LIVESTREAM Friday, 2.16.24, 9am PST
Published · 1:07:40 · 2,503 views
About This Video
A February 2024 Friday session. Van fields viewer questions on upcoming projects and workshop builds with the Patreon community.
Transcript
okay it says uh you're live and I hope this mic is working which means no
Echo um okay in keeping with tradition uh and tipping my hat to David
Lynch the weather report Sun but you will need a sweater for the first five hours of the day probably
okay so now I'm gonna read your questions and I do it in
first come first served basis so the first question comes from
Tyler what are your top three Hunter S Thompson novels now he only wrote One novel I think Rum
Diary but um I you probably mean it's top three books so number one would be Fear and
Loathing in Las Vegas of course number two would be Hell's Angels and then
number three there are all these there are all these um compilations of his journalism that
are really great there's one called songs of the doomed there's one called the great shark
hunt so I would just say that maybe songs of the doomed I think that one has midnight on the Coast
Highway in it about him riding his motorcycle on the pch in I think in San Francisco or
Oakland and probably San Francisco and um but maybe it was here maybe in Los Angeles and he said heot wrote it as
soon as he got back from the ride he just sat down and wrote it and never edited it and that never ever happened it's probably the only time he's done
that in his career and he said it's the the his favorite thing that he's ever written midnight on the Coast Highway
and I believe it's in songs of the doomed although you'd have to look it up okay next from
Raphael um van do you know how Tom Sachs does serial numbering of his Creations what are the rules for numbering dates
parts and sub assemblies thank you do you adopt a similar approach to numbering your own Creations okay I have a Tom
Sax knife right here and let me see if there is a serial number on it okay so this is so the serial number is right
down there I don't know if you can see it yeah it's like let me see until I get you in
Focus it's right here and so it says uh SN colon 2021 043 and I think the way he does his serial numbers is that the it's the date you know the
year 2021 and then the do 043 that means it's the 43rd piece made that year I'm
pretty sure I don't know um next question oh do you adopt a similar
approach to numbering your own Creations I don't I just put the date on them um this one's from Andrew hi van
how do you cut Square Cuts with your jigsaw it's all I have right now and I'm having a hard time making straight cuts
I resist getting a miter saw as they're very expensive but I'm only doing small work around the house so I do I only
really use a jigsaw uh and um I kind of use it like a razor so I was taught by
the great John Ferguson if you want to cut a really straight line like in a piece of foam core with a razor you use
your ruler to make the line but you don't use your ruler or a guide to make the
cut you do as best you can to follow the line of the cut usually like maybe to the out probably to the outside of the
cut so the outside is your scrap and so you're just trying to stay on that edge of that
line and so what happens is you're only off by a little bit every now and then as opposed to if you used a guard and
you're off by one millimeter at some point it's you're going to be off by 10 meter millimeters you know if it's a
really long like sheet of plywood so with the jigsaw I do the same thing I mark it with a 0. n millimeter pencil
like Plywood And then I just like a Jedi oh you have to light it really well light it really well constantly
adjusting the light right on the line where you're going to cut and then just like a Jedi and you just Zone in and you
be like you're on a motorcycle and you're on a single Track Trail and there's a cliff on either side of you so you're just staying right next
next to that line and um yeah that's how I cut everything all the all the stuff in this room and if you have a lumber
yard okay um you can and you're let's say you're buying 3/4 inch plywood at um
Home Depot or at a lumber yard you have to do all the math in your head and you have to draw a picture and you have to
do the the order by which you want the um the 4 by8 sheet of PL would cut like
if you need a big piece and then a bunch of strips you've got to draw the picture for yourself and then with all the measurements and then you give that to
the cut guy and help him get through it and do it in order this piece gets first this one then this one then this one and
then when you're done they Home Depot charges ridiculously cheap like 50 cents a cut or something like
this but tip your always tip your guy always tip your guy because when you come back
he'll be more likely to find you'll he'll be more likely to help you it's better and like stick with the same guy even if he kind of screws it up unless
he's like one of these I don't give a [ __ ] guys stick with the same guy because he'll aim to improve same with
tipping at a restaurant always over tip and then try to stick with the same guy um or gal guy or gal at Home Depo
too um yeah so that's how if you really need straight you can have you can Outsource it but yeah I do the same
thing um everything's jigsaw okay Alexander hey van was curious if there was an update on new merch always
willing to support when I can um also any uh extra question any new podcast or audio books you have been listening
to um new merch yes there's um we're like switching companies right now from our merch distributor we're we're in the process of considering switching
to a new company and then I want to start doing more like uh heirloom pieces like things
like made in USA more expensive kind of lower profit margin things but I don't know I'm still I'm still thinking about
that I'm trying to get my I'm trying to recover from this baby which was a big long process of getting my work all in
my process all uh disrupted so um that's that's the status of the merch it's a
little uncertain um extra question new podcast or audiobooks not that I think not that I
can think of offand but I'm reading the um the uh Walter Isaacson biography of Elon Musk and it's really cool you know what's cool it's cool to be the guy who
has the little Corrections like no he was married twice Tula he also married T Lula you know just to know all the little and to know the chronology it's
very strange reading that book because like huge things were like four years ago five years ago um and I'm used to
