Today, we're starting a new series
that I'm tentatively titling, "Studios Undone"
with the plan to visit 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-- all in good fun.
My first subject, or perhaps victim might be a more apt term,
was chosen specifically for episode one
because to me, they're an idea man.
And that's the type of person you want to have around
when testing out a new format, because they'll likely
have fresh angles and approaches to offer
that I'm hoping will improve this series right off the bat.
Because something else I wanted to do with this series
was highlight a specific aspect of that creator
that I think they either do extremely well
or they don't get enough credit for.
Today's guest is known for being a talented shooter,
a fun personality and for making exciting, inspiring videos,
but personally, I think his skill as a shooter is not nearly
as important as his profound ability to infuse his work
and the genre with fresh ideas
and carefully constructed concepts that not only require
an ambitious determination to undertake,
but a persevering spirit to complete.
I'm of course talking about Josh Yeo from MAKE. ART. NOW.
Yo, yo. Josh Yeo.
[electronic music]
♪
-Let's get Undone. -[offbeat music]
♪ Gerald Undone ♪
♪ He's crazy ♪
[phone ringing]
Yo. Yo, yo. You got me, Yeo.
Hey, it's Gerald. Are you still good to shoot that thing today?
-Uh, yeah. That sounds great. -Alright, great.
Well, I'm only about 4,000 km away,
so I should be there in about... 15 minutes?
Yeah, okay, perfect. That makes sense. I'll see you soon.
Alright, great. Bye.
[synth electronic music]
♪
[knocking] [door clicking]
-Gerald Undone. -[flames whoosh]
Is that a hot-air balloon? [laughs]
-Whatever. Come on in. -Yeah, actually it was
Storyblocks that provided that. It's stock footage.
Oh, yeah. No, That's very clever. I like it.
Because Storyblocks has an impressive collection
of stock footage, covering a wide range of subjects
with unlimited downloads and 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,
-wherever you want. -You done?
I have one more little bit here to say.
How many more seconds do you have on the clock?
Five, ten seconds.
-Storyblocks. -Storyblocks, yeah.
-You're buying lunch. -Okay.
So, if you think you can take advantage
of a fantastic library of quality stock footage
and effects, make sure you check out Storyblocks
using the link in the description below
because I couldn't afford the hot-air balloon without them.
That's a great plug, by the way.
Just, like... me to you, that's a great plug.
You weren't paying attention at all, were you?
I didn't-- I heard nothing. [laughs]
Okay, so I'd like you to take me around
and show me your space, and I'm going to conduct
my official... review of it.
Very nice. Alright, so this is where all the magic happens.
This is my vlogging setup.
Um... We have a Sony a7 III, with a 16-35mm.
-Uh-huh, uh-huh. -Um... I got this
whole little stand right here. I kinda stole Caleb Pike--
-Plagiarism, yeah. -Whatever.
I mean, look, it's not plagiarism if you cite
the bibliography here. So I'm citing my sources.
Pla-gee-a-rism, right? There's an "i" before the "a"?
I cited my sources. That's going into, um...
Atomos Shogun and then I have a MixPre-10T.
The "T" is for timecode. This is really good
because I like how it feeds out balanced, um, audio.
Balanced out, yeah, that's good stuff.
So, that's going right into the Atomos
and then, so, with one click,
I can record synched audio and video.
And this is pretty cool. This is um... just a...
I don't know, this is like, a 20...
-20-inch? -It's all on batteries?
-Here we go. Yeah! -That's cool.
These are actually the best batteries.
-Indi-- Indipro. -Yeah. I use those too.
-[Josh clicking his tongue] -The big TV, though,
that's on main power though, right?
No. That's on battery as well.
Is this from-- native cable from the TV
-or did you adapt-- -No, I adapted it.
You know, when you get into soldering work,
you work with what's called "pig tails".
And so this coincidentally fits 20 V or 12,
-so if you get those wrong... -You have a good time.
