Welcome to our new podcast!
April 18, 2024

Crafting Confidence in the Face of Criticism with Dylan Bates

Summary

Dylan Bates, also known as the Final Cut Bro, shares insights into his creative process and content creation journey. He starts off discussing the importance of generating ideas consistently and the evolution of his creative process over time. Dylan also highlights the role of automation and workflow optimization in maximizing productivity with the help of analytics. He shares his thoughts on the impact of technology, including AI and VR, on content creation. Dylan emphasizes the significance of staying creatively motivated and pushing comfort zones to learn new skills. He also discusses the challenges of dealing with failure and negative feedback. Finally, Dylan shares his creative challenges for the future and offers advice to his younger self.


Takeaways

  • Consistently generating ideas is crucial for content creation.
  • Automation and workflow optimization can significantly improve productivity.
  • Technology, such as AI and VR, can enhance the content creation process.
  • Staying creatively motivated requires continuous learning and pushing comfort zones.
  • Dealing with failure and negative feedback is a challenge, but finding support from others can help overcome it.
Transcript
WEBVTT

00:00:00.366 --> 00:00:04.903
Hi there and welcome to Boris FX’s Flow State Stories from the Creative Process.

00:00:05.671 --> 00:00:19.051
I'm your host, Nick Harauz and through one on one discussions with creative industry professionals, we aim to provide practical knowledge and insights, shedding light on the discipline, tools and techniques that bring work to life.

00:00:19.818 --> 00:00:30.597
Now, if you're unfamiliar with Bauhaus effects, we're a leading developer of video editing, motion graphics and visual effects plugins and software used in film, television, and video production.

00:00:31.030 --> 00:00:36.002
This week, I sit down with Dylan Bates, otherwise known as the Final Cut Pro on YouTube.

00:00:36.335 --> 00:00:44.310
He's just passed 50,000 subscribers, and I can't wait to sit down and talk with Dylan all about creativity.

00:00:44.777 --> 00:00:51.451
We invite you to join our community by subscribing to the podcast, and to continue the conversation on our YouTube page.

00:00:51.850 --> 00:00:55.421
We'll find additional content, including episode highlights.

00:00:55.954 --> 00:00:58.290
Thank you for tuning into the Boris FX’s Flow State.

00:00:58.290 --> 00:01:02.195
Let's explore the art and science behind the creative industry together.

00:01:08.100 --> 00:01:08.802
Hi everybody.

00:01:08.802 --> 00:01:12.204
I'm here with Dylan Bates and I've known him for a number of years.

00:01:12.204 --> 00:01:23.582
And thanks so much for joining me here on this podcast at just before anything else, I was wondering if you could just give a little spiel to the audience about who you are and what you do for those of them who haven't heard about. Yeah, yeah.

00:01:23.582 --> 00:01:28.987
so, well, as you said, my name is Dylan Bates and I go by the Final Cut Bro on YouTube.

00:01:28.987 --> 00:01:40.799
And so hopefully, judging by that name, you can tell that I teach a lot of Final Cut Pro tutorials and just general editing advice, trying to help people become better editors to improve in their field.

00:01:41.066 --> 00:01:44.771
And, and I really try to bring a positive attitude to that.

00:01:44.771 --> 00:01:48.740
And that's I guess that's just my main, my main spiel there.

00:01:48.908 --> 00:01:49.742
That's so cool, man.

00:01:49.742 --> 00:02:01.054
And like, you know, you put out a lot of content, I can tell, like from the toils and the videos that I've watched, there's a lot of thought that goes in behind the the process of that.

00:02:01.221 --> 00:02:10.830
And I was wondering if you could speak a little bit to your own creative process of how ideas come up when you decide to do a tutorial?

00:02:10.997 --> 00:02:15.100
It can be tricky coming up with ideas consistently.

00:02:15.100 --> 00:02:18.104
I personally produced two videos each week.

00:02:18.337 --> 00:02:24.943
One way that has helped tremendously with that is I started hiring my brother, who's an extremely talented editor.

00:02:25.078 --> 00:02:29.748
Actually, I think he's better than me, but I'm the face of the channel, so I get all the credit.

00:02:29.748 --> 00:02:33.453
But he does an incredible job, so that's that's helped tremendously.

00:02:33.453 --> 00:02:40.325
But coming up with the ideas is the hardest part, especially when you first start out with your YouTube channel.

00:02:40.393 --> 00:02:47.400
But as it continues on, you start just constantly writing down in your notes ideas that come to your mind.

00:02:47.500 --> 00:02:59.145
Or I'm always on the lookout watching a movie, a TV show, pretty much anywhere that I see a cool effect or a graphic, I will try and recreate that to the best of my ability.

00:02:59.145 --> 00:03:09.122
So I it's more so just having a mindset shift, always being aware of what you're consuming and trying to build that in a practical way with your video editing.

00:03:09.288 --> 00:03:14.493
That's I'm so interested in this because so you're saying two videos a week like that, it's great.

00:03:14.493 --> 00:03:17.629
Now that you have help, how has your process changed?

00:03:17.629 --> 00:03:26.338
Like if you if I were to get in the head of of Dylan, like when you first started this and you like coming up with concepts to to Dylan.

00:03:26.338 --> 00:03:38.151
Now, how is that like process change that creative process in terms of ideas, how much time you spend on them and like what you've what else you've learned along the way which you might not have mentioned in that last a little bit?

00:03:38.151 --> 00:04:02.040
The big thing from the beginning, the hardest part was I would go out of my way to set up lighting and sound and everything, and once I was able to build out kind of the studio room with a permanent light setup and a basic backdrop that trimmed and sped up my whole workflow, because now I can be in my chair and recording all in about 30s.

00:04:02.207 --> 00:04:04.576
All my lights are hooked up to smart plugs.