reading you know when you read historical books it's usually before you're born all this stuff happen so it's also and that guy's great
isacon um so yeah the new Elon Musk book okay Jonas asks asks
me do you think we as a people will ever be able to make substantial change to government it seems less and less that
we can have an impact hence lobbyist this is a good question I think and I mean it feels very hopeless
now it feels like there's no way people want parking
tickets there's just no way you know there's no way that the people want to have to pay for um
parking meters on the street that's just that that can't be the the will of the people and that's like
one one nonpublic interest serving non-democratic uh enacted non democratically enacted law that just exists and you know of tons of them tons of
them I think the people nowadays are by with technologies that they invent are kind of changing the government and the
government very very slowly you know can Implement you know you can email your congressman and so forth
but uh I I think if you're trying to if you're trying
to able to make substantial change to government um I don't know we'll see what happens with
with AI and we'll see what happens with you know we're just in the early stages of all of
this Independent Media so we'll see what happens but um yeah I think so I think
it can I think it can change and for the better okay Eric asks do you think being in love makes you a better artist I feel
that my best work is when I am happy but sometimes I hear and read that some artists create their best work when they live in torture what are your thoughts
okay so I think you got to make stuff no matter what because as an artist you know our job is to transmit a
feeling that we have once felt is to transmit that feeling to whoever beholds
our art so you got to be making when the times are good and the times are bad I think it's easiest to
make art when you're in love and probably yeah it might be a little better because we love that feeling of
love and if that's the if that's the uh if that's the feeling you're transmitting then by gosh isn't that
nice like I don't know maybe when push comes to shove maybe Punch Drunk Love is my favorite Paul Thomas Anderson movie
you know just because of the way it feels and I was like in love when that movie I was just like just started dating a gal with a British accent too
uh just like uh the the gal that Adam Sandler dates um when that movie came
out um but yeah it's certainly easier to when you're in a really high place but
you kind of got to grind through the you gotta grind through the tough stuff you gotta make that stuff too which kind of
what who wants to do that but Lynch says that that there's the myth of the suffering artist in the
Garrett um you know freezing to death with no money it's it's I think it's all from Van go because of such like he has
the highest disparity of success when he was alive versus success when he was
dead he's probably Numero Uno so it becomes you know this it's achievable to
be a suffering Loser Like that's that doesn't take much work so I think people take comfort and well I'm you know I'm a
suffering artist but Lynch says that's a myth and that an artist is is is at his
best when he's all of the Little Creature Comforts and everything is set and you can your body is in a position
to allow your subconscious to be free and then I think it was Rick Ruben says that you want to
live in a manner in which art becomes inevitable something like
that okay um syus asks what is your recommended camera for recording videos for someone who has little to no experience with one and any
news on the repair station in April uh okay so iPhone I would say just iPhone if you have no experience and you wna if you
want to record videos because like you know whatever the you don't even need the latest one I think I have an iPhone
12 it's fantastic it's 4K uh it's great so I would say that and
then a GoPro whatever the latest one is the GoPro 11 or something maybe it's the 12 I don't know gopro's great because
it's they're indestructible and you can swim with them and they have time lapse it's just like a button that you push
it's very easy to set time lapse if you want to shoot time lapse uh but yeah those two kind of all
you really need [Music] um okay Chase asks how are the boots breaking in so I think in three days it will be the two
month two months since I started wearing the new boots and um they're totally comfortable I can
wear them all day I could walk however long I need to walk on them I haven't greased them yet which is they limmer has this special grease and they say
don't put anything else on it but the grease I haven't done that yet um and they're much softer at first when you
get them they're like uh they're like baseball mitt glove baseball mitt leather and now like the surface kind of
feels almost like bomber jacket leather it's like soft they're still strong and blah blah blah but they're they're they're they're nice and and then the
creases along like where my toes meet my foot and that my ankle creases where my ankle bends and all that stuff that's
all those are all coming nice I should just show them to you where are they n
they're up at the house okay so yeah it's coming along great they're coming along great
um and then Chase also asks are there things you enjoy so much that you feel you can't make a video about it that'll
actually convey your feelings on it uh um yeah certain things you're not going
to you know snowboarding or whatever you're not going to get it across um and motorcycles
maybe uh uh okay Andy asks imagine that you can have anyone fictional as your imaginary friend who would you choose and why what's a story moment or
experience from your life that Chang the way you view the world imaginary friend from a book or a movie a story oh God
uh now I just need to go through my library of stuff and find a good friend character I don't know
Horatio uh he's supposed to be like the best of the best friends
um gosh I don't know um let me think of movies I don't know I'm sorry I don't know I don't know uh what's a story moment or experience from your life that changed
the way you viewed the you view the world oh man September 11th
2001 on uh 8th Avenue in New York City about I don't know one mile from the
towers that that changed my view the way I viewed the world um any AD oh Ryan asked any advice for
finding a spirited for finding a spirited woman yes do not seek women's advice if you're a man don't seek women's
advice do not seek advice about women from women seek advice about women from men because women have a completely
