LIVESTREAM Friday, September 8, 9am PDT

About This Video

A September 2023 Friday morning livestream. Van takes questions from the Patreon community and talks through whatever is on the bench that week.

Transcript

thank you okay it says uh you're live I hope that the sound is good and the image is good

and if someone if it doesn't work someone please sound the alarms I guess in the

comments okay in keeping with tradition and tipping my hat and homage to David

Lynch the weather report you will need sunglasses today in Los Angeles

but it's chilly and I'm wearing two layers including wool and I've just put my heater on down below

which requires me to open the windows because it's a propane heater and I don't want to suffocate though it does have a safety valve and shuts itself off

if uh it depletes the oxygen in the room um and my hands are actually a little chilly so that's the

that's the weather report from Topanga California um Okay so

I'm going to look at the comments I've already read through all of these but I'm gonna read through them live and try

to answer them comments and questions okay and I go in reverse chronological

order so the oldest ones or maybe that's chronological order the oldest ones I

read first so first come first served all right and this is from 28th attempt

what are your thoughts on different motorcycle helmets favorite style slash brand cheers from Germany

I used to rock the full face with the fold down Shield but I'm too hot or something and they fog up and none of

the fog up Solutions I found adequate so uh for probably 10 or 12 years I've just

done a motorcycle I'm sorry a Motocross open face helmet with a visor um

kind of as plain as I could find as plain of a design they kind of have loud 90s designs on them but the one I'm

using now is a Simpson which I think is an old like drag racing brand helmet and it's kind of retro like

it's probably not legal for to for Motocross competition but it's black and it has white it's black but and it has

like a mouth guard on it so I wear that one if I'm if I know that I'm going to ride on the freeway and if I'm not

riding on the freeway I just wear a bell bullet White Plain um fastest Indian White

um I think they call it a three-quarter helmet with the Snap-on brim that kind of makes it look like a cop helmet but cops were the half helmets I think that

don't cover their ears this is a three-quarter um I know probably just buy those over and

over again if I need to replace them because I'm set those are totally fine and then with the bell I wear glasses like this these are prescription but I

have ones that are plain and then I have ones that are tinted like polarized lenses and I wear one of those three glasses in the side keeps these little

things keep debris from coming in it's kind of like a hipster look but I don't give a um

okay what are some habits you have that help stimulate your creativity

organizing vacuuming cleaning putting things away just those automatic

trance inducing activities that move my body and require a tiny little bit of thought and decision making that's very

helpful reading is very helpful lying down in a hammock super comfortable reading with a red pen to underline things in

the book and then um paper books I think are better than tablets and so forth and then

um while I'm reading I have a piece of paper with that I take notes with

uh also like Cinema in the cinema I get lots of ideas because I think because I'm so at ease and so relaxed I am more

present in a cinema in an Engaged film this is very strange I am more present than I am

I think in any other uh activity even like riding a motorcycle my mind

will wander a little bit I mean there are points when you're going a little crazy where it doesn't but my mind will wander a little bit but in the movie I

am so in the movie when I'm watching a movie if it's good enough that um my subconscious will just be

very free and a lot of times like oh get ideas or my mind will just things will jar loose so those are some things

that uh stimulate my creativity and that question was from Ryan Juarez Eric Vega asks when are you having uh

our conversation one to one with Tom sacks or Casey that'll just be a surprise um Isabel whenever I know I'm gonna go

see Tom or Casey Isabelle's like you should bring your equipment because but I just don't want to spring it on those guys and I don't and it like no matter

who you are not no matter who you are but I know maybe with those guys they're gonna go into like Media mode where you

have to we all do that I think all of us do this um you have to go into Media mode and be careful about what you say and you can't

just be crazy talk and that's the kind of conversations I want to have with those guys you know because they're so close to me I just want to have

I want to have crazy talk conversations like locker room conversations that are you can't you can't publish so we'll see

we'll see when that happens um sorry about the noise I have to have the

windows open for the for the heater I guess I already said that um George power asks it's funny none of

us chose to be here yet we put so much pressure onto ourselves so my question would be what

fuels your motivation for living and making art love question mark frustration the fear of going broke yeah

all three of those uh it's mostly just this necessity to make a living you know

um motivation for living and making art and then making art is like you know part of my I think part of what I want to say to

people is to really really discourage people from being an art professional from from being like a solo career

artist and selling your art to make a living I think it's a very terrible way to make a living

um which is not to say don't work within the art industry because I think I've been out of it for a few years but

the art industry itself if you can get on a good team it needs like reliable non you know

non-arc art artist uh stereotype floozy like together people

I think that would be like if you're an accountant if you're a builder if you're a a

fabricator go work for an artist you know a big blue chip artist they have huge enormous teams

um and they pay well a lot of them are very rich but like to be your own solo artist

you know it just seems like a uh it seems like a career for if you're already in a financial situation where

you don't need to earn a living to live well you don't you don't need a livelihood because you're you have for

whatever reason you're provided for um and a lot a lot a lot of your

competition is going to be those folks if you're selling and I'm talking about you know Art Basel Gallery artist I

paint paintings and I sell them I make uh sculptures and I sell them I want my work in museums and in galleries

um uh uh the question was what what motivates me so I you know I going into like an artist which I think YouTube is a very isn't is is a realm of

for artists but it's not the actual like formalized artist you know uh gagosian Gallery Whitney

Museum artist level that we think of as artists it's an entirely different world

um and so I mean what keeps me going is I you know I'm terrible at everything else I'm I really really am I'm not a winner

