The Nerdwriter is a Youtube channel run by a guy called Evan Puschak. He uploads great analysis video essays about movies, writers, and most recently, about one of the great vloggers of our time, Casey Neistat. Now although Casey finished his daily vlog, it’s still important to analyze and see how Casey as an editor of his vlog went about shooting, and most importantly, how he edited his vlogs to make it entertaining and fun to watch.
The Nerdwriter starts off with how being an editor is a thankless job because if you do it right, no one notices, and if you succeed, all you should see is the fun. He analyzes the style Casey edits and shoots with in great detail. It’s a mixture of amateur craft, which feels real and authentic, but in a way that exudes with skills garnered over years of video editing and production experience. Reality TV can’t do it with the reality tv that was so scripted and unnatural.
Wikipedia defines Cinéma Vérité as a style of documentary filmmaking which combines improvisation with the use of a camera to unveil truth or highlight subjects hidden behind crude reality. Casey uses this concept of making the videographer and the gear he introduces part of the video where each lens has a personality, and it becomes part of the story.
His gear mainly consists of a Canon 70D on a Gorilla Pod and a Rode mic. The camera is quite a large piece of equipment to carry around, and when compared to daily vloggers before Casey, makes it clear how seriously professional Casey takes the vlog, ironically, filled with all the amateur-ish cuts he loves to add in to the videos.
I’m very intrigued by the vlogging culture, the power of Youtube and the democratization of video. Guys like Casey show that high quality production shot in a way that people can relate to can gain traction and grow into a following and the success that comes with it. The Nerdwriter ends off the video with a message to all of us making photos and video and how there is a style in all of us, and a world of people out there waiting for us to find it.
Check out Nerdwriter's Youtube channel and watch Casey's latest video, perfect for the Christmas season ahead of him snowboarding while being pulled by a drone. Watch it here:
surprisingly well put together video. Neistat is absolutely incredible. Deserves every bit of success that comes his way. Question for the group - do you think he had a team or at least one person dedicated to editing all of his vlogs (with his critique and direction of course)
From my understanding, when it comes to the vlogs, he edited them all on his own. He talks about it in the vlogs openly. Now the "big production" videos, I'm sure he had a team.
He did a tour of his office once where he talked about where he woudl have an intern sit. So I always wondered if he had help
The vlogs were edited by Casey alone..
Casey's success is 10% editing, 90% persistence. Headlines shortchanges him a bit.
Agreed. Casey's editing, while cool, is a fraction of where his success comes from, IMO.
Are we running out of news at FS??
This is I think the "third" article on this now....there are so many other timely photo/video news that's being missed.
Hi Leigh, this wasn't really a news piece but rather a think piece of how you can use certain aspects he used and apply it to your own projects. I think his work is incredible, so I'd say three articles is the minimum we should write about him and his success. Thanks for sharing your thoughts though, it's always good to get some feedback.
This is kinda off topic, but wondered if anyone knew where he gets his music rights from? They seem main stream and I am having a hard time finding main stream music I could use for my videos.
soundcloud. "everyone" lets him use their music presumably for free. He always credit them in his vlogs.
The songs on this video shown here has songs from the 60s or 70s or earlier eras. Not sure if they're on public domain or the license owners are on soundcloud. When I say main stream I mean very well known artists like Miley Cyrus or such. I went to sound cloud and could not find any I recognized... maybe I'm just out of touch of the current era music and maybe the main stream current music is on there.