different point of view uh so that's one piece of advice uh I don't know I with the
internet and all that stuff and the dating apps and all of that thing like I'm 10 years out of that game like I never did
it I I I never did that stuff so I don't know because it used to be like like much of the world like much of
experience it used to be this unpredict able serendipitous kind of beautiful thing and now it just it's more data
entry so I don't know I i' I'd say get advice from men not from
women uh John ask thoughts on camping I have mixed feelings about camping I camped with my kid in the truck that was
fun I pitched a tent and put the equipment in the tent that normally goes in the truck no food or
anything but uh like shoes and clothes and stuff lived in the tent and then we slept in the truck it was still cold I
idled the truck all night it's a diesel I thought you could do that but the idol wasn't at a high enough RPM to charge
the battery appropriately I didn't run out of battery but I got a warning on my Murphy gauge that said battery something
is is too low like battery maintenance blah blah blah is too low it scared me I thought we were going to be stranded out
there in in the desert but uh so I like I like camping where it's
there's some element of um luxury to it like camping trips mixed with staying in
hotels or camping where there's a team that feeds you um otherwise it's just
camping is just like putting things away cleaning up messes and taking things out and it's just like I I do that every day
anyway so that's kind of how I feel feel about camping
uh I'm writing from you from number 203 and 368 Broadway would love a good 368 story if you have one oh my gosh from
Nicholas I'm trying to think of that door 203 so you get off the elevator is it the one that's straight ahead or do
you have to take a right and it's on the right because 2011 is you get off the elevator and that's on your left
so uh anyway I think a good story if you're in the one where you get off the elevator you take a right and it's the
first right that was the first red bucket studio so that was a that was a collective of like the
safties Josh safy Ben safy um Sam lenko Brett jut ktz uh Ariel Schulman and Ne Shulman were kicking around in there for a bit I think Alex
cman um who's the another guy I can't remember his
name wow this was a close person to me from Louisville Kentucky I can't remember his name embarrassing anyway
they had a studio in there they're all crammed in if you're in the one on the right when you come out of the elevator take a right take a right there that was the
first and uh we got our HBO show the same year like maybe the sameth mon that
Josh and Ben independently got into their films into can the can film festival for the first time and I think
Ben might have been a teenager when that happened he's like really young
um a Augustine asks hi van notice you used minor threats stumped in Tom Tom's
10 bullets video are you a hardcore punk enjoyer thanks for everything van I'm
like f five years too young to be for the hardcore thing to have
been significant for me like Henry Rollins and Sachs and all those guys they're about like five to 10 years older than me so no I'm not really but
like when I was a kid the really cool kids when you would go to to Boston or New York they would have like the hint the homemade Minor
Threat or uh what was the other one the cramps I guess that's not hard but they
would have that hardcore stuff but I like the funny guys like the dead kennedies and the Dead Milkmen is that
count I don't know but no I'm not much of a hardcore guy uh Joe asks what is your advice for
forcing yourself to sit down and create videos writing I come from a very workingclass background but have trouble seeing the creative work as work but
when I can force myself to sit down and create I feel an overwhelming fil with Calon the exact opposite when I can't this is a crazy one for me this is a
crazy one for me I think that it should just be a compulsion I don't know about that forcing yourself to sit down and blah
blah blah blah blah I think it has to start as a compulsion like your life is falling apart because of whatever this
creative thing that you're compelled to do video making videos or whatever um your life is sort of falling apart
because that's all like a drug addict that's all you want to do and um and if you start there
then the like discipline a is to get that within a time is to get that
compulsion and and hack it into a from this o'clock to this o'clock before work and from this o'clock to this o'clock
after work and then you just got to pull yourself away but the making yourself sit down I don't know I don't no I don't
I've tried I've done those things where like writing for example is something where you have to do that it's very hard but uh I write so that I can make these
videos and the pressure of having to have one every week just force I mean I'm in a constant state of writing I got
stuff you know I got notes in my pocket and and everything and the forcing yourself to sit down I don't know I'd say don't do
it I'd say quit and find and just keep seeking the things that you're compelled that you have the opposite problem with
and then try to re that [Music] in uh oh yeah and read the war of art maybe I did have that problem and I read that
book and then I got over it read the war of art that's the book that talks about um
resistance is that for a lot of people there's resistance so so Paula says I just had to pipe in to say me too I'm
reading the war of art Stephen pressfield and it's so helpful he he writes how resistance is a force fleshed out as an actual character it's got me
to put my butt in the chair regularly again really good so yeah and the resistance is playing
against you and the thing to keep in mind is like it's a three-hour investment basically I think of sitting
in the chair until thing good things start coming and sometimes it's every other day and I'm talking especially if you're a writer like nothing's going to
happen probably for the first unless you're in practice unless you're doing this every day for years I think
um you got to sit in that chair and at hour three when it's like about to quit you're G to be like flooded and you're gonna be like oh no I could keep going I
could keep going and then you're done um uh uh but yeah pressfield talks about that phenomenon of fighting of of having to
force yourself into the chair um okay Mark asks hey van have a
few questions for you what is the interior what is the interior of your home like is it utilitarian or industrial as your
