Teenage Birr YouTuber to share social media wisdom in kids masterclass

The 17th OFFline Film Festival is currently underway (October 7 to October 11) with five days of feature films, documentaries, short films, workshops, industry events and special screenings.

While film screenings and panel discussions make up the core of the festival, the influence social media holds is also catered to.

This is why festival director, Emma Hanley, curated a masterclass for kids and young adults (aged 12 and above) with Luke Lynch, who is a popular YouTuber from Birr.

The hour-long class will be conducted tomorrow, Saturday, October 10, 1pm at John's Hall in Birr.

Luke, an 18-year-old lad from the Georgian town has a YouTube channel, Fnafboi1278. Since March 2023, when he started the channel, Luke has created and uploaded more than 700 videos, and amassed over 306,000 subscribers and over 80 million views.

He will share details on how he built his YouTube channel from scratch, the challenges he faced, the skills he learned, and more at the special in-conversation event. The conversation will also be livestreamed across the OFFline Film Festival YouTube channel.

Well-liked by teenagers and young adults, his content falls in the category of 'plush/plushie movies', wherein he uses plush toys as characters and weaves stories around them.

“One might call it modern-day puppetry, but it involves a variety of other skills like voice over, editing, camera work and more,” explained Luke.

An alumnus of St Brendan's Community School, Luke completed his Leaving Cert last year. Luke is a well-known face in his town and many who see him on the street would instantly remember him as the 'YouTube guy'.

The journey to gaining this fame began after the lull of Covid settled, in March 2023. “It started as a hobby, to make people laugh and smile. and then it got bigger and bigger," shared Luke whose parents are proud and supportive of his choice.

While content creation is seen as a frivolous pursuit by sceptics, Luke believes it is an expression of one's talents and ideas. He shared that he has always enjoyed art and storytelling, and the videos are the perfect vehicle to channel those interests.

"I do everything in my videos myself, from giving voice over to the characters, to scripting and storytelling, to understanding light and camera, editing, crafting characters using fabric and hand-sewing buttons as eyes, making sets out of cardboard and paint, and more," he elaborated.

His journey also made Luke adept at technical know-how of social media. "I studied YouTube formats, learned how to use statistics and analytics to further your growth, understood trends and algorithm and befriended them," he added.

But what wins fans, in his opinion, is originality, to always use your own thoughts, ideas and voice. It builds confidence in your content, a quality that comes in handy while dealing with trolls.

Luke believes that trolling, or cyberbullying, is something that can negatively affect young minds. "I did a similar masterclass last year at OFFline and the workshop got a great response.

Most of the audience was in the YA/teenager category. It's an impressionable age and one should be aware of cybersafety rules and how to not let the trolls get the better of you," said Luke who himself gives his trolls an indifferent treatment. "But when it gets too much, I call them out," he added.

The 18-year-old wants to learn animation to strengthen his skill set and help him further on the storytelling path.

"YouTube as a career is great if you are honest, original, not imitating anyone and enjoy what you are doing. I receive a monthly payment depending on how well my videos do," Luke told us, adding that he would love to continue making YouTube videos.

Kids Masterclass by Luke Lynch will be held on October 10, 1pm at John's Hall, Birr. Admission is free for those aged 12 and above.