(upbeat music)
- So on one hand, it's nice that you can look back
at your previous work and see a difference and actually know
that you're getting better at something.
But on the other hand, it is kind of embarrassing
when all that old stuff is still up and it's just not good.
But I've been making videos more or less for about 13 years
or almost 14 years now, which is crazy to say out loud.
But the thing that I think I'm most proud of
as far as the video-making process is
that pretty much all of it is self taught.
There is no how-to guide for creating a tech channel
and making videos and making a business out of it
until now.
We basically have created the blueprint.
I got to basically crystallize this blueprint
in the form of a master class.
I actually got to make a master class,
which is pretty amazing.
It's in pretty special company.
I mean, I've watched Neil deGrasse Tyson's master class
and I got to talk to him in person.
We just watched Steph Curry win an NBA championship
with the Warriors and he did a master class.
And so to celebrate, I'm gonna go back
and look at my older videos.
Or at least, I'll go back in time slowly
and try to survive the cringe.
I'll review them a bit, maybe shed some light
on the behind the scenes process on some of the stuff
that we did to make it happen.
And we'll see how far we get back
as they get increasingly more and more old.
Let's do it.
Guys, so this first video I'm going back to
is already October 2020, so it's about two years old.
This is a Sony Xperia I ii.
Reviews of smartphones has become the bread and butter
of the channel.
And I've definitely noticed that stepping outside
of that a little bit more has been more fun lately.
And this is one of those videos.
An 865, 8 gigs of RAM, a 21 x 9 widescreen display,
triple cameras, a 4,000 mAh battery.
Really, it's like smartphones have gotten so consistent
and a lot of people just say boring,
which makes a lot of sense.
For this video, it's like the first two minutes of it
is just quickly explaining what this exact phone is,
but then we jumped right
into all the more interesting questions
about why this Sony phone.
If you didn't already notice, the two in the background,
the two lights, that's for the Xperia I ii.
There's always some Easter egg in every video.
Fine, but technically, anybody can build that.
But the thing is this phone also has a bunch of other stuff,
unique really useful stuff
that I haven't seen in any other phone.
But all of this stuff leads to one question which is,
why don't more people buy these?
Okay, so this video...
So this is Why Don't People Buy Sony's Phones
from two years ago.
It has 7.1 million views.
And I just tweeted this the other day
'cause it was so interesting.
But I like the phones and I talk about them.
But these videos average more views per video
about the phone than any other brand.
I found it funny because they still have 0% market share,
but there's just a couple factors
in between Sony actually getting real customers and not,
one of them being the fact that there's months
between when they announce the phone and it comes out.
The other one being that it's $1500.
It's frustrating because it seems like Sony's suffering
from some of the same stuff LG has, lately anyway,
which is they're inability to--
RIP LG.
All right, I think we can go older.
Okay, so this video here
is the Samsung Galaxy Fold Unboxing from 2019,
23 million views.
The retail unboxing - Nice box.
of the Samsung Galaxy Fold.
That's a cool box. This is an interesting one.
This is the first foldable phone that's really going on sale
to the masses.
It's priced way higher
than even any other high end Samsung flagship.
So it's clearly positioned as a luxury device.
So this video style is pretty similar still
to three years ago to now, it's close.
The funny behind the scenes story about the Fold though
that I've kind of told, but maybe I'll just put it all
in one place here.
You guys already know it broke and there was lots of stories
that came out about it.
I actually got a shot of me peeling the screen protector off
and it breaking on camera, but it never made it
to the internet because what happened was
I'd shot this whole unboxing and first impressions video
and the magnet paper and all that fun stuff
and then as I was editing it, I said, oh, you know what?
I didn't get a shot yet of taking the screen protector off.
So I set up the camera and got the shot
of peeling the screen protector and got it,
it shut down as I was peeling it off.
So I had that shot and I said, oh, that's bad.
Well, let me get back to that.
So I finished editing the unboxing video, published that
and then the next day I'm trying to figure out what happened
to the screen and then another person on Twitter saying,
hey, me too, hey, me too.
And so I chimed in on Twitter, hey, mine also broke.
