HOW TO VLOG LIKE CASEY NEISTAT by CASEY NEISTAT

[Music] C hey little sister tears what is up with this weather June 6th summer should be here already nothing just the same cold rainy [ __ ] every day these guys are good [Music] though nice work thank you man if you're a if you're a regular viewer of this show you know just how much my happiness and good mood and just general positivity is tied to the weather you'd also know that all winter long I've been waiting for summer [Music] [Music] [Music] I'm trying to illustrate a point here which is that it Reigns a disproportionate

amount of days in New York City but as I'm making charts and then looking at the data I'm realizing it rains on average 11 to 15% of the days kind of making me feel like a little bit of a beat for complaining about it so much maybe I should have looked this up before I did this whole scene so with it pouring rain outside with it pouring rain outside today seems like an opportune day to make a video I've wanted to make for a very long time called I wanted to explain to you the audience

exactly how I make my Vlogs like what I see as the recipe for creating these videos first a quick history lesson I started vlogging in March of 2015 now before I started vlogging vlogging was typically individuals carrying around like point and shoot cameras that were sort of documenting their day into a camera it was a much smaller genre back then and it was pretty linear day begins here day ends there come with me throughout my day I found the genre fascinating I was obsessed with like Ben Brown I was obsessed with fun for Louie I

was obsessed with BF for versus GF Charles Trippy was great I think what fascinated me the most about the whole genre was the idea of using your your life as a narrative for a daily series now when I made my HBO series this is a series I did with my big brother van it was on HBO in 2010 we made it in 2008 that's 10 years ago my brother and I used our lives as a backdrop for a TV show but it wasn't so daily it wasn't so episodic instead we kind of plucked interestingness out

of our Lives shared that interestingness as tiny little stories strung those stories together and called that a TV show episode so on one end of the spectrum we've got your daily vloggers in 2014 2015 sharing every aspect of their daily lives into a camera and on the other end of the spectrum we got this TV show that I made a decade ago where I share little stories from my lives as short movies so I went to Belgium in 2015 this is a month before I started vlogging and I wanted to test out one thing what

would happen if I sort of vlogged about my trip but instead of talking into a camera I used really precise cinematography what would happen movie like cinematography but it was just me going about my daily life going into my hotel room coming out of my hotel [Music] [Music] room and I love that video that video worked you should watch it it's linked below and that got me super excited and that's when I made the decision that on on my birthday 2015 I would start daily vlogging it wouldn't be this all day long instead I wanted

to figure out how to make something that felt a lot more like a movie every day so that was the thinking that's what went through my head prior to starting to Vlog so with that understanding here are the foundational principles that I apply to almost every episode of of this daily almost daily Vlog number one the most important thing is of course the story but what is the story here's a super basic breakdown of a story and every good story follows this rule that is the rule of a threea narrative you've got a beginning you've

got a middle you've got an end setup conflict resolution Jack and Jill went up the hill to fetch a pill of Water Act One Jack fell down and broke his crown act two Jill came tumbling after act three setup conflict resolution now in some episodes that's super super super literal for example my all-time favorite episode that I've ever made of this Vlog which is called my all-time greatest is such a literal example of setup conflict resolution it just felt so good to make that there's a setup here's what happened there was a conflict oh my

God what's the outcome going to be and then there was a resolution happy ending that's not always so literal in every episode but I strive for that in every episode because that is what's at the core of a well- told story and a story is what drives any video like this and that right there was sort of the promise or the deal that I made with myself was never an obligation to share with you the intimacies of every day of my life this isn't a journal but instead could I find every day in my life

a three-act narrative to share now a couple of the more granular aspects I always found it kind of hard to watch non-stop shaky camera Vlogs it was disorienting it was always a little claustrophobic so so what I try to do is have an equal amount of handheld locked off shots locked off means on a tripod like this and then establishing shot the wide shots those establishing shots let you know where I am so it feels more like you're here with me these locked off shots let you the viewer forget about the camera for a second

and focus on what I'm saying and the environment that I'm in and then the handheld shots like this enable you to sort of feel the spontaneity and the urgency that is whatever is taking place in my daily life Hardware as in what cameras I use I have a simple rule for when it comes to hardware and that is always use the very best camera you have at your disposal so right now I'm shooting this on my big camera I'm shooting in 4k with a nice wide lens this is a perfect shot I've got a light

