Behind The Scenes Of My Biggest Production Ever

[Music] big day big day man so we've been planning this for probably about two months now to try and do what is essentially I think a world first five camera virtual video wall podcast and I've had Atia Ferris Dr Kane Mr ballan orbiting for a little while and I thought right they're all in or near Texas we might as well pull the pen and uh I haven't seen what's going on I haven't seen any of the complications if you watched the last Vlog that we did in La you'll know that just filming things in the real world can often come with quite a lot of complications so trying to film something with I think a total of maybe 16 virtual environments on one of the most advanced video walls in the world whilst also trying to light and shoot all of the rest of the stuff and also trying to have a conversation um many things may go wrong this week but uh I'm excited this is the most excited I've been for one of these Cinema shoots I I really love trying to do something different and cool and it may be a total catastrophe but it'll be a good story and you're going to get to watch it unfold I genuinely think this might break people's brains heck yeah I'm excited I think it's a really cool way to visually kind of bu up Podcast yeah me too so when Chris reached out to us and said I've got this incredible vision for a podcast we were like wo we've actually never done a podcast at this magnitude here so uh he came in with a lot of different ideas a lot of different uh production value I think that was going to bring to uh his platform this one's definitely been difficult because it was a really quick turn and there's like 12 different environment so normally there's a person running a wall and there's also a person building and I've been doing both we have like an OBS or like a live switching situation here so it's just like it could skip it could dip to Black it could I understand what you mean yeah uh the only thing I mean you know yesterday and you did it three times perfectly but I think let's for today let's keep it A's less of a we've only got two scenes and we're going to cycle through them both and it's 20 minutes on each which is cool segments tend to be around about 10 minutes or so this project has come with some new challenges as we've never done something at this uh level for podcasting before I understand that we're trying to do a lot technically this week so couple things one is that we usually design with one camera in mind this one has five for our five camera shoot there weren't points of interest where we needed them to be and the lighting was way off we throw it up on the wall we frame up we see how it looks and then we got to take it down make all those changes throw it back up test it the wall is typically used as a 3D uh view port a window into the 3D World and this one we're just using it as 2D so as you can tell the wall is curved and so when we throw up a 2D image on a curved wall you're going to get some stretching that comes along with it so as you can see here like our image is kind of warping this way because of the wall shape because we're not using an Unreal Engine five in real time we're having to warp all of our images back so we're having to frame out each section of the wall try to correct per camera so that's one of the challenges we're facing now I'm working closely with Zach to try to get that looking as close as possible to reality we're really tied on schedule so we're trying to make sure we can get through all the environments correct at all before our talent gets here and so we can roll on time I hope we can make it work we will make it work we're running late again technically making this happen this one especially so this scene that we're doing right now one of them is completely rendered for a video game in unreal 5 and that means that we need to stop recording and then like cut and then come back into some other stuff and all of the lights need to change so uh taking a bit longer to set up than we might have anticipated so feeling the pressure it'll be all right where's the projector that's a screen that's so that's all powered it's all lit from behind those are all individual mixes so that's that wheel and that smoke is going to be turning for like while we're recording birds are going to be flying around wow this is more impressive than being at a a nice TV studio um not just because of obviously the number of cameras but this is this is cool and I don't know that people can appreciate it from where they are but it's as I learned these are LEDs this is not a projector Peter's building a studio I'm not sure he's chosen the right day to take advice about how to do like a nice low lift low complexity podcast [Music] Studio apple and Charlie 7 3 2 [Music] 1 I found when it went from dark to light I was like ah like I've got a little there's a little something going on that it's cool man it's really cool obviously when you're recording usually nothing change apart from maybe the Sun going in and going out but as you sat down when the scenes move the energy changes between both of you today was fun man I mean it was a bit stressful because it took quite a while for us to get cracking and I don't want to waste the guest's time and you're kind of getting a little bit anxious and