Currently, his channel has 22,000 subscribers (44,000 subscribers as of 2021, ed.), and his most recent uploads include reviews of modern movies like Aquaman and classics such as Candyman. I want to thank Lee for taking time out of his busy schedule to do this interview, and I wish him the best as he continues to keep making videos; who knows, maybe we'll collaborate one day.
1. Tell me about where you’re from and
what you did prior to starting Drumdums?
I grew up in Columbus, Mississippi
and when I was 18 years old, I joined the Air Force and
was there for 24 years until 2016,
but right before I retired, I started my Youtube channel.
2. I understand you were in the Air
Force, why did you decide to join and what was the experience like?
I grew up in a small town, so
opportunity-wise, there wasn’t that much.
I wanted to have a
good life, get a good education,
all of that stuff. I knew if I stayed in
Columbus none of this
was going to happen, plus I wanted
to serve my country.
3. How did Drumdums get started? What led to your decision to start making
videos?
I was in Afghanistan in 2012 and
stationed there for about a year. I
started watching
Youtube and I’ve always been a
movie fanatic, so the first channels I discovered were the
likes of JeremyJahns, Chris
Stuckmann, SchmoesKnow, and FlickPick, those were the big
four. WeWatchedAMovie was the one that got me
interested in doing a horror channel.
This was all in 2012. Three years later my wife said to me, “You’re always
talking about
movies, why don’t you go ahead and
do it on camera?” She pushed me into
getting a camera
and all the equipment; now the
first few videos were completely horrible but the reason I
stayed with it was because my wife
had spent all of this money on this equipment and I felt
like I would be such a failure if I
tried this for a little bit and decided to quit and then have all
this equipment lying around doing
nothing.
4. When did things start to click for
you?
That’s a good question. Well, your first year you’re trying to hone
your craft and you start
losing that fear of getting on
camera probably within the first few months.
The first thing
you have to do is conquer the
public speaking fear, then you start figuring things out as far as
editing goes and as you progress,
you then might upgrade your software or hardware
depending on what you start out
with.
5. What type of content do you put out
on Drumdums?
I tell people it’s 85 percent
horror, but when I started out, I wanted to do just movies. I wanted to cover the new movies being
released until I realized everybody was already doing that. Luckily, I’ve always been a horror fanatic,
and I think whatever you’re a fan of is what’s going to pull you in the direction
you want to go.
My first franchise review was Halloween, and I noticed how I started
to get a lot more views with the Halloween
reviews, so I said, “Hey, this is pretty cool because (A. I love horror, and
(B. People are watching these videos more than anything else.” I realized there’s a big horror fanbase out
there that’s just as passionate as Star
Wars or Marvel fans, but horror
fans are probably even more loyal to the genre.
6. What can people expect on the
channel in the next few months or so?
I don’t plan things ahead that
much, but every two months we do the “ScreamStream” podcast, and in October I
participate in the “31 Days of October” channel event. Other than that, I don’t plan too far outside
a month ahead. I have my Patreon-exclusive
reviews which I do for my donators, but how I generally decide what to cover
happens whenever I’m watching a movie or reading something in the news, and I
see something that sparks my interest.
I don’t like planning things out
too much because then it becomes stale.
I like things to be spontaneous and impulsive with my reviews, and I
think that’s why you’ll notice in some of my reviews I’m noticeably chipper
when reviewing certain movies because I decided, “Hey, I wanna review this.”
7. Right, because yesterday you posted
a video for the movie Mandy starring Nicholas
Cage talking about how it’s your favorite movie of this year so far.
I didn’t expect to talk about Mandy because I’m not a die-hard
Nicholas Cage fan, but I like those rags-to-riches stories of when somebody experiences
a comeback after a lull in their career, like Mickey Rourke in The Wrestler. I think that’s kind of what happened to
Nicholas Cage with this movie.
He got really passionate about this
project, which I heard was partially fan-funded, and then, to back it up, you
have this amazing director, Panos Cosmatos.
You love it when there’s this individual with a history of being
down-and-out and then all of a sudden they put out this phenomenal product.
8. What’s your process for writing
reviews?