And that's when the avalanche
of Galaxy Fold screen breaking stuff happened.
There were very, very few review units.
This was one of them.
They were all taken back.
(light music)
So there's a magnet in each side of the Galaxy Fold
about 2/3 of the way down as demonstrated
by this magnet paper.
The magnet paper is so fun.
It's evergreen.
Everyone likes seeing where the magnets are and things
and this paper.
Every time I use it in an Instagram post, in a TikTok even,
it's just fun.
We just like the magnet paper.
So they're so strong that they have a bit
of a field effectively outside of the phone itself
strong enough to pick up metal objects
and things like Oh, yeah, I remember that.
a bunch of washers, nails or even whole bags of nails.
What a weird feature.
And I even had a small wrench.
That worked and an Apple pencil, which of course has a piece
of metal in it for the iPad's magnet, that worked.
And a really, really big Allen key.
It's made of metal and it can pick it up.
This magnet is for real. Oh, I forgot about that.
So just had to share that little proof
from what I was talking about from the last video.
So you can see in the background, this is in the old studio.
We're in a different part of the same building now,
but I can picture almost with photographic memory exactly
where everything in this old studio was until we moved out.
The retro tech episode one on the original Game Boy.
It's a good time to be a video nerd.
Either way, thanks for watching.
Okay, so the clock in the background or the little screen
as you can see, 8,304,962 subscribers.
That was a live counter at that time
when YouTube didn't round.
Now they just round to the nearest, this would say 8.3,
but they used to actually tell you how many.
Catch you guys on the next one, peace.
(upbeat music)
Still similar in style,
I've had the same camera stuff setups.
I've used a lot of the sames lenses since 2019,
so I think we can go even older.
So this is the HTC U Ultra Rant/Review from 2017.
I mean, it's my channel.
I get to talk about the things that I like
and that I'm interested in.
And so the process for deciding what to make videos about is
when something is so cool or so good
that I wanna talk about it, then it gets a video.
And then there's this gray area in between
and then there's this stuff that's so bad
that it needs a PSA or people need to know not to buy it.
Yeah, if you don't think I did negative videos,
you should probably watch this one.
(upbeat music)
I remember this notch, this weird side option.
And this is the brand new HTC.
Why I look different?
It's probably the lack of...
Oh, it's the beard.
That's what it is.
Yeah, it's definitely the beard.
U Ultra, and it is definitely the shiniest phone
of all time.
And this happens to also be HTC's first big smartphone
of 2017 and it's coming to the US with a price tag of $749.
So this is definitely a--
That used to be a lot of money for a smartphone.
The Galaxy Note 7--
Nice little clean top down shot.
Which stands for extra large and it's bigger than all
of those and even others with even smaller displays.
It's bigger than all of them.
And it's still 8 mm thick,
so it's also definitely not trying
to be a super thin phone in any way either.
Okay, so these shots here,
this is what we used to do a little bit more often.
Before we had enough of a studio space
to really make a large variety of shots,
we'd use this thing called Breather,
which is it's originally supposed
to let people just rent a space in the city
and just take a breather or study or read or hang out.
And they all looked kind cool and cooler than our studio.
So I would use this as a mobile video studio,
that popup in New York City.
And the portless feature isn't quite here yet.
An HTC U definitely could have also,
but you didn't for some reason.
Seems like a poor use of space.
And then the battery,
the HTC U Ultra has a 3,000 mAh power battery,
which doesn't seem that bad,
but for context, yeah, something's a little bit off here.
I love this.
This is one of my favorite videos to put together,
not because I like trashing on phones,
but this is one of the earlier times in a video, in a review
or something like this where I spend an extra bit of effort
to make sure that there's a common thread
throughout the video.
A really poor use of space.
Poor use of space.
Seems like a poor use of space.
Poor use of space.
This doesn't always work with phones or reviews at all,
but when it does, it's great for obviously retention
and for enjoying the video the whole way through
because you know what you come away from the video with.
With that I'll say, skip this one
and you could pretty easily wait for the HTC 11
to come out pretty soon.