shop is do you have a deor Isabelle is a uh industrial designer so she just did the whole interior and it's it's quiet
it's like white walls there's not much decoration there's X's I made him a guitar for his first uh Halloween I made
him a gan ay guitar at of cardboard that's hanging over the fireplace I think that's like the only decoration and then there's a wall of books and
everything's just kind of blank just to have like ease and then just has like Spanish tile floor White Walls TV on the
walls very small H tiny little house people unless you've lived in New York City it's like people are like how the
hell are you living in this but for me it's like a big New York City one-bedroom or two-bedroom apartment
with a yard so yeah um to give a top 10 maybe 20 much watch movie list for
someone who isn't a movie person oh my gosh for example my favorite movie is Goodwill Hunting I never know where to
start and I hate dumb movies I guess my last question since I've never chimed in on any of these Q&A does your partner not like to be on camera or you just
don't want her as a public figure as you meaning I think it that it would be really interesting to see more interactions between the two of you and
it seems as though you are committed to each other why not just get married that's why I have that's that is what I have for now
okay all right so I can't give you 10 or 20 mustat movies okay I'll just do by
director watch all watch all the movies of Stanley kubric um start with the start with uh
full metal jacket and then glom around from there watch all the movies of Paul Thomas Anderson watch all the guy Richie
movies except for maybe not just watch except for maybe that Thor movie is that what it was called I don't remember I
didn't really like it um uh watch the Jane Campion movies
except for the newest one wasn't really good um watch uh Lynn Ramsay's movies
watch um verer herzog's movies watch uh you know scorey Copa Sophia Copa her movies are wonderful um she has a better track record than her dad Francis Ford Copa because Sophia Copa hasn't really made any Duds and
Francis Ford copel has made a few so okay there it is
[Music] uh camera uh Isabelle not being on camera it's just you know she's been pregnant for the last year and with a
new baby and it's just super busy you know not much to shoot we haven't been like there's been much action it's just
been very domesticated and uh okay and this from John all of the books you've recommend on your channel have been truly excellent how do you find new
books oh you know podcasts and recommendations from people and I think that's basically it or if a
book excuse me mentions a book but that's so people and podcast mainly excuse me Matt asks how much do
you consider where a hand tool is manufactured before you buy it knives power tools whatever I used to consider
it a great deal and then sometime within the last 20 years just everyone manufactur just about everyone
manufactures in China and you have to like re like Bosch I think manufacturers in China and they used to manufacture in
Switzerland you know uh Milwaukee used to be American now it's and then they do these tricks like they'll have one line
of tools or whatever that are made in America and then the rest of them are made in China even Leica they have like
there's one model it's their most inexpensive model and it's basically a Panasonic something or other and it's made in China and then like the next
model up that's made in Germany is Sevenfold as expensive um like the husk Barna KTM
bought husk Barna I bought a husk Barna supposed to be Swedish motorcycle for Isabelle I believe it was made in India
so I used to I used to pick I used to Tom and I Tom Sax and I used to joke about like a
hierarchy of like manufacturers who who are the best America's like one of the best we make some of the greatest stuff
uh but now it's just very struggled now it's like the opposite like they like made an USA is like the key feature for
certain things and they let you know it so when I can I do if they're on shelves and I'm picking it out I pick out an
American one or some other country with a high standard of living um but yeah I I I don't consider it as
much as I used to um okay Paula again whatever you make
you tell a great story how do you come up with your surprise in endings how did you come up with summing how did you
come up summing up your work with the disaster Masterpiece quote so good oh that was from
yesterday uh so the surprise endings comes when you're write to me when I'm writing and
it's a surprise to me too so I'm working working like how do I get this like what am I what what what's the solution to
this problem sometimes the surprise endings are just given to you like when you're out shooting if you're shooting
live but I don't um yeah that Mammoth David mammo he says
his biggest fear in life is that the audience will beat him to the punchline and really the ending has to be kind of a punch line and the
ingredients the two main ingredients of a punchline is that it has to be inevitable and surprising it can't
just be some rabbit you pull out of your hat it has to be like oh yeah and what makes it what makes them great is what
makes great ones is that the person who wrote them or whatever they went through the struggle of figuring out the end you know they went through the struggle of
figuring out sometimes it's the first thing you figure it out and you got to figure out that oh no no no I'm leading up to this I'm not starting out with
this so the disaster Masterpiece quote um I just would
uh I don't know going through footage and just the struggle of doing this kind
of work uh and the making money at it and everything it just feels like so much failure and um yeah that really
resonated with me and I don't remember much but I definitely remember Joe Walsh talking about
that uh how's the film photography going let me see I haven't gotten a roll back in a while you know the baby like was
like a real um alternate universe when uh you know the whole baby process is like like
the the 2001 going through that tunnel so that's probably gonna I'm gonna I still have the camera I got a four rolls
of film I'm ready to go so um it's still it's still going
um John asks what have been your personal remedies for overthinking or self-sabotaging behavior does adherence
to a schedule help prevent these yes adherence to a schedule self- sabotaging is a tricky
one that's like I have a bad temper and uh I used to just like if I got upset with something I would just
destroy just smash it into a thousand pieces um overthinking you just got to get going on whatever the heck you're doing just got to get going on it just