I am not good at like like playing sports with other like sport that requires a ball and an objective and uh

you know and scores and stuff I I'm like embarrassed about if I'm in a situation that I can't get out of and I

have to play I have to play one of those games it's like an embarrassing like get yourself out of the situation

or try not to freak out because I'm just terrible like I can't beat Isabelle at bowling I can't I used to go for hours I would go

um when I lived in silver like I'd sneak and practice and practice and practice at this bowling alley around the corner so that when I went and played with Isabelle I could have an edge on her and

I it just didn't work because she is a naturally gifted athlete and I'm not but that kind of metaphor just carries into like basically all of practical

activities sure now I have certain skills like yeah I can build and make stuff but I'm not like carpentry level

that stuff like I can't go fast and do that like a real Builder could do so like art is like was just a last Last

Resort because I'm terrible at everything else and uh yeah I think it's a terrible way to earn a living and it's

taken me till I'm nearly 50 years old to have a sort of like steady living at it and that this is just too

long I think I think it's cruel when when people have Charities for for poor com communities and they encourage Arts

programs oh we're you know oh we're raising money for an inner city underprivileged arts program it's absolutely terribly cruel to do that

because how about a a a a scooter or a bicycle program or some kind of uh shop program

buy some space with a bunch of machines and stuff where these kids can learn how to like build make stuff or computer

stuff or whatever I think the Arts is it's a very specialized specific

realm for people and whatever so my motivation is to make a livelihood basically um

near oh nope that's a not a question that's just an invitation okay William

horn asks genuine question not ironic or sarcastic in your videos you often say God willing and use other phrases that

mention God do you believe there's a higher power if so do you find that believing there's a higher power is helpful for you what practices prayer

meditation art Etc allow you to reaffirm this belief so the thing I always say is um

well there's that great story that slave or disease zek likes to tell where some journalists went and visited Niels

Bohr who was one of the scientists on the Manhattan Project and I think Niels Bohr might be the father of quantum physics

though I might be wrong and he was a he was a physicist atheist didn't believe in any any uh I believe he was an

atheist he he believed in like rational thought to an extreme and some journalists went and visited him

and he had a horseshoe over his Doorway to his like officer studio and the journalist asked Niels Bohr Niels Bohr

why do you have this horseshoe and Niels Bohr said oh it's for good luck and the journalist says good luck you don't

believe in that stuff and Niels Bohr said oh but I heard it works even if you don't believe in it so

um you know I don't believe in a deity that has a human form and controls you know

eat and moves knobs and things like that I don't believe in that but I I think I believe in what I went to a cousin's Bar

Mitzvah and like I don't know what it was 2015 2016 and the rabbi said that the

original and I don't know if this is true uh the original like ancient Hebrew word for God was a

three-syllable word and I can't remember the word and each syllable was the tense of B so it's sort of like as it was as

it is as it will be and that's what God is and to me that's what God is

it's just the way it is it's everything it's just the way it is and these religious wise men and all

basically all of the faiths in these texts that have lasted thousands and thousands of years and these people who've lived successfully by these tasks

by these texts for thousands of thousands of years our observations of how it is and a lot of things that we

don't understand actually work and like prayer actually works and

that's just that's how I think of it and I Rely I pray all the time I love it in movies when people pray when you're watching a movie and you see characters

praying and it just it works even if you don't believe in it uh Stephen Leach asks have you been

taking a bit of a sabbatical yes I took two weeks off to take a vacation on the East Coast with my family

turning off the heater and um I have now that I have the the build the

um the uh the the cash of um patreon videos from that I've posted

over the last six months or so those buy me time to spend extra time

working on YouTube videos if I want to post on YouTube Every week every other week or so

so I've I've uh I've started this fourth turning project and it just got the hell away

from me and um I got a sponsor for it and the sponsor kind of moved the

the deadline uh they didn't move the deadline but they gave me a deadline that I had

thought would be later so I had so anyway I've just been like crushing for a month or something doing these

these fourth turning is here videos about the new book and like I don't know I think I was just too ambitious with it

or something and uh like these things each one of these little if you can see behind me like each one of those little panels and I

had forgotten this for making the first one each one of the panels like like this thing behind me they take

three hours to make because of all the like lining up and mistakes and doing it's got to be perfect and level and

square and blah blah blah and the painting in and the filming and so it just

[Music] go away go away that's my phone um and so yeah I just got like I carried away with this thing I gotta finish it I'm praying that I finish it today and then I can post it Monday and then after

that I want to be back on a schedule of posting every week um posting regularly to uh patreon I

might be posting some like less ambitious stuff on patreon because a lot of you guys ask for um just kind of simple things like oh

tell me about I don't know your your lenses tell me about you know tell us about uh the Sandpaper you use little

things like that so uh yes I've been on sabbatical but only for two for

for two weeks and then the other and then the other um uh the other uh time has been spent

doing the fourth turning video okay Brian asks I'm about to be a first time Dad I'm about to be a first-time dad I

love your video why dangerous toys are good for kids do you have any other tips for taking on Parenthood fearlessly

oh my gosh fearlessly is impossible um yeah keep a keep kit in your car like little I love stuff sacks but keep your kit

like one kit in each car for the kid that's like uh

uh you know spares of everything and then uh you know spare shoes spare pants

Spirit diaper spare shirt spare little jacket spare sweatshirt you know they're kids so they fit in a little bag this big

and um and then they're the kids are they're braver than you are and I think you gotta let them be brave I think that's the way you got to do it and then

expose them expose them to things that you enjoy and

expose them at an extremely young age I think and you have to be really careful and gentle like

I started with my boy on my electric bike when he was 18 months old and we went mountain biking and up in the

mountains and down the mountains like real like mountain biking trails but like I would go at like 60 50 of my ability because I never

wanted to fall and like traumatize him so just got to be gentle and just do all the parent all the stuff that you liked

when you were a kid like the activity stuff I think you just kind of do it and they'll go along with it I mean I I got

lucky my kid's really cool and brave but I think so uh hnps will you be using your Classic Toyota for camping or 4x4

off-road Adventures or you're more of the hotel resort stay kind as it can be hard with a little one uh

uh I yeah I think in December January around there I think

I'll take the boy uh on a little desert adventure and we might like sleep outside a couple nights like in Borrego

