WEBVTT

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My name is David and my official title is cinematographer although we wear a whole ton of hats

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in every role and I've been here just about five years now. I think my favorite part about

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working at LMG is my co-workers. I find there's a lot of like-minded people that I have very

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enjoyable conversations with on a daily basis. We have similar interests and so it's pretty easy

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to chat up people and I often find that I would rather just hang around and talk with my co-workers

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than work so. Probably how segmented every department is. I find it frustrating sometimes

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I wish we could collaborate a little bit more as a shooter with the writers. It'd be fun if we had

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you guys were given more time so you could you know be part of the creative process of what

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we do downstairs. Likewise with editors it'd be fun if editors could come on set and we could discuss

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kind of more interesting creative ideas and so I think that ties into I don't love that we have

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to release so many videos. I don't know what our current count is weekly but I know it's very high

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and every video has to make it out and there's not you know a huge amount of resources or time

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that can be given to any particular one and so I find very rarely am I particularly proud of a

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video I've worked on. I enjoy working with Linus a lot. When I first started at the company I was

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worried you know I would find him to be a rich guy weasel full of himself but what I find is he's

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more grounded and he's self-deprecating in a way that I really appreciate. My favorite videos to

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work on currently are just big vlogs that I just get to hang out on set and shoot with him for

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long extended periods of time so I really appreciate Linus as a boss. I feel like I'm heard. I feel

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like I'm encouraged by him and even when I've done stuff outside of work for my own personal

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projects he's taken an interest and make sure that I have the the help and support from him that he

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can provide. Some of this stupid he says like I said he's kind he is grounded and he's self-aware

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most of the time and sometimes he does stuff that's just like dude you have no idea or

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stuff that I think he's convinced himself is true that is you know kind of bullshit. There's you

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know all kinds of controversies that happen once in a while with stuff he says you know about you

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know industry stuff but mostly corporate policy or specific ideas that I strongly disagree with

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and I've voiced my my opinion on with the people that matter but I find frustrating because I feel

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like if I sat down with him for a longer extended period of time and was able to you know

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hash it out with him I think I would get to the core of the issue and find out that some of the

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things he says aren't truly honest. I would describe Linus as self-aware, self-deprecating

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and pretty humble in a lot of ways. Sometimes we have disagreements on specific ways to do things.

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I wish we had a bigger production staff for videos but he's you know dead set on having

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things be as lean and as efficient as possible which I totally understand running a business but as

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part of the creative team I find frustrating. He's richer than when I first started him

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with him and I think that I can recognize some of the you know dog whistle terms of someone who's

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got more money than I could possibly imagine having in my bank account. I think as far as anyone

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could go I think he's done a pretty good job of not being lost in it and not becoming a total

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asshole like I've met a lot of youtubers or influencers that I absolutely hate and I really

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don't hate Linus. I find Linus has lost touch with what it's like to not have a bunch of money and I

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find it frustrating when you know discussions of living situations or of raises or of job

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opportunities within the company arise. I find it frustrating talking different scales and I think

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he's aware that it's hard but I don't think he fully grasps what it's like to

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you know be a working class person anymore. Linus hasn't changed that much but LMG has

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totally transformed since I started. I was the 29th employee and I think of the people

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currently left I'm like 13th or 14th most senior and it's a totally different beast that we have.

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Obviously we have you know close to a hundred people and that changes things but I also find

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there's a lot less room for personality. More and more we have you know strict ways of doing

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things with ShortCircuit. It started off as a mostly you know shooting the **** kind of personality

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driven video series where we're unboxing stuff showing people what it is giving you know first

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opinions but as we're incorporating Labs and as we're you know growing our business more in that

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direction we're being more focused on having things be a specific way and giving the information

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and sometimes I find we do that at the the cost of the quality of content. Some of my favorite videos

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are you know ones that do provide information and educate but are super fun. My personal favorite

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video that I ever worked on was the the GFX 50 versus the pixel video where it was like a photo

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competition that Brandon had a had a phone and Linus had a professional camera and they had to go

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against each other. I love competition format stuff. I've always loved our Channel Super Fun but

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even that as we've grown and we've had to you know min max the productivity and the outcome of videos

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I've noticed that every video has to hit certain metrics and I think that comes at the quality

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of of content. If I could change one thing about LMG I think it would be for us to slow down a bit

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and start to really invest into individual projects. I know that there's a lot of people that are

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frustrated feeling like they can't do their best on any one thing because we just are outputting

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so much and even though we have a large staff there's actually not that many video related staff.

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As we've grown as a business I feel like we've grown laterally not vertically

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and so I wish we could back off the amount and focus on quality for a bit and kind of raise

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the bar of what we're outputting a little bit more. I think people do get a lot of little

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details wrong but I often see stuff on the subreddit or on Twitter that are kind of just like guesses

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as to what's happening behind the scenes that are kind of scary scarily accurate where sometimes I'm

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like do they have inside information or access to you know stuff that's going on. I think a lot of

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people often assume the worst intentions of some of the decisions that are being happened and I

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think that's probably the thing I see wrong the most is they'll assume that Linus said something

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or did something for a reason that you know is really bad faith and usually it's not correct.

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I think even the people that I disagree with the most here are generally doing what they think is

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best and I genuinely feel that even on my most frustrated days that my managers and you know

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the higher leadership are really trying to do their best. I think we're a company that was formed

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with young people that don't have a lot of experience elsewhere and so there's a lot of

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frustration where I feel like we could change things and not do things the way that we have been

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but I never feel like Linus or any of the management isn't doing their best at least the

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management that I deal with. Before I worked at Linus Media Group I was mostly doing freelance work

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for a couple different companies. I had done you know wedding and photos. I was working behind the

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scenes on some TV shows. I had done some work in camera and lighting in the industry and I was

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really frustrated by the life I had to lead to create my own work and when I first started I

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really wanted to find better work-life balance and I'm grateful that I joined the team at a time when

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that was a priority for management. I liked being able to come to work, be given assignments,

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do them and go home. You know sometimes answer an email, sometimes answer a message but it never

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felt like I was expected to work off hours or do unpaid overtime in the same way that when I was

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working for myself I never allowed myself to feel at rest because I constantly could be doing something

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and I liked having that weight lifted from me and working at LMG and applying at LMG that was

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something that was important to me was to be able to work when I'm at work and live when I'm outside

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of it. Pretty much exactly the same on camera and off camera except slightly more likable in person.

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When I first started I did not like Linus or the idea of Linus based on the videos and he's changed

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a lot. I think he's you know cooled down and aged into a bearded wisdom that I quite enjoy but I

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think most people are surprised to see that on camera and off camera. He's pretty much the same

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maybe like 10% more energy or whatever on camera but I'd say he's pretty damn close. The weirdest

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thing that's happened to me was shooting the hide and seek Channel Super Fun where everyone kind of

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just ran around in line to set to find us and I could have won except in the second round or

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third round I found a hidden spot between a pillar and a set that was basically just you know a drop

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like a 10-12 foot drop and there was about it was a triangle shape and I couldn't extend anything

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you know I was kind of stuck. I would have never been found and at that point I think we were allowed

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to hide in the same spot again or something like that but when we were supposed to change spots I

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got stuck and for like the five minutes we had to re-hide I was like I was almost ready to scream

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for help and you know call an ambulance because I couldn't get out. I was climbing a little bit but

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I couldn't extend enough to really get grip and so being trapped in the set walls and thinking that

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I would either die and honestly kind of accepting death so that I could win was probably the weirdest

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thing that's happened to me they would I would have won I would have won and they never would

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have found me because the smell might have tipped them off so