go stop thinking and just get going on it maybe write out a quick little list and deadlines deadlines like no [ __ ]
deadlines like not I'm gonna move it you know no and don't start a new project until you've finished the project at
hand that way you just get sick of it and you just finish it and embrace
mediocrity and bad work if it allows you to move on to the next thing just be like all right it's not that good fine next try I'm astonished when people like
starting out are like I just don't like my work blah blah blah do you have 10 years your work's going to be garbage
for like 10 years but you might get a little encouragement every 30 days or something some little tiny
encouragement like um you know that there was golfers they say that like what peeps
keeps people coming back to golf is that out of 18 holes they usually have one shot that that they liked that they were
happy with you know people golfing you know hund scoring a hundred or whatever one of those shots so just got to keep
at it and H don't think too much um Nathaniel asks uh I have to assume
you're planning multiple projects at once how do you zoom out and organize your projects how do you fit in things like vehicle maintenance and other projects that aren't related to making a
video do you just wing it or you got a system I need to get help I need like I don't know it's I I cannot for the life
I am almost 50 years old I for the life of me cannot figure out how to delegate
uh projects how to delegate things for the life of me it's like if I were to if
I were to work with someone one that uh if I were to work with someone to do like little menial tasks that I'm always
doing it would be more time it would take more of my time to explain them and to like follow up on them and all of
that than it would for me just to do them and I'd have to pay the person so I don't know I don't know I just try to keep a tight schedule and I don't know
and like building in rest and going slowly I don't know it's like a dragon that I have to it's really really hard
but I prioritize getting these videos done and so that's basically the my
violent focus is on that Sean ask do you have a process for determining if you'll creatively patch a
problem like the bird poop canopy versus when you completely rethink the system you have a process for determining if
you'll creatively patch a problem versus when you'd completely rethink the
system process I don't know but I know what you're saying like there's like never give up and know when to
quit uh I'm pretty fast to like try alternative this isn't working let's try this this isn't working let's try this I
could probably be more helpful to slow down and do something
else uh and I'm sorry and stick with the current strategy and just get better
at it but uh yeah no I think that's just a slow creatively patching the problem versus completely rethinking the system I think that's Case by case and I think it's
just like a slow process that I'm struggle with do you have a favorite tool bag brand or did you make one
yourself um favorite tool bag you know who makes great bags is kill Spencer they made my they made my camera bag but
it was so complicated to make that they only did a limited run of them and they were expensive they like 11100 bucks um and I like the the little
zipper bags I think kill Spencer makes them too but I like the Klein zipper bags that just are like a piece of canvas z
um I like those and then I've been ordering these like
crappy wax cotton ones from Amazon um for specific things like I keep
the the electric dirt bike charger in the canvas $40 bag I ordered from
Amazon um Eric asks I noticed you've labeled your GoPros with go with blex and rlex have
you ever thought about making some short videos on 16 mm film with something like a b blex it's got that same analog
feeling that 35 mm still photos have I've done I've shot things on with a blex um too much of a pain in the neck
for the it's just too much trouble for the result and
[Music] um yeah um yeah too much they're too big they're too heavy the processing then you got to trans for it then you got a this and
that and uh there's a negative and I'm sure there's reversal film but no I don't want to I don't want to do it I'm
digital I'm digital I do Super Eight van how's Jiu-Jitsu you inspired me to film my experience as a martial
artist akin to when you first started at sax Studio I don't do Jiu-Jitsu but my son does I'm finishing vag gets Breakfast of
Champions it's a captivating book but I'm curious about his deliberate wor Choice when it it comes to race and nationality he uses strong language when
it comes to addressing persons of color do you feel it awkward when typing those racially charged sections for your mural congratulations on your new addition to
your okay uh yeah I there's some drawings too some like like uh racial
racist drawings like you know Von get not wasn't racist but the characters in his book were racist and I it would put
me in a bad and I wouldn't know it I wouldn't know that's what was doing it it was like I it would put me in a bad mood like drawing this like whatever
stuff uh on the thing so yeah it makes you feel gross and I thought about those actors who like play Hitler or play
Nazis it must really suck it must really suck to play those to embody those those
monsters [Music] um Ed asks sord I think looks like a Scandinavian name how do you organize store projects research planning du list
material together during and after a project I see you your Post-its on the world but I wonder how this works as a process there's this cardboard there's
this cardboard box shop down by where I have my storage container down on toena Canyon Boulevard in the valley and they
sell box that come in all these different uh they're they're flat but you fold them up and they come in all these
different dimensions so I get like a nine by 11 and a half inch which is perfect for 8 and a half inch by
11 uh inch paper and so all my scripts I put in there uh like video by video and I just have a label on the outside that says uh spirited man paperwork and that's all
the scripts and stuff they go in that box and I have a bunch of those boxes like archived and then I have another same siiz box that says Spirit of man
artwork and that's all the little drawings and stuff and they just go in there and that's that's how I do
it um and then the the do lists the ones that I wear in my pocket like these
things these guys I uh three hole punch them and then I keep them in a three- ring
