The Nerdwriter is a Youtube channel run by a guy called Evan Puschak. He uploads great analysis video essays about movies, writers, and most recently, about one of the great vloggers of our time, Casey Neistat. Now although Casey finished his daily vlog, it’s still important to analyze and see how Casey as an editor of his vlog went about shooting, and most importantly, how he edited his vlogs to make it entertaining and fun to watch.
The Nerdwriter starts off with how being an editor is a thankless job because if you do it right, no one notices, and if you succeed, all you should see is the fun. He analyzes the style Casey edits and shoots with in great detail. It’s a mixture of amateur craft, which feels real and authentic, but in a way that exudes with skills garnered over years of video editing and production experience. Reality TV can’t do it with the reality tv that was so scripted and unnatural.
Wikipedia defines Cinéma Vérité as a style of documentary filmmaking which combines improvisation with the use of a camera to unveil truth or highlight subjects hidden behind crude reality. Casey uses this concept of making the videographer and the gear he introduces part of the video where each lens has a personality, and it becomes part of the story.
His gear mainly consists of a Canon 70D on a Gorilla Pod and a Rode mic. The camera is quite a large piece of equipment to carry around, and when compared to daily vloggers before Casey, makes it clear how seriously professional Casey takes the vlog, ironically, filled with all the amateur-ish cuts he loves to add in to the videos.
I’m very intrigued by the vlogging culture, the power of Youtube and the democratization of video. Guys like Casey show that high quality production shot in a way that people can relate to can gain traction and grow into a following and the success that comes with it. The Nerdwriter ends off the video with a message to all of us making photos and video and how there is a style in all of us, and a world of people out there waiting for us to find it.
Check out Nerdwriter's Youtube channel and watch Casey's latest video, perfect for the Christmas season ahead of him snowboarding while being pulled by a drone. Watch it here: