>> This episode of the Modern Rogue
is brought to you by NordVPN.
>> Head on over to NordVPN.com/rogue
spell it right,
R-O-G-U-E and get 70% off three years
plus an additional month free,
I'm sorry,
you're not John,
you're not Jason,
you're not Brandt,
you're not Bryce.
I don't...
>> I'm Corey,
I've always been here.
NordVPN.com/rogue
tell them Corey sent you.
>> I don't know that that's a thing.
Guys, this is a weird time.
The entire world is trying to look like
a television production studio
from their own homes,
spending no money,
and it turns out,
I've been working on this exact problem for twelve years.
Lesson number one,
do not fall into the trap that
technology is going to save you.
Only compositional foundations
are going to make you look good.
This mic is not even on.
This camera we're using doesn't even matter.
Switch to a cellphone camera.
Boom, still looks amazing!
Look we're going to walk you through
all of the tips and tricks that can make
you look like you're TV quality
while spending virtually no money.
All right so, this is our podcast set.
When we have something that
we want to say with authority,
when we want to capture attention,
this is where we do it.
It's the closest thing we've got to a newsroom.
You'll notice that the background lighting
is a little bit out of focus,
you've got a bunch of reflections happening all around.
You'll notice multiple point lighting,
a little bit of a blue halo coming from over here,
but again,
it's not the tech that matters,
it's the fundamentals of composition.
Even this microphone,
which by the way is not turned on,
is a giant arrow pointing at my face.
In fact, let's strip everything away.
Let's switch over to cellphone mode.
Turn the lights off,
let's just kill it.
In fact, open up these windows.
First off you'll notice even with
the windows just opened off to the side,
you get a nice soft fill
that creates kind of a dramatic effect.
Now notice what I'm not doing,
is having the open window behind me
because then I look like a ghoulish monster.
But as for all this stuff in the background,
this corrugated plastic is normally used to create
maybe an arboretum or some kind of greenhouse.
It's super super cheap but we just covered it
with two by fours to get it to stand up,
as a matter of fact,
this was originally something we put together
when I was working at Halloween Horror Nights
because I was working an indoor-outdoor venue
where sometimes there would be a breeze
and that would mess up the fire eating.
So we created kind of a windbreak
that I would stand in the middle of
and we noticed that the corrugated plastic
caught those flares beautifully.
So then we decided to do it on purpose,
in fact turn the lights back on.
Let's see, there we go.
So now all of a sudden all of this is being caught in here.
Down here this is just a fluorescent light
with a little bit of maybe $20 of gels.
This right here was put together
by my friend OMGChad,
yes that OMGChad who just hit 1 million subscribers.
We wanted this to look concrete and tough,
something with a lot of gravitas
and power behind it.
It's actually made just of styrofoam and fill glue.
And you can see it's even starting to fall apart,
but that doesn't matter because
it's out of focus in the background
and the lighting creates the contrast.
Here, come around on this side.
Back here it's just cheap fluorescent lights
covered in gels.
The corrugated plastic,
it's main trick it to catch light
in interesting ways and then be
slightly out of focus.
As long as you have soft fills
on the front of your face,
some kind of highlight behind you
to separate you from the backside,
it's going to look amazing.
You're going to look like you have authority.
But what if you want to look like
a frigging rockstar,
what if you want to look like
you're in the middle of the Tonight Show
and spend no money,
then what do you do?
So what if you're on a budget
and you want to look big and theatrical, right?
Like there's thousands of people watching you live.
Let me hear it.
[audience cheering and applauding]
That's right!
All you need is a freaking bed sheet behind you,
and the right lighting.
Here let's break the lighting.
Also this is another dead mic,
none of these mics are real.
This is some pipe and drape I had
from my touring days,
and it is in rough shape.
But you can tell we've got soft lighting up here
on my face to fill in all the cracks,
but we've got harsh lighting over here.
This is like a $20 industrial something or other,
to create these crisp lines across
essentially a sheet dangling from up here.
Look at this,
it's not even clean,
you can see bits of fruit from when
I was doing-- who knows it doesn't matter.
The point is,
nobody sees the background if you
frame everything correctly.
I'm holding a mic that's not there,
let's go to the sound stage.
Wouldn't you know it,
turns out it takes multiple days
to make it all the way over to the sound stage.
Today happens to be a day
about 20 minutes before sundown,
so called golden hour,
with perfect diffuse lighting
thanks to the overcast skies.
Now the good news is that that lighting
fills in my face,
makes everything even.
But the bad news is you don't get
that magical golden hue,
unless you fix it and post,
like this.
No no no, here's what it really looks like.
[techno music]
That's why all of our ads and introductions
tend to be around this time of day.
That and the fact that it's a billion degrees
in Austin during the summer.
Speaking of which,
what if you want to control your environment.
Let's get to the sound stage.
It's a garage,
let's go to the garage.
Which brings us to the sound stage.
Now I know sound stage sounds
super important and fancy,
this is a garage!