Or just grab a Galaxy S8 when that comes out or an LG G6
or pretty much any other $700 smartphone,
which will be a better use of space than this one.
So that's been it, hope you enjoy--
Yeah, there's been quite a few videos
with said tone in the past.
No big deal.
There's a lot of fun of trying to figure out,
trying to tow the line between what to talk about
and not to talk about.
All right, let's get older.
This is the most nervous I think I've ever been in my life.
So this is in 2015 and it's out of the blue and random
for the channel.
I've been talking about tech
and gadgets and handheld stuff
and along comes this email from Nike saying,
hey, Kobe Bryant's releasing a new signature shoe.
This is in the middle of his farewell tour
and his legendary final NBA season.
And there's some tech in it
and we figure it would be cool to invite you
to come talk to him about it.
You down?
What, okay, sure, of course, yeah.
I don't know, I still don't think I'm that good
of an interviewer, but this is what the Talking Tech series
since then, this is what it's all about.
- From a tech perspective,
I've tried to dabble into it a little bit,
but I found myself not being extremely passionate about it
unless it's centered around sports and things
that involve health, training, things of that sort.
But overall, I wouldn't describe myself
as a very tech savvy person.
- Love the brutal honesty.
This is the thing about Kobe.
When he cares about something, he dives into it.
- I have no idea what a CD player is,
- Starstruck, that kid. - let alone a Walkman.
It was like, wait, you had to rewind what?
Wait, 'cause when that song was over,
you had to flip it over and do what?
- And use the other side of the tape?
- Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So when I first came in the league,
the world was such a different place.
- This is also this is a three-camera shoot I remember.
We took three cameras out there.
I shot with a friend Jon from TLDtoday,
awesome with making videos.
And this was also the last video
that I ever edited in Adobe Premier.
Shoe Bureau, it's harder than phone bureau
when you're used to phone bureau.
But it's the same shot in my hand.
(Marques laughs)
- Some free technology.
We've combined some of the Zoom and Lunar technology
with a bit of some of the staples
with some of my other shoes.
But they normally behave in isolation.
They normally don't communicate with each other.
- This is way more in-depth information
that I actually thought I would get.
Normally, you'd get someone who's doing a promo tour
and they're just like, oh yeah, watch my new movie,
oh yeah, buy my new product.
He's literally explaining how Nike Flyknit works
with the ankle of the shoe and how he has more torque
around the heel, but less around the sides,
so there's this mobility with the shoe.
It's crazy.
Thanks for being a part of this.
I appreciate the time and hopefully we get to do it again.
- Thank you. - Awesome.
That was the first of the interviews that I ever did.
In hindsight, I feel like I have a lot to thank Kobe for.
Obviously, that was the only time I ever met him.
I remember when I first we went to go set up the video stuff
and the guy was like, "All right, yeah,
"so Kobe, when he walks in, he's gonna go and go over
"to the left and he's gonna do this interview,
"then he's gonna go over here and do this interview,
"then he's gonna come to you and do that interview
"and then he's gonna head out."
My heart's in my throat.
He comes over and he's the nicest guy
and he helps break the ice
and, "I heard you're doing this YouTube thing.
"This is cool.
"Let's talk about tech."
Incredible, we need more guys like him.
All right, we're going back to 2014 now.
So this is, in case it looks kind of crazy already,
this is a video I shot in collaboration
with The Verge's video team.
They have an amazing video team.
They still do to this day,
but this is they're in their prime
of this crazy ultra wide video and a very recognizable style
with motion graphics.
So this is a collab shoot.
Also, my hand is broken
because as you can see there's some stitches.
I had, in practice, just broke my hand a week or two
before I shot this.
It's fine, though, we can still shoot a video.
Like the Galaxy Note 4,
and I take the finish from the Nokia Lumia series.
These motion graphics, look at this.
24 Team, this was state of the art.
That's funny that 5 1/2 inches
was a massive display back then
and now, I think the mini iPhone
is just a little smaller than that.
So inside, we gotta have top notch specs.
So here in late 2014, that means--
Yeah, what is that?
3 gigs of RAM, the Adreno 420 GPU, basically the whole deal.
