Inside Van Neistat’s 118 Sqft Filmmaking Studio

Published August 26, 2024 · 9:13 · 170,035 views

About This Video

118 square feet. After every video, Van cleans the studio: a meditation. Sweep the roof, reset everything, lights modular and repositioned. The plastic covering a hole in the skylight where a branch poked through. Tom Sachs calls a collection of random screws a log jam; Van has two boxes of them, always messy.

The Post-its on the window age like Iberian ham. Ideas from Van and from others, some becoming entire videos. "Art is a disagreement, money is an agreement". Bob Dylan said that. The morning should begin with writing, though Van is more easily distracted than a pure writer. The studio is a compression of the channel's philosophy: every square inch accounted for, everything either useful or ephemera earning its place. The propane heater hotboxes it on cool mornings. A dehumidifier removes the stink. Our little empire, 118 square feet.

Transcript

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clickup after we finish a video we clean up it's a treat sort of

meditation clean up clean up everybody clean up I'm not sure if I've ever never swept the

roof this plastic covers a hole in the Skylight where a fallen Branch poked through the plastic keeps the rain

out the great Len O'Brien used to say that vacuuming helped him

right ideally a new video begins with a reset Studio

Studio everything in its right place the lights are modular and get

moved around I think I'll start storing this folding table outside under the eaves but I'll have to paint the bottom so it's not an eyes sore from the road

in the rafters I store these giant art pieces I made sometimes I use them as backdrops in the videos sometimes they illustrate the

Illustrated videos I've been using painted seamless lately because I can't bear to erase this chalk

drawing from the [Music] Blackboard the studio has a little shelf of ephemera but everything else in here is useful one must also provide for

[Music] messes Tom Sachs calls a collection of random screws a log Jam these two boxes are the studi log jams and they're always

[Music] [Music] messy this is a little stand for the [Music] Leica so I can shoot myself at my desk the poits are ideas mine and from

others some of them turn into ideas for entire videos they age here on the

window like like Iberian ham art is a disagreement money is an agreement Bob

Dylan said that some of us prefer beating up things because there's sometimes an indication of quality and

durability I said that [Music] [Music] on cooler mornings I HotBox the studio with this heater a dehumidifier removes the

propane stink and I crack the windows for ventilation the morning should begin

with writing though I'm more easily distracted than a pure writer and sometimes I'll futz around with some

meaningless thing but my favorite videos are in tensely

written I write on expensive paper with a typewriter I write on cheap paper with

a pencil the type is supposed to be the words of a video and the pencil is supposed to be

what we'll look at but that's not a rule it's almost a coincidence

this desk is 9 ft 3/4 in long and has five pencil cups on it

without a pencil I'm dead in the water same with post stits and paper the

more time I put into writing generally speaking the better the video will be but I seldom last more than 2 hours

before my brain is fried I try to write videos that Take 5 days to make including

writing Mondays and Thursdays I do weights Tuesdays and Fridays I run about

four miles each run Wednesdays are a push day when I try to finish all of my shooting and

hopefully get started editing my favorite camera to use is the Leica but I use just about all of them

for one thing or another I can nearly blacken out the studio with these Shades that Jack made

they're made from the seamless paper that photographers use on photo shoots I

made the Skylight Shades out of wax canvas I made this little Gadget to keep

a GoPro cool during long interviews otherwise they overheat and shut down but I haven't really tried this thing

[Music] in for the most part the books are in here because they've been in videos charging station charging station

charging station boot dryer this is our recording booth backup

electricity backup hard drives this thing is for transcribing on

the typewriter live stream mic setup rag box this garbage can is more expensive than one would think but it prevents fires undefined undefined

David Lynch says before you can make anything you need a

setup and uh I've built setups all over the world but this one is my favorite so far undefined undefined

this week on the patreon a live stream answering your questions the link is right there

Products & Tools Mentioned

  • ClickUp mentions — sponsor of the episode, productivity platform
  • Leica uses — camera brand visible in studio

People Referenced

Len O'Brien, Tom Sachs, Bob Dylan, David Lynch

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