This is episode three of Studios Undone.
The series where I infiltrate 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.
Today's featured creator is someone who's managed to compose
an impressive harmony between informative gear reviews,
and personality-driven vlog-style content.
This is a difficult tightrope to tread,
because if you keep your topics too pedestrian,
you'll lose the viewers that came to learn something.
And if you make it too serious and educational,
you'll limit your reach and growth potential.
But when you balance those approaches in a fun,
clever and artful way, you get the sensation that is...
-Potato Jet. -Don't forget to eat
your vegetables and try not to be a piece of [bleep].
[bright pop music]
♪
Let's get Undone.
[offbeat music]
♪ Gerald Undone ♪
♪ He's crazy ♪
Alright, so today we're talking about why Jazzercise is not
-dead yet. We're bringing it-- -[phone playing techno ringtone]
-Oh, hey, Gerald. What's up? -Hey, Gene, how's it going?
I was thinking I'd come by to shoot that thing today.
-Where are you located? -Uh, I'm Los Angeles.
Does every YouTuber live in L.A. or something?
This'll be the third time I've been there this week.
Yeah, aren't you in somewhere in Canada
or Alaska or is it... Finland?
Yeah, exactly. Alright.
Give me 15 minutes. OK, bye.
[triumphant orchestral music]
♪
[knocking]
Oh, hey, Ge-- hey, Gerald.
You wanna towel or something? Or you wanna come in?
But take off all your clothes there first.
I don't-- this place needs to stay dry.
-We got electronics in here. -Actually, no,
I don't need a towel, because those were stock footage rapids,
because this video is brought to you by Storyblocks.
Wow, you're really tall.
I think your head's cut off. You can't just come in here
and just stand up straight like that-- there you go.
That's much better. Comfy?
-Yeah. This is good. -So, Storyblocks, huh?
Yeah, 'cause Storyblocks is an impressive collection
of stock footage, covering a wide range of subjects--
with 4K video. They're also amply supplied
with backgrounds, overlays 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, whenever you want.
[soft whooshing]
[loud exhale]
So, if you think you could take advantage of a fantastic
library of quality stock footage and effects...
-[whooshing] -...check out Storyblocks
using the link in the description below.
[air hissing]
What's happening, everybody? I'm Gerald Undone.
and I'm makin' my way downtown, walkin' fast,
faces pass, and I'm home bound.
[humming "1,000 Miles" by Vanessa Carlton]
-I'm not a good singer, sorry. -And I'm here with Potato Jet,
and we're going to start your tour/review...
...of your YouTube studio space. But first,
let's talk a little bit about your lighting.
Alright, so, actually my set's really simple.
It's only three lights. So we have this one
-in the back going in... -[clicks]
...let's see what that looks like.
It's just kinda an accent light, and I just have it
kind of highlighting whatever's back there.
I usually have a little ARRI Alexa back there,
just so I can, you know, show people how cool I am.
I love those strikes, you know, so I have barndoors.
It's a Fresnel Mole-Richardson BabyLED.
I think it's the 150 watt one.
Next light is the second back-light.
I just tried to make it not look so...
...flat back there. I hate flat backdrops.
So, to make that glowing effect,
I have the opposite of barndoors, 'cause barndoors,
you're gonna get those harsh, straight lines.
But this, I have the Light Dome Mini.
It's the Mark 2 version of it, so you can unfold it
and compress it back down real quickly, which is nice.
120D, that's just being held there
with a C-stand that's kind of boomed out.
So, there's that, and that's my key light right there.
That's a 120D Mark 2. I have it set to about
50% brightness, 'cause it's pretty bright.
Actually, all these lights are pretty bright.
Usually what I do is I bring it in closer,
and I dial down the intensity a little bit, because of--
Gerald would explain this. The square-inverse--
Inverse Square Law, right? Something like that?
-You can explain that. -That's correct.
This key light has... so this key light--
You got a problem here, which is that
I don't think you have enough purple...
That is nice-- wow, I've never seen that before.
Look at that purple!
I hope you're gonna edit in music to this,
'cause if you don’t, then this could be very strange.
This is where you do the slow zoom into our faces.
Tell me why Potato Jet. Why the name Potato Jet?
I thought it was kind of a website URL,
where if someone else has that name, you can't take it.
So, I had all these different names kind of planned out,
and there was, like, a couple other channels that
had maybe 10 subscribers, or something, that had that name.
So, I was, like, "OK, I can't take it."
So, like, I'm just going to go somewhere random.
I had no idea what the channel was even gonna be about, so...
So, your goal was to come up with something that nobody
would be using, 'Cause it's just ridiculous.
Yeah, and then that worked. No one had that name, so.
Alright, Potato Jet, thanks for your lighting demo.