binder um okay Tony asks I'm usually on my way taking my 12-year-old daughter climbing when you're live she listens
along and loves it when you have answered our questions I recent excuse me I'm burping a lot this morning I
recently made a bonsai tool kit Holder from an old drill box I found in a skip I'm looking to build a portable tool
station could you explain what you use and and how to allow your tool station to revolve also any progress on the
spirited man shirts and have you thought of selling your logo in a patch form uh spearm man shirts we're still you
know we're working with a company here that manufactures in America these shirts and it's just slow they're backed up they they're very popular this the
this company has a lot of work that they have to they're expanding and so we're kind of in line
um so the revolving tool station I got you can get at hardware stores I think
you can get these nails that are pretty darn thick and like this long not super thick not this thick but they're like I
don't know eighth of an inch thick and long so I used one of those as an axle for the top and then as an axle for the
bottom and I just drilled and then I I just drilled into the into the rotating wall thing I
just drilled that Dimension and then I put washers and like the like felt feet
that go under um furniture and stuff I took a soldering iron and burned a hole
through that and made like a felt washer so that the steel washer can slide nicely on the felt washer and uh just hammered them in
there I pre-drilled so that it was really tight so I didn't split the wood but then I just kind of hammered them in there and they work
fine um and then the patch yeah I'll probably sell a patch I want to sell a patch with like the sewing kit included
and it makes it super duper complicated okay Dan ask um I really like how you use Ambient
sound I've rewatched some just to listen how do you capture Ambient sound and do you need different setups for different scarios I.E different setup for
capturing type R Keys versus motorcycle engine uh a video on how you create capture sound might be cool that is a
good idea Dan um so usually I do have like a folder of just nature sounds of
sounds of like Foley sounds uh with the LEL labels on them but usually it's uh I just whatever the mic on the camera
captures I try not to talk during when I'm shooting and I try not and I make and I'm pretty good about making sure that there's no music audible music or
human voices in the background when I'm recording and then the trick is if you
want to use that as as as sound you have to lower it like 10 DB or
so um and then because it should be really quiet underneath and uh that's how I do
it um what was oh Ivan asks what was the key moment that made you
jump to being a full-time YouTuber let me think was there a
moment I think it was after a bunch of failures trying to do like art gallery work like I kind of didn't want to make
videos anymore and I wanted I was like sick of the computers and uh but so I did these
projects that didn't I didn't get out of them monetarily kind of what I put into them I mean it was like cost and then I was in the meantime I was getting all
these like little gigs that like video making gigs that I was able to kind of
stay alive with the money and um I don't know I think it was like a gradual thing
where I made this video in New York in 2016 called the spirited man and then I
never it ended up becoming the um it's like one of the first three or
four videos um something about New York it's the one with the snow and me
typing and I had that for like I made that in 2016 and it just sat in the back of my head and then I don't know something happened I think I had a
conversation with saxs about doing like Gallery nonv video artwork and selling it and he was just
like just make the videos Man I think I think that's what happened so it wasn't like a it wasn't it was a slow
decision that I came to um Miron asks or Miran asks did you
see Henry cardier Bron's legendary short video lecture the decisive moment on his creative process as a photographer
cheers from Croatia nice uh I haven't seen it but I'll probably see it today John asks I was watching the very
first video recording yesterday and looking at the footage I could see to my untrained eye that everything was reasonably in focus and the color in the
shots was not too crazy have you ever thought to break out that old camera if you still have it and start
recording your videos on it or do you no longer have it which I can't imagine is true would you re it and start shooting with it or plot three would you try to
at least get the lens off and refit to a modern camera and shoot with it what things would make a bad okay so that's
one question so I did buy it I bought I bought it's a it's called a Sony trv8 I bought one from Japan it worked for like
two seconds and then it had the problem that my old one had in that you put the tape in you close it and it just won't recognize it says there's something wrong with the tape then you put a new
tape in some same something wrong with the tape and uh so I just kind of boxed it and it's
like a prop now if I need it for a video I can you know I gave my original one to Tom to Josh safy on the mount that I
made to make the Holland Tunnel movie on this like beautiful wooden thing and he has it like in a vitrine like as a
treasure in his house um and then my brother Casey said he found this
[Music] camera it's the DCR sr80 and this guy shoots on a hard drive doesn't shoot on tapes so then you can take the files off of the hard drive and
then import them into your computer from this and it has a remarkably similar it's probably like a whatever one3 inch
CCD um it's this very very similar image but I haven't really shot anything with
it I haven't really shot anything with it yet um they're just so much there's so much more of a hassle than the 4k
camera in your phone or you know it have to be for a real specific application I
think so I hav't you know a lot of these like young kids a lot of like gen Z and whatever genz and Alpha genen I guess
these young kids they only had iPhones that's the only Gadget they ever had their whole life and it was all apps
right so they never had like I don't know phones they never had video cameras they
never had tape recorders they never had notebooks they never had all of the stuff that you know I
grew up with using and kind of got annoyed with and um so there's a lot of I see a lot of young people going back
to the old stuff but like man I already did my stuff with all the old stuff and like I've paid my dues and I'd rather
