Nahant wiz turns video pranks into full-time job

NAHANT – Microwaving an airbag is perhaps not how many people would start a successful career as a video producer.But Nahant native Jonathan Paula’s penchant for microwaving random objects and filming it for YouTube has become part of his full-time job.Paula, 25, is the founder and president of ideo Productions, a company that produces comedy shows for online video-hosting site YouTube.The ideo Productions’ four channels have 670,000 subscribers and receive 5 million views each month, according to Google Analytics provided by Paula’s fiancee and assistant Rebecca Fitzgerald.This weekend, Paula returned to his roots – his parents’ back yard in Nahant – to film the 10th season of the program “Is It a Good Idea to Microwave This?””The microwave show put us on the map, but that is only one of 13 productions we produce. We have shows where I play video games ? “, Paula said. “With the exception of music, we have our hand in every genre of web content, and appeal to multiple audiences and all audiences.”Paula said that he first became interested in making videos when he enrolled in a video course at Swampscott High School.He decided to further this interest at Emerson College in Boston, where he studied video production and began making experimental films.”I was just creating skits, comedy shows, anything that entertained me and made me laugh,” Paula said.He also started uploading some of his videos to YouTube in 2006, a site that Paula said was just becoming popular.Paula said that his friend Jory Caron suggested that they make a “proper show” by seeing what happened when they microwaved different objects. They uploaded 18 episodes during the summer of 2007.”They weren’t a huge hit, they got about 1,000 hits per video,” Paula said. “But it was enough to show that there was interest.”Paula’s father, Johnathan Paula, described the first experiments as “a little hectic.””At first, I wasn’t too keen on it,” Johnathan admitted. The smells were especially problematic.The shows also improved.”We increased production values, got new cameras, set up a laboratory in the back yard,” Paula recalled. “That’s when the show took off, and here we are four years later and still doing it and still entertaining people.”In addition to entertaining people, Paula has established his own successful production company. ideo Productions’ four channels are collectively some of YouTube’s most popular channels, and the company is a member of the YouTube Partner Program. Paula describes it as an special arrangement where YouTube splits revenue from ads appearing on channels with larger audiences and higher-quality programming. Paula said that there are about 15,000 YouTube Partners, of which he estimates that a few hundred have people who produce programming as a full-time job.Paula didn’t offer specifics on his financial success, other than saying that it enabled him to buy a house in Southern New Hampshire.As for the future, Paula said that he would like to continue expanding the quality and content of the shows that he produces. Paula acknowledges that after nine seasons (and 29 microwaves), he is rarely surprised at the results of their experiments. This requires that he emphasize other aspects of the show to hold an audience’s attention.”There are only a few outcomes that happen,” he said. “Metal sparks, plastic melts, food dissolves and mushes away, and soap and stuff in aerosol cans kind of expand. So for us, the emphasis is on the dialogue.”