Watch David Dobrik weep as an old man in video for Dispo, his photo app that banks on nostalgia

YouTube personality David Dobrik is starring in a new video for his startup photo app Dispo, in which he takes on the persona of an elderly man rummaging through memories in a box of photos. On Monday, Dobrik and Dispo released the new spot, directed by filmmaker Mark Romanek. Dobrik’s transformative makeup was done by Kazu Hiro. Fans of Dobrik, who is a fixture in YouTube’s trending video tab, might not recognize the creator, who portrays a teary-eyed senior citizen flipping through old photographs, some of which show Dobrik at his current age, 24. The video spot was produced for Dispo, short for “disposable camera,” which is Dobrik’s popular new photo-taking app. The video promotion coincides with a relaunch for Dispo, which has been in development for more than a year. One of the core features of Dispo is that the images are not immediately available to the picture-taker, who has to wait until 9 a.m. the following morning to see the photos taken the night before. The point of the app is to mimic the concept of disposable photography, nostalgia from pre-digital cameras, when people had to wait for photos to develop before reminiscing. Hence the theme of the new video, an elderly man looking at old photos, remembering good times. The video uses Dispo’s tagline, “Live in the Moment.” That’s a nod to the concept that people using the app are more present at events rather than obsessed with the photos they are taking to document them. Last week, The New York Times featured Dispo in its Style section chronicling its rise in the Apple App Store. “Sensing a trend, Mr. Dobrik sought to recreate the disposable-camera experience digitally, as an antidote to the obsession with getting the perfect shot,” The Times wrote. Dispo recently raised $20 million, and counts Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian among its investors. The app claimed to have about 3 million downloads in its first week, after its initial launch last month. So far, Dispo has been in the beta testing phase of development, and access has been invite-only. The app has some of the mechanics of social media, because friends can share images publicly and privately. There are no filters or captions, though. Dobrik's video will not be used in a paid marketing push, but will appear on his social channels like YouTube.

Watch David Dobrik weep as an old man in video for Dispo, his photo app that banks on nostalgia

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