1,593,803 -- and counting. That's how many views YouTube sensation and Auburn student Ricky Dillon has racked up on his "Some Nights" by Fun. music video.
Dillon, junior in radio, television and film, has been making videos for as long as he can remember.
"I've pretty much made videos my whole life," he said. "We have old home videos of me making fake commercials and stuff, so I've always loved making them."
Originally, Dillon was a pre-pharmacy major, but switched to RTVF during his freshman year.
"My YouTube channel started picking up my freshman year here, and I realized maybe I should change majors because I like this so much, and I really didn't care that much about pharmacy," he said.
He started his channel along with friend and University of Alabama student Shelby Waddell. Dillon said at first they created the channel to make funny videos.
"I was watching other YouTubers, and I liked what they did, so I kind of wanted to be more like them and make music videos, skits and a vlog," he said. "My first real one was probably my music video to 'Move Along' by All-American Rejects, which was about two years ago."
Dillon said he first received global attention after auditioning for and making a YouTube collaborative channel, in which people are all on one channel and make videos together.
"My free time is YouTube," Dillon said. "I like it that much."
He has a mini series on his channel "I Dare Ricky," in which fans post comments on previous videos and dare him to do something outrageous.
"I pick the dares that are the best and the funniest, and I do them," Dillon said. "My last video I did public dancing and barking at people."
He is no longer self-conscious about performing the various dares in public.
"I've done a lot now, and after you do the first thing, it gets really fun and your adrenaline starts to pump; I get into a mindset where I just don't care because I know the video will be good if I just don't care," Dillon said.
Many of Dillon's videos are music videos based on popular songs that he creatively edits. One in particular is a music video to "Gangnam Style" by Psy, which features Dillon dressed up in a SpongeBob outfit and dancing in public places.
Others are videos to "One More Night" by Maroon 5, "Everybody Talks" by Neon Trees, "Die Young" by Ke$ha, and many more.
Some of his short skit videos include "20 things to do where you're bored," "Pick-up lines gone wrong," "10 things not to say to a girl" and "10 things I hate."
The whole process, from filming to editing, can be time consuming. Dillon said filming can take anywhere from an hour to all day, depending on the video.
"They take a while to edit, I'm not going to lie," he said. "But it's fun and I love doing it."
Dillon said it takes about 10 hours to edit a music video, but only a few hours to edit if it's a simple video such as a skit.
He plans to move to Los Angeles after graduation with YouTube friend Connor Franta and pursue film there.
Dillon uploads a new video to his channel every Sunday.
His YouTube channel is youtube.com/PICKLEandBANANA and his twitter handle is twitter.com/RickPickle.
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