When
writing, what works for me is I watch the movie, preferably twice. The first time, I don’t do anything and just
let all settle in, unlike during my first year where I would take notes along
the way, which I think can be a little distracting. Eventually I learned to just watch the movie
and let it soak in, then I’ll put it on a second time in the background while I
take notes.
Then
I pull up a Word document and start unloading everything I feel is important; afterwards,
I go back and arrange everything in an order of importance, which helps you
stay on track. When some reviewers start
out, they don’t take notes, which makes their early work feel a bit
scattered. It’s always a good idea to
stay organized and have a little bit of spontaneity. Sometimes, I try to memorize my notes, so I
have a flow going and if something pops into my head I add it in to keep my
notes going.
9. How did you come up with your
scoring system because of instead of using a star rating or anything like that
you use phrases like “Looped in Hell” or the “Unicorn,” where did that come
from?
I get bored with things pretty
quickly and I wanted to come up with a ratings system that was for me, not
necessarily something that was catchy for everyone else, and it makes it easy
for me because I’ll be like, “Is that two-and-a-half stars or three?” If it’s something like “Two Hours Lost” or “Humdrum,”
then I can categorize it a lot quicker.
The “Unicorn” came last year
because there were these movies from my childhood, or I saw something that
stood above everything else like The Dark
Knight. That film was the catalyst
for the rating, which I only use about once a year. This rating lets people know this film is
super-special to this reviewer.
10. Whenever you face a snag or are
unsure about what to do next when writing the review, shooting the video, or
editing it, what do you do?
The thing with movies is that you
always have something to write about, so pulling out pros and cons isn’t a
problem for me. What I will say is there
have been certain movies that have been difficult to review for a couple of
different reasons. The “Unicorn” rating
is the hardest one to give out because everyone and their brother has already
talked how great this film is, so what can you bring to the table that’s new?
Then, there are the ones that are
so bland that it’s hard to get creative with the reviews, luckily those movies
depend on whether they’re really bad or really good.
11. What’s the key to keeping the
audience interested in what you put out?
What I’ve learned is that you have
to stay relevant and be consistent. If
you take a break for a month, you’re going to lose views. I also try to change things up and come up
with something different to challenge myself.
When I did the review for House on Sorority Row, I was not
satisfied with how it turned out. It was
too short, only about six minutes, and I didn’t give the movie it’s fair shake
when I watched it. So, I decided, “What
if I put this review to the side and come back to it in a few months?” Then, I re-watched it, created another review,
and merged it with the original to show how I thought of it initially versus what
I think of it now.
Another one was “Drumdums Watches.” It was during October of my first year and I
wanted to do a Halloween marathon when I thought, “Why don’t I V-log this?” I v-logged little specs of each movie with me
in the background. I got a pretty good response
from it and realized this was a cool idea.
You have to be creative and you can’t
be stale. You can’t do the same video
over and over because people will get tired of it, so you have to throw a
curveball in every once in a while.
12. How has doing Drumdums changed your
life?
The big thing it’s done is made me
categorize my life and put in some time management. If you’re doing YouTube and taking it
seriously you have to set aside the time because a lot of people think they can
record a video, not really edit it, and just put it out there. By doing that, though, no one’s going to
watch it.
The quickest I can get a movie
review done is two hours, but some have taken me a week to do. Always put out a quality product and don’t do
something you’re not going to be proud of.
In short, you have to categorize
and make time for your family and everything else in your life, even if this
means getting up in the wee hours of the morning to get some work done. There have been times where I feel like I can’t
get anything done because I’m out of energy.
You have to make sure you exercise, drink fluids, etc. to help keep your
energy levels up.
13. Why do you love horror?
I think every horror fan has got
something from their childhood that sparked that love for the genre, and for
me, when I was really young, I remember seeing this commercial on TV for some
movie, and in it were these scary eyes, which frightened me, and that image
alone stuck with me.
I love all kinds of movies, but
horror connects with me more than any other genre, so much so it transcends
beyond films. Whenever I go to horror
conventions or talk with fans, they’re so passionate about the genre, and I was
talking with my wife the other day about this and she said horror fans are the
least judgmental people. You can go to a
horror convention and see people from all different walks of life who don’t
care about what you believe in or your thoughts on a topic, they’re just very
humble, loving people that all have one thing in common: they love horror
movies.