You're gonna either fry your stuff, or it just doesn't work.
Can you see the labels there? Is it clearly marked?
-Yeah, it is. -Okay.
It's a little bit faded. I mean--
That's not faded. It's right in there.
I'll just-- I'll put, "a little bit faded".
Alright, fine, "a little faded."
This is your MacGyver travel bag
or whatever you talked about before, right?
Oh, yeah. I mean, that's not really that interesting.
But... this is, like yeah.
-If I need to-- -Rig something?
If I need, you know... Like a 5/16ths, you know, slag--
'Cause that comes up all the time.
--On the run, then I just throw that in the bag and I got it.
This is nice. You can-- [metal clinking]
Sorry. I Gotta make a note of that.
-Falling... -[laughs] Ow!
There you go. Now you don't have to hold it.
Quick release and then you can connect
this to a beam or something, or a car. You know.
-[Gerald laughing] -SnorriCam on the face.
-120d? -Yeah. 120d II.
-Cool. -Good to go. This is our--
Yeah, it's got a Fresnel on there. A 2x Fresnel.
So you use it for a little rim
-when you're-- -Yeah, exactly.
[Gerald] Actually, why don't we go over all your lights?
[Josh] Computer, turn on practicals.
[computer dinging] So, these are my practicals.
I use these to kinda add
a little bit of warmth to the shot.
Also, it motivates putting in other lights as well.
Next, I have a simple LED light above.
This is just showcasing whatever the topic of conversation is.
So, right now it's on a camera.
Next up, I have a nice rim light which is a 120d II.
This is just adding a nice edge on this side,
adding a little contrast, making me 3D pop.
Next, we have a key light, Aputure 300d I.
The original and it's got a nice, big soft box
with diffusion and a grid,
so it's really, really soft and nice.
And last, if I'm feeling a little funky,
I can add a little bit of ambient light.
Computer, turn on the Time Machine.
[joyous electronic music]
♪
Yeah, that's, that's, that's Gerald Undone for you.
C-Stand, sandbag. That's good.
Dual sandbag. Ballast.
Okay, I'll give you points for that.
Alright, no problem. What do we got here?
-Vanity mirror? -Yeah, this is OTIS.
This is from Burning Man art piece that I converted.
But, Essentially, behind there is a computer monitor
and then a couple other small Raspberry Pi LCD monitors.
I use it for OTIS' interface now,
but this is the interface of the Time Machine,
backed with LEDs, and then this is the brain.
And... when we had it all rigged up,
all these buttons would do something.
It would activate the walls if you--
-Does it still work now? -It still works, yeah.
You wanna try? Just turn that key right there.
What's going to happen?
I--try it.
[audio is distant and muffled]
Right? Oh, interesting.
What is this?
I can never get over the voice thing. It's weird.
Why do you sound like that?
I know! Why do you sound like that?
-I--What is this? -That's a wave warp.
-What's a wave warp? -It's what exists out here.
-Is this thing real life? -That's right, Gerald.
And you can have a taste of the '80's as well.
Go to makeartnow.com. Two easy payments of $9.9--
[key clicking]
-What the hell was that? -See? See?
You're not gonna write anything for that?
You're not writing anything. That's worth something.
That's worth something.
So, this is interesting. You have a light attached
to some kind of pole, and then there's sandbags,
-and is this some kind of-- -No. We don't talk about that.
Cut that. Cut that.
And, we've got part of the Time Machine up here as well.
-Yup. -And it's purple.
Give you give you five, eh, six. You get six points for that.
I can control those colours.
Nice. If you can control the colours-- That's better.
You know what? Eight points.
Computer, turn off Time Machine.
[computer dinging]
-Whenever you feel like it. -You know what, I'm not--
I'm not gonna dock points for that because--
-She works hard. -Exactly.
I mean, everything that I built here, uh, is on wheels.
I noticed that. You got wheels on pretty much everything.
