91: Behind the Scenes Q&A

Show Notes

https://youtu.be/t2iAQKpq09s

Matt and Sean talk about the life of a YouTuber, how Matt got into creating Undecided with Matt Ferrell videos, what it takes to pull videos together, and much more.
 
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Creators & Guests

Host

Matt Ferrell

Host of Undecided with Matt Ferrell, Still TBD, and Trek in Time podcasts

Host

Sean Ferrell

Co-host of Still TBD and Trek in Time Podcasts

What is Still To Be Determined?

Join Matt Ferrell from the YouTube Channel, Undecided, and his brother Sean Ferrell as they discuss electric vehicles, renewable energy, smart technologies, and how they impact our lives. Still TBD continues the conversation from the Undecided YouTube channel.

Hey everybody welcome to the still to be determined
podcast. This is the podcast that follows

up on topics from the Youtube channel undecided
with Matt ferrell I'm sean ferrell I'm Matt's

older brother and I'm a writer and Matt you
want to say hi.

Hi.
Before we get in the episode reminder. We

have ways to directly support the podcast
you can visit stilltbd fm there's a link there

that allows you to throw some coins in a cookie
jar there's also if you're on Youtube there's

the join button below the video and you can
join and subscribe directly here. And directly

support the podcast in that way eagle eyed
viewers on youtube will recognize that Matt

and I are suspiciously wearing exactly the
same clothes we were wearing last week people

who are listening to this audio only via podcast.
It was probably harder for you to recognize.

But I'm sure you heard the the green blue
of my t-shirt and you were just like wait

that sounds awful familiar.
Don't never know.

Yes.
There's a reason for that this episode normally

of course we revisit the topic that Matthew
has covered in his most recent video but not

this week this week we are doing something
different. This is being recorded in the past

for you for me, it's the future.
For you? yes.

Matthew I think it's the present but we are
recording this in advance because of conflict

schedule conflicts next week so we won't be
able to have an episode directly tied to Matthew's

video but I thought it would be an interesting
conversation to talk about what is the life

of video. So. Wanted to find out from Matt
things like how do the ideas start. How do

they develop how long does a production take
and basically what is the start to finish

process for his videos which at this point
I think it's easy to say that. Matt your videos

have a reputation for being highly polished
that they are in my estimation at least and

I see this in a lot of the comments um tv
quality like newsroom quality where somebody

would say and now to Matt with more about
tech and then you'd be sitting there and saying

like. Hey here's how agra farming works so
Matt a little bit deep background. You want

to talk about your background as how does
the polish happen and how is it that you as

a single person understand.
No hair.

What all the wires and cables around you in
the room you're sitting in right now. How

they all connect and what they all do.
How they do my my well do you know? Sean my

background goes like I've always been involved
in the creative fields during growing up college

and grad school and my profession I've worked
as a creative director at a video game company

for years. A Master's degree in video production
shocker. It's like that it might explain a

lot so I've worked in theater and live performances
and audio recording and audio engineering.

So it's like I understand all the different
pieces and things you have to pull together

and as creative director I understand how
everything from script to execution to. Ah,

post-production comes together and how you
have to basically keep a consistent like feel

for everything you produce and try to achieve
that level of quality I'm going for every

week um for a long time I did the channel
completely by myself so I was doing all the

research myself writing the scripts myself
filming doing all the editing very quickly.

Um, became not sustainable because I was working
eighty to 1 hundred hours a week to produce

a single episode and I was working week to
week literally so I was always under kind

of like ah an 8 like a gun trying to get the
stuff completed so I could hit that weekly

cadence.
Yeah. And the the initiation of the the of

the channel was really just a marriage of
your interests in on the 1 hand the technical

stuff of like making videos like you had an
interest in doing that.

It's change.
Is this.

You had interest in tech in general and and
I think it's safe to say I'm going to put

words in your mouth. Um that your interest
in sci-fi and storytelling and kind of a vision

and of the future.
Oh yeah.

Fed into like well what is the tech now and
how is that how is that meshing with what

is going on in our lives right now.
Yeah I mean the once again sean sean knows

this I'm a sci-fi nerd and geek through and
through star wars star trek all that kind

of stuff I've always been obsessed with ah
like futurism um like where things are going

and it's not just oh, that's cool sci-fi but
like. Ah there's a glimmer of something that

I could see that actually becoming a reality
in thirty years one hundred years you know

200 years on the road. Maybe we can actually
do that kind of thing. Um, so that has always

been with me and being able to produce videos
and knowing what to do to produce a video

on a vin diagram combined with my love of
technology and consumer electronics. And my

concern about the environment. It's like when
you put all those things on a vin diagram

where they intersect is what drew me to produce
the videos that I produce it's like sustainability.