Springs or Ocotillo Wells one of those places out in the desert but yeah I'm old and uh I am more of a

hotel kind of person and camping is just is a lot of putting away and setting up

and uh cleaning and it and like I live in the woods I run through the woods every day and I

grew up in the woods camping I don't know that I need it that much when you have a kid it's just even more

it's a lot of Labor um oh and then um I intend next year to get

my son his first like a uh uh gas Spike and then I would like to get

uh uh um like a two-stroke like a 125 two-stroke pure dirt bike

and then start going out they have these off highway vehicle Parks here in California so get a little rack for the

back of the Land Cruiser and then go out to those like on Sundays with my boy and that'll

be like the father-son dirt bike day like once a week um and that'll require a 4x4 uh

off-road stuff um so from maker guy you mentioned a couple

of episodes ago that you wear a uniform I dig that description can you give us a rundown of your uniform and the functions utility of what you wear and

why all right so I wear this like cotton work shirt because it has a

pencil slot in the shirt I think we're gonna come out with these Isabelle says they're not going to be done um

we're coming out with American made ones of these Isabelle said that they won't be ready for this holiday season so maybe 2024 holiday season it's hard

doing an American-made American supply chain um product that takes a while but we're

prototyping and so forth uh it's got a pencil slot two pockets um I got these glasses I have like these

in non-prescription and tinted I wear Carhartt double knee

work pants the kind that are unwashed when you get them they feel like cardboard uh I like them because they last about a year or two

and they always look kind of clean they don't look they hold the color is such that it like fights the dirt

uh and the pockets are all big enough for all my gear I took off all my clothes that I had a um

physical a couple weeks ago and I put all my clothes on the on the on the scale to see how much gear I carried on

my body 10 pounds and then I wear uh Swiss uh Army not Swiss army knife Army

but the Swiss military boot like Army Surplus military surplus mountaineering boots that I've had

resold with Vibram soles uh what else do I wear smart wool like the thickest hiking uh

socks I either wear those year round because they keep your feet at 98.6 degrees uh and then I just stress I look like I

work there wherever I am I look like I work there so people just leave you alone and they give you access to everything so you

know if I'm at a five-star hotel I look like I work there if I'm at a nice restaurant I look like I work there if I'm like uh in the downtown LA in the

you know favelas of downtown LA I look like I work there if I'm in your construction site I look like I work there I kind of look like a cop although

I have a beard um anyway that's part of it and it's just easy and it's one less thing I have to

think about just everyday put them on um uh this one I found very endearing from

JJ from JJ Quan what is your best advice on getting a girlfriend I met a woman that has caught my attention and I can't stop

thinking about her I'm usually obsessed with my work and only think about work but now I have a hard time concentrating on my work oh my God what a difficult

difficult difficult endeavor um well the fact that you have worked that

you're very much into is going to work in your favor because that's an attractive quality to women I

think and then to get a girlfriend oh my gosh it's an unscientific there's billions of advice oh I will give you this advice

and please please this is what I'm about to say is sexist by definition but

I'm going to say it anyway um do not take girlfriend advice from a woman do not in other words if you are getting advice

about how do I find a girlfriend do not ask a woman I read this I read I think it's a book

called blink and I think it's Malcolm Gladwell and it talked about this speed dating

um uh science experiment or psychology experiment that some psychologist did and what they did was they had women

fill out um fill out a questionnaire of what kind of man they were they were looking for like

all the qualities of the man that they were looking for and then they did a speed dating thing where you you know you have a five

minute conversation with you know 10 men or whatever and then you rank the men in order of

interest of who you'd want to if you're the woman who you you're most interested in dating or whatever and no correlation

between what they wrote what they wanted from a man and what they actually chose so that's one piece of advice sorry

ladies but uh I say don't take advice from ladies from women about

women but as far as how to do it it's just it's a magical trust fall

woo-woo kind of flighty thing I don't know I've never I never dated in the I've never used the

app stuff or any of that a lot of people find that helpful a lot of people are in favor of it but I always just did everything the old-fashioned way

probably can't do it anymore the old-fashioned way of like somebody fixes you up with somebody blah blah blah but like a Target

woman like you're talking about that's very hard to do that's super I don't know that I've I might have done that

once or twice in my life [Music] um all right but keep concentrating on your work and something will happen Rachel Padilla or Padilla asks I look forward

to a live stream I had a couple of questions chambered how would you recommend promoting a small YouTube

channel today I have the trouble of not fitting a niche but thinking that people will enjoy what I'm doing without change

to fit a niche also are we close to number four of the zine looking forward to it yeah we're getting close to number

four of the zine the subscribers to the patreon drop to uh oh I should say this

I'll publish another Zine when I cross the when the patreon crosses the 4 000 patrons mark

um and we get close I mean we get up to like 37 3 800 but towards the end of the month or at the beginning of the month

the numbers drop by about 200 they go up a few hundred I think I'm netting net gaining like 200 per month and we're at

3 500 so probably a couple more months and it'll it'll be out um

oh as far as this small YouTube channel and uh promoting it so I think you what you need to do is you

need to prepare for what you are going to do when one of your videos is very popular

have a game plan for okay if I have a video that does I don't know 100 000 views or two hundred thousand dollar 200

