always be in motion chipping away at the workload. There’s much more that goes into a collab than simply making the parts, so ensuring the participants’ confidence that everything is getting done should be paramount!
2. Consider having a co-host
For beginner hosts, a solid piece of advice I can offer when starting out is to have a trusted co-host. It can’t be overstated how much it helps to have a second opinion for major decisions in a collab setting. There are some things that don’t really make sense to immediately discuss with the participants, and it’s often much more productive to first have a chat with your co-host about where to proceed. The first time I hosted a collab was with a close friend, and after everything was said and done, I thought a lot about how helpful it was for both of us to be able to discuss the more stressful aspects of the collab with each other. It was much more productive than if I had ended up venting my fears to someone not involved with the project. Not only that, but having a co-host makes it much easier for participants to have their questions answered and inquiries responded to. It halves the workload when it comes to recruiting participants, organizing data, making announcements, doing checks, and pretty much everything else! After your first few collab endeavors, there’s nothing wrong with not having a co-host if you can get the job done yourself. But getting a friend to help you out and also get some experience themselves is always a great option for when you’re still in that beginner stage of hosting.
3. Sensibly assign parts
Another thing that seems obvious but can actually be a big point of contention in a collab is how parts are selected. The collabs I’ve participated in typically employ one of two methods for part assignment, those being either first-come-first-serve or having participants fill out a survey. Each method has its benefits, and whichever one you go with just comes down to personal preference; first-come-first serve is much simpler and more streamlined, however some participants might feel “cheated” out of their ideal part if they’re invited later than others who’ve already gotten to choose. To prevent this, you could also invite all participants before part selection and only allow them to choose a part after a specific time, but another problem may arise when deciding that specific time, especially when participants are in different time zones. Using the survey option switches things up a bit, in that instead of part assignment being up to chance, it’s now solely at the discretion of the host(s). Each participant fills out a survey with their top 3 (in order) preferred parts, then the hosts assign roles based on this data. Ideally, the survey results will span the entire part list, and you’ll be able to fill every part. You may find that regardless of which option you choose, the possibility of participants being dissatisfied with their part assignment is always present. That’s why in any case it’s good to foster the type of collab environment where participants feel comfortable inter-mingling with each other to work out part assignment themselves, exchanging parts even after their initial selection.
4. Choosing participants
For me personally, gathering participants is still the thing I struggle with the most when it comes to collabs, despite all my experience. I still believe I can offer some insight though, as it’s mostly the act of cold-messaging people that I find difficult. Of course, this isn’t something you’d have to worry about if you just invited your friends, but for me, the exciting thing about hosting my own collab was inviting people whose videos I loved but I had never spoken to. Something I quickly realized though is that just because someone can make awesome videos doesn’t mean they’re a reliable collab participant. It wasn’t something I ever considered; I mean, how can someone THAT talented not have perfect collab conduct and time management skills? It sounds silly when put into words, but when you only know someone through watching their videos, how would you find out otherwise? So, if you’d also like to invite some strangers to your collab, my best advice is to stay on your feet. You can’t eliminate the possibility of participants being late to submit their parts, or participants dropping a part on short notice, but you can be ready to pick up where they left off in that process. That goes for your friends in the collab too; life gets in the way, and even the most punctual of people might have trouble meeting a deadline due to unforeseen circumstances. So come prepared, learn from your experiences with each participant, and choosing who to invite to a collab will get easier each time.
5. Have guidelines for submission format
It’s not really the kind of thing that will make or break a collab, but having clear guidelines for how audio and visual parts should be submitted will make your (or your compiler’s) life much easier. This is especially true if you’re working close to a deadline, which is the very last scenario where you’d want to be facing silly issues like noticing someone submitted their visuals rendered in a codec incompatible with your editing software. On the audio side of things, having participants submit files without BGM, with BGM, and with the BGM isolated is a good idea for ensuring the compiling process goes smoothly. With the collabs of today, it’s quite popular to adjust or EQ the BGM in some way, making this requirement pretty much mandatory, however it’s a good thing to be aware of if you aren’t already. Talk to your audio/video compiler about what works best for them, and make the rules for submission clear to participants, either in a channel in the server or on the spreadsheet.