00:04:04.576 --> 00:04:06.479
I have a setting called I don't know why.

00:04:06.479 --> 00:04:07.747
I call it streaming lights.

00:04:07.747 --> 00:04:16.855
I use it for video recording, but once I got that setup that took away all of the friction that was there when I needed to record a video.

00:04:16.990 --> 00:04:32.137
And so now it's much more a matter of just getting the ideas and sitting down and taking an hour or two to really work through that idea and get the best possible workflow that I can come up with at the time.

00:04:32.137 --> 00:04:36.209
I'm always learning and I'm always discovering new things, especially in the comments.

00:04:36.209 --> 00:04:39.345
People love to let you know a better way to do something.

00:04:39.379 --> 00:04:42.749
It that you're you've been doing for the last ten years or so.

00:04:42.749 --> 00:04:44.250
So that's helped tremendously.

00:04:44.250 --> 00:04:55.261
And then on top of that, it was extremely important that I designed and built different templates that I could use all the time in my videos that I'm not rebuilding.

00:04:55.261 --> 00:04:57.529
Every single time I edit a video.

00:04:57.529 --> 00:05:12.577
So once I got all of those factors into play, it took me editing, you know, 8 to 12 hours per video, all the way down to 3 or 4 hours, and I can have an entire video recorded, edited and exported all in that amount of time.

00:05:12.577 --> 00:05:17.317
So it really was just about finding that workflow and getting everything preset.

00:05:17.317 --> 00:05:19.685
So it's always ready at all times.

00:05:19.685 --> 00:05:29.461
I really love that because it's it's like you found all of these like small little things you could do to automate your process, which makes you just like that much better.

00:05:29.461 --> 00:05:45.845
The next time that you, you go about doing the your record in your edit and just how much time that must save in your overall process, you're spending less fuss, worrying about the technical hurdles, because everything, like you said is plug and play through through that that setup.

00:05:45.845 --> 00:05:55.954
And I wanted to shift just for a second towards like your content and I'm sure there are at points in time ideas that you're more passionate about than others.

00:05:55.954 --> 00:06:00.026
I was curious in those ideas, like the ones that you're the most passionate about.

00:06:00.026 --> 00:06:22.314
Do you find that there's a correlation to views back to those ideas, or that doesn't really work at all, or translate in the world of YouTube, it does not translate at It's always the ideas that are, oh, I'll just film this in five minutes, it'll be up as a short or something like that.

00:06:22.314 --> 00:06:29.521
That blows up and it drives me crazy, but it's okay as long as I've got something that's growing the channel.

00:06:29.588 --> 00:06:34.226
I've really learned to not grow too attached to each video idea.

00:06:34.326 --> 00:06:35.161
That helps.

00:06:35.161 --> 00:06:40.333
Not just because sometimes the videos that you really think are going to do well do terribly.

00:06:40.333 --> 00:06:41.867
It kind of.

00:06:41.867 --> 00:06:45.137
It smooths out the turbulence, I guess I should say.

00:06:45.137 --> 00:06:52.110
So I, I love getting to make the videos, and I don't try and put too much emphasis on one video.

00:06:52.110 --> 00:07:03.822
I try and and get it probably 80 or 90% of the way there, and then I move on to the next project, rather than trying to perfect it and get the exact perfect video I want.

00:07:03.822 --> 00:07:08.427
Because a done video is way better than a perfect, never finished video.

00:07:08.427 --> 00:07:10.762
So I don't know if I'm answering your question.

00:07:10.762 --> 00:07:12.899
I've kind of got to do a rapid trail there.

00:07:12.899 --> 00:07:15.668
No, you totally are answering my question just about that.

00:07:15.668 --> 00:07:20.639
Like the fact that it's not correlated in some cases, which I do find fascinating.

00:07:20.773 --> 00:07:30.382
And I have found that that truth to be on a different social media platform where I sometimes put up content that passion doesn't necessarily translate into lots of views all the time.

00:07:30.382 --> 00:07:47.899
Speaking of like the overall video or all these like, small little pieces that go into the production, you know, from the script to the execution of the script to all of the metadata and the thumbnail and everything that really makes up that product that people see for the first time.

00:07:48.067 --> 00:07:54.841
What do you think is the most overlooked part when it comes to, let's say, YouTubers who are just starting out?

00:07:54.841 --> 00:08:04.382
And where do you think in your own process, what have you discovered to be very valuable about tackling some of that problem solving towards that?

00:08:04.516 --> 00:08:14.459
I think the number one thing that people overlook, they always think it's titles and thumbnails, but in the end it really comes down to a good idea.

00:08:14.593 --> 00:08:19.398
I think that the idea is king and then title and thumbnail are next.

00:08:19.665 --> 00:08:25.170
And a lot of people just think, oh, I can come up with a great title, but it has nothing to do with the idea.

00:08:25.170 --> 00:08:30.076
And so that's when you get into the clickbait territory that everybody loves to rag on.

00:08:30.242 --> 00:08:32.979
So I think that the idea is key.

00:08:32.979 --> 00:08:36.249
And then a lot of people, this is not been my experience.

00:08:36.249 --> 00:08:45.825
A lot of people seem to express that the thumbnail is larger than the title, and in my personal opinion, I think that the title is far more important.

00:08:45.825 --> 00:08:59.871
And that ties into that idea, because I have had videos that have some of just the lamest thumbnail ever, and those videos do great because the title is something like ten Best Plugins of Final Cut Pro.

00:08:59.971 --> 00:09:06.177
Something along those lines, and it's that idea that makes that video outrank everything.

00:09:06.278 --> 00:09:07.746
That's my personal experience.

00:09:07.746 --> 00:09:24.897
I'm not a YouTube guru, but I've just been very surprised at the, I guess, the advice I see online where everybody's like, you gotta always focus 100% on the thumbnail and, and then you'll be clicking through and it's like some random picture of a blurred out waterfall looking over the ocean.

