Jonathan. Yes. Welcome to reacting to your first appearance at LMG.
How are you doing today? I'm all tired. It was an iPhone event yesterday, so
that's how it goes. But yes, I have to watch an old video of me.
Yes. Do you watch yourself often?
I hate to admit this, but I do after many months, when the videos are done,
I'll sometimes go on a binge of my own content. But I'm so detached from it. I go like, wow,
this is great. This is some great stuff. We made this. Oh wait, it was me the whole time.
So we'll see. But there are some videos I like more than others, so I tend to avoid the videos I
don't like. And I tend to watch the ones I really like. And so that's why the view counts are so
high on some. So as far as I know, your first on-screen appearance with LMG is your first
Mac Address video. Is that correct? Yeah. How much do you remember? Probably most of it.
It was a notable experience. I don't know how we set on this idea of being my first video,
which was about password managers. Other than, I think I read a story about kind of some risks with
iCloud keychain. And so I thought, oh, and then they had also created an extension for
Chrome so PC users could use it. So it was becoming a little more universal. So I was like,
I guess there's something here. And it was like the first video. So I just wrote about it. But
for me, what the big challenge was, was how do I make something as boring and abstract
as passwords visually interesting? And that's where this whole motif comes in.
Let's let's hit play. Oh my god. Let's see how you did. I am ready. Oh my god. I literally am
like feeling nervous. There's always this feeling you get before review videos that is just like
because I have to watch myself and I'm having that exact feeling right now.
So many passwords. Look at them fall. Oh my god, the video.
In the summer of 2020, I read about a Brazilian man whose iPhone was stolen right out of his hand.
Despite his best efforts to lock it up, he still lost over $30,000 because once the thieves easily
bypassed his six digit passcode, this is good stuff. Wow, look at that profile picture on the
wall. It's still my profile picture. I just want to say that whole story about the like
dude's thing got stolen. They got into his iCloud. Money is stolen. That was originally reported in
2020. Joanna Stern at the Wall Street Journal did a big report and video about the same issue
because it was happening to people in New York like two years later. It was even in the last couple
months. And so like still kind of a problem. If you're saving any passwords on your iPhone,
maybe get an alphanumeric passcode, which is annoying, but it'll be much better than just
numbers. Even then, people are still spying on you and will still steal your phone. So I don't
know what else to say. I think there's a way to fix that, but I don't remember.
Do you want some other trivia about Mac Address? Yeah, it's cool. So the logo here,
we were thinking about do we create a graphic intro because LTT I guess had a graphic intro at
the time. It was really long with a theme song and like it's a very television show thing.
HBO has the longest intro songs, by the way. They're like two minutes long every single episode,
nevertheless. But obviously retention goes down because he wants to watch the same thing over
and over again. So we decided just pop the logo up. You know, have it edit it with the music. Maybe
you can do a cool effect, you know, practical effect or something like that. We kind of,
we try to come up with interesting ways of doing it, but the logo is sort of like, it's punctuation. Like the intro's over and we're going to go in the body of the video. So
hopefully you want to stick around. Study by NordPass, the average internet user has over 100
user... Oh yeah, I'm so glad we got that confetti working. Is that literally someone throwing the
confetti? Yeah, I don't remember how. I guess we had someone, I think we even had someone on a ladder
for that. I actually still have all those cutouts like in a Ziploc bag at my desk. I should have
brought them. Oh, I don't. Sorry. This was a good idea.
Oh, those are good sound effects. Wow, this is, this is pretty good.
Were you nervous going into your first video? Oh yeah, holy moly. I had a lot of imposter syndrome,
um, especially like covering tech because I never really did it before. I mean, I'd
followed tech and all that sort of stuff, but I was like, now I'm covering it and people have
to listen to me. Like who cares? Um, so there was a lot of that. And I was very anxious. That's an
anxious man there. I mean, there's still an anxious man here, but a lot more anxious back then.
