Creators of Content - Modest Drongos

As someone who creates original content, be it writing music with my band or this blog, I’ve crossed paths with a lot of like-minded people who are busily working away on their own things. I’ve decided to dedicate some blog space and time to introduce them to you, while simultaneously giving me a good excuse to catch up with some old friends who I haven’t heard from in a while. As I said, I know a lot of people who like to create, so if this goes well, it may become a more regular occurrence.

Today’s post is about Modest Drongos, a YouTube series started by my friend and ex‑bandmate Ian and his good mate Dan. As of the time of writing, they’ve released eight videos and have 16 subscribers to their channel. In Dan’s words “Modest Drongos is primarily a web show of Ian and myself sharing games with one another”, “with us talking shit” Ian adds.

The Drongos - Dan on left, Ian on right. Image credit: Modest Drongos

The inspiration for Modest Drongos came primarily from gaming channels on YouTube, like Continue?, Game Grumps and other Let’s Play series’, but it wasn’t the only project the two had discussed. “We had an idea for a zine, and a music side project [before deciding on Modest Drongos],” Dan explains, “primarily [Modest Drongos] is for ourselves, so that we can try and create things, but if people find it funny then that’s even better”.

Modest Drongos seems an odd title for a web show primarily about gaming, though the pair have different reasons for settling on the name. “My take on Modest Drongos was that, number 1, I see myself as quite an idiot, and number 2, I liked the idea of calling ourselves ‘modest’ while taking on the persona of an uninformed, loud mouth dickhead” Ian says, while Dan says there’s more irony to it. “It’s mainly tongue-in-cheek. Australia is a real sufferer of the ‘cultural cringe’; most of the world sees us as Crocodile Dundee, Steve Irwin or the guy from Wolf Creek. So despite the fact that we’re both moderately intelligent fellows, we took on the ‘Drongo’ title. Furthermore, modesty is not a major virtue in Australia, despite the ‘tall poppy syndrome’. So the two together make up our sarcastic view of the Australian stereotype”.

Despite Modest Drongos being in its infancy as a series, Ian and Dan have already faced an intellectual property stoush. While Ian “didn’t really give a shit”, Dan was annoyed and took the claim personally, something he considers a mistake. “I didn’t realise how automated YouTube really was,” Dan explains, “YouTube, as I understand it, uses software to look for content matches and this was what flagged our video as a breach. Ironically, when I dug into it, the only reason this happened was another channel, who weren’t the owners of the game[’s intellectual property] or an affiliate, had a video series of the same game”. The Drongos disputed the claim and YouTube quickly reversed the flag. While they expect similar situations to come up in future, the experience of the dispute resolution process will no doubt serve them well.

Modest Drongos has committed to a fairly busy schedule, planning to release content three times a week. Despite this, they seem to have no issues with developing content. “There’s always heaps of gameplay stuff sitting there waiting to be edited,” Ian tells me, “we capture 10-15 episodes worth of footage per session. The editing is becoming more time-consuming as we progress, but we’re getting better at the process and we want to add in more elaborate visual jokes”. The duo are pretty well in tune creatively and play on each other’s strengths. “[Ian] does the lion’s share of editing. I’m more there to be annoying with ‘you‑know-what-would-be-great’ suggestions.” Dan goes on to say, “I mainly contribute the childish Microsoft Paint drawings or the scanned black and white sketches; anything that looks rounded and cartoonishly adorable, that’s my work. Anything that looks awesome and professional was most likely Ian’s”.

While the Drongos would love to commit to the project full-time, like most creative types, they fund their passions through regular day jobs. Ian sums up wisely, “for me it’s important I have time to create, both with Drongos and other projects I’m working on. [Casual work] is nothing special, but it allows me to do what I have to do to keep my head screwed on the right way.”

You can subscribe to Modest Drongos on YouTube, Like them on Facebook or Follow them on Twitter. Watch their (current) latest episode below: