So Lenovo reached out to us about making a sponsored video
For their new Flex Five line up of powerful 2-in-1's like this one
These are great for creatives, so we thought, well hey why not show our actual use case
For devices like this here at Linus Media Group
So Edzel actually just recently upgraded from having just a desktop PC and a pad of paper to
to having a Lenovo 2-in-1 and we figured well since its Ed's Job to be involved with everyone else's job
why not do a behind the scenes of how our videos get made.
So with out further ado then I give you,
A day in the Life of Editor Extraordinaire and Professional Cat-Herder
Edzel Yago
We release a video every single day including weekends and that takes
a lot of planning and management because each video has lots of people doing different jobs
Over a period of several days. It's my job to know at what stage of the process each video
is at, at all times and to coordinate everyone so our videos get released on time.
It's not always easy, there is construction, things breaking
people breaking things and top secret products that have to be announced at exactly the right time.
The week starts with me telling the writing team how many videos need to be made
so that we hit our target and not be screwed the next week which can happen if someone goes on vacation
or parts we ordered arrive broken.
Hey do you guys think we can do 8 videos....
(hell no)
Positivity
Then all the projects are added to our video tracker spreadsheet which contains all the deadlines
and progress info for all our projects
We use fancy conditional formatting to make the colors change automagically
then the video status is updated and we use the exact same project names here
on the server and on the calendar so that every part of the project is easy to find no matter where you're looking
This is where I start cracking the whip.
I harass the writers to update me on their progress so that I can schedule a time for them to sit down
with Linus for script review.
The more people we hire, the tougher it is to get one-on-one time with Linus
But at the same time these script reviews, even though they can take as long as an hour or more
have become more important than ever to ensure that even though Linus has written less than 25%
of our videos this year, all our content still maintains a consistent style
d*ck jokes and all....
(shove you in here)
Sometime I get to eat my lunch
Sometimes...
The first major hand off is from the writers to the shooters
the people behind the camera
I assign one shooter to film the A-Roll.
that's the footage of the host talking
and another shooter to film the B-Roll.
That's all the other footage you see
like shots of the product or silly skits or whatever
And next time you see a product appear in 5 -8 locations consider that it
can take up to 45 mins to wipe the finger prints off the product
set up the 2-6 lights being used and wrangle up any actors you may need
Hello Hollywood, I'd like one actor please.
The writers meet with a B-Roll shooter to collaborate on the visuals that will accompany
the host's voice over
By the time this meeting is over, nearly the entire script will have what we call
Guidance
And we call it that since it is a suggestion for how it should be done
But we don't want to take all the creative freedom away from the folks further down the production chain
Brandon and Max are our regular shooters but if we are in a hurry sometimes I just grab whoever is available
since most of our editors are actually pretty handy behind the camera too.
Hey! I need someone to shoot something.
Real quick.
Dennis, I know you're not doing anything. Lets go
Dennis: I'm busy
Next, the shooters have to ingest their footage. Putting it in a specific location on our server for the next people
in the assembly line, the editors, will know where to look for it.
A lot more went into hooking up our ingest stations than just hooking up an SD card reader
We're able to ingest footage at 200 to 300 megabytes per second.
Keep your eyes pealed for an upcoming video all about our ingest process and server infrastructure upgrades.
Once all the shots are on the server, the editors can get to work, putting it all together.
They use the writer's guidance to arrange all the shots and of course add their own flair.
Some of which is subtle and some of which is pretty obvious.
But it's not always smooth
Sometimes the editors find out that a shot is too short compared to the voice over
Or maybe the host misspoke
or some shots are just flat out missing.
Then we'll have to find someone available to shoot a pickup
so that the editor can keep working
After Taran pulls an all-nighter and uses all 200 of his macro keys finishing up the video.
It's time for quality control.
The writers sits down with the editor and reviews the video to make sure the information
is accurate and that no unreleased products or email address accidentally wind up in the background.
Then another editor usually me or Taran reviews it for glitches
And then finally assuming that we can find him, Linus reviews it
And finally its time for
you guessed it.
Our wonderful thumbnails!
We try to shoot these on the green screen and then use Photoshop to make them more how you say
clickable
before posting them online
And that's it
Big thanks to Lenovo for sponsoring this video. Colton: woah woah woah...
Hold on a minute Ed, we didn't mention anything about the sales team
This video wouldn't even be possible Ed: GET OUT!
ugh sales people
Find out more about the Lenovo Flex 5 using the link in the description below
Smash the like button if you liked this video or otherwise you know what to do
And as always be sure to drop by our forum and merch store.
You'll find the links in the description below