wanting to get started and stuff but it's wild having the environment change while you're in it it's crazy because it really do and the lights also all change to match the colors of the background and it gets this specifically cuz this one's super light and then the museum is really dark I have no idea if this is going to look good on camera I literally have no idea hardcore sports teams and they um love their beans Boston yes Bostonian nice yeah yeah it's just have a look at it on the the [Music] lens yeah yeah I have every color of Zara t-shirt that they make every single one of them and they've stopped doing this one Zara bring this color back please is there a world where anything needs to be back there maybe not I tried um they're just detail this so one of the challenges we're facing right now is some of our aperture fixtures aren't talking to our blackout app on this crmx so we're trying to do is reset some things update some firmware so that we can get it all connected cuz we're swapping in between scenes and a single interview so we're not cutting so we're just trying to make sure that is all super smooth when we're moving from one environment to the next today is uh in space orbiting in space but because it was made for a game so it's got like 3D Parallax effects to it we basically need to shut down for 3 minutes so the only way that we can do a transition that's not going to look totally awful is for me to tell Tim about like a section that I'm going to move us to and I'm going to ask him a question and then he's going to have to not answer and then screen's going to go black and also all of the lights are going to go black so we'll fade from like space to Black and then back out from black after 3 minutes once they run all of the new stuff up and then fade everything up and we'll be in a new place so I think that's the only way that we can do it so we're like this is like a live performance it's like threading the needle of like right Tim and don't forget like when I step one step to the left like you need to go to the right this is what happens when technology has an attitude the DMX system isn't working it's not talking to our blackout app so they can't control it in between the transitions do at 5 and then we five and then we it's been a very very long process uh long long days especially for the team here here's the thing we're all sleep deprived and we're trying to function the best we can and if it wasn't for the crew's professionalism and able to just to stick to chorus this whole thing would fall apart so the crew is so important good to meet you man yeah good to meet you too cool setup yeah we're trying something a bit different this time you know it's not my kitchen table but it'll do just kidding format super fun very immersive I feel like I'm flying on a creature through Avatar at the moment it does change obviously uh very Dynamic very fun as a guest to be part of something this elaborate and complex cuz I know for sure I'm never going to do it myself personally so this is a rare opportunity to enjoy something new oh yeah happy 10th anniversary amazing thank you I've heard that this is your favorite podcast actually crossed a billion mid last year I haven't announced it I guess I'm announcing it now uh if I'm celebrating them both at the same time congratulations yeah thanks thanks thanks guys we're in this Avatar world as you can see right like we're not bringing all our podcast equipment out there come on that's ridiculous listen I'm just trying to make pretty pictures bro oh my goodness dude this is amazing I even like the smell wow yeah there's Haze in the air as well there's a little bit of haze towards some atmosphere while we're doing this this is super cool dude I'm glad you like it I'm really excited I think it adds a completely different energy to a conversation it's huge 3 two Dr K welcome to the show CH Chris is awesome at having great conversations but it's amazing how much of a difference it is to be in the right space and feel the right energy our first conversation was like over the Internet so I was in my space he was in in his space and even this place something about the air and like The Greenery it feels different and it feels very conducive to like I don't know dialogue and exploration and like I I thought it was honestly just completely awesome I feel like a UFC fighter that's just been through 15 rounds today was good uh I think we went 3 and 1/ half hours with Tim 3 three and a half and then 2 hours with Dr K and then about an hour of ads it's been so much fun to do something that you're like wow no one's ever done this before there's not there's not much stuff you can do that other people haven't done before and this is one of them I hope it looks good I hope you're enjoying seeing behind the scenes and uh I'll see you tomorrow men are working rapt fixtures make sure that they have a Hardline DMX by them um so I'm running a firmware update I think we're going to gain back control those so we're going to try to Hardline them and I didn't sleep good it's weird the harder I work the worse I sleep which makes it more and more vicious but caffeine and nutonic will keep me going today so this is kind of what we actually built the entire shoot around and originally BM was going to be the first episode