Today we're doing another episode of Studios Undone,
and if you have no idea what I'm talking about, then you
missed the previous episode with Josh Yeo from MAKE. ART. NOW.,
and you should go watch that immediately.
The gist of it is I'm visiting the studios
of other YouTubers and creators to see how they do things,
ask them some questions, and maybe do a little testing
and review of their space and equipment.
As I mentioned in the first video,
I wanted to use this series to showcase a specific skill
of that creator that I think they do extremely well,
and likely don't get enough credit for.
Today we're featuring a creator who's been
uploading to YouTube for over 10 years. Mind you,
the first five years of that were all in Turkish.
But I first stumbled upon them in 2014,
when they started uploading in English,
and doing comical unboxings of products I was researching.
Although, at first, I didn't know if the videos
were purposely funny, or if I just personally
got a kick out of this guy and his delivery.
But as time went on, and he started integrating music
and sketches in his reviews, it became clear
that not only did he have a knack for absurd comedy,
but that he was one of the most genuine
and refreshing voices on the platform.
Since then, he's evolved into one
of the most visually-pleasing tech review
channels on YouTube, with an impressive eye
for composition, colour and symmetry.
He creates absolutely stunning product sequences,
and I'm still a big fan of the way he talks:
iPhonedo.
[low rumbling]
Now, all we have to do is decide what that video is going to be.
[sharp whooshing]
[iPhonedo] If you wanna get crazy...
welcome to the Joy of Painting-do.
I'm your host, Bob iOS.
Oh, we can get crazy...
[dramatic orchestral chorale]
♪
Let's get undone.
[offbeat music]
♪ Gerald Undone ♪
♪ He's crazy ♪
Today we're going to talk about a product
-that I've been waiting for so-- -[upbeat melody plays]
No, it's not this one. Ah...
It's, um... I knew this was gonna happen.
♪ Ba-dum-ba-- [music stops]
-Hello? -Hey, Faruk, It's Gerald.
I was thinking I could come by today
and we could shoot that video. Where are you located again?
-Uh... -[sighs]
Los Angeles.
L.A.? Seriously? I was just there.
Alright, give me about 15 minutes. OK, bye.
-[horse whinnies] -[light country music]
♪
-[sharp knocks] -[door creaks]
-Hey, Gerald. -[sniffs]
What's that smell?
Yeah, you were probably smelling my stock-footage horse,
because this video is brought to you by Storyblocks.
Hey, Faruk, do you think you could play me some nice, soft,
royalty-free background music while I do this sponsor-read?
-Yeah, you got it. -OK.
[tries to play "Stairway to Heaven" by Led Zeppelin]
[struggles with notes]
-[softly] It's OK... -[resumes play]
Storyblocks has an impressive collection of stock footage,
covering a wide range of subjects, with 4K video,
and unlimited downloads. They're also amply supplied
with overlays, backgrounds, and After Effects templates,
and the interface is easy to use and navigate.
And the clips are royalty-free
for both personal and commercial use, so you can
use them as much as you want, wherever you want.
So, if you think you could take advantage of a--
-[dramatic guitar notes] -So, if you think you could--
If you could take advantage of a fantastic library
of quality stock footage and effects, check--
check out Storyblocks using the link in the description below.
♪
What's happening, everybody? I'm Gerald Undone,
and nobody puts baby in the corner.
Alright, Faruk, it's time...
to review your studio. But first...
Let's talk about lighting.
[Faruk] This... is my lighting setup.
This is accent lights. I like them--
it gives a nice feeling.
Look, it looks like you owe me money.
And then... I have my hair light up there.
LED lights, and for the key lights
I have some fluorescent light bulbs
behind an umbrella mounted on a wall.
This one on the left, and that one...
on the right.
Alright... it's time for your tour.
[midi version of "If You're Happy And You Know It" plays]
[claps in time]
-[melody resumes] -[dog barks]
♪
What the hell's that dog all about?
That's my dog, Gerald.
What's it doing now?
So, iPhonedo, but you cover a lot more
than just Apple products on the channel.
Everything from flamethrowers,
to 3D printed tripod heads, to electric vehicles.
What's the process for choosing a topic, and is there--
what would you say is the common thread
between the topics that you choose?
I try to stay, you know, concentrated,
but it's not easy because I like a lot of stuff.
But, to me, the phones get boring really quickly,
so I need something else. Because I'm interested
in the video quality of my content,
then I get interested in the cameras.
It's kind of more... revolves around me, I guess.
If it's something that I wanna have...