This desk being, like, the biggest one.
Uh... It's just super portable.
You know, All the cable management
is run through one of the legs there.
I like it in the same spot, but sometimes it drifts over
to a new spot and I'm like, "Oh, I like this better."
And then I just kind of inherit that new spot.
The wheels are like an accidental evolution.
Yeah, I feel like when I built this-- this studio,
I knew that I wasn't going to nail the placement of it
for at least six months. Like, it was going to take
a lot of trial and error of me shooting
all these different angles to figure out what I really liked.
If I'm doing more of the tutorial stuff, I shoot at 35.
I want it to feel a little bit more professional.
If I'm shooting at, you know, doing a vlog,
then I wanna get a little closer,
I want the audience to feel like more buddy-buddy.
Like, "Hey, we're in the mix of it together."
So, I'm physically closer to the camera.
I built this desk. This is solid wood piece.
Underneath, they have some LED lights.
Computer, turn on exterior lights.
[computer] Exterior lights isn't responding.
Please check it's network connection and power supply.
[Josh] Oh, come on.
Oh, come on.
Got some outlets built into it here...
-Outlets built in there, yeah. -Are these hard drives?
Yeah. He categorizes every file that I've shot, like the folder.
We put it into an Excel sheet and then we label
the hard drives, so that if I'm looking
for a certain file from, like, years ago,
I just type in a search on the Excel sheet.
"Oh, it's on hard drive five."
Bonus points. One, for using Excel.
That's good stuff. Two, organization.
You gotta serious kind of steampunk vibe going on here.
Do you have like a theme to--
Um... I think what I like to do
is blend, like, old retro stuff with new tech.
and so I call this "Gotham tech" because it was Batman inspired.
Like, You ever been to like, Six Flags, Magic Mountain?
The tabletop?
Yeah, like how it's all, Gotham was all rusted over.
It looked like someone forgot about it.
But, you blend it with, like, the Batman super tech.
It's all old but like, high tech. Gotham tech.
Okay, so what I'd like to do now is let's put this studio
and the gear to an actual practical application.
Let's set up an interview, and we'll use the same stuff
that you use. The same lights, same everything.
We'll set up an interview
and then we'll conduct said interview.
[slow electronic music]
♪
What is this for? Why don't you just like, trip out with people?
-Okay, well, look, my viewers-- -My constituents.
My constituents, they know that I--
you know, I like to take a deep dive.
They expect me to really get in there
and review and evaluate the technical features.
Alright, so what do you have? Let's see-- What is on this?
I haven't given you a score, okay?
Oh, my god. It's a full on Yahtzee thing.
It's not a Yahtzee card at all, OK?
You passed, so, you know. Don't show the camera.
This is just gibberish. There's not--
He's not actually, there's just, like, Xs and Os.
You basically gave me a bunch of kisses.
There's nothing on here. It's like, who can read this?
I can. It all makes perfect sense.
-Yahtzee bonus? -Yeah. You--
you got the Yahtzee bonus. You passed.
You should be happy. You passed-- you passed.
It's true. Josh passed the evaluation.
It's a great studio, OK? We may have given you a hard time.
-Great job. -But, it's a great studio.
It's functional. I like the way that you
made everything move and adapt to your needs.
Thank you. Thank you. I like it.
The style is uniform. We talked about the motivation
behind it, but I like... it's consistent.
When you walk in, it has, like, a general theme to it.
I wanted something that felt like an art piece.
Okay, so I'll start you with a real softball question, okay?
Why are you on YouTube?
How did you start, and why are you doing it today?
I started on YouTube because I wanted a director's reel
and, like, a sizzle reel.
And then I realized that there was incredible power
and flexibility when you're not just showcasing your work,
but you're also showcasing your personality
and what you're like to work with,
and so I went with just that intention alone.
Let's do some amazing stuff
and let's see if I can crack open some of my personality
so that I can get more, I guess, more jobs in the future.