Remember over 100 strings of passwords. Oh, this is great.
Oh man. Wow.
I love the idea of the paper cutout. Yeah, I was, I was pretty happy to come up with it. I was,
because I was like, oh no, like how, what do you do about passwords, right? Like how are you gonna,
they're so just stupid and they're everywhere. It's like, this idea of like making it physical and
then showing just how many stupid passwords you have to deal with and how to deal with a pile
of passwords. Cause it's kind of like what it is. Um, was really satisfying. Um, so there, but there
was like a lot of like maneuvering around to like make it work. And we were kind of shooting it.
We tried a little bit more, I guess, in an LCT style back then where I'm reading a teleprompter
and like, I kind of was like anchored at this desk. So it was a bit more challenging to come
up with like cut-ins and make sure those worked. And then, you know, we were still using the,
the white void back then and the white void is pretty limiting as well. So you can't really like
move the camera alongside or unless you want to move the white void or move this. There's a lot
going on there. Oh, Sarah, Sarah designed those devices, by the way. I had her, she just did the
outlines and printed them out. Oh, nice. Even though it's your first video, you come off as
pretty, pretty confident on screen. But it's not my first video. It's not my first time hosting.
Exactly. Like I hosted Go Fraser Valley and Go Williams Lake and way before that. And if you
really want, I might be able to dig up some old really embarrassing stuff. Everyone got mad at me
for not mentioning Bitwarden, which I didn't know about at the time. That's one of the things I'd
frightened a bit when I'm, when you're writing a script for a video, it's like,
there's that one thing that's actually really good, but nobody, it's not really commonly known.
And you're like, how do you, how do you know? So anyway, I use Bitwarden. So there's that as well.
I was using LastPass at the time, but as we know, LastPass kind of got private equities.
One as our one password, dash lane, and LastPass. These are kind of the main ones.
Services are quite a bit more fully featured than iCloud Keychain. They work on all the platforms
and with all the browsers and individual credentials can be shared with others.
But critically, that's not how iCloud Keychain works. Your Keychain Master password is the same
as your device's password. So the weak password. My like a little magician like hand movement there.
Using for years on your MacBook. If you're using your iPhone or iPad with a six digit numeric
passcode, you should probably consider an alphanumeric password like you use on your computer.
If you're using a four digit passcode.
I love that the the R is taking it. I literally wrote GM laptop or and that's what I said,
but we edited the GM out. So that's why it sounds a little bit when we cut it out.
I thought it was a funny joke, but it only works on Chrome and there are hoops.
And then every time you freshly open Chrome, you have to input a two factor code that you get
from the same device. I know that. What was going on there? Get too excited. It doesn't work on Chrome
for Mac. It doesn't work on Chrome for Mac, but I don't know why I have that point in there,
because the iCloud Keychain passwords would just show up on Mac all over the operating system.
I personally struggled with whether or not to use iCloud Keychain. Where most people are more, the other people are more chatty during this,
during their videos. I feel like I'm just so engaged with that making. I have nothing to say.
As a free option, iCloud Keychain is now the best of the bunch,
but if you care about maximum security, flexibility, and features,
paying for a password manager might be the better option.
I think you left a pinned comment on it too, right? I think we did, yeah.
Saying you're going to look into bit hoarding. I should uh, thank you for attending this Mac Address. Passwords are certainly a big thing.
Whoa, it's recommending our latest video. With the worst password you use.
I just. Did you watch this video? I have not yet.
So what are your thoughts on it? Oh, you mean your first video?
Yeah. Oh, I've seen your first video. Dennis, Dennis.
Let me see your t-shirt.
Oh, never mind. Hi.
Dennis, I like you. Dennis is a great name to shout.
Dennis. Okay, hold on a minute.
Yeah. Probably get on updating some of my older passwords.
Thank you for attending this Mac Address. Passwords are certainly a big pain.
Comment. So in the thanks for attending this Mac Address, I thought I was so clever.