I wanna use in my videos, like the sliders
or the lights or something, it usually ends up
-being in my video. -Do you find that your audience
goes along with that, because they're like you,
and they also care about electric vehicles and phones?
Or do you find that they ask you to, "Stick to this"?
That's-- that's really good question, and I do get, um...
comments about how I should stick to the previous video.
For example, "You should release a video about," let's say...
um... an electric vehicle. And the next video,
you start talking about a phone, and then they...
if it's the first video they've seen,
they want you to keep on doing the electric vehicle video.
But, um, what I always imagine...
is whenever I watch Conan O'Brien,
for example, I watch because that is Conan O'Brien.
The second thing I care about is the guest.
I don't watch Conan O'Brien because...
Gerald Undone is there.
-What are we shooting on here? -I have the Sony a7R IV,
with 16-35mm G Master lens on it.
I got the R IV recently; before that I had Sony a7R III.
The reason I got this is because of this guy named Jason Wong.
-[Gerald] Yeah! -And he mentioned that
you can have the eye autofocus, continuous eye autofocus
while it's connected to the monitor.
Which is something a7R III wasn't able to do.
Yeah, you can only do that if you record externally, but not--
So, Yeah, this one, the a6600... ...and maybe one more?
Now that you can have a monitor and still do it. It's...
Which means, when you have a product on the table,
it doesn't focus on the product. It still keeps the focus--
Which is important for what you do, yeah.
Audio, you're doing-- you do lav pretty much all the time?
-I do lav. -This is the Sennheiser--
-AVX. -AVX, yeah.
And it's pretty good, pretty strong connection.
You can go to CES, NAB. You can go E3--
it doesn't break at all. It's pretty good.
That's a pretty good endorsement.
So then you're running the camera to a giant screen--
I mean, it makes it easy for you to see, obviously.
Yeah, this is my TV
where I see what's in focus, what's going on.
If you're using autofocus, why do you need to see
all the-- is it for placement of objects?
Like, why do you need to have a full screen up there?
That's a very good question.
I like seeing myself mostly, honestly.
-[pen clicks] -OK...
For the first... I don't know, five years, maybe,
of your channel, you weren't really you.
You didn't have a face, you were kind of anonymous, right?
So, obviously something's changed.
Was it that aspect, that you wanted to be...
you, because you wanted the Conan O'Brien thing
you were just talking about?
Tell me both sides of the thought process.
It was anonymous because it's actually--
it has couple of aspects. One of the aspects is...
in the Turkish culture, it's...
...it's, um, rude to show your wealth.
So, I thought in the beginning, if I'm gonna show
these expensive Apple products, I should be anonymous,
and it should be about the products.
So... it doesn't look like
I'm showing off with what I can buy,
because I thought that would be rude.
But then, when people got curious about who I am,
it turned into a game.
So, when people figured out who I am,
they thought they had a power in their hands to use against me.
So, I started getting these threats:
"We will reveal who you are!"
It's almost like making yourself anonymous
made it a challenge for people.
And once you're not anonymous... what's the point?
Nobody cares anymore.
Did you find that it changed much once you did that?
Did it all just kind of go away, the problems?
All the problems immediately stopped.
All the problems stopped, and on top of that,
the channel started becoming more professional.
As I revealed my face,
I switched from Turkish to English,
-at the same time. -[Gerald] Right, so.
So, it was a really weird un-subscribing and subscribing,
that was happening on my channel,
but the subscribers were so much more than un-subscribers.
And then is this, like, a gear--
this dresser's like your gear locker, basically?
This is, what a lot of people don't realize,
where the money is going.
What do you mean, into the dresser?
-Yes. -But not the dresser itself?
Not-- not the dresser, but what's in it.
-Actually wanna start from this. -Is this so you keep it, like,
low profile, so people don't know?
They think it's just your underwear?
[Faruk] These are the, yeah, these are the camera underwears.
Aputure light here...
and I have my tripods.
You know, all these mounts, they're kinda organized.
And then up here, I have my batteries, chargers,
cables, and if you need to see how hot something is,
how loud something is, how much wind it's blowing--
[blows into machine]
[pen clicks]
Uh-huh...
-OK, hold that for me-- -Am I gonna be OK?
[pen clicks, scratches]
-Cables? -Cables.
-Yep. -They're organized.
Not this one, obviously, but, you know,
you can go in and grab whatever you want.
-[sighs] -Using your Velcro cable ties?
-I do. -You'd be surprised at how--
Of all the studios I've looked at so far,
at how bad the cable management has been, so...
Shame on those guys.
