How Logan Paul’s Best Video Was Made | Editing Breakdown

this is an editing breakdown of logan paul's adventure of buying a pikachu illustrator psa 10. and if you haven't seen it here's the full video i'd like to think that my editing helped you as an audience have a great emotional experience with that video and i want to tell you some of the small details to how i knew such as how i managed to not make a single cut for over 17 seconds but achieved a beautiful high retention and it all starts right at the beginning where i as an editor have to ask the question

how can i get your attention before launching myself off the top rope at wrestlemania and securing the first win of my career one of the best ways that i engage you in this video is by using contrast editing the talking heads have no music or sound effects it's naked and then i immediately cut to something that's high intense with multiple layers of sound effects and then at the peak of that energy i cut back to the naked cup and securing the first win of my career it's so effective that i do it again my career

contrast creates focus and i just made you focus on that video and now that i have your focus i can create a mystery the pikachu illustrator psa 10 is the rarest pokemon in the world and that is a buzzword for me rare is elusive sneaky and sparse and so i use those words to inform my cuts the cuts to the photos are extremely fast that you barely see the image the card is then obscured by headlines of its value you have not gotten a clear image of the card after i use visual storytelling to represent

logan's search through the internet we finally reveal the card but wait a minute that's not the card that's an animated card an interpreted visual representation i am teasing and withholding the real image and that sense of anticipation will make you want to keep watching now keep an eye out to how long i use this animated version what else can i shoot at you to generate energy and momentum to make you keep watching and the answer is actually not storytelling it's story showing i have these aerial shots of logan telling us what's up and i could

easily cut to those i looked up the most expensive pokemon card or i could minimize when i do it's more interesting if i can visually represent what he's saying with be wrong this is why when he's world building the context of the card it's an animated sequence in the style of pokemon but obviously i'm an editor not an animator i can't do this so we hired howard wimshurst for the sequence and is bloody fantastic this is far more interesting to show you the world rather than just cutting to logan telling us and so we maintained

that rule by even sometimes interpreting what he says literally he's referencing the psa population chart according to psa's website great let's show that he says there's 20 of them 20 of them let's show 20 of them he says higher value higher value screw it let's throw in a money animation the b-roll is literally literal but it helps visualize the points but also because my skills as a visual animator is bad and this was the best i could do however i can still use these tools to highlight the elusive and desirable psat and i zoom into

the animated card and create a globe around its edges [Music] and those extreme close-ups is actually me stealing something i stole that from stanley kubrick's clockwork orange i wanted to reference the scene where alex de la stares at his obsession with violence those fast cuts as extreme close-ups show obsession and desire and so just as stanley kubrick did in clockwork orange i did here and not to mention after this cut we still cut to logan's line and i wanted one to really hammer home the motivation and actually this is the first time we've cut back

to his talking head for a full minute i've managed to story show his exposition visually so when we don't see him for an extended period of time and then when we do and i wanted one we know that is an important line to listen to i used as talking heads a-roll as bookends to the sequence but speeding through the rest of the sequence there's stylistic story showing elements using the pokemon games to reference his challenge and i even throw in another reference to the pokemon tv show which was originally a ho-oh a powerful rare elusive

pokemon and i replaced it with the pikachu illustrator by associating it with the legendary mysterious pokemon adds another element of unobtainable mystery to the pikachu for the entire two minute opening sequence every time i cut to the pikachu i was using visual storytelling techniques to make it elusive sneaky and sparse it's just out of reach and you want to see the real thing but i'm going to make you wait and that anticipation keeps you watching so moving forward we are now narratively caught up to logan so here's a challenge for you i want you to

see if you can point out what's new in this small editing sequence i may have an opportunity to purchase the one and only psa 10 pikachu illustrator in the world what's new here is the rhythm we just spent two full minutes of aggressive fast pacing and rhythm and as that sequence came to a climax and ended it called for a change imagine if i maintain that same fast rhythm by cutting out moments of silence and having more rapid cuts i may have an opportunity to purchase the one and only psa 10 pikachu illustrator in the

world this video would get exhausting quickly this is a new refreshing feeling because it's different to what we just had it's variety and that is why right after this slow sequence i informed the edits to start having a medium pace by introducing the escalation with medium paced music and by hyper focusing on over two hours worth of phone negotiations by only using the most informative progression lines let me call my people with aggressive time skips we are moving forward before we can settle and i even add on to that with the escalation of music on