I think it's pretty good stuff, pretty good stuff.
-Is it good-- check-- -Yeah. Hey, you'll see it again.
-OK, cool. Yeah. -Pretty good.
Uh, let's just check... let me just check the audio here.
[claps]
Shh.
I see you have some acoustic treatment.
-[laughs] -Yeah!
That was, uh, professionally done
by someone that is not a professional at all.
Alright, so let's work through the shot.
-So, what have we got here? -A Canon EOS R,
and I got a Sigma-- I think is it 20mm or 24mm?
20mm, 1.4.
So, it's a pretty sharp lens, even though it's super wide--
-You like it really wide. -Yeah, I like it really wide.
Why-- why did you choose that? Why did you choose
the wide lens down here? Why the angle?
What was the thought process on that?
I felt like it feels more YouTube-y.
To have, like, an ultra-wide angle, it feels almost like
a vlog, like a 20-mil is almost like a vlog angle.
So, I kind of like that it doesn't look
like a professional set, you know.
It's interesting, you're not the first person that said about
having a wide angle gets you kinda closer to your audience--
Let me guess, did Josh Yeo say that?
-Yeah-- -What a D-bag that guy, huh?
You can borrow that Rolls if you like.
Audio wise, this is your regular audio for your videos?
Yup. The, uh, SM7B since the acoustic treatment
that was done by... the super professionals
wasn't as good as I was hoping it was.
So, I mean, booms work, but this is dynamic.
So it just has, uh, little bit more containment, I feel like.
So it helps kill some of that echo,
and then that just goes straight into the Zoom F8 over here,
which has-- which is getting way overkill... For YouTube.
-Using one input. -Yeah!
Here's the table. Is this adjustable height?
Yes, it's adjustable height with a crank, but I never adjust it.
What do you got on it: a piece of paper?
Just a piece of paper, yeah. It's, like, here...
this is the... [paper rustling loudly]
Oops! I think I need a... Sam!
Half the time it works. Half the time I'll go, "Sam!"
And he'll come in and, like, make it nice and clean.
I'm taking points off for you destroying your set.
Taking points off for Sam not coming--
I was just showing you guys
what the material of this-- here, let's...
-But I also have fake wood! Huh? -That makes sense.
Actually, Surprisingly, when you lay this on the table,
you actually can't tell on the camera.
So, sometimes I'll just record with one of these,
and then I'll rip it in the middle of the video.
-People be like, "What?" -[imitates mind exploding]
Something you've done incredibly well, I think,
and something that I think to be inspirational
that I've probably tried to do more of,
because I've seen it work for you,
is to infuse more personality into your videos.
It's still about gear, but there's been more
Potato Jet, more silly integration of your personality.
Was it the plan to always do that,
or did it just kind of happen organically?
I think the plan was always to not take it too seriously,
to the point where I'm, like,
worried about what other people think.
'Cause I think the bigger your viewership goes,
the more you worry about what people are gonna think.
Especially once you start knowing, like,
your friends and family start watching you;
people you actually know, then I start to think more about,
"Oh, people are gonna watch this. This is unprofessional.
Maybe I shouldn't rip through a backdrop."
But I love the freedom to just be able to... [grunts]
It's, like, at any point, I'm allowed to do that
on the channel, so I like that.
-[laughs] -I like the freedom you get.
You should try ripping through a backdrop.
It's a great feeling. Will you do one?
[epic music]
[Gerald] You got a lens rack over here.
-Uh-oh. -What all do we got here?
What are some choice favourites here?
Um... honestly, I probably used, like, two of these lenses, ever.
I like this guy, 50mm 1.2.
These are all EF-Mount, and I have this bag...
This bag has my all non-EF lenses.
So, this one's pretty good.
This one's a Sony E-mount one, right?
-[indistinct], yeah. -I don't have any Sony's
at the moment, so... yeah.
What is this one?
-You into Rubik's Cubes? -This is stuff that
I kind of put away and forget about.
So, it's not really art, okay.
I'm not Josh Yeo, Make. Art. Now.
Uh-uh. I just-- storage. This is actually just storage.
Why would you have storage with, like, a sideways thing,
so much-- it looks like you laid this out
purposefully, but you're calling it storage.
It's-- I did not at all put any thought
into the way this is laid out.
I dunno, do you want it? I don't know what to do with--
-Put that back on the shelf. -[laughs] So, yeah.
Oh, you got the ol' silver Play button-- not on display, though.
-Just in storage, right? -Yeah. Well this-- okay,
so this part... gets in the frame a little bit.
-OK. -That's it, so this sometimes--
That's why it's right there, so you can just touch it in.
Just, like, "Hey, look at this..."
OK, okay. Uh... What do we say here: vain...
-No, I wouldn't say-- -Prideful? Proud? Prideful?
I would say, yeah, sure, that's better.
Speaking of storage, I did get some comments
on the Josh Yeo video, people that wanna know,
"I wanna know how-- what's the storage like?
-What about the storage, man?" -I try to label everything.
So, here, you can see it's "YouTube Stuff."
Yep, stuff. It literally says stuff.
And there's, like, wigs in here,
which we don't need to talk about, okay.
We got this stuff. And this one, it says, "More YouTube Stuff."
So, you can see that I'm very well organized.
-See that? That deserves an A+. -You can easily know
the difference between the top shelf and the bottom shelf.
-Yep. There's a face. -Perfect.
And a bunch of, like, teeny drones.
I wanna make a video about, like,
cheap drones that you can buy.
I think this drone was, like, $20 or something like that.
And it doesn't turn off.
It doesn't turn on, so that's probably
why it's 20 bucks. Tools...
OK, I'm gonna stop you right there.
When, uh, when they said they wanna know about storage,
they didn't wanna know where you store your wigs and faces and...
No, I'm pretty sure that's what people were wondering.
I think they wanted to know, like, what's this rack here?
Oh, okay, so this is all just...
So, this is where I just dump all the gear--
Oh, so this is where you store your gear.
Yeah! I guess so.
Not in your slingshot drawer.
That's where I keep my YouTube stuff.
This is where I keep my... gear stuff.
-That's what people wanna know. -Ah, okay.
They don't wanna know, "Hey, I'm thinking about
making a studio: Where should I keep all my wigs?"
I'm pretty sure-- when you shot that intro, I'm pretty sure
half the people were, like, "Where does he keep that wig?"
Yeah, we're gonna need to know about the wig storage.
Yeah! [laughs] These are cinema lenses,
the ones that I don't wanna leave out on the shelf,
where it collects all the dust.
They are in here. Ronin-S.
Don't know what's in there. This is a RED... let's see...
Yeah, this is where-- this is where we keep the RED.
This used to get a lot more spotlight,
but then we got that ARRI Alexa,
and now this one gets to just hide in this corner.
And this is shameful-- this is the shame case.
-You've got proper gaffer tape. -Yeah! That's the good stuff--
A lot of people say gaffer tape, but they don't actually
have gaffer tape; they've got an assortment of duct tapes,
-Gorilla Tape, whatever else. -Yeah.
And there's places where you can't actually get gaffer tape,
so they call it, but... actual gaffer tape.
Real gaffer tape. I got it in white,
I got a paper, and I got a two-incher.
I'm gonna give you some points for that.
-Real gaffer tape. -Yeah! Points!
Gotta have one of these when you're working
with heavier cameras.
The Cyborg-- the Scorpion Boy suit.
I'm gonna need you to put that on for the rest of the tour.
-Yes. So... -I think it only makes sense.
-More mics. -Yeah, more of these SM7Bs.
The dynamic one, so if I have a couple people over,
then I usually pull them out.
Although, for some reason today, we decided not to plug it in.
-We'll plug it in in a minute. -OK, yeah.
Don't jump the gun on the format. [laughs]
Is there, like, a Potato Jet character,
and then, you know, Gene the regular guy?
And when you go to shoot a video...
'cause your videos are kind of silly, so you gotta get,
like, amped-up or something-- can you talk to that at all?
Yeah, I definitely have, like, I'm not always super energetic,
but I try to... get amped-up for the videos,
just so, like, I feel like I'm more creative,
and I come up with funnier stuff when I'm jacked up on coffee,
-let's say. -That's the trick:
you just drink a lot of coffee before the video?
Every time the camera cuts, I'm just, like... [slurping]
[laughs] But yeah, I mean, there's definitely times where
I'm not in the mood to film. I'll be tired or... sleepy.
I got a product for you: Jet Fuel.
-It's a coffee-- -Ah-- hey! Jet Fuel coffee!
[laughs] I feel like I can't talk about coffee,
though, because Peter McKinnon just completely
just swallowed that up. If I drink coffee too much--
You can't make coffee, is what it is.
Everybody drinks coffee, but you can't have coffee making
-montages, is what it is. -Exactly. Yeah. [laughs]
Then you're just knocking it off.
And, plus, I use a Keurig,
which is not nearly as sexy as the way Peter does it.
So, if I were to make a coffee montage, it's just--
-[slurping sounds] -Is this your power set up?
Yeah, this is where I just charge--
I got a bunch of power...
-Everything's just-- -V-Mount station.
Yeah, V-Mount station, I got a couple of those.
Sony L Series. USB, all that?
This is just my battery nightmare.
You have a lot of shelves, a lot of space.
Like, you could cram way more stuff in here.
I could utilize this, huh? But see, I'm not Gerald Undone
tallness level, so I can only access these shelves.