-Good job, Faruk. -Thanks so much.
-Up here-- -If you open all
these drawers, is this gonna fall over on us?
-That's what I'm hoping for. -OK, good.
Up here, I have my cameras, my drones,
my microphones, and my lenses.
You can't just say, "I have my cameras and my lenses."
We run a gear channel here, OK?
What cameras and what lenses?
You're closing your cable in the drawer now?
Wait, I'm gonna open and say--
What, you think we can just do a re-take?
Don't-- don't lie to my audience, OK,
with your lies and your deception.
This is how everything on my channel is.
Alright, what do we got? These are the R IIIs.
These are the R IIIs.
-What lenses you got in there? -I love them so much--
-this is the 24mm 1.4. -That's a fantastic lens.
-It's unbelievable lens. -And, since you like 35mm,
on the R, you can drop into the APS-C Crop,
-Yeah. -Then you got a 35.
-Well, 36. -But I already have a 35.
-That's a good lens, too. -Yeah, I love this lens as well.
Another one of my favourite lenses.
So this... is a 90mm Macro--
This is just amazing. It's not very expensive.
Do the focus clutch. Make it make the sound.
[clicking]
I'll give you bonus points for that.
-Thank you. -That's probably my favourite
-Sony lens. -Really,
-Yeah. -'cause my favourite Sony lens--
Oh, here we go. Is it the 135?
-Yeah. It's this. -You got all the toys, eh?
Not bad. Not bad.
I have a regular ND,
and variable ND's. These are...
-...you know, Peter McKinnon. -You got the little tiny one.
What are you doing? You gotta get big boy.
No, these are for the 24mm lens, because that one
is really sensitive when you go outside
when you want the depth of field.
But what you should do is you should have got
the 82mm versions, and then just get step-up rings.
-I saw your video, Gerald. -OK, OK.
What's with this string on the middle of the TV there?
You know, no one asks that, because I post a lot of photos
and videos while I'm doing the beauty shots.
And this is always in the shot, and no one asks that.
I would assume that you have a bit of OCD like me,
and you like to keep everything perfectly mid-line?
-That is exactly true. -Even the Apple logo
-is right down that string. -Yes, as you can see, it's...
Cuts the guy's, uh, portrait right in half.
-Mm-hmm, Mm-hmm. -I appreciate...
-[pen clicks] -...a little symmetry.
Thank you. Thank you, you also can see--
OK, that's enough.
I gave you the points for symmetry. Moving right along.
I thought sucking up would help.
-Editing station? -Editing station.
-Tell me about it. -Uh, iMac Pro.
Uh, 18-core, 64GB RAM.
-I use Final Cut-- -ColorChecker?
That's my ColorChecker, yeah.
This is for in focus and white balance.
-And this is... -There you go...
-...for colour. -And exposure.
And exposure. I knew that.
So, I wanted to ask you a little bit about the other
interests that you have, and how they fit into your videos.
Like music, for instance. I find that you
find a way to integrate music into your videos
in a way that I appreciate and I like.
How did that process come about where you chose
to integrate it into your videos?
I came to music school in the U.S., and I'm a musician.
So, music has been a part of my life from the beginning.
And when I moved to U.S. and I started--
my YouTube channel started growing,
while I was editing the video, I would just grab the guitar
and just play something over it, just to have background music.
You did all your own background music?
-Yeah. -Oh, cool.
And in time, I leaned into the microphone,
and I started singing really stupid stuff
to see if people are gonna pick it up.
And this was, like, one of the things
I did that I'm proud of is
the Paint It Black song about Space Gray,
how all the iPhones were different Space Gray.
♪ I see an iPhone, and I want it painted black ♪
[Gerald] Alright, what do we got back here now?
So, this... is where the magic happens.
I thought the magic happened over there?
Well, that's one kind of a magic.
-OK. -And then this is the music
-kind of a magic. -Oh, music magic.
Yeah, because music and film, they go together,
and then that's when the real magic happens.
I've seen your videos. Are you sure that they go together?
Mostly. Come here, I connect, and I--
[keys and pedals thudding]
That's it. That's it-- that's...
exactly what was on my mind, and then I go over here and I sing.
Is that a pretty accurate representation of you playing?
Yeah, I actually played-- programmed the drums at the sa--
Can you do that again, and we'll get it in slow motion?
-Oh, yeah, of course. -OK, go ahead... and go.
I'm not gonna put this in slow motion.
I'm just making him look like a crazy person.
These are my tables for the beauty shots, and these are,
you know, whenever you need something reflective.