00:09:24.897 --> 00:09:29.168
And it's got 20 million views because somebody gave some great life advice on that video.

00:09:29.168 --> 00:09:31.836
I don't know, it's it's just a weird correlation there.

00:09:31.836 --> 00:09:33.739
No, I think that's fantastic advice too.

00:09:33.739 --> 00:09:36.708
It's like you can you can make the most beautiful thumbnails.

00:09:36.708 --> 00:09:46.085
But if you if the content is not there to support that thumbnail for when they click and it doesn't relate to it, it's not going to get you necessarily the views or have people watching for long periods of time.

00:09:46.251 --> 00:09:47.452
Yeah, definitely.

00:09:47.452 --> 00:09:54.092
So in this process of like continuing to churn out content, how do you stay creatively motivated?

00:09:54.225 --> 00:09:56.428
That is a great question.

00:09:56.428 --> 00:10:03.635
I personally stay creatively motivated just by, again, taking in the different things that I'm viewing.

00:10:03.635 --> 00:10:08.541
I've really gone from being somebody who just consumes way too much YouTube.

00:10:08.541 --> 00:10:27.225
I still do that, but I've really focused on trying to learn new creative concepts just by watching, not necessarily needing to watch a tutorial video, but just watching how one editor might capture your attention, or watching how the lighting was done in this movie.

00:10:27.360 --> 00:10:47.245
That really creatively motivates me because I can constantly be trying those things, and I've also made sure that I'm not only saving my my creative outlets for the camera, I'm always trying to play around with working in blender or something off camera just by myself.

00:10:47.312 --> 00:11:00.558
Having that creative endeavor outside of Final Cut Pro, and I think that's been another key factor, not just focusing on the only thing I'm known for on YouTube, but but really playing around with the different apps and outlets that are there.

00:11:00.692 --> 00:11:01.259
Very cool.

00:11:01.259 --> 00:11:18.144
So when you talk about, like playing with these acts and learning and acquiring new skills, I was wondering if you could tell me about kind of a personal story of maybe how you pushed your own comfort zone with, like, learning one of these apps or skills and how that actually paid dividends or didn't pay.

00:11:18.144 --> 00:11:19.010
Absolutely.

00:11:19.010 --> 00:11:28.220
So another large part of my channel is Apple Motion, and people seem to think that I've used Apple Motion my entire life or something.

00:11:28.354 --> 00:11:35.094
I have only used Apple motion since I started my channel, and that was out of necessity to build templates.

00:11:35.360 --> 00:11:47.206
Now, I am not the ultimate master of Apple motion, but I have a big advantage because I have needed Apple motion on a near daily basis for my channel.

00:11:47.373 --> 00:11:56.081
So I, I just I will have days where I sit for eight hours straight and just press buttons in motion and try and learn it as quickly as possible.

00:11:56.081 --> 00:12:14.866
And that has been possibly the most I'm trying to think of the word it's had the the highest return in terms of investment of time on my channel, even more so than Final Cut Pro, because I've been able to build templates that I've sold online, and that brings a large chunk of my income.

00:12:14.866 --> 00:12:19.772
I've been able to use that as a secondary tutorial every single week.

00:12:19.871 --> 00:12:29.782
I've used it to build templates for my Patreon subscribers so that honestly, I had no idea how powerful Apple Motion was.

00:12:29.782 --> 00:12:42.027
It was an app I bought ten years ago, and I touched maybe once or twice, but once I needed it for my channel, I realized it was infinitely more powerful than I could have ever thought.

00:12:42.027 --> 00:12:44.129
And every day it surprises me.

00:12:44.129 --> 00:12:48.234
It's just one of those apps that you keep diving in, and there's just more and more and more.

00:12:48.234 --> 00:12:51.102
So I guess that would probably be the best example of that.

00:12:51.102 --> 00:12:52.104
That's a great example.

00:12:52.104 --> 00:12:54.606
It's like it's a triple edged sword in some ways.

00:12:54.606 --> 00:13:03.581
You've got it as something that you're teaching other people about from your own learning experiences, as something that you're speeding up or speeding up your workflow because you're diving in.

00:13:03.581 --> 00:13:12.792
And then that third layer, which is offering some of these automated process that you've put together towards your, the people who are watching your content.

00:13:10.355 --> 00:13:12.792
That's so cool.

00:13:12.792 --> 00:13:13.893
Absolutely. Yeah.

00:13:13.893 --> 00:13:33.312
So to me, you know, 2023 and 2024 have been such, such a lot of there's been so much news about new technology coming out and for the sake of trying to condense this conversation, I'll just but, you know, two umbrellas, AI gen AI and those tools and how they're seeping into our workflow.

00:13:33.445 --> 00:13:42.086
And then we have another cat that's just been released around the time of this recording, which is like the VR, AR, where it's been stagnant for a number of years.

00:13:42.086 --> 00:13:43.322
Or some people might say that.

00:13:43.322 --> 00:13:46.859
And now with the Apple Vision Pro coming out, what does that mean?

00:13:46.991 --> 00:13:54.899
And I was curious if you could speak towards what technology has you interested and does anything have you worried?

00:13:55.067 --> 00:13:56.701
Another great question.

00:13:56.701 --> 00:14:03.942
So I actually regularly use small forms of AI to massively improve my workflow.

00:14:03.975 --> 00:14:12.250
One of those being that I use AI to take out silences in my videos, so I just drop it into a particular piece of software.

00:14:12.250 --> 00:14:19.325
I won't say names because I don't know if you can sell it on here, but but I drop it in it cuts through really, really fast.

00:14:19.325 --> 00:14:22.327
And then it's in Final Cut Pro in a multicam.

00:14:22.327 --> 00:14:28.933
And I'm already, you know, 10% of the way further along in my edit than I would have been if I if I didn't use that.

