My name is David and my official title is cinematographer although we wear a whole ton of hats
in every role and I've been here just about five years now. I think my favorite part about
working at LMG is my co-workers. I find there's a lot of like-minded people that I have very
enjoyable conversations with on a daily basis. We have similar interests and so it's pretty easy
to chat up people and I often find that I would rather just hang around and talk with my co-workers
than work so. Probably how segmented every department is. I find it frustrating sometimes
I wish we could collaborate a little bit more as a shooter with the writers. It'd be fun if we had
you guys were given more time so you could you know be part of the creative process of what
we do downstairs. Likewise with editors it'd be fun if editors could come on set and we could discuss
kind of more interesting creative ideas and so I think that ties into I don't love that we have
to release so many videos. I don't know what our current count is weekly but I know it's very high
and every video has to make it out and there's not you know a huge amount of resources or time
that can be given to any particular one and so I find very rarely am I particularly proud of a
video I've worked on. I enjoy working with Linus a lot. When I first started at the company I was
worried you know I would find him to be a rich guy weasel full of himself but what I find is he's
more grounded and he's self-deprecating in a way that I really appreciate. My favorite videos to
work on currently are just big vlogs that I just get to hang out on set and shoot with him for
long extended periods of time so I really appreciate Linus as a boss. I feel like I'm heard. I feel
like I'm encouraged by him and even when I've done stuff outside of work for my own personal
projects he's taken an interest and make sure that I have the the help and support from him that he
can provide. Some of this stupid he says like I said he's kind he is grounded and he's self-aware
most of the time and sometimes he does stuff that's just like dude you have no idea or
stuff that I think he's convinced himself is true that is you know kind of bullshit. There's you
know all kinds of controversies that happen once in a while with stuff he says you know about you
know industry stuff but mostly corporate policy or specific ideas that I strongly disagree with
and I've voiced my my opinion on with the people that matter but I find frustrating because I feel
like if I sat down with him for a longer extended period of time and was able to you know
hash it out with him I think I would get to the core of the issue and find out that some of the
things he says aren't truly honest. I would describe Linus as self-aware, self-deprecating
and pretty humble in a lot of ways. Sometimes we have disagreements on specific ways to do things.
I wish we had a bigger production staff for videos but he's you know dead set on having
things be as lean and as efficient as possible which I totally understand running a business but as
part of the creative team I find frustrating. He's richer than when I first started him
with him and I think that I can recognize some of the you know dog whistle terms of someone who's
got more money than I could possibly imagine having in my bank account. I think as far as anyone
could go I think he's done a pretty good job of not being lost in it and not becoming a total
asshole like I've met a lot of youtubers or influencers that I absolutely hate and I really
don't hate Linus. I find Linus has lost touch with what it's like to not have a bunch of money and I
find it frustrating when you know discussions of living situations or of raises or of job
opportunities within the company arise. I find it frustrating talking different scales and I think
he's aware that it's hard but I don't think he fully grasps what it's like to
you know be a working class person anymore. Linus hasn't changed that much but LMG has
totally transformed since I started. I was the 29th employee and I think of the people
currently left I'm like 13th or 14th most senior and it's a totally different beast that we have.
Obviously we have you know close to a hundred people and that changes things but I also find
there's a lot less room for personality. More and more we have you know strict ways of doing
things with ShortCircuit. It started off as a mostly you know shooting the **** kind of personality
driven video series where we're unboxing stuff showing people what it is giving you know first
opinions but as we're incorporating Labs and as we're you know growing our business more in that
direction we're being more focused on having things be a specific way and giving the information
and sometimes I find we do that at the the cost of the quality of content. Some of my favorite videos
are you know ones that do provide information and educate but are super fun. My personal favorite
video that I ever worked on was the the GFX 50 versus the pixel video where it was like a photo
competition that Brandon had a had a phone and Linus had a professional camera and they had to go
against each other. I love competition format stuff. I've always loved our Channel Super Fun but
even that as we've grown and we've had to you know min max the productivity and the outcome of videos
I've noticed that every video has to hit certain metrics and I think that comes at the quality
of of content. If I could change one thing about LMG I think it would be for us to slow down a bit
and start to really invest into individual projects. I know that there's a lot of people that are
frustrated feeling like they can't do their best on any one thing because we just are outputting
so much and even though we have a large staff there's actually not that many video related staff.
As we've grown as a business I feel like we've grown laterally not vertically
and so I wish we could back off the amount and focus on quality for a bit and kind of raise
the bar of what we're outputting a little bit more. I think people do get a lot of little
details wrong but I often see stuff on the subreddit or on Twitter that are kind of just like guesses
as to what's happening behind the scenes that are kind of scary scarily accurate where sometimes I'm
like do they have inside information or access to you know stuff that's going on. I think a lot of
people often assume the worst intentions of some of the decisions that are being happened and I
think that's probably the thing I see wrong the most is they'll assume that Linus said something
or did something for a reason that you know is really bad faith and usually it's not correct.
I think even the people that I disagree with the most here are generally doing what they think is
best and I genuinely feel that even on my most frustrated days that my managers and you know
the higher leadership are really trying to do their best. I think we're a company that was formed
with young people that don't have a lot of experience elsewhere and so there's a lot of
frustration where I feel like we could change things and not do things the way that we have been
but I never feel like Linus or any of the management isn't doing their best at least the
management that I deal with. Before I worked at Linus Media Group I was mostly doing freelance work
for a couple different companies. I had done you know wedding and photos. I was working behind the
scenes on some TV shows. I had done some work in camera and lighting in the industry and I was
really frustrated by the life I had to lead to create my own work and when I first started I
really wanted to find better work-life balance and I'm grateful that I joined the team at a time when
that was a priority for management. I liked being able to come to work, be given assignments,
do them and go home. You know sometimes answer an email, sometimes answer a message but it never
felt like I was expected to work off hours or do unpaid overtime in the same way that when I was
working for myself I never allowed myself to feel at rest because I constantly could be doing something
and I liked having that weight lifted from me and working at LMG and applying at LMG that was
something that was important to me was to be able to work when I'm at work and live when I'm outside
of it. Pretty much exactly the same on camera and off camera except slightly more likable in person.
When I first started I did not like Linus or the idea of Linus based on the videos and he's changed
a lot. I think he's you know cooled down and aged into a bearded wisdom that I quite enjoy but I
think most people are surprised to see that on camera and off camera. He's pretty much the same
maybe like 10% more energy or whatever on camera but I'd say he's pretty damn close. The weirdest
thing that's happened to me was shooting the hide and seek Channel Super Fun where everyone kind of
just ran around in line to set to find us and I could have won except in the second round or
third round I found a hidden spot between a pillar and a set that was basically just you know a drop
like a 10-12 foot drop and there was about it was a triangle shape and I couldn't extend anything
you know I was kind of stuck. I would have never been found and at that point I think we were allowed
to hide in the same spot again or something like that but when we were supposed to change spots I
got stuck and for like the five minutes we had to re-hide I was like I was almost ready to scream
for help and you know call an ambulance because I couldn't get out. I was climbing a little bit but
I couldn't extend enough to really get grip and so being trapped in the set walls and thinking that
I would either die and honestly kind of accepting death so that I could win was probably the weirdest
thing that's happened to me they would I would have won I would have won and they never would
have found me because the smell might have tipped them off so