The environment technology video production.
That's that's the intersection of what I do.

So then you start doing the videos and as
you said it you were hitting eighty to a hundred

hour work weeks and I don't know why you thought
that wasn't sustainable and yeah, ah, where

were you.
Um, getting burned out really fast doing that.

Initially getting your ideas and for for topics
and did that change has that changed over

time.
Oh that's shifted. Um it was originally just

what was going on in my life at the time like
I was doing videos on my tesla I was doing

videos on my solar panels. You know I bought
a new electric lawnmower. It was like literally

things that were going in my life were inspiring
the topics. And as time went on that start

to evolve into ah looking at the comments
and hearing what the ah the themes were and

the comments I was getting on my videos of
like what about you know, solar. You know

what about does solar work for all homes does.
What about batteries that you can put in your

homes for this and so I started seeing these
themes come up and would try to answer those

questions that I was seeing come up again
and again. Um, and then today it's a combination

of comments plus I'm constantly combing news
articles on sustainability and environmental

technologies. And so when I see ah a news
article that pops up that's like a really

cool piece of tech I'll add it to my idea
board. So. It's a combination of viewer comments.

What's going on in the news and just what's
what's catching my eye at the time I'll put

onto an idea board.
So You have an idea on your idea Board. You've

got some loose idea around a theme.. What's
the next step. Do you just start doing Google

research and going deeper into it looking
for places where companies are actually using

something. And then go from there or do you
very quickly move into a deeper dive on a

specific company or tech.
Um, it starts more high level. It's like typically

I'll go into that idea board which like right
now there's literally over 100 things on that

list right now I'll go into that idea board
take 1 and I'll do a little cursory kind of

google searching to see. What's actually deeper
in there to see if there's more there and

then I'll also do a little bit of a vetting
process to see is there an interest in this

beyond my interest like do I think my viewers
will be interested in this topic and if it

passes those 2 criteria like Criteria criteria
where. There's something more there and it

looks like there might be viewer interest
in it then it becomes like it moves on to

my process of okay, let's actually make this
a video. It's literally like you go to youtube

and you can do a search for it and if you
see other videos. Um.

How do you determine that there is viewer
interest.

Can go to google trends and do a search on
Google trends and see if there's kind of ah

a bubbling interest on google searches just
things like if you see lots of articles popping

up on different news sites about the same
thing. It's like that's a sign that there's

interest there because there's a lot of people
talking about it. So that's typically kind

of what I'm looking. 4
So you zero in on what you're gonna talk about

and as you said you previously would do all
the research yourself at what point do you

say? Okay I now know I'm gonna make this video
and then do you immediately hand off. All

or a portion of that to somebody to help you
do the basic background research or do you

work in concert with that person. What happens
there and where and who are these researchers

you might use.
Yeah I still do some of the research myself

because there are scripts I write myself?
Um, but there I now have a couple of guys

1 his name is Antonio another 1 his name is
casiano um, these they help me with the real

deep background research. So once I know there's
a topic I want to do. I may not know what

the angle is of the video like what's the
angle I'm gonna take on this story I will

have them or myself will go and do a really
deep research like try to find all the articles.

The research papers the things that really
kind of like start to flesh out what's happening

on that topic and from that we have a conversation.
So if it's myself I just come up with the

angle on my own. But if it's like casiono
antonio they come back to me with kind of

an outline of what they found and I kind of
look through their outline look the research

they found and together. We kind of come at.
Okay, we think the angle should probably be

this. Let's look at ah. Airships and blimps
from this point of view and let's go down

that thread and so then then what they do
is they take that deep research and they start

to tease out and put together a first draft
of a script and then they send that to me

and I look through the script I'll make a
ton of comments I'll give a lot of feedback

I'll start to integrate some of my home points
of view into it. Hand it back to them. They'll

do a revision and the final pass is always
me I always do a final pass on the script.

Um, if there's any gaps I see or anything
I think it needs to be moved or removed or

something like like that I'll I'll do the
final edit and final pass on every script

and that's how we end up with what I end up
sitting down to film.

Right? And that sounds very much like a ultimately
that's a producer role like if this was a

Tv show. You'd be. You're talking about yourself
as producer.