00:14:29.033 --> 00:14:32.605
So in that respect, AI is helping me tremendously.

00:14:32.605 --> 00:14:44.616
And of course I've used ChatGPT to generate new ideas and stuff, although I've found that it doesn't quite have the same pulse on what my personal audience wants.

00:14:44.616 --> 00:14:48.287
So that actually hasn't been quite as big of a return.

00:14:48.453 --> 00:14:58.831
But there's also the idea of AI taking over our jobs as editors, and I personally am not scared of it taking our jobs completely.

00:14:59.097 --> 00:15:02.067
I think it's just making our jobs infinitely easier.

00:15:02.067 --> 00:15:15.714
I don't know how many times I've needed to hand rotoscope something inside of After Effects or Motion, and that has taken days, just days to do a 32nd clip, and now I can do it in a matter of minutes.

00:15:15.714 --> 00:15:20.719
Thanks to AI, it's taking out that tedium and that is extremely powerful.

00:15:20.852 --> 00:15:25.924
But also humans, they really crave that soul and art.

00:15:26.191 --> 00:15:31.964
They crave that humanity that comes from a lot of movies or short films.

00:15:31.964 --> 00:15:35.301
They they crave the emotion that's there.

00:15:35.400 --> 00:15:39.904
And they can tell when a robot is trying to tell a story over a human.

00:15:39.904 --> 00:15:55.687
And I really think that in coming years, people are going to be craving a return to that that raw, authentic vlog style video, rather than needing that ultra highly produced AI generated artwork.

00:15:55.687 --> 00:15:59.958
It might make the most perfect, absolute technical movie ever.

00:15:59.958 --> 00:16:03.261
But people aren't going to be impressed by it because of course it can.

00:16:03.261 --> 00:16:05.096
It's I can do whatever it wants.

00:16:05.096 --> 00:16:12.104
So in that respect, I just don't see AI taking over the jobs of video editors and great storytellers.

00:16:12.104 --> 00:16:19.510
I think it's always going to take that human touch, and I think AI is just going to help us take it to another level, I guess.

00:16:19.510 --> 00:16:40.065
And then with this whole VR thing, I personally love VR, as I was kind of telling you off camera beforehand, I just love the experiences it can provide, and I can easily see VR being much larger for future generations than it is currently.

00:16:40.298 --> 00:16:46.471
I think there's a large technological leap that's going to have to happen where people need to get used to it first.

00:16:46.672 --> 00:16:58.317
For example, texting when texting was first starting out, I, I, I just nobody was using it at first because it was clunky, was hard to to type on the keyboard.

00:16:58.317 --> 00:17:00.852
But over time it's become so natural for us.

00:17:00.852 --> 00:17:11.997
And most people that I know would way rather text than have an audio conversation, because you can do it at any time, and I think it'll be similar with with the Vision Pro.

00:17:11.997 --> 00:17:15.768
I think it's going to have walls that it needs to break down.

00:17:15.768 --> 00:17:20.204
It needs to make it much more manageable for the average person.

00:17:20.204 --> 00:17:38.289
Right now, the price is way too high, but I think over time we're going to start to see just how beneficial having the Vision Pro is, and maybe not everybody will adopt it, but but I do see it being a really powerful medium for for storytelling.

00:17:38.723 --> 00:17:41.759
I see it being extremely powerful for connecting.

00:17:41.759 --> 00:17:46.097
It's one of my favorite ways to connect with my friends overseas, specifically in VR.

00:17:46.097 --> 00:17:53.672
It feels like I'm having a conversation with them in real time, in the the same space, just because of what that 3D element entails.

00:17:53.672 --> 00:17:57.276
So I it's just extremely exciting.

00:17:57.476 --> 00:18:01.980
It's it feels amazing to have new technology on the horizon.

00:18:01.980 --> 00:18:03.615
And it's a big leap.

00:18:03.615 --> 00:18:07.952
It's not just these tiny iterations that we're seeing with phones year after year.

00:18:07.952 --> 00:18:11.623
It's like this huge new thing that's happening right now.

00:18:11.789 --> 00:18:14.393
So in that respect, I'm super excited.

00:18:14.393 --> 00:18:15.359
Very cool.

00:18:15.359 --> 00:18:19.431
I wanted to unpack a couple of things that you said there, and I share.

00:18:19.597 --> 00:18:21.400
I share those beliefs with you.

00:18:21.400 --> 00:18:36.315
Like in one is how a lot of these AI tools that are presenting themselves in non-linear video editors are there to kind of help you automate the process, very similar to how you're describing how you have a plug and play production set up at home.

00:18:36.448 --> 00:18:45.824
Now you have other things that are helping you in post-production along those same lines, like removing ums and Oz with like a one click, get rid of those filler words.

00:18:45.857 --> 00:18:54.866
Then you have your edit, and all of a sudden now you can remove any background noise or reverb, not to mention enhance that those vocals within one click.

00:18:55.000 --> 00:19:01.140
Then other tools like color correction, not to mention being able to prepare it for different social media formats.

00:19:01.140 --> 00:19:14.685
All of that used to take so much time and and because of these algorithms, just you being able to do that, I think is just fantastic for content creators and people like yourself for putting like two pieces of content out a week.

00:19:14.685 --> 00:19:25.297
Not to mention we haven't even really talked about it's not just usually one piece, you know, it's multiple pieces that then go on to several different channels of where you're trying to attract and new people to engage with.

00:19:25.329 --> 00:19:31.435
And I also think, like VR, it's like this new AR VR mixed reality headset is in stage one.

00:19:31.435 --> 00:19:32.938
Like you said from Apple.

00:19:32.938 --> 00:19:38.544
There's some really cool things about it, which I and I think it's just going to get better and better as people.