Plus, everyone loves a good rush,
and I think horror movies can give you a huge rush when watching them if
directed properly.
14. What are some of your favorite
horror directors?
John Carpenter is my favorite
director because the work he did in the 70’s and 80’s is pretty unmatched as far
as horror goes. Today, you still have
young directors trying to capture what Carpenter did, and I have to wonder if Carpenter’s
success is unintentional or if he knew what he was doing.
Everybody’s got a flavor or style
they can’t avoid, like how I review movies, and I have to wonder if Carpenter
was lucky because he has this “something” that other directors don’t have. Other ones I include David Fincher and Stanley
Kubrick.
15. What about favorite horror films?
I did a list a little while back
with my daughter, but some of my favorites include Halloween, The Texas Chainsaw
Massacre, The Exorcist. While a sequel, Halloween 4 had one of the most profound impacts on me growing
up. The reason is because at the time,
Jason and Freddy were the only ones in the market at the time, but their movies
were getting pretty bad, but when the movie came out, it delivered on every
single level.
It was the movie that got me into
the franchise, but what I also liked about it is the ending. The reveal Jamie Lloyd was becoming a killer
like her uncle shook me really bad and even gave me nightmares. It’s the only movie I can think of that had
that type of effect on me, and it’s weird it came from Halloween 4 of all things.
16. In your mind, what makes an
effective horror film? And what doesn’t?
John Carpenter said it best when he
said, “A great horror film can do many things, it can (A. Scare the audience,
(B. Scare the audience, and (C. Scare the audience,” and I truly believe
that. Not everyone gets scared by what
they see, but it depends. Recently, I
just saw The Nun, which had a great
atmosphere but some of the laziest scare tactics I’ve ever seen.
You can tell when work is put into
a project and it’s effective. It Follows is another great example
because every time a scare happened, you didn’t see it coming. You had this sense of dread it was coming,
but didn’t know when to expect it, even though the film also employed
jump-scares. There’s a big misconception
that jump-scares are bad, but if they’re done right, they can be pretty damn cool. If the director has a vision and takes the
project seriously, then you can have some great horror movies.
17. How do you feel about horror films
released now? Is there a particular
style of horror you want to see more of?
This has been a pretty good year
for horror movies, what with releases like Herditary. I just saw Alice, Sweet Alice from 1976, and I thought, “Wow, this is an
original horror film, even by today’s standards and the time it was released.” I find myself liking horror movies that deal
with the family because there are a lot of times where there are cracks in a
family we don’t see out in public.
When you can see that and dig into
it, explore it, and add a horror aspect to it, then you can make it pretty damn
chilling. A member of the family killing
their own is something I find creepier than them killing a complete
stranger. I would like to see more films
in the style of something like this or Hereditary.
Zombie movies have kind of ran
their course over the past few years through stuff like The Walking Dead, but I like 28
Days Later and 28 Weeks Later,
and I’d like to see more zombie films that are really intense like those come back
into play. I Am Legend (2007) had the right idea, but they used CGI, which I
thought was a huge mistake because there was a lot of potential with that movie
if they had gone the other way. I like a
good zombie movie, but the sub-genre is getting pretty stale.
18. Speaking of which, with the new Halloween
movie releasing in a few weeks, if the film is a success, do you think
Hollywood will want to resurrect even more franchises that haven’t seen a new
installment in a while?
To tie into my previous answer, I
want 28 Months Later, even though it’s
not a slasher movie. I’d also like to
see a new Nightmare on Elm Street movie
because it’s been a while since the last one came out. Of course, I’d also like to see a new Jason
movie because I love a good camp slasher.
If they can ever figure the rights out, it’d nice to get another Jason
movie.
I’m trying to think of some others,
but I realize you don’t see that many slashers develop into their own
franchises. I’m not a big fan of Hatchet or any southern-fried horror,
plus I’m not dying for a new Texas
Chainsaw movie either.
