My Experience with Evanf1997 (as the Main Channel Editor)

I want to start off by saying that I didn't plan to make this as I had just wanted to sweep it under the rug and move on with my life but I care a lot about Zoey and if there was any time to do this, it's now. I was the main editor for the Evanf1997 channel from the months of August 2021 up until January 2022. I edited every video from August through November (11 videos) with a brief hiatus in December due to the events that will be mentioned shortly with an additional in January for a total of twelve videos.

I had been recommended Evan's tweet looking for an editor around the time and was elated to know that I had gotten the job after a preliminary decision between me and another editor. I was working retail at the time, so any opportunity to get out of that hellscape was good enough for me. You could imagine how happy I was to finally put in my two weeks to work from home. At first, I'd say working for Evan was basically respectable and understanding. Deadlines were a bit short for the usual length of videos he'd ask for but nothing I couldn't handle, especially due to the excitement of just finally doing what I loved.

Over time, however, the deadlines got a bit too short for the amount of work he'd ask for. I thought nothing of it because he's a content creator and having had my own relatively successful channel back in the day, I knew how the algorithm worked. Yet I'd bring up concerns to Evan about time and he'd basically just brush it off. His feedback became more and more unreasonable and late night editing sessions became the norm. What sort of started widening my eyes was when Zoey entered the picture.

Remember when Evan was between me and another editor? Zoey was that editor. I didn't think too much about it because she got hired to work on his second channel and we were all in the same Discord group but she later revealed to me that she was basically getting paid approximately $4 for up to HOURS of work and being gaslight into thinking it was "standard practice". Especially considering I was being paid roughly $400-500 per video. I tried my best to find her alternative work and would help her out financially from time to time but there was only so much I could do on my end and this was BEFORE the Russian invasion of Ukraine, that led to an increase in prices in the UK.

She later confirmed to me that Evan had no longer wanted to work with her but was still part of the Discord group throughout the entire thing, even after he let her go. There was even a point later on where he needed a project edited real quick and I was too busy. So he was looking around and suggested everyone in the Discord group BUT her. I even suggested her but he just didn't even acknowledge it.

This all culminated in the months of November-December where things got bad.

Evan and I had spoken about a HUGE project for Black Friday that would be around one hour+ in length. I had never done a video close to that length before, so I warned him that I'd need time to do so. He agreed and I finished the first video of the month, Lore for Dummies, that premiered on November 2nd. I had told him that it would not be a good idea to do our original follow up video because of how long the Black Friday project would take and he assured me it wouldn't be so bad. So I got the second video done by November 16th.

Then, out of the blue, he warns me that the script for the Black Friday project had ballooned into a nearly TWO HOUR video that HAD to be done by then because of the sponsorship deal he had going on. This led to making a nearly two hour video in less than 10 days that premiered on November 26th. To say this stressed me out beyond belief would be an understatement. I basically stayed up a full 24+ hours trying to get it all done because it required dozens upon dozens of clips from different YouTubers/Twitch streams across the entire lifespan of Destiny raids.

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFt5LjYBweM

While I am legitimately proud of the work I did and was respectably compensated for the stress ($2000) I was put under, I think you can understand how bad this was for my mental health. I didn't even want to LOOK at Destiny 2 content, let alone work on it but I thought the two week break we agreed on from the channel would be enough.

It wasn't.

Evan wanted an additional FIVE videos for the month of December to cover expenses he had made due to moving to Colorado with fellow streamers. After he had promised me that he wasn't going to do much, if anything, during that month.

I was first charged with editing a video on the 30th Anniversary dungeon and I immediately knew this wasn't working. I had no steam left, I couldn't get anything working that fit my level of quality. Especially after what I had considered to be my best work just prior. I warned Evan that I was burnt out and I'd try to finish the video but it would be best if he had someone else take over for a while. He basically then tried to guilt trip me by saying his recent house move in with other streamers and other life issues cut into his finances, so he absolutely needed these videos to be done.

Screenshot: https://i.imgur.com/6zpt91J.jpg

This led to me basically having a mental breakdown and vanishing from Twitter, Discord and other media sources for two weeks. It was just too much to handle and while I do feel awful for basically leaving him high and dry and making the other new editor take up so much slack, I just couldn't do it.

I mean, there's a lot more about myself but this is about Zoey & she definitely didn't deserve to be treated that way. Especially since he only went to her after I had left and he hired two other younger editors to basically pay them nothing. It got so bad that he needed a 15 minute video edited over ONE night and I just couldn't do it all, so the work was split in half between me and a new editor. Each of us were paid simply $100 for that stress.

On my end, it was more of just completely unrealistic deadlines and an increasing level of passive aggressiveness. To the point where even other members of the group noticed it.
His demands got worse and worse and it just got too much to handle.

Screenshots:

https://i.imgur.com/9uclzno.png
https://i.imgur.com/Lzj09RH.png

What I will take full responsibility for is the last project I had been charged to do, which was the Forsaken retrospective. I was given 11 days to do so and while I had made progress throughout, he gave me feedback that just utterly broke me. It was just such a minor change that literally no one would notice and, as an editor, I normally don't mind that. I often make edits that no one will notice but make ME happy but this was just the straw that broke the camels back. I just blocked him and left the group the day before release. That one is entirely on me but I just couldn't do it anymore.

I want to make it clear that I don't think Evan is a bad person at his core. Even after all he's done, I don't think he's malicious, at least not intentionally. I think he has a perception of work and effort that just doesn't mesh well with the editing process. He thinks that editing is as simple as putting stuff together and that's it but any editor will tell you that is not the case. This leads to frustration and gaslighting because he works tirelessly and thinks everyone else should act the same.

What I hope is that he learns that, especially post 2020, people need a LOT more time to get stuff done. We've all been through a lot and some people haven't coped with it as well as others. I've done better than most, I'd say, but Zoey hasn't and she shouldn't have been treated that way.

I really didn't want to make this but I hope Evan becomes a better person at the end of this.

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