00:19:38.609 --> 00:19:43.382
Now, hundreds of thousands of people have it and are going to be giving feedback on it.

00:19:43.382 --> 00:19:54.259
And then, you know, speaking of the other side of things, of recently Meta and Facebook and their stock earnings and how that whole VR AR division is actually seeing a profit.

00:19:54.259 --> 00:20:02.867
Now, it's a really interesting time when it comes to tools that are available to us technology wise, and accessing them at different price points.

00:20:03.000 --> 00:20:05.737
Yeah, I think that price point is so key.

00:20:05.737 --> 00:20:11.042
I actually know quite a few people that have the Meta Quest headsets and love them.

00:20:11.042 --> 00:20:18.951
Several of my brothers do and we all have so much fun, but there's no way we're spending $3,500 on an experience like that.

00:20:18.983 --> 00:20:19.951
Yeah. Okay. Dylan.

00:20:19.951 --> 00:20:28.059
So it's like now the time to do these rapid fire questions, I'm going to ask you three questions, and you have under a minute to answer each of them.

00:20:28.059 --> 00:20:28.460
Sound good?

00:20:28.460 --> 00:20:29.560
Okay, let's do it.

00:20:29.560 --> 00:20:31.529
What's your favorite color? Blue.

00:20:31.529 --> 00:20:32.830
Turquoise. Specifically.

00:20:32.830 --> 00:20:35.233
Do you have the RGB as the RGB?

00:20:35.233 --> 00:20:40.137
I know I have said something on your playlist today.

00:20:40.239 --> 00:20:48.614
Oh oh, Tony Anderson, who creates a lot of really cool film soundtrack stuff.

00:20:48.779 --> 00:20:51.383
Yeah, it's very, very soundtrack cool.

00:20:51.383 --> 00:20:52.817
In fact, he's on music bad.

00:20:52.817 --> 00:20:58.423
Oh, I hear his music a lot on YouTube, and I think people license that through music. Bad. Okay, I got to check it out.

00:20:58.423 --> 00:21:00.692
It sounds cool.

00:20:58.423 --> 00:21:00.692
Yeah, it's really cool stuff.

00:21:00.692 --> 00:21:05.998
And last question, what's something that the internet has wrong about you?

00:21:06.198 --> 00:21:07.699
Oh my height.

00:21:07.699 --> 00:21:13.204
Well, a lot of people think I'm shorter than I am, but I am six foot four, as you know, and I got to hang out with you.

00:21:13.372 --> 00:21:16.107
I remember I was just like I was looking up the entire time.

00:21:16.107 --> 00:21:18.477
Yeah. Okay, cool. Very cool.

00:21:18.477 --> 00:21:19.810
Thank you for for sharing.

00:21:19.810 --> 00:21:22.881
Absolutely. Oh, and that's a 195cm.

00:21:22.881 --> 00:21:44.568
I'm pretty sure for those of you over in the UK and stuff in the UK, anywhere else but the standard anywhere else than the U.S., we were we were talking a little bit about your process and some of that automation that you do for your flow, but I'm wondering if we could look at it in a different way, because there's it takes a lot of discipline to put out two movies a week, you know, how do you get it done?

00:21:44.670 --> 00:21:46.438
Like so there's the automated part.

00:21:46.438 --> 00:21:54.746
Is there is there anything else for you to get into that headspace when you're doing these videos in order to ensure that you're maximizing your time?

00:21:54.846 --> 00:21:59.550
It's really put your phone in, do not disturb, turn off Wi-Fi.

00:21:59.550 --> 00:22:06.991
I will pre download the music that I'm planning on using for the video, and then I will turn off the internet and put my head down and get it done.

00:22:07.192 --> 00:22:13.731
I think that you really need to focus on allowing yourself to get bored, because when you're bored you'll do anything.

00:22:13.832 --> 00:22:20.905
And so if you can make yourself bored in your workspace, you will focus on your work, because that's the most entertaining thing going on.

00:22:20.905 --> 00:22:22.708
So that's been huge for me.

00:22:22.708 --> 00:22:37.655
And I will find if I set a timer and turn off my internet, do not disturb, I will get so much work done in just an hour because I'm so focused and it it's really just take away the distractions, put the phone out of the room if you have to.

00:22:37.655 --> 00:22:39.891
That's everybody has to work. Eventually.

00:22:39.891 --> 00:22:41.192
You have to get the job done.

00:22:41.192 --> 00:22:45.063
So I can really speed that process up just by taking away the distractions.

00:22:45.196 --> 00:22:45.763
Very cool.

00:22:45.763 --> 00:22:53.538
I think having that do not disturb also like, you know, trickle down to all of your Apple devices is huge when you're getting to it.

00:22:53.538 --> 00:22:58.175
Like just like we're here at this podcast, hopefully I have it on, on all of my devices right now.

00:22:58.175 --> 00:23:00.578
But I know I'm just thinking maybe I'll just.

00:23:00.578 --> 00:23:03.147
Yeah, there we go. I turn it off.

00:23:00.578 --> 00:23:03.147
I make sure to do that.

00:23:03.147 --> 00:23:04.950
Yeah, it is on right now.

00:23:04.950 --> 00:23:08.619
Yeah, I could, I could see that being a huge advantage to being able to focus.

00:23:08.787 --> 00:23:15.826
I think, you know, when packing a few things of what you said there, I love the idea of trying to be to be bored because it allows for that focus to happen.

00:23:15.826 --> 00:23:18.630
I also think there's something said about being close to the work.

00:23:18.630 --> 00:23:28.640
You know, where you're in your environment, you're like by that place that you know so well that you do work in, and it just being there just helps you trigger it, get that stuff done.

00:23:28.874 --> 00:23:29.641
Very cool.

00:23:29.641 --> 00:23:32.810
I was curious, what what do you think creativity means?