And now I've been doing this weird thanks for something Mac Address since then.
And I don't know if it's tired or not. Comment below.
But I just keep doing it. So it was fun to like play on the word, what is it, what address are we talking about?
Attending this Mac Address is a good way of showing what we're trying to do.
And then it went crazy. Comment below with the worst password you use. I just, please don't do that.
You can comment about other things, however. And if you learned something, go ahead and give me a like and subscribe.
Thank you. Oh, fun. That's funny.
Really playing with the paper things. That's great. That was great.
Wow. Very, not a very colorful video, but I tried my best
with the visuals. I mean, it was a seeded A-roll, but you made it fun with the cutouts.
Yeah, I think that was the best we could do for a video about passwords.
So let's talk a little bit about, I guess, ideation.
Like coming into your first Mac Address video, was that your first idea?
Or did you have a... It was, well, okay. So like I obviously didn't, I didn't host and post anything during probation.
So there were a lot of ideas ruminating that I was kind of starting production on and we
spent that time kind of figuring out what the channel was and like designing the logo and all
that sort of stuff. So I don't, I genuinely don't remember why we chose that one to be the first one,
other than I think it was like pretty straight, excuse me, pretty straightforward to put together.
And then there were other videos that I was kind of chipping away on that like came out,
came out later. And like, I guess in terms of figuring out the format,
like I knew what I wanted to do. There's like aspects of it where I'm like, oh, this is pretty great.
I wonder if this is better than what I do now.
Or if there's aspects to it like that were better back then than they are now. I don't know. Most of the time people comment like, he's just getting better and better.
And I'm like, oh, okay. So I guess that's a good thing. But like things just change over time.
You get sort, you like, I guess you get more comfortable in front of the camera.
Or you start kind of just talking in a different way because of the way you should produce it.
Like, I don't know. Things just kind of morphed, morph since then. And so I was really unsure.
I was unsure how things were going to go and how things are going to fit in here
and how all that stuff is going to come together. And so that was just sort of like my best interpretation of what to do.
So, but it was, for me, it's always like trying to take the challenge of like, how do you
how do you solve a visual problem?
Something very abstract and boring and esoteric as passwords.
And make that visually interesting. Oh, let's make it physical.
You know, it's a physical medium. It's an action medium. Let's make, we can actually represent what we're trying to say in that regard.
I haven't really done that since, I don't think.
I'm trying to think. No, but I have tried to do other things.
Like I like in the headphones videos, trying to like really, you know,
we add the sound design of the beeps and bloops from the AirPods so that you can sort of,
to give you a sense of what it would be like if you were wearing them. So, you know, that, I guess that spirit still remains, but I haven't done anything physical.
You know, but passwords may be pretty straightforward in that case. And like there wasn't an, there's, I mean, there's still is an annoyance of passwords,
which helps, helped me want to explain it better.
What would you say was one of the biggest difficulties during that shoot or the production
of that video?
Oh, well, first off, like it's getting, ever getting, figuring out how to work with everyone
here. The other thing was because of the white boy trying to like get those cut-ins and those
sequences. And then also that's, that's read to teleprompter that video, right?
So, I find when I do any videos where I'm hosting to the teleprompter, my eyes are like
glued on the camera. And so it becomes very hard to like do things because if I look down,
I'll like lose track of where I am. Or if you're controlling the teleprompter yourself,
you know, you'll have this thing in your hands, you only get one hand. So like,
you're sort of like really limited in movement. You're kind of just like, you're locked in place.