Yes, if I'm not writing if I'm not doing the
research and writing myself because there

are still scripts I do that on but without
those guys. It's like I wouldn't be able to

hit this weekly cadence with highly researched
topics the way they're they're turning out.

Right? Well again, you go back to the idea
of of an 80 to a hundred hour work week if

you try and slice that into manageable workweek
time. You're literally talking about 3 to

even possibly four people. Or more in order
to make it a ah manageable number for yourself

and for you I imagine part of that is also
the changing of the hats you need to make

time for recording so there you are being
director and performer. And then on top of

that producer and initial researcher scriptwriter.
So the changing the hats I imagine you've

broken up your week into different days or
different roles because otherwise chaos would

rain. I can't even imagine how chaotic would
be to say like oh from 11 to 1115 I have to

do this and then I have to do something completely
different from 1115 to eleven 30 have you

sliced your week up in that way to say like
Monday is my research day Tuesday is my script

will be review day.
Yes.

To a certain extent like I release videos
on tuesdays so tuesdays for me I may record

an episode on that day but I tend to leave
my tuesdays open so I can reply to comments

so I can keep my eye on how the recent video
is performing and respond to things in real-time.

So I try to keep my tuesdays kind of loose
for that. Um, Mondays tends to be a recording

day because it's starting to fresh week and
I can record a video but I've even started

to break up my week. Not not by the week but
by weeks where I'm doing things in batches

like just last week I recorded 4 episodes
last week so I basically recorded one month

of content in one week and now for the next
2 to 3 weeks I'm gonna be focused completely

on vetting. Yes I mean I be I wish I could
do that I'm gonna be vetting topic ideas helping

to revise some scripts and write a couple
scripts on my own over the next 2 to 3 weeks.

Living on a beach. Yeah.
And by the time that 2 to 3 weeks is up I'll

probably have 5 or 6 scripts ready to film
and so I'll probably film another 3 or four

at once over a course of a week and then I'm
doing this I'm trying to do this batch cycle

because it removes some of that task switching
which is really hard to do but even in doing

what I'm trying to do here.
Um, yeah.

I still have to I still have to review edits
from my video editor. You know a couple times

a week I'm still having to get at random times
I'll get a script from 1 of my researchers

that I have to stop and review so I can give
them feedback in a more time-appropriate way.

So it's like there's still task switching
that throws me off of kilter every once a

while. But.
Um, right right.

But this batch process that I've kind of landed
on is working much better than my old process

for sure.
Yeah, so we've gotten you up to as you just

brought it up yourself. You're doing your
video recordings. Maybe there's a day or several

days where you're putting together your videos.
These are not ready to go live the next day

you couldn't You would not be willing to publish
that.

New.
And immediately. What's the step that it what's

the next part of that life cycle for that
video where does that go.

Um, well this is where the magic I think happens
and a lot of the credit I have to give to

sonny who is my video editor. He is astonishedly
good I I love him as a human being and I love

him as a video editor. He's such a great guy.
Um, the video edits are tough. Because I like

video edits that hide the cuts a lot of times
in Youtube videos. You'll see just jump cut

up or jump cut or jump cut I'm I'm old school
the way I learned and the way I was trained

was you want a highly polished thing. You
do not show the edits so I like to have lots

of b-rolled I can cover up a lot of those
edits and make it seem fluid.

Right.
I Think that's the Tv I think that's the Tv

readiness that I that I see and other people
see which is we have grown accustomed to seeing

on Youtube somebody like suddenly jumping
and the audio if you were just listening audio

wise you wouldn't notice anything but video
wise you do see those jumps.

Yes, yeah.
Sounds fine. Yeah.

And it is a little it adds a a chink that
makes it seem more amateur it just absolutely

yeah.
Can you hold a 1 second.

Sunny This is the perfect example of a part
you would want to edit out.

Angry Angry dog.
We had a delivery that required a signature

I knew it was coming but I thought it was
gonna be a little later than it showed up.

She's angry.
While you were gone I said to sunny. This

is an example of a part. You'll want to cut
out. So.

Yes, actually I have a different editor that
does the podcast. But yeah, um, okay, so where

were we we were talking about the video edit.
Let me just roll back to my question so you've

talked up to this point about the the life
of the video up to you filming and you're

and you're filming your handful of videos
potentially in one week these are not ready

to go live. You are not going to push the
button and put them out as is what's the next

part where do they go who do they go to.
Yeah, the the videos this is where the magic

really happens in the videos. It goes to Sonny
who is my video editor and I Love this Guy.