00:23:32.978 --> 00:23:36.314
Creativity. Oh, that is a good question.

00:23:36.448 --> 00:23:38.916
I'm trying to think of something super philosophical.

00:23:38.916 --> 00:23:43.821
So you think I'm cool, but I already think you're cool without the philosophy creativity.

00:23:43.821 --> 00:23:49.361
I really think it's just an expression of what we feel inside I in real life.

00:23:49.361 --> 00:24:06.377
I'm not a very emotional I, I don't really get sad that often or anything, but for some reason, when I'm playing the piano or I'm editing a piece, I, I can really feel those emotions and express them through the camera.

00:24:06.510 --> 00:24:13.617
So I think it's just it's just expressing what we have inside in a way that others can, can kind of consume that, if that makes sense.

00:24:13.785 --> 00:24:15.119
It does make sense.

00:24:15.119 --> 00:24:17.556
Yeah.

00:24:15.119 --> 00:24:17.556
Do you think creativity lives somewhere?

00:24:17.556 --> 00:24:20.659
I gotta I think it lives in our souls.

00:24:20.659 --> 00:24:23.494
But it's it's hard to say. Right.

00:24:23.494 --> 00:24:25.297
It's deep, deep within us.

00:24:25.297 --> 00:24:27.432
We feel it in our heart I guess. But.

00:24:27.432 --> 00:24:29.067
But I don't know. No, I hear yeah.

00:24:29.067 --> 00:24:32.737
You mentioned a little bit about going back to your YouTube process.

00:24:32.737 --> 00:24:35.440
I'm curious how you handle failure.

00:24:35.440 --> 00:24:48.553
So let's just say a video that is maybe we can look at this in a couple different ways, a video that hasn't lived up to your expectations towards viewership or even certain projects that haven't even, you know, taken off for a number of reasons.

00:24:48.720 --> 00:24:50.922
Maybe you received negative feedback on it.

00:24:50.922 --> 00:24:52.590
How do you how do you deal with that?

00:24:52.590 --> 00:24:58.730
Negative feedback is the hardest job or the hardest part of this job?

00:24:58.762 --> 00:25:10.008
If you get a remotely negative comment, it eats at you and I don't know if I will ever get over it like I it's I get over the comment, right?

00:25:10.008 --> 00:25:12.810
I'll receive the comment and it ruins my day.

00:25:12.810 --> 00:25:17.015
And my poor wife has to listen to me complain about how mean this person was to me.

00:25:17.015 --> 00:25:19.683
But, but and I will get over it in that context.

00:25:19.683 --> 00:25:26.223
But I don't know mentally if I ever stop caring when somebody is negative in the comments.

00:25:26.223 --> 00:25:27.192
Unfortunately.

00:25:27.192 --> 00:25:45.844
So I don't I don't have the secret way of getting past that other than and the days go on, you just you keep doing what you're doing and you remind yourself that that person is probably not creating anything, and at least you were willing to take the risks to put in the effort and to get that piece of content out there to help people.

00:25:45.844 --> 00:25:52.182
And so you just have to, in the least, the least full of your way, full of yourself way.

00:25:52.182 --> 00:25:55.686
Let yourself know that you're kind of cool and that that person sucks.

00:25:55.686 --> 00:25:58.656
But yeah, yeah, I don't know. It's it's hard.

00:25:58.656 --> 00:26:15.173
One of the easier, one of the best things that's ever happened to me is I have a discord server of other fellow Final Cut Pro creators, and we have a channel specifically called Angry Comments, and we will screenshot the worst comments that we get in there.

00:26:15.173 --> 00:26:17.342
And then all of us will laugh at the comment.

00:26:17.342 --> 00:26:21.712
Will will say things that we probably shouldn't say, but you asked for it.

00:26:21.712 --> 00:26:32.190
I will roast the comments in that section and it's it really does help just knowing that there are other people supporting you who don't believe what that person's saying.

00:26:32.190 --> 00:26:39.931
Yeah, I guess that's just just find people that support your passion and and just be able to to express that to them.

00:26:40.097 --> 00:27:19.503
First off, I think it's a fantasy attack idea that you have like a discord support group for comments, which the fact that it's so common amongst creators in the first place, you know, receiving some I've seen just some horrible feedback, even on our own channels, that sometimes comes in from people I can understand, like how that as a group lifts you up and yeah, it's it's such an interesting world we live in where the people who are putting themselves out there to a certain degree, you know, on YouTube and our face, you know, you see their face, you then have there's ton of other people who are faceless and, and can put someone down so quickly, you know, they're just a few words.

00:27:19.671 --> 00:27:19.903
Yeah.

00:27:19.903 --> 00:27:23.875
They just they really forget that the human side, they think we're in.

00:27:23.875 --> 00:27:28.613
I algorithm on the other side of the screen, just pumping out video after video.

00:27:28.613 --> 00:27:30.615
But we we all read the comments.

00:27:30.615 --> 00:27:33.384
We all feel what the comment is saying to us.

00:27:33.384 --> 00:27:38.789
But even more so the comments that say, hey, this video changed my life.

00:27:38.789 --> 00:27:41.925
This video got me the next deal for $10,000.

00:27:41.925 --> 00:27:49.334
That stuff also equally makes us so excited and rejuvenates us and gets us ready to make the next video.

00:27:49.334 --> 00:27:54.873
So if for those who are commenting, keep those comments go and they really, really do help.

00:27:54.873 --> 00:27:56.207
That's awesome. Yeah.

00:27:56.207 --> 00:28:04.382
Amongst us, amongst those, negative comments, of course, having those positive ones that well that encourage you to go for I they've helped with my process so much too. Right.

00:28:04.382 --> 00:28:09.054
It just makes you want to create more and know that you've helped someone and touched someone in some way.

00:28:09.054 --> 00:28:11.823
Does intuition play a role in your creative process?