I'd rather just use the convenient new stuff that has a better image I know that's not a very satisfying answer but
you know if I need to shoot something that looks old I'll grab that camera and I'll do it what things would make a bad video things like Shake lighting Etc do
things really not matter as long as you are pushing the story forward okay sound is more important than video poorly recorded sound makes a bad video
recording sound unless the camera's in your hand recording someone with the camera mic and it sounds like this is no
good you gotta get the mics right um that's why so many of us do voice over because you can get the sound mic
perfectly uh and then the story is gonna Trump all everything because there's still radio and podcasts but there's no
more silent film so the the sound is way way more important and story is King of
Everything You don't need any you just need a microphone and not even that if your story's great enough
so yeah those things uh William asks what do you do to keep
sleep to avoid overworking and exhausting yourself staying up late has been a common theme for me in college now and it's slowly eating away at me
the next day and the next I have trouble with it but I get up early in the morning and I go to bed early at night
and um I try my goal is to get eight hours of sleep there's this guy named Matt Walker who's like I think he's an MD and he's done all this research and
written these books about how it's just the Cornerstone it's the most important thing it's like I think it's more important than exercise more important
than diet it's the most important thing is sleep and like get eight hours get it nothing is going to help you more than
that and then of course there's emergency stuff where you don't get to get it but I just make it a real top priority and it's just like no I have to
do eight hours of sleep but you know it's hard it's hard the hard part is going to bed early when you wake up early in the morning but if you do it
enough you're just so wet tired by the end of the day that you won't have trouble and then all the other little things like no screens no bright lights
no lights on in the middle of the night you know no screens for an before don't drink diet coke or caffeine after 10
a.m. or whatever um yeah but super important from your exper oh from Samuel from your experience what Avenues would you recommend for getting noticed in
film Mak possibly any film fests or other platforms that provide a creative outut for aspiring
storytellers well Above All you have to be undeniable and that takes a tremendous amount of time and 50% of it
is luck because maybe you just suck and no amount of work is g to get
you good enough or you know so I don't know because my era is completely completely
different than this era and like I found you know Tom Sachs out of eight million people in New York I found Tom Sachs and
uh he had a big influential and important like um audience and peers and so there was living in New York there was lots of opportunities to do do projects with people
and um get in magazines and so forth you know that stuff press it was different
back then um but now you know with YouTube if you're just
undeniable you'll be good I think the the film making stuff like making movies for Cinema and everything that's pretty
corrupt right now and it's pretty closed and they're not making very good movies and the ones who are making good movies
are either from different countries or their legacy
directors from the period before I guess streaming maybe like you know Paul
Thomas Anderson Wes Anderson These Guys these Legends
um there was a time in the 90s when like that was film making like you could if you
were there you know you could come out and make these incredible independent movies and there was a whole market for it and there was a
whole um um kind of a system being invented for it but that's gone that's all that got
all got sucked up with mirror Max and and the you know hundred million dollar Independent films and uh it's it's no
longer uh it's that's that that's like working at a big Factory those those things it's like working on a Formula 1
team you know there's 600 people on a Formula 1 team so if you you know are you going to be how much money do you have if you want to be like a filmmaker
filmmaker your competition is like at the top is Mo is I think mostly people who don't need money to to make the
films like from very wealthy families and now you have multigenerational people making you know their father and
grandfather were huge stars or they're F you know I was watching I had never seen Kill Bill Volume Two until like a couple
nights ago and then you know she's pregnant she has a baby in the end and I'm like oh my God her daughter is like one of the stars of stranger things like
her actual Uma Thurman's actual daughter is like one of the stars of stranger things and it's just
like yeah she's born into the business so but you have this other thing which is this YouTube World which is still
being invented you know the the the genres within YouTube are still being invented it's like the wild west so yeah
you just have to work really hard I think and uh be undeniable be really good um and that's how you get noticed I
think but film festivals waste of time um they just exploit you they exploit the filmmaker they don't pay for
anything they don't pay for meals or hotels some film some film festivals charge the film director to
attend the the the festival or they don't give they give zero like P guest passes to go to the screenings so that
like if you you want to go with your wife you have to pay $700 for like a guest pass meanwhile the reason this
whole thing is like fueling your town the reason your town has this huge Festival that brings in millions of dollars and thousands of people is
because of the content that you made to put in this Festival that they will not pay you for it's just I'm I'm basically
against film festivals I think can or um uh or uh maybe I've never been to Venice
but maybe those two are okay just because of the real you know in Europe the reverence for the artists that they have and just those places are so great
even if the festival sucks who cares those places are so glorious but uh yeah I'm I'm against
them um uh Stephen asks I've been wanting to capture more moments from my life with
my phone Ora cameras like just have it recording or setting it up when I'm spending quality time with my loved ones
from your videos it's as if you do it naturally without the intent that you're going to create something from it like a
YouTube video uh I am not trying to become a YouTuber I just want to save movies uh save