And so it was challenging trying to balance that with the action I wanted to do and needed to do
and then how to get those shots to cut in together. It was very kind of like
a different way of thinking about how to shoot things kind of from what people are used to
here and like, and then also from what I was used to. And so it was kind of like,
it was, I think there was a, it, it like, it was just kind of, it's a shoot all the A-roll and
then we had to like remember how we did the action to do the cut in B-roll again. And then like,
and then I think we did a top down and we had to like reenact that and kind of hope it's sort of
like all the movement goes together because it is kind of a seamless stream of thought. And the,
and there's not much like visually different to cut away, to cut to or away from that'll like,
doesn't need that visual continuity. So I remember being, I remember kind of struggling to make sure
that that all kind of worked. And then obviously with the limit, limitations of the white void,
you can't just like move the camera freely. You kind of have to like prepare for that or you're
kind of really constrained in like where you're kind of angle in your field of view. And I was
always struggled with the, with the white void with that. If I had to do anything physical or
visual in the white void, if it was more than just me sitting down, it was kind of almost impossible.
Is that, is that part of the reason you tend to prefer outdoor shoots these days?
Yes, they're much easier in terms of like doing, getting action,
getting B-roll. You don't have to set up lights and move things around. It's just like the light
you have, the light you have is the light you have, the space you have is the space you have.
You can move to different places. You can literally move the camera around. It'll look completely
different. It's, and then it's just nice. It's, it looks nice. It's, it feels a lot more airy.
Yeah. I had this crazy idea with the white void that was like, the white void was sort of like,
I thought maybe it'd be funny, but I think it was just going to be way too much work.
I thought it would be really funny that like I, I like live in the white void. And then when I,
when I leave, I go out in the real world outside and stuff like that. And the transition would be
like, it would be me filming in the kind of very controlled white void.
And then to like transition out to the real world to like a white shot of like a cheap white void
just set up and in the location where I am and I just leave it. So it's like, it's like some sort of
like weird kind of teleportation thing. I thought that would be really fun to see and do, but
it, it was, it seemed like too much work in my mind because they have to set it up and like,
it just was not, it'd be, it'd be a cool sort of kind of gag, but, and I thought, oh, we'll do it
in everything, but like, no, no. I guess if we pivot back to you joining LMG,
how did all that happen? How'd you get here? What's your, I just applied for a job.
Yeah. I think I just caught some like, when show clipping like we're hiring and I was like,
okay, and I was living in Winnipeg at the time. And so I, I like clicked on it and it was like,
writer, host, Mac channel, Apple channel. And I was like, huh. And I'd always known about LMG
and like, I grew up in this area and I'd always watched the videos and I'd be like, they're nearby. I couldn't really pinpoint where they were, but like, I knew it was like
nearby. So I thought, oh, you know, like that would be cool because, you know, my social life
and family life, everyone's around here. So working there would work out really well. And,
but I just am not a gamer. I'm not an RGB gamer, right? So to work, to write for the LTT channel
was going to, I knew it wasn't going to be really the right fit. I was like, maybe I could cover
Apple I'd thought before, but I don't know if that's something they wanted. And then sure enough,
it was something they wanted. So I just was like, I was like, oh, I guess I have to apply because
there's very few jobs, postings where I'm like, I could do that. So I was like, oh, fine. So I
basically just had to apply and hearing. And what's your, what was your background before this?
Like, what kind of stuff do you come from? So I went to school for broadcast journalism
at BCIT. And then after that, I started working for Shaw TV, which is like our cable system. They
got acquired by Rogers. It's horrible. But anyway, they have this community television,
I guess initiative regulation fulfillment, where they have to like enable community television,
basically YouTube before YouTube existed, where anyone could, anyone could come to us at Shaw TV
and be like, I want to make a show. And we would go, great, here's a camera. And here's how to use it.
And, and then once they made the show, we would broadcast it to the community on the channel.
So, but we also had like staff produce stuff and that sort of thing. So yeah, I basically did that
and I was working there on and off for, for maybe seven years or something like that.
Oh, wow. Oh, maybe almost. Yeah, I was like eight years, eight years, something like that.
I got to hone my skills in everything. I started off in Williams Lake full time,
and I was the only producer there. So I had to shoot and edit and find and do the whole,
the whole gamut, including host the show, all on my own up in Williams Lake. And so you learn a lot.