00:28:11.823 --> 00:28:18.563
Dylan I'm not sure if I understand intuition as in what would I'm homeschooling means now.

00:28:18.762 --> 00:28:19.297
You know?

00:28:19.297 --> 00:28:33.678
I guess even if we were to to take a step back earlier in your career before you decided to, to go on YouTube, was there some form of signal or maybe message that you were going to go down this path, something intuitively that spoke to you?

00:28:33.678 --> 00:28:37.347
It's that that is that is what I want to do, I gotcha. Yes.

00:28:37.347 --> 00:28:38.249
Okay. Yeah.

00:28:38.249 --> 00:28:40.384
You know, that is a great question.

00:28:40.384 --> 00:28:47.659
I, I've just always really loved making movies since I was nine years old.

00:28:47.692 --> 00:28:54.865
I remember getting that old camcorder JVC camcorder thing that my parents bought as my brothers and I.

00:28:54.865 --> 00:28:58.068
Would we just shoot the goofiest things, and I loved that.

00:28:58.068 --> 00:29:01.239
I loved going on set with my dad, who's a filmmaker.

00:29:01.472 --> 00:29:03.575
So I knew for sure.

00:29:03.575 --> 00:29:07.112
Yes, I'm going to be in the the film world, right?

00:29:07.112 --> 00:29:21.492
But it wasn't until later where I realized that I was more natural to teaching different concepts and how to use software, and I discovered that more so when I was using blender a lot.

00:29:21.492 --> 00:29:29.800
And I decided to start a tutorial channel, and I was really young, 14, 15 years old, and, and I was getting a lot of really positive feedback.

00:29:29.800 --> 00:29:33.837
And I realized at that moment I might be really good at teaching.

00:29:33.971 --> 00:29:41.546
I sound so full of myself that I'm not just constantly thinking I am amazing, but but yeah, I just realized, okay, this could be really cool for me.

00:29:41.546 --> 00:29:57.828
But it wasn't until later when I was trying to kind of relate a lot of ideas of how to use Final Cut Pro to friends or something along those lines where I was like, Maybe I'll, I'll try and record some videos I always wanted.

00:29:57.828 --> 00:30:07.971
Not always, but most of my life I've wanted to do YouTube full time and I didn't quite know what that would look like, so eventually it just made sense to marry the idea.

00:30:07.971 --> 00:30:15.846
I just teach video editing because if somebody is creating for YouTube, they're going to have to know how to edit videos.

00:30:16.114 --> 00:30:24.087
So it felt like a cheat code, and it was just going to be an infinite resource of content to to teach video editing and more and more.

00:30:24.189 --> 00:30:27.759
Looking back, it's like, of course, it's just such a natural fit for me.

00:30:27.759 --> 00:30:30.394
It's a natural fit for the lifestyle I have.

00:30:30.394 --> 00:30:32.430
I just fit like a glove.

00:30:32.430 --> 00:30:38.702
So I guess intuition played a little part of it and but over time, it's just you kind of get to know yourself better and better.

00:30:38.803 --> 00:30:40.838
And so this is where I ended up.

00:30:40.838 --> 00:30:42.973
I guess. That's great. It's kind of like you.

00:30:42.973 --> 00:30:50.448
You fell into it from all your skills and your passions along your, your, your way of travel towards this and that.

00:30:50.480 --> 00:31:00.124
Speaking of of travel, like we've had discussions offline about some of the the experiences that you've gone through and places that you've been over the last couple of years.

00:31:00.124 --> 00:31:13.904
I've wondering through your travels in that experience, if any memories or moments have helped shape some of the content that you've put together or how they might have ended up in in some of the the content that you put out there?

00:31:13.938 --> 00:31:16.173
Let me think. Yes.

00:31:16.173 --> 00:31:28.519
So no, I personally actually do a lot of conference filming, which may not be the most exciting work, but it does allow me to travel all over.

00:31:28.519 --> 00:31:36.527
So I've been blessed to go to Ireland and Spain and Japan and and that's just been incredible to get to go to those places.

00:31:36.527 --> 00:31:43.300
But on top of that, sitting in those places, I've just noticed the need for multicam workflows.

00:31:43.300 --> 00:31:45.470
And so that gets me thinking.

00:31:45.470 --> 00:31:48.071
Maybe I should make some videos about multicam.

00:31:48.071 --> 00:31:50.642
And of course at the conference I was able to speak on that.

00:31:50.642 --> 00:31:56.580
I've also, I feel like the quality of light is just so beautiful in some of those European countries.

00:31:56.580 --> 00:32:04.355
I don't know, maybe it's just time of day, but it it actually did kind of make me go, I really need to improve the lighting in my office.

00:32:04.355 --> 00:32:06.423
So kind of a silly thing.

00:32:06.423 --> 00:32:09.794
But that did kind of tie into my, my content here.

00:32:09.993 --> 00:32:17.567
Also, what's been really beneficial is on those trips I actually have to edit in DaVinci resolve.

00:32:17.567 --> 00:32:25.609
The whole crew there that's working with us is editing in DaVinci resolve, and that's been able to kind of teach me both sides of the software, right?

00:32:25.609 --> 00:32:32.549
And to make connections for people who are struggling to get into Final Cut Pro from resolved or even the other way.

00:32:32.549 --> 00:32:37.622
I've had friends who go from Final Cut Pro in two resolved, but hopefully that makes sense.

00:32:37.888 --> 00:32:43.260
And I've just been able to kind of cross that bridge, so that's been super beneficial.

00:32:43.394 --> 00:32:50.401
And it's also really cool to learn other softwares because you can approach the same problem in different ways.

00:32:50.535 --> 00:33:06.951
For example, between After Effects and Motion, it seems like they're two totally different pieces of software, but I've been able to learn the translation layer, I guess between those just yeah, working between the two different elements and it's the same thing working resolve to Final Cut Pro.