000 views I'm gonna do this this and this to promote the channel now that I have that video up like with the follow-up video or however the hell

you'd you know plan it out but as far as like promoting the channel

I mean I haven't I had an unfair Advantage with I had a couple of well I had one Fair advantage and one

unfair Advantage when I launched my channel and the fair advantage that I had was I had been making short content

videos for 20 years and the unfair Advantage I had of course was that my brother is Casey neistat so

um but the I think the making the videos for 20 years uh

uh that's the important that's what nobody else has so you just have to keep you have to be undeniable as Bill the comedian Bill

Burr says you just have to be undeniable that's you make just get better and I'm in this phase myself

you know I'm trying to build the channel I'm just trying to get more numbers and not by like expanding and putting on a

big staff and buying you know 6D cameras and uh lighting gear and I'm just trying

to like get better and better and better and people will people will connect if it's

if it's truly good and so I think that's kind of how you do it it's two phases one get the work good

and be prepared for have a game plan for when something pops off

um okay anyone else happy oh young hex says anyone else have a sneaky suspicion that

baby number two was born not yet December due December 5th but yeah that has been that's been

there's a lot of uh uh on uh there's a lot of unscheduled activity

that occurs when you're when your partner is expecting a baby and getting later and later into the

pregnancy it demands more of your time than you're accustomed to uh

Distributing um somebody asks oh will the live stream be

available after watch after to watch after it ends yes it just gets saved in the

I get saved in the street in the scroll thing the feed on patreon

um so Khalil Milner considering the advice you must have gotten from Casey how are you finding

your workflow approach to be different the audience and content you create couldn't follow the exact blueprint he does how have you found yourself

adapting and learning now that you've been on YouTube and patreon platforms for years now

I think the thing I'm trying to do is like really embrace the process of it like I've had a few perfect weeks

um since returning from Mexico I've had like perfect weeks of the process there's you know like Monday writing

Tuesday writing and shooting a little bit Wednesday shooting and editing a little bit Thursday finishing the edit

and uploading uh Thursday and then Friday morning publishing for you guys and then Monday

for the for the YouTube you know on the for the public

uh publishing publicly on YouTube and uh I think the the one a week Pace can grind me so I'm trying to like not

I'm trying to like have some wiggle room if I need to go longer than that without

you know uh tearing my house apart trying to get this thing done by a certain day that's the real main major

major thing that I'm trying to like work on this year is like the have being able to make

these things at my own pace and you know a lot of people just say Oh no just go ahead make it at your own pace

this guy you know don't no pressure no pressure just you know however you want to do it okay fine it takes me three months to make one video so there is a

balance somewhere I mean you've seen these videos that are like like there was a Kurt Vonnegut one took me like six weeks or something to make like from I

think that was from last year and then there's this one and it's like a month long so that's not exactly right this is like a

balance between what you know what pace to make the match and uh

what pace to like live at I guess um but my routine's getting is getting good

um it's so weird I took like I took this vacation and my intention was okay I'm gonna come back and start working at

just the pace that these things will naturally come out and then I have the cache of of of patreon videos that I can

release release on YouTube uh regularly so that the algorithm is satisfied or whatever and I just got

waylaid with this like right out of the gates way late I'm like a year I've like lost a year of progress as far

as like refining my refining my process um anyway I'll get back on my feet after

this week uh what are your top three Criterion Collection films and why oh

I can't do this I don't know uh uh it's just too hard I need to see them all like the movie posters uh

top three Criterion collection films I can't do it I just

can't do it I can't uh I can't even think of one because then people and because then it's just like

oh and then just boxed in I don't know I don't know I'll get okay I like

I like color films generally speaking I like color films

generally speaking I like American films uh generally speaking I like films in

Native in like English where I don't have to read subtitles and of course there's exceptions to all of those

and oh you know whose films I like I don't know if they're they're in uh criteria or not but that your ghost lanthamos guy

those movies are fantastic I love those and of course I love the Wes Anderson ones

uh so okay I don't know even to choose three directors wouldn't wouldn't be fair I don't think

okay this one is crazy from RK Lynn if you were locked in a basement and not allowed to come out until you produced 50 compelling Tick Tock videos for a

non-profit focused on helping kids how would you get yourself out of the basement another condition is that is the fact

that you're camera shy to the point of phobia so recording yourself is not an option even though it might mean death you just can't do it I'd make them

shitty I'd make them as fast with all these restrictions I'd make them as shitty and as fast as I could and they would all be terrible because I just

want to get out of the basement there's just too many there's just too many limitations

uh with that hypo with that uh with that uh uh hype what's it called

hypothetical I just make them as fast and as shitty as I possibly could um

recording yourself is not an option I don't know I just whatever uh uh Indie wrestling school asked would

you ever show any of the unreleased footage from the nysut brothers second season this is a good idea

um but and yes maybe I will but footage I don't know that people understand unless you make this stuff I

don't think people really have an understanding of what like raw footage actually is

it's not watchable basically even though you think it is even the stuff that you

that comes to you that you think of as raw footage is not raw footage

um okay the bun I find your work incredibly satisfying particularly in Aesthetics

curious how interested you are in Aesthetics personally if and what you might appreciate

aesthetically in either other art or the world in general I guess the question is are you actively working

towards an aesthetic of any kind or are the Aesthetics of your work simply a conduct a product of the work

I do think the Aesthetics of the work are a product of the work but for the beginning of learning how to do this for

maybe 10 years I was trying to emulate Aesthetics that I loved from like the cinema collection of VHS tapes that

we had at our studio in Tribeca so we would watch things like over and over again like The Godfather one and

