Join the RTS on Thursday 11 March as we ask Luke Hyams, Head of Originals EMEA at YouTube, what he is looking for, how trends and passions on the platform inform and inspire commissioned content, how YouTube Originals fits within the wider streaming community and just how YouTube truly becomes somewhere with something for everyone in a session hosted by Rhianna Dhillon, 6Music Film & TV Critic.

Joining Luke on the panel are the creatives behind two of their hugely successful Originals to date; Director Brian Hill and YouTube Creator and the films’ narrator Mr. Montgomery for Terms & Conditions: A UK Drill Story, and from How To Be Behzinga, YouTube content creator and star Ethan Payne aka Behzinga and Director Kevin Batchelor. Hear the story behind these two documentaries, and more about YouTube Originals commissioning strategy for UK and European audiences.  

Originals Synopsis

Terms & Conditions: A UK Drill Story

Century Films' documentary about drill music is a feature-length production for YouTube Originals exploring the complexities of the fastest growing music genre in the UK, using the music itself. The film explores the lives of the artists and those around them to help inform a thoughtful, human, layered film about life today in Britain. In the last year, drill music has hit the headlines not only for achieving mainstream recognition and radio play outs but also because it is believed to have close links to drugs and knife crime, making it hugely controversial.

The intention was to produce a balanced and artistic film giving a voice to people who have some connection with drill; from artists exploring how it feels to belong to a marginalised part of society to family and friends of victims of youth violence and organisations who are helping to spread a more positive message of an otherwise disenfranchised group.

How To Be Behzinga

Across three fun, insightful and thrilling episodes, Ethan Payne AKA Behzinga (4.31M followers) talks candidly for the first time about his turbulent formative years, his rise to YouTube stardom, his personal struggles with mental health and his inspiring journey from overweight gamer to endurance athlete with fellow Sidemen and close friends, all giving honest accounts of the man behind the Behzinga moniker.

Throughout the series, Ethan’s ultimate goal is to run The London Marathon, tackling epic challenges along the way – pulling fire trucks with strongman Eddie Hall, training with double gold Olympian Dame Kelly Holmes, running a half-marathon against 13 fellow YouTubers and fire walking inside The London Stadium.  But his fortunes are dealt a huge blow when the pandemic hits and he contracts COVID-19, leaving his training in tatters. The virtual London Marathon fast approaches and it hangs in the balance whether Ethan can leave his demons behind to overcome his biggest challenge.