Looks just like your garage,
it's got harsh LED lighting or maybe fluorescents.
It's definitely too crowded,
but the important part is that visually,
you need to separate yourself from all of this clutter.
And you can do that one of two ways,
you can actually clean up the place,
I don't recommend it,
or you can use an old Hollywood magic trick
called stage flats,
AKA John Rael.
Who will build you stage flats,
also if you hire him away I'll kill you.
Hey John, what's going on?
>> Hey!
>> What is a stage flat?
>> Well a lot of people forget that most
stories take place in rooms.
And rooms have walls,
so I figured if I just build enough wall
we can tell any story we like.
>> You're the one who figured this out?
You're the guy?
>> I'm the one.
>> This is sort of the standard both for
theater productions and for Hollywood stuff.
What's the recipe for a stage flat?
>> Literally just a four by eight of
particle board,
a bunch of two by fours,
some hardware,
you get it cut to size,
you just need a drill,
and bam.
>> How long did this take you to build?
>> This took me about 30 minutes.
So I made like five more.
>> Which allows us to be modular
as long as we can move everything around,
we could make this into a living room set,
newsroom set or whatever.
>> Yeah and it allows us to have behind the walls,
which we're looking at right now,
and we can hide things like
a costume department,
a props department and anything else we need.
>> I'm not going to lie,
it makes a difference to change clothes
where nobody can see you!
Turns out that kind of thing matters.
>> And if were in downtown Hollywood right now,
this is pretty much what a flat would look like.
>> Except less air conditioned.
Don't skimp on the air conditioning.
I guess that's the real lesson here,
is if you want to look good,
you do not need to spend a ton of money,
you do not need any kind of fancy Hollywood equipment,
what you need to do is begin with
the ending in mind.
And then you can take your garage and have it look...
Straight out of Hollywood.
On behalf of Modern Rogue I'm Brian Brushwood,
stay tuned after your local news for Night Attack.
We'll see you next time.
>> WOMAN: Join Brian later tonight
on Scam Nation as he teaches his children
to play with matches.
And don't forget happy hour everyday at 5pm EST
because being stuck at home is no excuse for sobriety.
Coming up next, Jason Murphy
makes his triumphant return as a changed man.
>> Tells me, I have to get a breathalyzer,
I said "Let me smell your breath."
And he said, "I don't have to do that."
And I said, "Do you have any idea who I am?"
And he said "No."
[laughs]
He said it with a straight face!
Like he doesn't know who I am.
So I pointed and I'm like,
"I'm your worst nightmare" I told him.
Oh god it was great.
The best part about Hollywood,
there's no consequences to anything.
This one lady,
she comes up,
she wanted a raise,
I said "Lady, that made it too real."
Forget I said that.
Look Corey,
everybody loves you but if you're going to be
the ops manager of the seven acres wood,
AKA Modern Rogue World Headquarters,
you have to know about our favorite sponsor.
Who is...
>> NordVPN
>> Wow that's one for one, yeah.
And why do we like Nord?
>> Because they're safe and secure.
They keep you safe online.
>> Keeps you safe with...
>> Tornadoes.
>> Keeps you safe with...
>> Jeeps.
>> Keeps you safe with...
>> Bad breath.
>> Keeps you safe with...
>> Smiles.
>> Keeps you safe with...
>> Hair gel.
>> Pretend Jason was here and I asked him,
"How is it that NordVPN helps keep us safe
"here at MRHQ?"
He might say...
>> Zombies.
From zombie apocalypse.
>> I mean you're not wrong,
but that's not the ad.
>> Here's what I do know.
>> Yes.
>> You should go to NordVPN.com/rogue
>> Yes.
>> If you do that, >> Yes.
>> and you use rogue as a promo code,
>> Yes but you got to spell it right.
>> R-O-G-U-E.
>> Thank you.
That's two for two, keep going.
>> And if you sign up you get uh, the plan.
You get 70% off a three year plan
and you get an additional month for free.
>> That's good, that's good.
Why would somebody want a VPN?
>> Its to keep your online privates,
it's safety.
[Brian laughs]
>> If I'm hearing you correctly it's because
it keeps all of your data private
so there's no looky-loo's snooping IT manager
who's able to see what website you're going to.
Everything has military grade encryption,
you can surf the web in confidence
and you can teleport to any place on the planet,
if you want to be from Malaysia for some reason,
you can be from Malaysia suddenly.
>> Is that what you meant to say?
>> That's exactly what I said,
you took the words right out of my mouth.
>> Yeah but you got to spell it right,
R-O-G-U-E,
that's NordVPN, our favorite VPN.
Promo code R-O-G-U-E at checkout,
nailed it.
We miss you Jason,
a lot.
>> Nah we got it.
>> Why should people be getting NordVPN?
>> Safety from ninjas.
>> No, god!
I'm Brian Brushwood and Modern Rogue
does not endorse this.
Bad idea! Bad idea!
>> JOHN: Are you testing Brandt right now?
>> I'm not doing it.