that we were running with and then we were going to have AA and Ferris and Dr K and we would have finished yesterday uh but scheduling meant that we had to change it so we've saved the most technically complex the one that's got the most things that could go wrong the thing that we spent the most money on and the highest followed guest uh last as he tells different stories the scenes are going to move so there's a degree of coordination that's kind of happening and um it's actually really fun it kind of feels a bit like being a performer but doing what I know well which is the conversation thing if you ask me to dance or Draw or um I'm not going to be able to do that but I'm really really excited for this we've spent so much money I mean to render these things in Unreal Engine 5 it costs an awful lot of cash for today's shoot we are doing kind of a marsh land so this was the reference that was sent over kind of like a swampy feel it's a very um monochromatic type color and it's definitely highlighting these Navy Seals in like their kayaks like they're kind of marching through the Marshland so what you'll see on the wall here was based off of this we take the references and then we kind of compile everything that we want to include and it allows us a little bit more control it just takes even more time to make that happen it is a pretty big undertaking to do this many environment changes per episode typically we will uh set up a shot for one environment one location whereas these episodes have multiple environments that we're seeing so it's it's a new thing for our team to see I think so far it's been looking pretty good but it's definitely a big undertaking don't forget these guys usually have scripts they have have professional camera people there's actors they know what's going to happen next meanwhile we've literally asked them to repurpose their video wall into what a v DJ does like a video DJ would do dead mouse mixing tracks and being like Oh and when you know strobe comes on make sure that you change the colors to this thing so they've been waiting and watching me talk and then if I say a thing or the guest says a thing that they think is related to they've been great uh I've I've been unbelievably impressed we've gone over every single evening uh we've asked them for way more than they should do we went to them with a brief and they were like yeah no worries and made it in I think a few days so we owe them an awful lot so the scene you're you're about to see right here was designed by Ace who's our virtual production supervisor we got helicopters moving jets flying overhead um which we all be playing back in the podcast behind them after some notes I took it upon myself to redesign it last night and I'm just noticing I kind of miss something here on these trucks this tire goes into the ground which I don't know if you've ever driven a truck before that's not supposed to happen if you're seeing lines on the screen that's because of the Hertz rates of the LED wall so the LED wall set to 24 frames exactly so if you're any faster on your shutter speed you're going to see all these lines just roll through the screen if you can see on the screen we're individually placing each shot for our cameras so this is our wide shut so we're framing that and then we're also kind of working in all these different [Music] things awesome yeah decent setup huh needless to say this is the most impressive set I have ever been on I think I mean I'm I'm I normally film in my studio which is a crappy green screen and like my tripod and Camera cuz there is a lot more this is this is amazing good to meet you man how are you good I'm good man this is like insane yeah this is going to be special so you are uh the most technically complex the most expensive uh most things can go wrong uh with the most intricate lighting so uh hooray there we go we've got everyone's got their fingers crossed middle third your third my third but what it means is that they can put stuff behind you or me that's not like actually part of the render but that looks really good so let's say that we wanted Moon over your shoulder and we wanted this house they can just chop that pull that out you it almost like that yes exactly what you're left with is is a like cinematic piece of content though correct which is pretty amazing no one's doing that in podcasting at least not at that the level you're doing right now I don't think so I think because you've already established the Baseline of like authenticity adding production to it does not jeopardize the shows like yeah it doesn't feel like uh it's all uh style and no substance because you've already invested 750 episodes before You' tried to do a video walk this isn't me trying to replace the reason that I started doing the show right I I will happily talk to some dusty academic with a unpronouncable surname from some University you've never heard of from the spare room in my house all day but I also want to do this and I've been really excited there's a lot of criticism about sterile transactional boring communication and one thing I can definitely say is that this week has not been boring and really during the the recording I felt like the mood changed every time the scene changed it really felt like where you are is now different you know the