You mentioned in the past that you don't watch
a lot of YouTube, or at least that you don't
keep up with your contemporaries' uploads.
Would You say that there's a psychological reason for this?
Does it affect your creative process if you watch them?
-Is it a choice? -I think it's just, for me,
going through my path, whatever it is that I want to do,
it's kind of a deterrent, actually.
I don't get inspired.
I actually get... it shuts me down.
Because my mind is always just populated with so many ideas,
and so I'm trying to just put those into a box.
And so I think if I see someone that executes
a really good video and they do it really well,
and it might have some tissue of that idea--
[Gerald] Then you just scratch that idea?
Yeah, exactly. And so, I just got tired of feeling that way
and, you know, parallel thinking exists.
There's a million ideas that are shared, universal,
the same inspiration-- Whatever inspired me,
inspired you, and so we do the same video.
And like, just to-- I don't need any more
writing blocks, you know what I mean?
And so for me, it's just better off if I cut it all off.
But I do follow up with people like your videos, Philip Bloom's,
like friends that I really respect their work,
I've let them in, then I will check out their videos.
So, my thesis for this video is that you're an idea man,
but that some of your ideas are ambitious
or that the concepts are really complicated,
but I think that at times, you probably could have
got your message across a little bit simpler.
You choose not to. How do you...
how do you tackle wanting to something
that would likely be more time consuming,
more frustrating to do, more work.
What's the mental approach to that,
and how do you stick with it when--
because you're probably deep in a video sometimes
and you're like, "Why did I choose to do it this way?"
Dude, every video. And it's not about--
I think I just keep going back to, it's not about subscribers.
It's not about building the audience.
It's about what do I want at the end of the day?
I want to build, like, this experience and I want to have,
I want to sharpen the blade and you only sharpen the blade
by doing the things that you're not good at.
That you have no business doing,
and you just keep doing that and then suddenly,
you have, like, a really sharp samurai sword, you know.
Is that what drives you through that likely difficult--
-Yep. Yep. -Like, Without wearing out.
Like, the through line is that it's all connected.
Everything that you do in this YouTube space,
everything that you're trying to do,
it's all connected to your past experiences
and your future experiences, right?
So, It's all accumulative. You're not wasting your time
by spending nine hours shooting this interview.
It's not being wasted, even if you scrap the footage.
You learned something from that, right?
Like, it rounds your well-- your...
your awareness and your skills behind the camera
and your skills in editing and all that.
So, it's all-- to me, nothing is wasted.
-I like that. -Yeah.
What did you learn from this debacle that we shot today?
-Oh, that... -[Gerald chuckling]
That I need an air conditioning unit that's silent.
Gerald, I have a question for you.
At what age did you know that you were different?
-Uh, it was pretty early on. -Wow!
At first, I thought everybody else was different.
That's interesting! You thought you were normal.
-You were baseline. -I'm normal.
-Everybody else must be wrong. -And then it inverted.
-And that's it, right? -[Gerald] You seem surprised
at what the hell is going on, OK?
[Josh] But tell-- What's my motivation?
Is this gonna go in bloopers?
This is Gerald's fault, by the way.
And then point this at my mouth.
What's happening, everybody? I'm Gerald Undone
and "Yo yo, Josh Yeo".
You've-- you tricked my dog.
This is going to be painful.
Gerald? Oh wait, I didn't do it to camera.
It's on wheels and locks.
There's something to undo it.
This is quality content.
[British accent] You can borrow the Rolls if you like.
Is that like for your grandma or something?
Oh, you got jokes now?
-This is serious, OK-- -[phone chiming]
Josh, we're conducting an interview here, okay?
Hit that red button on that--
[item clanging]
[men laughing]
Good job, man. [laughs]
-That's enough. -Wait, I'm not playing--
-I'm not playing this game. -It's been too long.
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--
Cut a cheque for $6 to your grandma.
-Alright. -We're done.
[electronic music]