each beat and with that escalating sense of anticipation is he going to get the car wait say that one more time i said i have some bad news for you as the realization that he's lost i cut back to prolonged rhythmic cuts i again use rhythmic variety to inform you to how you should feel and i even emphasize that with these mellow dramatic strings it is silly using this music but it does work in showcasing how logan and the audience should feel he's in the pit of despair and there's a reason why it's called that

because it's well a pit and the best way i can describe emotional journeys and narratives is with a simple line as logan informs us of his journey his sense of excitement and desire builds the emotional journey up and he creates the goal we want to hit that line therefore he can invite us into an even bigger escalation of excitement with the negotiations it is all up and up and he's about to hit that goal line but it's too soon for almost reaching the goal he fails and we narratively and emotionally fall and so for me

as an editor i had to take you through that journey that's why those strings are melodramatic i needed you to fall into that and now the engaging story is what is he gonna do to climb back up so first i remind viewers of the goal with another reference to the gameboy universe with the illustrator characterized as another legendary elusive pokemon and with that i've also brought in this inquisitive feeling music and his choice of track is actually a stylistic choice this track makes the content sound like it's a high society regency romance novel so much

so that the track was also used in the bridgeton season 2 trailer despite logan buying pokemon cards i've taken the tone of this video very serious and used this tone to emphasize specific moments such as when he receives story changing information the music builds and breaks the break of the music highlights that beat how can it be that editing technique is so effective that i immediately do it again when logan's presented with a choice by me holding on to this shot of him making the choice and then swelling the music [Music] okay okay yeah yeah

let's do it and now that logan's made that choice we should instantly reward it a massive swell of music magnificent shots the rhythm has contrasted to fast a change in a narrative is rewarded with variety we discovered a goal and a rise in excitement to the pit of despair we watched as he climbed back up ever so closer to the goal of owning a psa 10. finally after an entire video of teasing the illustrator we relate to him because now for the first time we finally see the real thing and what do we do we

celebrate this has generated immense momentum and a fantastic fast river and with the assumption that this shot was still of the boat in italy i zoomed out to reveal it's in dubai making it a cheeky visual storytelling transition so in this newfound high in the story and being so close to hitting the goal line is what keeps you watching and so i use that to my advantage with the characterization of the mysterious seller with this curious but tense music unfocused footage and the affirmations of mystery in the dialogue it was interesting to use editing techniques

to ask the question to how fragile this peak is this sense of uncertainty is now challenged with logan's ease into the situation rumored to be 1-1 he's moved up towards that goal just a little bit further which now gives us permission to embrace this magical and fantasy feeling of the scene first by introducing music with this magical feel to it using dialogue underneath b-roll how much in collectibles are in this room right now and by holding on to the moment when the case opens and you get their reaction but that question to what's in the

case invites you in and motivates the next sequence with the context of the story it was effective for me the hyper focus on the theme what i mean is that they went through the collection for over an hour showing off various pieces of pokemon memorabilia but it was far more effective that i solely focused on the pikachu collection and even so i use the power free to my advantage by establishing the rule with one pikachu and confirming the pattern with a second pikachu this pattern makes you anticipate which pikachu is next now it's my turn

boys now it's my turn the power of free is shockingly effective for a satisfying cat and this brings me to one of my favorite storytelling and editing philosophies i have to be honest i've not quite found the right name for it but for now i would like to call it the zenith card let me explain i like to think that the most compelling stories use editing to work towards one single moment one moment that encapsulates everything the absolute peak of the story the ultimate satisfying cut [Music] everything was a context and build to that moment

and this moment for me is when logan crossed that threshold and hit that goal and because of the entire context leading to that moment i have your full undivided attention and so i i don't have to do anything all i have to do is let it play by itself oh my god bro oh my god and i was right despite how slow and unnoisy these cuts are this moment had the highest and most effective line of retention and this moment of silence bewilderment and or calls for one of the greatest songs ever made [Music] this

track is intimate and personal yet it also feels monumental the completion of his pokemon collection transcends logan and the audience to such a high that it also bleeds into another high moment of logan's career i made this achievement film melancholy beautiful and calm it feels like logan can fly and that's why i emphasize that moment by removing the audience cut to slow motion and as he flies i fade into an image of the illustrator hilariously suggesting that's what's making him fly [Music] i truly do overthink editing on bloody pokemon cards