These are all coloured with-- yeah, you like that, huh?
-Makes sense. -There's a rule:
if it's purple, you get some points.
-That's why I wore this shirt. -I see.
Alright, so this is, like, when you're not working,
-this is your hangout zone? -This is where we hang out,
this is where we play... either PlayStation... or Xbox.
So, that's music, and then video games,
I would assume, is another passion of yours?
I mean, you got Team Fortress 2 portraits on your wall.
Well, that kinda seem--
makes me look like I play games a lot,
but I don't consider myself "gamer" a lot.
You got a PlayStation and stuff over here--
I have a PlayStation and Xbox. I play Grand Theft Auto a lot.
I finished the game. I made a lot of money in the game.
I love Forza. The game that had
the biggest impact on me is probably BioShock.
Uncharted was a really good one. Playing Witcher right now.
Fallout, games like Fallout,
where you have to invest a lot of time.
The Last of Us...
-[laughs] Just dropping title after title.
...probably the best game, and probably
-when the second one comes-- -He doesn't play games, though.
But I don't play games. I don't have time to play games.
[loud rustling]
You realize what you've done, right?
Yeah, we're back in Canada or something, I don't know.
-I don't know what you've done. -No, it's not up to me,
that's the problem. Is that if I put this clip...
out there in the video... You know what's gonna happen
-on Twitter, right? -Mm-hmm, Mm-hmm.
When we no longer have control over...
where we are, what we're doing right now.
-Exactly. -So, why did you do this to us?
All for subscribers.
OK, Faruk, well, I think I've got everything that I need.
-Mm-hmm. -So, you passed.
-I did? -Congratulations-- yeah.
I'm gonna give you your results here.
That's just for you, it's confidential.
Um, you know, look it over. There's some notes there,
-some things you could've-- -The [bleep] is this?
Just-- just-- I would just take that, just review it.
You know, maybe make some improvements based on
my recommendations here, and, you know--
-...gave me a -12! -[bleep]
So, I want you to walk me through a shot,
because like I was saying, I like... I like the way
that you shoot your intros. I like the product photography.
So, I've got one of your videos up here.
It's a recent upload for you. How did you light this?
'Cause it's nice. It's very smooth.
I had my Aputure spotlight on it with the barn door.
I had wax paper on it, and then that's how I got
-that soft light. -[Gerald] It looks really nice.
OK, so here, we're shooting through plexi.
How did you do it so that you can't see the--
I don't think you can see the plexiglass.
There's no lags, it doesn't look like it's being suspended--
[Faruk] Actually, these are the PolarPro boxes
that the plexiglass is sitting on.
So, they're sitting on the plexi pointing down?
They're sitting here, and then the plexiglass is here.
[Gerald] And then the lights are on this table,
-bouncing, oh, so we're seeing-- -At this shot.
We're seeing them from underneath, but yet
-it looks like they're on top. -Yeah, they're not.
I love what you're doing here. Thanks for explaining
that shot a little bit. Do you have any just general
tips for if somebody wanted to do similar shots?
-Something you've learned? -I have a very quick tip:
no matter what you do, no matter what lights,
what setup you use, what I wanna give the audience
is something closest to touching
and feeling and seeing the texture.
Since the audience cannot touch and feel the product,
you have to give them something closest to that feeling.
Oh, I was waiting for you to do that pause.
-I was gonna-- I was wait-- -[laughing]
Hey, Faruk, do you think you can play me some nice, soft,
royalty-free background music while I do this sponsor read?
-Oh, you got it. -[light guitar note]
[laughing]
'Cause that wasn't intentional.
-[both laughing] -It was so good.
-For-get Mac Pro. -For-get Mac Pro.
-I'm a professional, OK? -[beep]
-[laughing] -[beep]
Wait, I don't wanna laugh. I don't wanna laugh.
-Let's do it again. -[groans]
And it has my initials on it, so I really enjoy it.
-That's your initial? -That's my initial.
-[laughs] -[murmuring]
Actually, never mind, cut that out. It's...
I'll decide what gets cut out of the video, OK?
-Just cut that out, Gerald. -[laughing]
But that's gonna be it for me. I hope you found this video
entertaining, or at least helpful-- and if you did,
make sure you leave it the ol' thumbs-up, and consider
subscribing if you haven't already. But if you did not
find this video helpful or entertaining, then--
You wear Crocs to a fancy restaurant.
-Alright... -We're done.
♪ Doo-doo, do ♪
♪ Doo-doo, do ♪ ♪ Bum-bum-bum ♪