He's he's He's a good human being and a very
talented video editor this is where it gets

challenging because ah, you've brought it
up here. It's I'm. Old school in the way I

was taught on how to edit videos and you don't
want to show the Cuts. You don't want to show

the edits you want to mask them all with b-roll
to make it look very polished and finished

and if you notice on most Youtube videos there
tends to be lots of jump cuts and that's the

kind of thing I want to avoid in my videos
and so that makes this part. Challenging part

and sunny does an amazing job with it.
And how much of the stock imagery stock video

the there is sometimes incorporation of companies
promotional videos their own pr stuff I know

that. They probably provide you with when
you initially reach out to a company if you're

talking about a specific company I imagine
you reach out and they provide you with probably

a pr packet. Um the incorporation of all of
that that's left in in Sunny's hands

Yes. Yes, like it used to be obviously all
me and when I first started working with sunny

I would try to give him I would try to find
a bunch of the bee role myself and would give

him like links and things like look here look
here look here today I don't do any of that.

It's little I record my talking head footage
and. I pass the files off the script off to

sunny and he does a better job at finding
broll than I ever did. So. It's like he's

better at it than I ever was so it's like
sometimes he finds footage where I'm just

like how how did you find this and it's like
listening to sherlock holmes. It's like.

Right.
Went to the company's website and I saw this

video there and I followed the link over to
here and I looked in the source and found

the link on this youtube thing which made
me realize it was actually owned by this other

company and somebody it's like Sonny what
are you doing? It's like he keep fine. He

goes on rabbit holes to find incredible stuff
and that's 1 of the challenges with Youtube

too is like who owns.
Um, yeah.

Yeah, and then he's like and that's how I
know Elvis Presley is alive.

And but yeah, it's it's it's the challenge
with what I do.. It's like how do you? there's

There's the rights issue. Yeah, obviously
you don't want to use videos. You don't have

the rights to so typically what we're doing
was we're sticking to Youtube videos that

are basically Pr material because there's
never a question about using that stuff. Um,

there's times where like you mentioned I reach
out to companies directly like do you have

anything additional that you can share with
the press and they will typically give me

like a press kit or they'll give me versions
of the video that without text on top of it

companies like Tesla and things like that
they typically have press kits available that

are free to use for the press.
Um, yeah.

Um, and then we also have subscriptions to
stock photography sites like adobe and video

blocks and things like that where we can pull
additional like aerial shots of solar parks.

It's like that kind of stuff we can just find
on those stock photography websites. So it's

a combination of a little bit of everything.
Um, yeah.

But it takes a lot of sleuthing to pull it
all together.

And what you've described at this point is
really Sonny had to learn your voice and once

and once he learned what your voice was. He's
able to do that on his own and really like

it.
My Stalia my voice and style.

It all seems like and again going back to
that is ultimately the role of the producer.

A producer is putting their voice around the
entire package even if there are other people

involved and that's I think what has maintained
the consistency here is that it does seem

to be your voice coming through.
Right? yep.

And the other thing I would want to point
out is like there are things I've always wanted

to do my videos but when I was doing it by
myself I didn't have the time so I would have

to take shortcuts and 1 of the things I always
wanted to do in my videos was to be a little

more thoughtful with the music that's being
used adding sound effects. Things to make

the videos feel a little more alive because
a lot of times these videos have no sound

at all to them and so since there's somebody
that's dedicated on editing these videos for

me like Sunny. He's doing all of that we're
using more music we're using more sound effects

and the videos are looking a little more polished
than they did before because he's completely

focused on that. Before I would be like I
want to put sound effects I just don't have

the time to figure that out right now heads
have to move so it's it's been very helpful.