The Godfather II all of the Wes Anderson movies that were out at the time he's a great one to like emulate and get

in your soul because um everything's very Square the way his shooting is very square and

um his simple compositions and he has like one thing that's the center of attention and

um the Kubrick movies are all great and the tarkovsky movies are all great and uh

the Bergman movies are almost all great um Lars von Trier movies anyway just

these movies that could get into my soul could just watch over and over and over and over again so that subconsciously I would just be

kind of imitating these these Aesthetics um a lot I mean people I I love this question in this comment because people don't really don't really comment on it and a lot of

work goes into making things look a certain way in filming them and in uh

and then making in the decisions of like you you won't see the color like the literally the color of purple the color

that you get when you mix red and blue together you won't see that in my films almost ever I don't know if you'll ever

see a film of mine that has purple in it and if so it's just absolutely unavailable I mean unavoidable like I'm

in Venice filming someone and I and I can't crop the purple out like that's an example

um I'm more actually I like the composition is important to

me like how the frame is set up is important to me and then the lighting isn't is important so that the right

thing has the attention on it and then camera movement is not important to me uh

uh camera whatever camera you're shooting camera quality isn't really important to me it's more important to me that my that I

like using the camera that I make stuff with but I had this I bought

new boots but they don't come for another two months uh they're being made right now I bought

new boots in um New Hampshire and uh no without exaggeration no irony here nothing your choice if you're to my to my in my opinion and in my

realm of like filmmaking your choice of boots of what boots

you're going to wear is far far more important and more significant than your choice of camera that you're going to

use way more because basically because the cameras are so good um I'm watching

there's a great series uh I wanted to squeeze this in there is a great series on HBO right now called

telemarketers and it was the production company that did it was Alara films which is Josh safti and Ben safty's production company

they're my friends and we've been friends I've been friends with Ben since he was 19 years old and

um so you know the whole journey I've sort of been around not for the later Port parts of it but the earlier

um parts of our journey together we were together we had built we had studios in the same building and

um this movie was made by this guy named uh Sam Littman something he has a

hyphenated last name and he started making it unconsciously he didn't know he was

making this HBO series but I believe he started in the maybe 99 98 99 something

like that and he just like me he just he worked in a crazy place and he brought his video camera to work

and he just filmed and filmed and filmed and then this is actually this is probably the best movie to watch or the best series

to watch if you now are interested in becoming a professional as a person who makes their livelihood

from movies or videos or I don't even know what to call it that they make themselves from scratch if you want to

be like I guess a YouTuber but this shows on the show I'm talking about it's on HBO it's called telemarketers

because you get to see this very compelling story and you get to see it through the point of view of this guy Sam who made this story it's all

documentary and the point I'm getting at is that at a certain point it's like maybe

2010-12 or so around there he gets and they don't show this it's just I just know this

you see the old footage is all this mini DV footage and maybe High eight footage and maybe vhsc probably not though maybe

digital eight all this video camera footage that just looks like old video camera footage and then somewhere around maybe 2008 2010

he gets what I believe to be is a 5D we don't see the camera from the image he gets a 5D which was I think that shot in

1080. and I'm watching it on my you know 40 inch television screen at home and from then on doesn't matter anymore it's like oh this

just looks like stuff you watch in a movie theater or on a television set this camera boom so you know a 5D from

2009 or 10 and you know it goes right up to now you know this this this this series it goes right up to now and of

course there's like interviews that he does that are you know he probably did last year and that he did during the pandemic

where okay now instead of the 5D 1080 camera he's got a 4k camera but those aren't exp you know those aren't

expensive and that just looks perfect and the lighting's better but he has developed as a filmmaker

so you know this is just a question about Aesthetics and uh and uh

my my lack of consideration for camera with the exception of I like the have the relate like I bought this like I

didn't want to publicize this because it's a very expensive fancy fancy thing um but I bought this Leica Q2

um it's right there uh this Leica Q2 [Music] this camera uh because and it's like it's made in Germany it has this similux 28 millimeter lens on it that

you can't swap it's insanely expensive it's three times as expensive as a Sony Alpha

um Alpha seven and um the reason I bought it is not because of this I've never taken a still picture with it I don't think I bought it because it's for idiots

I it's for idiot artists it's not for technicians Sony's are for technicians they have a thousand menus and 800

different jpeg MPEG formats to choose from and all this gear and menu menu

this thing has got a gray menu you turn it on and it's just for idiot artists who just want to get the job done and

all that when you revert to manual on this thing it's all just it's this stuff you don't have to like if you want to do manual focus if you

want to do audio auto focus you lock it in Auto you want Auto aperture you just lock it in auto

and with those Sony's it was queued through this yeah find the little the little uh sunflower icon and check that

and oh out of White Mountain white balance and this it's just knobs and buttons and I've found to like just get

and and then my point is I don't know if the image is better than the Canon I mean I also love the Canon 1dx

but it's so big and heavy and it has those detachable lenses and it's very demanding and um

and I was just starting to hate working with the you know all these other cameras so my point is what I look for in that and it

has and it comes and it reflects itself in in the Aesthetics is I just wanted a camera that I enjoyed using

and um they're in the in the aesthetic quality is secondary to that although it has a very beautiful image

that I love so uh uh okay are you acting okay um William fendler um s uh I really appreciate that you don't over complicate things with your building process I don't know if I can remember a video we're using more than a jigsaw or angle

grinder are you intentionally being diligent about keeping it this way or have you thought about building a shop

with more bigger equipment if so what would that look like for you I have to imagine it would be pretty unique mix of

equipment materials Etc uh yeah I'm in small spaces I always have been for my whole career and um

so yeah I know to I don't have a table saw I don't have band saw I don't have a drill press and I've just sort of adapted to like that's my skill set this

has to be within those parameters of those tools I used to think I wanted a big space like a big giant Studio I don't think I

do I don't think I want lathes and planers and all of those giant machines

and uh but we'll see we'll see what happens um what pieces of advice would you give

to novice this is from Tim snow what pieces of advice would you give to novice makers diy-ers who tend to get

bogged down in analysis paralysis and wanting every tool known to man immediately but have a hard time