So for the battery--
The whole deal. (Marques laughs)
I'm reviewing a phone right now with 18 gigs of RAM,
just for context.
Did you see that?
In a dream phone, I'd be okay
with anything 3500 mAh or better.
It says, this transition we were using, if you pause it
at the right place, it says filmimpact demo.
On the right here is an LG ad
and then on the right here is a Samsung phone ad
and the next shot, there's a Google android ad.
These things are everywhere.
I think that's why we shot this here
'cause I said, oh, for the operating system, android.
But also, I'm shooting this right around Times Square
and if you look over the left side of the frame,
that tall billboard, very recently,
we just got a TeamSeas billboard put
on that exact super tall billboard
where the ball drops in Times Square.
I also have a shot of my own face
on a Times Square billboard recently.
It's crazy how that works out.
It's just pigeons flying behind me.
And The Verge, MKBHD collab.
See, that was kind of neat.
All right, so now, we're going really far
into the archives here.
This is where the cringe really hits.
So this is 2009.
(upbeat music)
So, I can explain, I can explain.
It's hard to explain, but I can explain.
Even today, I still have a short intro before the video.
So it was like you could make a short animation
with some free tools.
And I wasn't skilled at video editing,
so I was just using free tools.
So there's a thing called Animoto.
You could put in a couple of photos
and it would create this quick little animation for you...
(Marques crosstalks)
No?
This is the first place I ever made videos,
which is in the corner of my bedroom in my parent's house.
I'm on the webcam of the first computer I ever had,
which was the HP Pavilion dv7t.
I used this computer for the first 400 videos.
So what I'm gonna go into is that right now I have...
I'ma check right now.
Right now I have approximately 70--
I sound like Elmo, I'm just gonna put that out there.
(Marques laughs)
If I go to my page, YouTube.com/marquesbrownlee,
just click on the link over there.
I have 74 subscribers.
I clearly was not making money from this, had no intentions
of this being my job at any point.
It was just a fun thing I enjoyed doing
when I got back from practice.
I'm literally wearing my hoodie from after practice.
Before I had to go do my homework, I would just make a video
'cause it was fun.
What else could I tell you?
I mean, video 100, uploading more--
I've run out of things to say.
Stay tuned for more battery tips.
So I'll put in more battery tips for you guys.
I've run out of things to say.
It was actually back in the day when I used to get an email
for every single person who ever subscribed to the channel.
And when they did, I would click on their profile
and I would leave a message thanking them for subscribing.
Yeah, all right, that's basically it.
So thanks for watching, subscribe and stay tuned for more.
And I hope you like this video, peace.
Peace, never didn't have that.
Let's go all the way back.
This is the best place to end it.
Here we go.
Bought a new laptop.
(Marques laughs)
I literally, this is the first video I ever made,
January 2009.
I turn on the laptop webcam and I just started talking
and then I realized that my glasses are reflecting
the laptop screen and I just take them off.
I just panic and take them off.
I don't know who told me to pop my collar like that.
Okay, so yeah.
Holy nice remote.
Quite a nice video center remote.
This is like those old makeup tutorials
where you gotta hold it up to the camera like this
'cause there's autofocus.
I don't know if I can make it through the whole video
without cringing, let's try.
(Marques laughs)
I'm struggling with the fact that it reverses.
So I move left, it moves right.
So I move back to try to keep it in the frame.
Media controls, yes, it's a media player remote.
All in all, it's pretty handy.
It fits in your pocket quite easily.
As you can see, I have a big hand, but it's pretty small.
Wow, I said that in the first video?
Leave comments and subscribe, thanks.
Hey, that was fun.
We'll probably do this again, some future version
where I look back at 2020 videos and cringe.
But ay, until then, this has been it.
If you wanna check out the master class link below,
that'll also be there.
But yeah, thanks for hanging around and sticking to this
and subscribing and being here for the videos, guys.
Catch you in the next one, peace.
♪ You can't tell me to let go, baby ♪
♪ 'Cause I love you ♪
♪ I love you, yeah ♪
♪ 'Cause I love you ♪ (horn blows)
Love a train horn.