memories uh I don't think there's a question um yeah keep doing it that's great keep doing it um roll for at least 10 seconds without moving the camera one count silently or
watch the little time code thing 10 seconds then a new one because you'll need at least 10
seconds um Sam asks from your experience what makes the best routine or lack of
to produce the most rewarding and successful work during the creative process you know I think if you don't
have respon it depends how old you are [Music] um I think if you're single if you're not married you don't have any kids and that's like your
thing I think just be a little crazy just try to work what every moment you're awake and
then like when you need to do food and stuff make those you can stop working for that but make those event make those events
like I learned all this stuff like oh my my beginning was in New York city so I had there's two things going on I was
like becoming an adult and a grown man in New York City and then I was you know learning this film making video making
stuff and so in the off time it was just as crazy it was this crazy environment and there was tons of of people and like
cool little clicks and communities and everything and great restaurants and there was like people would meet you for
lunch very easily and so what we were able to do in New York is just basically work all of our
conscious hours and then in the downtime of like needing to eat or sleep you know you can
eat somewhere fun and you just kind of sleep in your apartment and then wake up and do it again
so but with the child children and the and the and the and the woman you
gotta I you know I I since the baby's been born I haven't been waking up at four o'clock in the morning well no
that's not true probably for a couple for maybe the last month I haven't been waking up at 4: I've been waking up at
like between 4 and 5 I used to wake up between 3: and 4 um but waking up really early in the
morning um because it's very quiet I don't know if you just heard that horn it's very quiet and there's no distractions no one's calling you no
one's texting you none of that [ __ ] because it's four o'clock in the morning it's the hour of the wolf so that's very
handy but you're by yourself so you gotta really get your routine dialed
in and you know as you get older you got to do exercise and you got to do rest is very I mean once you start reaching your
30s you're like mid-30s you have to really build rest into your routine you have to you have to it's a form of
discipline you have to make yourself do it uh how much like can life get in the way
of this before it becomes disruptive to the process oh life can totally destroy it your your routine you have to fight
like literally fight like fight like line in the S I don't mean like fist fight but I mean like there's going to
be trouble with the people around you because it takes so much to do this
stuff so you have to defend it and you have to defend your time to be able to do it um Rachel asks I wondered if you ever
want to change one of your movies after its release are there details that bother you that you'd like to fix I I
like your I think your movies are perfect but do you see them in the same way I'm very lazy I'm very lazy and I'm I'm kind of a quitter I want I just want
things to be done really and uh so the video that came out yesterday which was
on it was on it was the one about watching the first video tape I ever
shot uh it came out on uh patreon first and then I had a sponsor for it to so
when it came out on on YouTube I had to go so before I could publish it on YouTube I had to go through the video and watch it and make sure there was no
like swearing and all of this stuff and there were a couple little tiny things that I changed and fixed
um but no I don't really visit revisit stuff I just want to get better and
then the next time around I won't make that mistake or I'll be a little bit better at it
but yeah the like Indiana Jones I had the for the patreon version of that of
the of the um ambition video the F the Indiana Jones sequence I had the original sound and it was much longer
but for copyright purposes I had to take the original sound out and just use my music and then I made it I had to make
it shorter it was too long it was too long in the I thought in the original but maybe it was wasn't too long because I had the original sound but once you
took the original sound out it was then it was too long little things like that and then I there was a dumb mistake where I said the the the the Super Eight
camera was a anenu but it was a ba ba B ba b b ba I can't remember the name of
it some French or Danish camera so I just dubbed that over and then I said it was the Chelsea fleas but it was
actually the Soho fleas Chelsea flea market but it was actually the Soho flea market so I went and dubbed that but
those were just little mistakes that I made in the voiceover in the original but um n i don't change things that much
unless it's a new if it's a new public screening I'll go over it and then make little tiny things
changes here and there Ian asks I'm new here can someone tell me how to find the link to the live
stream please oh I'm reading these for the first time so uh oh it just comes up in the well you
found it uh what brand are your safety glasses they're American Optical yep American Optical you can
find them on eBay all right that's the bottom of the that's all the questions I
think yeah that's all of them well have a great weekend thank you for tuning in
and um I'm going to try to do one of these every month one of these live streams okay take take care everybody
Products & Tools Mentioned
- Limmer Boots essential — custom hiking boots, on waiting list
- GoPro uses — camera used for filming
- iPhone 12 uses — phone mentioned
- Bosch mentions — power tool brand mentioned
- Milwaukee mentions — power tool brand mentioned
- Husqvarna mentions — motorcycle brand (auto-caption: 'husk varna')
- KTM mentions — motorcycle brand
- Kill Spencer recommends — bags/camera straps
- Klein uses — zipper bags for tools
- American Optical uses — glasses brand worn
People Referenced
Hunter S. Thompson, Tom Sachs, Paul Thomas Anderson, Stanley Kubrick, Guy Ritchie, Jane Campion, Lynne Ramsay, Werner Herzog, Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, Sofia Coppola, David Lynch, Josh Safdie, Ben Safdie, Ariel Schulman
Books Mentioned
- Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
- Hell's Angels
- Songs of the Doomed
- Elon Musk biography
- The War of Art
Films & Media Referenced
- PTA film discussed
- Tarantino film discussed