starting to do the ACT to do actual work oh and then Ben Marshall replied I'm a

former woodworker and a YouTube channel and have gone through that before now uh pick a project you know you can

make with the tools you already have and knock it out help tools help save time doesn't make you a better maker I totally agree

you should just have a I mean isn't everything broken isn't all of

your stuff broken I mean I can fix anything and all of my stuff is broken all the time and I've been able to fix things my

whole since I was about five years old and yet there's so much I can't get to I can't get to all of it my hobby

is getting to these projects that I that are broken that I can fix or refined or this

so you gotta like yeah like Ben said you have to just bang the thing

out and you can't move on to the next thing until you finish the last thing that's huge so don't be like the first project

you're gonna build is an ocean you know worthy vessel no no the first thing

you're gonna build is a little hook to hang your whatever tool you just bought

on or a little I don't know so yeah just make the things do it right away then

you're gonna have to steal time from something because nobody has time for anything and uh yeah just

find a project Do It um yeah there we go William Coulter asks recently I've

started Living On My Own with roommates with roommates granted for the first time at College there's a general malaise I feel about using my time well

about getting the work done maybe it's a change of routine I find myself in but also a lack of direct purpose day to day

it was easy to occupy my time with screens before but I feel I need to do more and it's difficult what do you

advise of me okay yeah this screen I was so old when the screens became

ubiquitous that this is an unfair advantage that I have that to me

all the screen stuff is a hassle it's data entry I hate it it's a necessity

and I ignore phone calls and I ignore emails and I ignore text messages because I I just like listening to long

form podcasts basically radio shows on my on my phone that's what I love it for and the screens that I deal with like

this are either to watch film like feature films or to do my actual work

so I don't really have a good point of view as to how to like get away from the screens because I have the opposite problem

is like how can I just eliminate them from my life completely which is basically

impossible uh so uh it's easy for you to occupies most times but I feel I need to do more

you know what get a job if you don't have a job like a job that pays you money just get one and make sure it's not like a stupid screen job I mean you

know what I mean make sure if you're getting trying to get away from screens um or if you want to reprieve from

screens get a job where I don't know maybe where you can listen to insanely compelling podcasts

while you're doing whatever the work it is is something that you show up for that's you know

productive and then you'll be making a little bit of money and if you come back at me with that excuse yeah but I'm in college and I have all this work and all

you have to do all I went to college pal I went to William and Mary which is an extremely demanding academic College

it's super hard there and uh and I'm not very smart and um

you have time for a job you're never going to have the amount of spare time in life that you have in college well I don't know if that's true I guess when

you retire but you know for 30 or 40 years after college you're not going to have that kind of spare time ever again

so you have plenty of spare time for like a job um but yeah I think that get a job also find places where there is no

reception that's another advantage of Topanga is like there's no signal like around here unless you have Wi-Fi

that's helpful um but yeah get a job kid um what sort of treatment or Coatings do

you put on plywood and why uh linseed oil I've answered this question a lot boiled linseed oil

and be careful because it's flammable don't leave it on rags in a in a you know on your shop floor if you're using an angle grinder on aluminum or in steel

I don't know about steel but aluminum in it and the dust gets on your rag that has um linseed oil on it it will

spontaneously combust so be very careful with the rags throw them away in like a steel container I have the steel like Firebox garbage cans with the closing

lid but yeah linseed oil you just dump it on and smear it and the reason I use it is I love the smell and I love it gets goldener and goldener the longer

it's on there uh uh oh and then I would love a breakdown of the plywood facing folding work table that often

makes an appearance oh that's just one of these like two foot by four foot folding plastic tables that you get at uh Costco with the legs that fold down

and uh and then quarter inch uh AC or ACX plywood that I screwed to the top

of it uh can we get a vehicle update are you still happy with the new motor I

was just in Salt Lake last month and we stopped by the Land Cruiser Museum the Land Cruiser is just like a rental car it just works perfectly it's loud

um I I don't know when someday I'll get um I'll have them I'll Dynamat the cab of the of the Land Cruiser so that it's

not so loud there's like a lot of noise that comes from the gearbox it's an automatic it's a manual transmission now so it's really like me it's like noisy

um but I just have like ear protection headphones that I wear I have two pairs and they're also

walkie-talkies if we want it's not that loud it's not helicopter loud but it's it's loud it's pretty loud but other than that it's just perfect it just

starts and it just it gets good fuel economy and it's got good horsepower and it's just a perfect tough

machine it's squeaky I gotta go get all the grease fittings on the leaf spring uh Junctions or whatever they're called

the the I don't know what they're called bushings um at like a Lube place but it works perfectly

um do you struggle with executive function or paralysis by analysis how do you overcome that phrase no I do not I have to get a video out every week I got

mouths to feed I got bills to pay and I have the opposite problem I have a whole bunch of things that I want to

work that I want to make and uh I don't have enough time to make them and so how do I overcome the freeze

uh I compromise I do I make things shitty I make things not as good as I could if I was making a perfect

thing uh and I just try to refine my process with each with each project but speed

is sort of the name of the game in deadlines um have you tried riding an electric motorcycle yet yes I have I went and

visited my friend Alan stolberg at Revival Cycles in Austin and he had I

believe it was modified I believe it was a cake electric motorcycle I believe I could be wrong

and uh he let me ride it it's awesome pure torque quiet I kept trying to shift with my foot like my foot like my gut I

would like ghost shift because I was like all right it's time very quiet super tourkey by the yeah they're super

great uh uh have do you have plans for future Patron scenes I do I can't remember what

they are I can't remember what they are I'm sorry the next one might be editing I don't remember but I have there's like these folders

back here these like boxes and one of them has all the zine ideas in it so Andrew Ferrari asks and that was from