Yeah. Going from your first, first Mac Address video to right now. Yeah. How would you say your
content has transformed? So I don't know. I mean, I guess it has evolved. Certainly,
you know, energy levels change and things change. And so I think there was like a very
I think things are a little more maybe looser now than they were at the beginning.
And then I'm talking literally like cameras handheld versus on tripod or something like that.
I think I've tried to be very consistent. I think we tried some really ambitious stuff last year.
And this year's maybe been a bit more reserved, perhaps, or been in admissions in different,
in different areas. So I mean, I guess the example would be like when we brought the desktop
to the beach. That was ambitious visually. Whereas I don't really have anything quite
similar to that now. I don't know. I mean, I feel like the viewers,
the viewers would know better. But yeah, it's basically just been like,
I've tried to be pretty consistent at least, you know.
Cool. So you had some stuff you'd like to show us. Well, okay. Do we want to do do you want to count broadcast school or
Oh my God. Okay. This is the first episode of go Williams Lake.
I can't wait. No, that's that's you. It's me.
That's Williams Lake. I had a good time there, by the way, but just really this is so embarrassing.
Oh, wow. How old were you in this 20? It was 11 years ago. Yeah, it's 24.
That's shitty phone. Wow. I'm dying.
It's a reformat of our community magazine show. And for this
At this video, this first story was pretty fun.
So sorry, what was this? Go Williams Lake. It was like the community interest shows. I called it.
Okay. And it was like, what are you talking about? Good memories. Like this is what people are doing in your community.
Like, so this story is about
Things to do at Williams Lake. Just things people are doing it.
Oh my God. Willie's puddle. That's insane. It's actually more like a lake, a big imposing lake.
The water can be scary, you know, you have to
Oh man, those kids are great. They realize that it's only water, right? And I think slowly taking about three days,
but they've realized it's only water and they've all fallen in once or twice and seem to like it.
So yeah, that's that was what I was doing. I was playing with a split screen thing.
When I was working in Go Williams Lake, I was like, oh, I'm going to challenge myself to come up
with some sort of visually interesting, I guess it's a similar story, but
Oh, so you edited these as well? Yeah, I edited this. So I was trying this split screen thing that I got from a music video or
inspired from a music video. My audio mixing, everyone criticized, but I love music. So
it was quite loud. Would you have done a sailing class like this? Did you?
No, I was going crazy with this split screen thing. Oh, well, I'm fun.
No, it's interesting to see that.
Oh, a little spin on the That is the graphics package. I think you're supposed to have a sound effect every time you used it,
but it was like not part of the like template. So you'd have to manually add it in and you
could easily forget. Yeah, let's shoot this in 16. I mean, this is honestly a well made video.
Oh, thank you. Oh, yeah, he's brought out the GoPro.
By no means amateur looking. A little overexposed here. Pardon?
By no means does it like give off like amateur vibes. No, no, yeah.
There you go, guys. This is why Macadras looks so good.
That was a good time. Oh man, the thought process, I guess, hasn't really changed much
since I started, which I guess is I've been consistent. That's nice.
I'm sure I can speak on behalf of most of our audience when I say
Macadras videos look really nice. Thank you. But to everyone else's credit,
everyone else is bringing some amazing stuff too. Absolutely.
What's one thing you'd like to see happen on Macadras in the near future?
Well, just go crazy. I guess there's this like goal to like go to the Annapolis event. I don't
I, it'd be, it'd be, it'd be like, it'd be gratifying. You know what I mean? Like, but it's,
it's totally fun. I don't, you know, it's not the end of the world. I want it to be very good.
And that's all I care about is like having a good video. And it's like, that's it.
And that's all I've cared about the whole time. So yeah.
Awesome. Any final words for foot plane? No.
Subscribe to Macadras? I don't know. They probably, they watch it anyway. So
they're here. Welcome. Thanks for, thanks for being here.
Awesome. Thanks, Jonathan. No problem. Thank you. Thank you.