the military scene that was in there it felt like it just went on forever out here in my peripheral it really seemed like it just went out it just it was cool it like almost revitalized the conversation cuz he would change the the question as the scene was changing and so it just felt like oh it's like a new scene even though it's the same conversation so it definitely the energy shifted and he told me that would happen and it this was really cool this a unique podcast we did it and I told a story this is going to be embarrassing if I can't open it uh I told a story to a TIA I think about uh champagne that Winston Churchill had a customized bottle built of uh and this is it so I actually haven't opened any of this yet but he shipped me some of this and it arrived yesterday so oh we've got to save it for an occasion but what more of an occasion is there than spending a deposit on a house on a video shoot for 3 days so here we are I will get I'm so glad that that wasn't pointed at something expensive Winston Churchill's champagne in plastic cups thank you very much for all of your efforts this week it's been unbelievably intense and I know that I've made you work very hard thank you cheers cheers Che it took us 5 and 1 half years and 600 episodes a th000 videos to hit a million subs and it's taken 9 months and 150 episodes to hit 2 million Subs I think when this drops this will be around about 2 million Subs but I mean God go back and listen to the first episode that I did in my old office in New Castle Upon Time with a single Yeti microphone balanced in the middle of the table talking to Stu Morton my friend from the gym who was going to row the Atlantic solo I say mhm every other sentence because I didn't learn that nodding silently was a thing that I could do in a podcast and I'm now on the biggest video wall in Texas filming with Tim Ferris literally a pod father the guy that taught me how to release a podcast before he knew who I was seven years ago and it's cool it's a cool Arc I feel like this has been a nice a really sort of nice occasion to bring things into land you are observing me go through a moderately big transition I think at the moment in life um you know this is going to be the next phase now I moved out to Austin two years ago I didn't really know is this going to be the thing is this going to work moved out on my own to a brand new country to try and you know talk to people on the internet and accidentally turned into a career I also understand that champagne problems uh too much attention is not exactly something that I am worthy maybe of any sympathy for and there's people that have got it way worse and all the rest of the stuff but I'm trying to be as open and honest as possible about what the experience of going from absolute nobody to like Micro Niche degenerate influencer Fame whatever wherever it is that I'm at now and if if it was me as a fan of a show like this I would want to know what it's like and I hope that it comes across that way this isn't me trying to Humble brag about like oh look at how much attention I get or whatever I don't I don't get that much attention thankfully because you guys seem to be uh unreasonably reasonable and um not obsessive in any of the bad ways and like supportive in most of the good ways as well which is I think the perfect balance but that I can see that changing you know the episode that you'll hear with Tim we talk an awful lot about the Perils of Fame and about why he's you know purposefully sort of defamed himself he's made himself less [Music] recognizable so that is four episodes in 3 days first ever Five camera shoot on this volume the largest volume in Texas maybe the first ever virtual video wall podcast that's been done like this ever haven't seen anything on the back of the lens I have no idea if this is going to look even remotely realistic or cool or beautiful or whatever I know I it's really fed up this week I've been really really excited and I understand as well there's a Justified criticism which is I don't care about how it looks I'm just here for the conversation uh stop trying to return something that was supposed to be about the purity of a talk into TV which was the exact thing that everybody's trying to go away from and there's kind of this anti-mainstream media thing and I'm don't get me wrong like I'm a part of it but I think that there is utility in Beauty and I think that if I can maintain the purity of the conversation whilst adding Grandeur and occasion and gorgeous visuals to something which you already enjoy for the people who want that I think it's really cool hopefully it brings joy to you hopefully it helps you learn about yourself and the world around you hopefully it makes you feel less alone or less personally cursed with the things that you're dealing with because of the openness of me or the insights that you learn from the guests I'm going to try and enjoy the next million Subs as much as possible that's the goal have as much fun over the next million Subs as I can I really appreciate apprciate you hopefully this has been interesting to see as a fly on the wall what we've done and hopefully the episodes come out cool and if they don't I have blown a house deposit on uh giving myself an answer that I don't need to answer again all [Music] right