Aaron Smith Aaron ferreri asks have you been refining oh I have been refining my maker style for many years

really since I've been born and I recently made my first sale to non-friend relative how can I use this momentum to promote probably into future

success by doing things I love making just Chase opportunity Chase opportunity that person is going to tell someone oh

where did you get this they're going to tell someone and then that person's gonna call you and ask you to make it to make them something and just do it and

that's what will happen that's how it will happen just keep getting better and keep uh chasing

opportunity um actually the more I read about AI the more it seems that it will play a huge

role in the world of content creation speed and cost uh do you fear it becoming the norm on social platforms

and YouTube where volume often wins do you see it becoming a norm in longer format like TV film as someone who

romanticized the art slash human element behind crafting I'm afraid that the dollar will win as it normally does

um I think it will come on in phases I think right now obviously we're in some kind of a transitionary phase between the non

AI uh assisted content and the AI assisted content it's

all bad it's basically all bad right now all everything I've seen like I see a lot of AI generated

um thumbnails on YouTube and they just all look exactly the same it's the same aesthetic it's like a weird like

um it's kind of like those uh if the the the artists who do the caricature

drawings like in Central Park or in Montmartre uh it's like a a oil painting

version of that they all look like that and um foreign so right now this is I remember this

with digital video is like you get the new technology and then you try to do the old thing with it so like with digital video people got the Canon

uh XL1 and then they just started making you know they made feature films with it

that you'd normally use like a a 35 millimeter film motion picture camera instead of and then people like my

brother and me got these devices and did a whole new thing with it because they served the purpose of our what we wanted

to do with it in our lives all is all unconscious this isn't like you set out to do this stuff it's just oh I want one of those cameras and you get it and you

start playing with it and then eventually you start so right now people are using AI to do the old stuff but with a new medium and

then eventually there'll be people born into a just AI thing where they won't have any like like the the like Mr Beast

he doesn't have any Cinema knowledge he never watched movies he just has always been a native YouTube consumer guy and

that's what he makes and that's you know he's he's number one um so AI will eventually they'll be is

what I think maybe the kids like my son who are just sort of born into it and it was always Ai and they will be able to do new and

interesting things with it it's just such a blanket term AI it's such a blanket thing

uh that I have a hard time nailing down the specificity of of what it means like

what it's basically just automation of kind of creativity but not really because you need to give it the prompts

you need to prompt it correctly and you need to be able to refine it correctly so

um it's just going to be so gradual that people you won't even real you know you won't recognize as it's happening you

won't recognize the um what's what you're losing versus what you're gaining

and um you know people will refuse to adapt it and then

they'll find themselves all of a sudden um maybe not all of a sudden but they'll

gradually find themselves I guess obsolete in a way but I mean you get to you get to an age where

I don't know the process is what you enjoy it's you don't want to learn a new thing you don't want to learn a thing that's not what you know and sometimes

you get to a point where well if you don't want to then you are doomed and I say that like in regard to you know

what's happening my whole town basically is out of work right now because and I mean my town of Los Angeles California

and we have tons of Industries here but you know we're Studios and like a lot of the people my neighbor across

the street hasn't worked for months and um there are the the there are a lot

of the parents of the kids that my son goes to school with that you know they're not working and um

they work in a system that for a long long time uh was an amazing fantastic system to

work in and with great benefits and with great compensation but and more and more people want to go into it which is a you

know the supply of labor is is flooded and uh there's a little bit there's a

bunch of demand because of the because of the streamers um

makes so much so much content but you know they're all out of work now all

these people because their demands they're that's they're they want new contracts and they want to

prevent AI from being used by these Studios and it's just impossible it's like telling it's like if you're a

cinematographer in the 90s or early 2000s and you said and you're in the like whatever the ace

the cinematographers union and you said oh we won't work with Studios who use digital equipment

digital cameras you know you're just not going to win I mean labor is powerful but it's not that powerful and everybody wants to go into

not everybody but way more people than it can accommodate want to go into media

and then on the other hand you have YouTube uh and you know the kids like my son

doesn't give a about scripted content about you know TV movies I mean

sure he'll watch up but that's because we say no more YouTube you can't you're watching way too much YouTube you're starting to like talk like those YouTube

people you have to only watch Disney or you can only watch blah blah blah and they're always going to make those masterpieces those

you know Pixar films um those are always going to be made but that's the top top level

um and they've they've been using AI to make that stuff I mean yeah I don't know it's just going to

gradually like it's not even in the news much anymore I remember when chat GPT was in the news like a month or so ago

it was like the whole big thing now nobody's really talking about it but yeah it's just going to be gradual and then all of a sudden it's going to be kind of the standard

and um you'll still have you know Wes Anderson's latest film the asteroid City it was shot on 35 millimeter film 100

year old technology more it's older than 100 year old technology and um you know

digital didn't wipe out you know the loader the camera that loader guy and he's still making it it's still a you

know a masterpiece um so uh yeah I don't know that's the question I guess we're all asking but yeah money always wins

money will never not win ever I mean I and you know in the big picture

in the big picture you know you get a little you know non-money battles will win every once in a while but

uh money is the highest form of energy that human beings can Channel

um this is a great question by a man who is uh Tony guess going uh 54 and uh he does uh tree uh tree surgery I don't know what that is but I love the

guys who do the who trim our trees who go up in the with the lines and all that stuff and so he asks

why do you Okay so this man Tony 54. I he encounters a lot of folks who don't give a about their job and he's

asking me why do I think this is so and this is a thing that this is a thing that really bothers me

that people don't give a about their job and I find it especially true in America in the United

States and especially especially true in like the expensive parts of America like