If I was Gerald Undone, I'd put all my snacks and stuff up here.
-Instead of a bottle of whisky? -That's right.
See, I have to keep my whisky up here,
so it's, like, difficult to access.
You know, if it was on this shelf, it would be--
I like how you picked this up, and then just set it that way,
-as if, like-- -Shh!
This is your style of art, decorating: "Oh, my mistake."
There we go. Now it looks right.
Ooh, Westcott-- this is a Westcott RGB light.
-[Gerald] Oh, cool, it's a-- -A Flex Light, yeah.
These are awesome, 'cause you can just stick them wherever.
Are you editing off the MacBook?
Yeah, this is the 16-inch that I'm using right now.
And it feeds into this monitor
or do you got a... computer somewhere, too?
No, it just feeds into this monitor.
But then we got a PC set up in one of the rooms,
and then Sam edits on another MacBook in his space.
So, you got the backdrop here. You got a few colour options.
Yeah: blue, purple and orange. I like-- most people like
the blue the most, but I like the orange the most.
Do you have something against the purple--
No, I love purple! I love purple.
-It's a great colour. -That's good.
-I like to just kind of go... -[hums]
And then the key, you can't just punch through it.
You have to make a little teeny, like, like a little pilot hole.
And then you just go-- you just start off a video going--
-[loud rumbling] -[yells]
And then that's how I like to do
-my intros sometimes. -Did he clip the audio?
Yeah, I definitely clipped the audio on that.
Sorry for the clip-- no, I don't want a mark for that!
Based on... you saying that you never wanted
-to take "it" too seriously-- -Yeah.
and then based on that you like to do some bits
and gags in your videos, why did you choose
the subject matter that you do, when you could do
a bunch of things without taking it too seriously?
You could make-- you could just do a sketch channel
-if you really wanted to, right? -Yeah, I think it kind of
just happened, because I happen to know
quite a bit about cameras, because of my background.
Steve and I have a production company,
so that was basically where all our attention was,
was building this production company.
So, that's kind of where we had all the camera background.
To me, these videos come very naturally.
I feel I don't have to go too far out of my way to,
you know, make a video about it, because it's already the stuff
I'm thinking about naturally. When I started the channel,
my main hits were all travel videos.
So, I was, like, "OK, I guess that's
what the channel's gonna be about."
And then eventually I started getting
some pretty good views on some camera videos.
And, like, "OK, now this is what it's about."
And now it's just all a giant camera channel.
Are you happy with the direction that it's gone, or do you wanna
tweak it maybe in a different direction moving forward?
I think it's good. I kinda enjoy talk--
'cause this is what I live and breathe, you know, camera stuff.
But I did start to feel a little bit contained, 'cause I don't
wanna make every single video about a camera channel.
So then that's why I just recently started
a secondary channel that's just more vlog stuff.
Talk a little bit about camera stuff,
but I'm trying to stay away from it, so that if I--
I just basically started that so I don't feel trapped,
that I only have to make videos about camera stuff.
We only agreed that you could plug one channel, not two--
Potato Jet and Gene Nagata. Subscribe, subscribe.
Only one. You can only subscribe to one.
We only agreed to one plug, okay?
-Total, Gene, uh... -Did I do pretty good?
-You passed. -Did I pass? Can I see?
-What you got? What you got on-- -No, I don't think you need--
Wait, where's the-- where's the paper?
Were you just doing this the whole time?
-Just... pretend writing? -I ran outta Yahtzee cards.
Wow, you're a fake person.
The clipboard is just a metaphor.
-Fake human being. Just... -It's all up here.
Scorpion man-- ah!
Oh, my God, that-- that lens is just a big, gaping hole.
-Tons of-- start that again. -[clicks tongue]
I gotta sound like a professional
-interviewer here, okay? -Yeah.
-[lights click] -[beep]
Now, you wanna make sure your prostate exam does not over--
-Oh, hey, Gerald. -[laughs]
With the personal life aspect of it, though--
-[clears throat] -It's puberty, one second.
Let's talk a little bit about your lighting.
Yeah, I've got one there, one there, one there. Next question.
-[thudding] -[laughing]
I'm gonna be keeping... pretty strict score-keeping
and note-- I don't know what I'm talking about,
but I'm gonna be doing it on this.
[soft whooshing]
-[laughs] that failed. -That's so scary!
You can't go anywhere and be comfortable
if there's a clipboard around.
I'm just gonna screw you up!
Oh, yeah. Which clap do you use now, Gerald?
-Which one? Oh, no! -This one!
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 old thumbs-up
and consider subscribing if you haven't already.
But if you did not find this video helpful, or entertaining--
I'm gonna throw a brick at your face.
-Alright... -We're done.
♪
♪ Take it to the top ♪