19. To change the subject a little bit,
you appeared as an extra in the first two seasons of “Stranger Things,” how did
this happen?
I’ve done extra work here and there
since The Avengers in 2012, which I
have to thank my wife for. My daughter
used to model, and we went to this casting call in Santa Fe, New Mexico because
she was trying to get a part as an extra in The
Avengers. While we were there, the
guy asked, “We need military types, would you be interested in trying out?” I told him sure and three months later I got
a phone call saying they want me to be in The
Avengers.
You can’t see me in The Avengers, by the way. I’m in the beginning scene where the helicopter
is coming down and Coulson steps out. I’m
one of the S.H.I.E.L.D. guards, but you can’t see my face.
I stayed in the loop and sometime
later, a casting director named Taylor Meade asked me if I wanted to be an
extra on episode three of Stranger Things,
which, at the time, no one expected was going to be a big hit. It was purely accidental, and I don’t think I
knew what it was about when I picked it, but my wife pushed me to go do it.
After it became huge, I lobbied to
appear in the second season and got lucky to do that one. I’m hoping to get in the third season, so we’ll
see what happens.
20. It’s funny because I brought this
up to my dad and told him you were in Stranger
Things a few days prior. So, you’re
in episode three of season one, but where are you in season two?
I’m in the very last episode. Right after the double doors are closed and
the chains are put around, I’m the one who bolts the chains as the camera pulls
back to reveal my face. I get into a
jeep and flip the bird to a guy on the way out.
It’s funny cause that’s not me flipping the bird because what happened
was that they wanted me to come back the next day, but because I lived three
hours away from where they were shooting, I didn’t get to flip the guy off.
21. Going back to Drumdums, one of the
other interesting aspects of your channel is your film collection, especially
your VHS tapes you display in the background of your videos. When did you decide to start collecting
those?
I used to work at a Habitat for
Humanity re-sale store back in Georgia and we used to get a lot of cool items
like typewriters from the 1970’s or those old sewing machines from the 1950’s. One day, I found this 1983 ColorTrac 2000 TV
that was in pristine condition, and I had to buy it.
I love horror VHS covers, and I
found you could buy tapes for pretty cheap if you went to Goodwill or Ebay, and
it eventually became its own thing as I started collecting things until I
realized, “Oh crap, I have over a hundred VHS tapes.” Some of these tapes are donated to me, so I
do unbox videos where these people have sent me boxes and boxes of tapes.
22. For those looking to start their
own collection, what advice would you give them?
You have to be resourceful. Look around at thrift stores, flea markets,
and sites like Ebay for VHS tapes. Also,
keep an eye out for VHS lots because sometimes you’ll end up paying cheaper for
the tapes than if you bought them individually.
23. On that note, what’s the most you’ve
spent on a VHS tape?
I spent 25 dollars on Sleepaway Camp. I had to have it because it’s my favorite
camp slasher and second favorite slasher of all time, and because Felissa Rose
is coming to Spooky Empire in a month.
24. Where do you see Drumdums in five
years or so?
This has been quite a year for me
because I hit 10,000 subscribers back in April or March and I’m already at
almost 20,000 subscribers right now. It’s
kind of like a whirlwind because I never expected to get this kind of growth
because in my first year, I got maybe a thousand subscribers, so I thought it
was going to be a slow ride.
But what I’m learning is if you’re
consistent and you keep putting out quality content, your audience is going to
grow. I don’t take anything for granted,
and I’m really lucky because I know channels that have been grinding at it and
are still below a thousand subscribers.
Now, in five years, I hope I’m at
100,000 subscribers. You look at horror
YouTubers and the only one with a million subscribers is Dead Meat, so there’s
this really big gap, subscriber-wise, when it comes to horror YouTube channels,
so most of us seem like we’re below 30,000, but if you’ve got 30,000
subscribers, you’re doing something right.
If you’re doing straight-up movie
reviews, then it’s more of a grind. I’m
curious to see what the future holds.
Lee's Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbkYZiLXXvyTEQpxBFf4Oaw
Lee's Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbkYZiLXXvyTEQpxBFf4Oaw
Really great article.
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