00:33:07.117 --> 00:33:09.119
So that's a long winded answer.

00:33:09.119 --> 00:33:11.823
But yes, the travel has definitely helped.

00:33:11.823 --> 00:33:18.028
I am not building the cool epic travel videos I was hoping to out of those trips.

00:33:18.195 --> 00:33:19.864
I just don't have time to film.

00:33:19.864 --> 00:33:21.199
But maybe someday.

00:33:21.199 --> 00:33:31.509
I think I remember when we were at the Final Cut Summit this past November, that your conference client had a conference at the same time that you worked for? Yes.

00:33:31.976 --> 00:33:33.144
Was that was that you?

00:33:33.144 --> 00:33:33.810
Yes. Yep.

00:33:33.810 --> 00:33:38.215
Right next to I was in the same building and that was absolutely hilarious to me.

00:33:38.316 --> 00:33:41.352
I'm pretty sure they even asked if I could film on that conference.

00:33:41.352 --> 00:33:44.555
And I was like, oh, I, I'm going to be speaking at this other conference.

00:33:44.555 --> 00:33:46.356
I had no idea they're going to be in the same building.

00:33:46.356 --> 00:33:48.558
But that was that was hilarious.

00:33:48.558 --> 00:33:53.530
What creative challenges do you have set up for yourself in 2024?

00:33:53.631 --> 00:33:58.102
So I am working diligently, maybe not diligently.

00:33:58.102 --> 00:34:07.511
I want to work diligently on building an Apple motion course, just laying the groundwork for people because it's so underutilized.

00:34:07.545 --> 00:34:11.282
And I really think it helps people take their editing to the next level.

00:34:11.282 --> 00:34:24.061
So I am working on building a course, and I just need to turn off the internet and zone in and get get that filmed so that that's, you know, probably the largest creative challenge.

00:34:24.161 --> 00:34:25.695
I don't know how long it'll take.

00:34:25.695 --> 00:34:31.802
Hopefully it doesn't take too long, but also having my brother help me edit on the the main channel is going to be huge for that.

00:34:31.902 --> 00:34:34.938
So I've got one final question for you before we wrap it up.

00:34:35.106 --> 00:34:37.675
And this is a time portal question.

00:34:37.675 --> 00:34:46.317
If you were to go back in a time portal and speak to your younger self, you could only offer two pieces of advice.

00:34:46.451 --> 00:34:48.418
What would they be and why?

00:34:48.418 --> 00:34:53.391
Buy Apple stock now I oh boy, let me think here.

00:34:53.490 --> 00:34:59.063
Okay, the first one would easily be start on YouTube sooner.

00:34:59.163 --> 00:35:00.630
Yeah, I kept putting it off.

00:35:00.630 --> 00:35:03.501
I kept thinking it's an oversaturated market.

00:35:03.501 --> 00:35:05.902
There's so many excuses I made.

00:35:05.902 --> 00:35:11.576
If I had started sooner, I'm sure I would be well over 100,000 200,000 subscribers by now.

00:35:11.641 --> 00:35:17.849
Not that the numbers are what matter, but I just know that my career would be so much further along.

00:35:17.914 --> 00:35:20.217
And how cool would that be?

00:35:17.914 --> 00:35:20.217
That would be awesome.

00:35:20.217 --> 00:35:29.559
The second piece of advice that is a tricky one focus on learning anything that can apply to whatever career you're in.

00:35:29.559 --> 00:35:47.612
There's so many times when you're out doing a random job that has absolutely nothing to do with what you do at home, and if you can really just focus on, well, how can I relate the different principles and stuff that I learned here to my job at home, or my job working at the grocery store or my job anywhere?

00:35:47.644 --> 00:35:54.552
It it really improves your life because you're looking at a lot of the positive and and focusing on those.

00:35:54.684 --> 00:35:58.356
So I guess that would be the the two big piece of advice.

00:35:58.356 --> 00:36:02.994
Just focus on learning, learn from anything and and buy Apple stock.

00:36:02.994 --> 00:36:06.931
I think you have a three wonderful piece of advice I gave three.

00:36:06.931 --> 00:36:09.166
There we go. See the three app store.

00:36:09.166 --> 00:36:13.271
You know this is not investing advice not investing Apple stock.

00:36:13.271 --> 00:36:16.541
Well I think from 20 years ago if you did have a time before that.

00:36:16.740 --> 00:36:18.242
Oh my gosh. Yeah.

00:36:18.242 --> 00:36:20.277
Just just before the iPhone launch.

00:36:20.277 --> 00:36:22.112
That's a good time right? Yeah.

00:36:22.112 --> 00:36:23.114
Yeah. Exactly.

00:36:23.114 --> 00:36:27.418
Dylan, I wanted to thank you so much for sharing your knowledge with me a bit about your process.

00:36:27.418 --> 00:36:33.456
I always have so much fun chatting with you and learn so much in the in the interim from our exchange.

00:36:33.456 --> 00:36:37.327
And I'm sure that everyone who's going to be listening to this is going to think the same.

00:36:37.327 --> 00:36:45.068
So thank you so much for your time and if someone wants to check you out, they can do a search for for Dylan Bates Final Cut Pro on YouTube.

00:36:45.168 --> 00:36:48.539
Yep, the Final Cut Bro on YouTube should hopefully pull me up.

00:36:48.539 --> 00:36:51.541
If YouTube doesn't ask you, did you mean Final Cut Pro?

00:36:51.541 --> 00:36:53.043
Sometimes it does that awesome.

00:36:53.043 --> 00:36:56.347
And well, thank you again and thank you so much for sharing your knowledge with everybody.

00:36:56.547 --> 00:36:58.416
Absolutely.

00:36:56.547 --> 00:36:58.416
Thank you so much for having me, Nick.