So sunny works on a work schedule where he's
getting effectively large amounts of work

from you multiple videos potentially at 1
time his return to you must be spread out

over a period of weeks I imagine you don't
have a turnaround with him where he's getting

you. All 3 videos back within a week I imagine
it's like on a weekly basis. You're getting

things Back. You're giving an initial run.
Yeah, you get and you're and you're giving

it an initial watch through and if there's
any final polishing that is needed. He's taking

care of that.
I get about a video a week I get about a video

a week from him. Yes.
Yeah, he sends me updates like as he's working

throughout the week he'll say I've checked
in all my edits if you want to check it out

and leave some comments and I can we use final
cuts I'll open up final cut I'll look at his

edit and I can leave markers on the timeline
like change this change this I don't like

this clip or this is awesome I'll leave him.
Feedback and he can make adjustments over

the over the course of the week
And that's built directly into the editing

software. So you're effectively looking at
the same project as if you're sitting in the

same room.
Yeah, it's actually kind of ah a good and

bad thing because it's like because I'm a
video editor myself. It's like when I open

up the phone up project I can just go in there
and go tweak tweak tweetweak tweak and tweak

stuff myself I try to avoid that as best I
can I try to leave feedback because if I'm

tweaking things and he doesn't know what I
changed. It's like.

Right.
Um, yeah.

He's not going to understand my voice so I'm
always trying to make sure I'm giving him

feedback so that he knows what I'm liking
and not liking and he's learned. It's like

his videos are all like ninety five percent
there almost every single time.

So you're getting the video back from him
in a final form. He's like I'm done with this.

You're like I agree it's ready to go live
typically how much time between you getting

that final product and it going live how much
time is there. Are you getting these projects

on Friday and it's going live on Tuesday or
is there more of a.

I typically we wrap up his portion of it on
wednesdays and then they publish the following

Tuesday and the reason that we need that big
Buffer is a lot of my videos have sponsors

and sponsors have to see the cut of the video
to give final approval on their segment. So

typically what happens on Wednesday is is
i.

More room there.
Export the vinyl videos I put them up somewhere

where the sponsor can check them out and make
sure their portion is good to go and they

give me feedback and usually Thursday or fridays
is where I'm published I'm putting them up

on youtube scheduled ready to go on like Thursdays
or Fridays. So I don't think about it over

the weekend and they just launch automatically
on tuesdays.

So it's going live and you've got a community
of patreons around you supporting the production

of all this how you don't have to give specific
numbers. But what is your Patreon community

look like now how large a group are we talking.
Um, it's a few hundred people now. It's almost

a few hundred and it's it's bigger than I
ever would expected and my patrons are awesome

I just like for my higher level patrons I
hold a monthly zoom call. So I've actually

gotten to know a bunch of them like Rob van
de wau who is 1 of my original producers.

He's helped me on videos write scripts um
I've actually become friends with a lot of

them. Um's they've been incredibly supportive.
Not just with money but with you know, moral

support and feedback and story ideas but they
kind of the amount of money that I get from

page found not to get in specific numbers.
It covers sunny like the patreon money the

way I look at that money is it's helping to
fund a lot of the production itself. So it's

like it's paying for sunny. It's paying for
those stock video subscriptions. It's helping

to pay for some of my research researchers
money. Um, so it's it's helping to kind of

give me a nice baseline to make sure I can
cover the costs week to week of what it takes

to produce the videos.
That's all it's very interesting because I'm

always involved at the literally like the
last stage it. It goes live I watch it then

you and I have a conversation I'm not involved
in any aspect of everything you've just described

and it's. And it's fascinating to me if you
consider our conversations then post release

part of the life cycle of the video each of
these episodes is actively engaged with and

worked on and discussed over.
So.

A couple months. Yep.
More than a month it's yeah it's really it's

it's a very interesting part of of what you're
doing I think that the the skill that you

show and the talent that you've pulled in
around it is easily seen so this is just me.

Complimenting you on putting together something
that's ah, very good quality but also like

clearly finding an audience so head tip to
you.

Thank you and you are but you are part of
that Team. You are what you are part of that

team I mean this this conversation the post
conversation I do see as an important part

of the conversation. It's the videos are a
a conversation between me and the viewer.

So I'm always looking through the comments
in this podcast is meant as a way for us to

kind of just discuss openly you're you're
coming at it from the every man point of view

which is what I Love. It's like you. Yeah,
this scares me.

I am very happy to be the man on the street
coming in and saying but I don't understand

solar panels because I don't I don't I am
scared so our listeners should tell us what

they think about this if any of you have any
thoughts about.

Ah, yes.
What we've talked about about the lifecycle

here. It would be great to hear from you.
You can find the contact information in the

podcast description and of course on Youtube.
The comments section is directly below the

video you can weigh in in either place. Don't
forget, there are ways you can directly support

the podcast. surprise surprise we just talked
about 1 there's patreon. There's also still

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be sure to give us a rating a review share

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literally helps a village of people. Put together

these videos. Thanks so much for listening
everybody. We'll talk to you next time.