New York and Los Angeles is that you have there's all of these services that a

citizen uses let me say this is I'm trying to not generalize and generalize at the same

time but I guess it's the problem of like when you come across so many people who just don't give a who don't

care um and he asks why do you think a large proportion of

people don't care and I think it's because one that's like basically three reasons

is like one the job they perceive the job to be beneath their abilities and

their potential which might be true to um I can't remember what two was I think people don't understand that

they're always working for themselves and it's the X it's like the Dignity of the

thing it's the Dignity of the of the occupation you have to do your best do your best be the most helpful you're

being paid to service to be of service and it's a hard thing to get into your head but you got to just attack it all

even if you're a dishwasher or whatever just find some aspect of it and be good and have pride in being good at it and

then I think the Third reason that people just don't care is because

[Music] um generally speaking America is an insanely easy place to live in and this is an insanely easy time it's not the easiest probably but it's a pretty easy time to live in

um in in relation to essentially the rest of the world with maybe the exception of parts of Europe

of Western Europe where it's like believe it or not even easier but Europe is not a commercial

Endeavor or commercial phenomenon the way that America is in its Inception America was a commercial phenomenon

so I think people get used to the ease and then they strive

for ease instead of striving for a virtue they strive for ease you know I remember I

used to like I went to Puerto Rico once and there were a lot of retirees like young retirees like guys in their 50s and 60s that retired down there and they

just talked about like you know all the scams they pulled with their unions and working at such and such and

you know a lot of the themes of these people's braggadocio is that oh I got paid so much money and I was able to do

so little and I just find that disgusting I mean to a certain extent I mean

if you generate wealth and if you you know if you inve you buy a building and you invest in it and then you you know

you own it and you do the balancing of all the thing and you rent it out and you get a profitable that's fine I I think you're at least doing something

but people who just don't care that drives me absolutely insane when people are just like lazy and don't

don't care I mean but anyway yeah I think America's it's it's it's it's it's people don't

understand how how easy we have it here um I mean if you know and then at the same time it's also kind of hard here because um

you're on your own you don't it doesn't come everything sold separately so unless you join like a quasi-socialist

in America like a quasi-socialist uh occupation or Endeavor like like the

military the military is like a quasi-socialist republic or not even a republic it's like a quasi-socialist little country within

America you join you get your health care you get probably housing assistance you get uh educational assistance uh you

know you get all those little things that aren't included with with the entrepreneurial lifestyle you don't get that or if you become a

teacher you get certain things or if you join a if you get a job at a big Corporation you likely get a package with like health insurance and

um 401k and blah blah blah and uh it's hard on your own to be like a an entrepreneur it's difficult in America but it's also probably the

easiest place to do it maybe I don't know I've heard Singapore is even easier um so yeah I think people just get used to

they think that life what is supposed to be is a is ease as you're supposed to be going for comfort and ease

and you know not caring is very easy uh um also people aren't being paid appropriately that's another big part of it that's maybe that's the second thing

I was trying to think of I don't think that the I think that the the pay is not I I think people are underpaid in

America or things are just too expensive and you know I I think that's a big part of it it's like people don't I

it's just the pay doesn't match the being alive here in most cases I think with most jobs the

pay isn't good enough and who the hell knows how to fix that problem my God I don't know

um I don't know uh okay I want to end on like on a nice happy Friday one so I'm skipping no I won't skip no

that's not fair let me do this one how do Oleg asks how do you organize

your home Library do you keep books you've already read yes I keep books I've already read when I moved from I had a studio in the Bronx before I moved

to Silver Lake here in Los Angeles and I threw away like 500 pounds of books and I'd throw them in a garbage I just I had

you know one of those got Junk companies come and take them and then they probably give them the Goodwill or I don't know what they do with them

but I do in this house I just am constantly building shelves but I sort of wish I had every book I ever read

like I love that when you go to people's houses and they have just a gigantic library of hundreds and hundreds or thousands of books

um and so I just keep building shelves and put the books on there and that's uh

that's how I uh yeah I keep the books I've already read okay I'm sorry I didn't get to everyone's questions I have to go for a

run now um great to be back doing a live stream we'll probably be doing more of these the weeks to come uh and have a great weekend everybody thank you

Products & Tools Mentioned

• Simpson helmet uses — drag racing brand helmet, black with mouth guard
• Bell Bullet uses — three-quarter helmet, white plain
• Leica Q2 essential — camera purchased, 'for idiot artists', Summilux 28mm lens
• Sony Alpha 7 mentions — camera compared unfavorably to Leica
• Canon 1DX uses — camera loved but too big and heavy
• Canon XL1 mentions — early digital video camera discussed historically
• Canon 5D mentions — camera discussed in context of Telemarketers
• Carhartt double knee work pants essential — part of daily uniform, unwashed when new
• Smart Wool socks essential — thickest hiking socks, worn year round
• Swiss Army Surplus boots essential — military surplus mountaineering boots with Vibram soles
• Limmer Boots essential — new boots being made, ordered in NH
• Costco folding table uses — base for plywood-topped work table
• Dynamat mentions — sound deadening material planned for Land Cruiser cab
• Revival Cycles recommends — Alan Stolberg's shop in Austin
• Cake electric motorcycle mentions — electric motorcycle ridden at Revival Cycles

People Referenced

David Lynch, Casey Neistat, Tom Sachs, Josh Safdie, Ben Safdie, Wes Anderson, Stanley Kubrick, Andrei Tarkovsky, Ingmar Bergman, Lars von Trier, Yorgos Lanthimos, Bill Burr, Mr. Beast, Joe Rogan, Alan Stolberg

Books Mentioned

• Blink
• 48 Laws of Power

Films & Media Referenced

• HBO series by Alara Films / Safdies
• Van's favorite film, Chloe Zhao
• Wes Anderson, shot on 35mm film
• watched over and over for aesthetic education

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