right there I'm trying to make myself look good this is the best I have right now but when I'm out running in the morning and I want to film my runs the best I have is my cell phone I keep a point and shoot in my backpack in case I don't have this big camera because the point shoot is a little bit more Dynamic than just the cell phone so I'm not beholden to any certain kind of Hardware or any certain quality of Hardware it's what I have access to cinematography part two hold the camera

steady no one wants to watch super shaky cinematography it hurts your brain it's hard to see what's going on it's not pleasurable for for you the viewer and it's not easy for me the editor to put it together if it's super shaky if it's nonsensical it goes straight in the trash what's up Marlin I almost ched your pockets man I'm making a movie Marlin about how to make how I make my Vlogs really yeah like it's not so much a tutorial but it's a little bit of like I don't know ask of it I've never

really shared right so you know what you should have done you should have S sat with me and um taught you sit with me and and teach me how to do it okay the next version of Casey ni stats vlogging Secrets will be with Marlin where going I teach him how to Vlog cinematography part three time lapses and and drones here's something very important no one gives a [ __ ] about your stupid time lapses your stupid drone shots that's something I have to remind myself on a daily basis that kind of cinematography only works

if it's serving a greater purpose and for me it serves two purposes one is Transitional so you'll notice sometimes like I'm outside wrapping up a scene where I'm doing something on my skateboard the next scene I'm in my studio doing something completely different and in between there might be a a beautiful drone shot of the city or might be a beautiful time lapse of the city I'm using it to get me from one scene or one aspect of the story to the next as that it's an incredibly effective tool the other place where it works

is to show the audience a broader sort of a broader image of where you are and what's taking place in time drones in particular are great for that I'm at a hotel on a cool beach and it doesn't really work pointing my camera the Drone can give you context that otherwise [Music] [Applause] couldn't if that kind of ambitious beautiful cinematography doesn't have a relationship with the narrative even if it's just a little relationship it feels out of place and it gets boring very very fast now there is a lot more depth and complexity to it

than that things like where does being positive all the time start to just sound like total BS where people don't believe it things like when I'm feeling down and I want to share with you the audience and I'm struggling with something how do I do that in a way that you actually care cuz we've all got our own problems why should I give a sh about yours things like consistent narratives and you know if I'm on a trip that's 5 days long how do I make a 5day episode Arc about essentially the same subject so

there's a lot of depth to this but I hope that this serves as a good sort of introdu into some of the thinking that I've had as I do this Vlog I want to end this first kind of instructional sharing video by saying this probably the most important thing to succeeding whether it's in the Vlog game the YouTube game or in the creative space at all is this you have to have your own thing so if you follow this video perfectly and you make the most perfect Casey Vlogs you will have failed before you've begun

they don't want to see your Casey Vlogs they want to see your your Vlogs they want to see what you can bring to the table my favorite thing in the world is seeing how YouTubers are able ble to iterate and build on other YouTubers Styles and sentiments and ideas until they make something that's uniquely theirs those are the YouTubers that really succeed so the most important rule is be original and that whole recipe that I just outlined that was what I thought I could uniquely bring to YouTube and help find success with it all right

please let me know below if this is super interesting or absolutely fing Bor see I'm outside now this is the beginning of act three sorry if you remember but it all so unnecessary I don't know if you remember but in all the episodes where I talk about having gone to Afghanistan as a journalist and connecting with these par rescue jumpers there was one guy that I met who's been in this Vlog before named Roger Sparks oh okay that's Casey that's me that's Roger right there that's the man that's the PJ and there he is again

that's Roger there this is an awesome plaque that that these guys made for me amazing guys Roger was a part of this amazing campaign to restore coral reefs they made a big movie about it that's the movie screening I'm going to tonight looks incredible going to show the support and to see this great movie [Music] is it the right place what's up man how you doing oh awesome Ro how you doing so you guys might remember Roger here this is Roger's big movie this is your big movie watch how humble he is it's not a

movie about me it's about a cause about uh helping Special Operations veterans and helping the ocean most humble man on planet Earth it's wonderful to see you Roger congratulations oh thank [Applause] you movie is about to [Music] start the ocean is really the Last Frontier um surreal combat that uh can't cannot really be articulated his extraordinary efforts under direct immediate danger to his own life resulted in Saving four American lives one host nation civilian and returning Four soldiers killed in action to their [Applause] families fantastic that movie was about taking former soldiers bringing them to

help repair coral reefs by like scuba diving and that being therapy for the soldiers and then also a way to start to repair the damaged environment so it's like helping the Earth and helping these former soldiers incredible story incredible story Roger is also an incredible guy all I'm going to bed now [Music] he [Music]