Tag Archives: caribbean content creators

Bar Miztah on how to make music reaction videos on your smartphone

Today we are chatting with Bar Miztah, a Trinidadian YouTuber who creates reaction videos. In the podcast, we dive into his process of creating reaction videos. I was honestly blown away when I learned that he uses his phone. You can listen to the podcast on Spotify. Here are the Key takeaways.

Caribbean Content Creators need to invest in themselves. To be taken seriously on the global stage be professional. Where necessary pay for programs and apps to access more features or, say, have an app’s watermark removed from your videos. Give your best. Look at the competition. Get a better microphone. Up your game.

Love what you do. Be yourself. Before creating a YouTube channel, Bar Miztah stumbled on reaction videos looking for songs. The content creators he looked at would break down bars in the song but he noticed that they would miss things. He pointed this out and his wife suggested that he do it himself. So he did. Everyone has different motivations to create, and that’s fine but you must love what you do.

Experiment. Not knowing anything about creating reaction videos, Bar Miztah experimented a lot and downloaded over 40 apps until he found something he liked. As strange as it sounds to me, Bar Miztah doesn’t like editing his reaction videos on a computer. He discovered that he prefers to use his phone. He discovered LogoPit for making thumbnails. For editing, he uses Kinemaster, the paid version. When it comes to videos, he suggests it’s not only “how the video looks” but “how it’s presented”.

Copyright Claims. Reacting to music videos, he’s gotten his fair share of copyright claims. You can request a review for a revision. In some cases, the claim might be removed. As a content creator be mindful that you don’t create content that gets you blocked from different regions.

Be consistent. A lot of Bar Miztah’s growth came in 2022 by consistently posting videos.

Listen to your community. Commenters guide you and tell you what they want to see. Give them what they want.

A little bit every day

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As a content creator who wants to achieve success, you have a responsibility to do a little bit every day. I was writing an article for Caribbean Content Creators when my four-year-old daughter walked in and picked up a novella I wrote in 2007. Her name is Anna. She’s a little taller than the table, with plump cheeks and two ponytails. Flipping through the pages, Anna remarked that the book had no pictures. Then she asked me if I wrote all “these words”. I stopped typing and looked at Anna. Smiled. Said yes. Her next sentence stunned me.

“Did you get tired?”

“No, I didn’t get tired.”

She wasn’t satisfied. “But how did you write all these words?”

I thought about it for a moment then said, “I did a little bit every day.”

She wasn’t done. “Why is your name at the top of every page?”

“Because that’s the way books are usually formatted.” It felt like a dumb uninspiring answer.

She left the book on the table and disappeared.

Listen to this episode on Spotify

Since 2008, I’ve published 12 books and published almost 700 YouTube videos. How did I do it? By doing a little bit every single day. It took about 6 months to write Boy Days: Short Stories about Trini Men; and another two years to edit the book.

Later, in the cool of the afternoon, Anna appeared with a plush journal. On the cover is a rainbow-coloured unicorn.

“I’m working on a story called The Explosion,” she said.

I was editing a video. I stopped, turned my chair, and looked at her.

“What’s it about?”

“It’s a story about a girl walking on the beach and a bomb falls right next to her.”

“What if the bomb falls on top of her?”

Anna laughed tee-hee. “She’ll die. I don’t want her to die.”

“Can I help you write the story?” I asked.

“Yes.” Anna is precise with her words. “You can help spell words. But,” she warned, “there aren’t any pictures.”

Anna knows what she wants. We went outside. Surrounded by mountains we sat under the clear blue sky. She dictated the story, I wrote the words. It wasn’t smooth sailing. There was scratching, and some crying, I wasn’t doing it the way she wanted it. We had to start over. But we did it. After the last sentence, she pointed and told me to write “The End”. Then she signed her name at the top of the page; because that’s how books are formatted.

“We’ll write another story tomorrow,” she said.

A little bit every day. It goes a long way.

As a content creator, what does your daily schedule look like? Let me know in the comments.

Rendelina Reviews: 3 takeaways for content creators

Recognition is nice. Powerful. Recently, while chatting with Christophe Pierre from Design By Spirit, he recognized Rendelina Reviews, and the importance of their work as Caribbean food bloggers from Trinidad and Tobago.

Rendel and Melina Robinson from Rendelina Reviews

Rendelina Reviews is a husband and wife team from Trinidad and Tobago. Rendel is the husband, Melina is the wife. Since 2017 they’ve grown their Social media presence to over 200,000 followers and subscribers.

Rendel listened to that episode. Heard Christophe’s positive comment. Rendel and I connected, chatted on the telephone trying to put things in place. It took time but in December 2024 we sat down to chat. There’s a lot more but here are 3 takeaways for content creators

It takes time to make a breakthrough. Rendel and Melina have a production company called Render Vision. Before Rendelina Reviews they were filming events like weddings. Food vlogs were a passion project, something they did because they enjoyed doing it. After 5 years, the food vlogs published through Rendelina Reviews got bigger and attracted more attention and profit than Render Vision. Through their work with Rendelina Reviews, they’d eventually connect with Mobil, their first major sponsor.
Create content because you love it. It’s not about a payday or a side hustle. Focus on what you know. Rendel expressed that he creates videos for fun. He does it because he loves it. One of his driving goals is to make a Hollywood movie. Producing content allows him to create short documentaries and flex the muscles that could one day lead him to a Hollywood movie.
How to make better food videos. Focus on your niche. Focus on what you’re good at. Be consistent. Know your strong suit. For example in Rendelina’s their emphasis is on production quality and they’ve invested on equipment that allows them to walk the talk. Make sure your audio is crisp. Be relatable, consider where your target audience is and the equipment you use, in some cases it may mean choosing a phone versus cinema camera.

If you’re a content creator, there’s a lot in the episode. For your convenience, I’ve included the YouTube video.