Advice On How To Steal Our Jobs

Hi gang! Swaim here. As you may know, we recently started inviting folks to sign up for our Clown School reward tier if they'd like customized feedback on a project from us. Several Cool Beans have already enrolled, and it's been a ton of fun. 

Most recently, someone asked not only for feedback on some scripts, but also more generic advice about launching the kind of endeavor we've become known for online. I asked if it would be okay to share that section for the benefit of interested Beans everywhere, and they kindly agreed! 

So here's either an insight into our process or instructions on how to directly compete with us. It's really whatever you want it to be. Hope it's something for you!

///ADVICE BEGINS///

Assuming you're working on a shoestring budget, your video options are of course limited. You're lucky that audio is having a real upswing right now, in the sense that, if you want to go that route (podcasts, music, anything audio-only), it's a lot easier to pull off in an ongoing fashion. You still need to invest some money up front in the requisite equipment, but video's always going to be more expensive than audio if you do it right.

Do it right. We try to be annoying perfectionists, and prove to the world that we work as hard or harder than anyone else doing that kind of thing, and a lot of our success is attributable to people recognizing that, both from the audience vantage and by impressing collaborators and developing a network of trusted folks to work with.

Which is also something you need to do, especially early on. Collaborate as often as possible with a wide range of people, and start to vet how hungry they are, how reliable they are, whether the work you make together is better or worse than the work you make alone, and then work with the top contenders again often. Collaborating on projects means you're not in the fight alone, and if you're serious about making this a career, those are the seeds you have to plant to go long term.

There's a classic concept in production, which is a triangle where one tip is "Cheap," one tip is "Fast" and one tip is "Good." The theory is they pull against each other, and you can, at most, get two, but never all three. Since, in our view, the things we make need to be both Good and Cheap, we are willing to go Slow. By Slow I mean, you can make a sketch feel like a "real show" by investing hundreds of hours into training yourself to use After Effects and taking the time to add slick effects to an otherwise cheaply produced video.

So how do you put out a lot of content if each unit is handcrafted and goes through a review process and you don't let it out til it's ready? More on that when we wrap up. First, I want to give you some more practical tips that will help take your low-budget projects from 90% to 99% (nothing's ever a perfect thing!), and it's that minor difference in quality, we firmly believe, that you need to stand out from the pack, and also is the bit that takes a willingness to work harder and spend more time than the next guy.

• DSLR cameras are a great cheap option to start with, camera-wise. Splurge on lenses, but only if you spend time googling and training yourself on how to use them, or you are willing to hire a cinematographer or have someone in your crew who knows this stuff. You can train yourself on any topic with the internet, so never be intimidated when you don't know how to do something you know you need to do. Just buckle down, do the research, and you are now a more valuable technician than you were before. Get a nice tripod too.

• Learn what three-point lighting is, and use it. Take the time to light your scenes. It's fairly cheap if you use clamp lights from Home Depot and some scrims over them to soften the light. You need some stands to clip the lights to.

• Don't neglect sound quality. There are a lot of different potential solutions depending on the project, but a boom mic and boom pole is a good core thing to invest in. The takeaway is learn about sound, monitor sound while you're filming or recording, and be willing to re-shoot or record ADR if the sound was messed up. Bad sound will make your video feel cheap no matter how high-quality the rest feels. Some of our best sketches suffer from this. It takes practice and diligence.

• For podcasting, get the nicest preamp you can afford, and quality XLR cables. Cheap XLR cables are tempting, but cause so many sound problems it's not worth the headache. Shure SM58s are industry-standard, fairly cheap mics that are great for podcasting or interviews if you are going to be seated somewhere. A Zoom H6 is a good cheap option for interviewing on the go. ALWAYS get fuzzy things or pop filters to put on all of your mics. NEVER allow sound to go into a mic unfiltered by something fuzzy. Those plosives will kill your sound every time. Don't be afraid to train people and remind people to keep their faces aimed at the mic and about six inches from their mouths. 

• For audio projects, that is. On a video set, it's the boom operators job to tell you if they missed some sound, and move the mic to accommodate the action. 

• Which is another solid piece of practical knowledge: even the barest-bones set should include: cast, Director, Director of Photography, a grip, and a sound person. If you can, get a Producer, too, and research what a Producer does and have them do those things: call sheets, scheduling, meal orders on set, etc. If you can't afford to pay a Producer or don't have someone willing to Produce for free, you will have to do that work yourself. The barest possible crew I can imagine would make the Director, DP, Producer and grip all one person, presumably you. That means you would run the set, operate the camera (change lenses, set up the shot, hit record and stop, control focus, all that), arrange all the schedules and procure all the props and costumes, and also be the person who physically moves all the equipment around during the shoot. That's a tall order, but we've done it. It's possible. But as soon as you can offload the job of camera operation on a skilled cinematographer/DP, the better, and the sooner you can offload Production duties onto someone, the saner you'll stay. A grip is nice, but if you don't have a ton of heavy equipment, you can get away with just having all the crew help move stuff when stuff needs moving. As you invest in more equipment, you'll definitely need a grip on set to keep from wasting time. It's essentially impossible to get quality sound without another person physically there to hold the mic and monitor sound. You can theoretically use lavolier mics or attach a boom mic to a gib arm on a C-stand, but only if all your shots are static, like a news show or simple monologs.

• Locations are the most expensive thing to nail down, so rack your brain for any connections to have to any interesting spaces you can possibly lock down (meaning have exclusive access to and control the soundscape of), then consider writing projects toward those locations. A great free or cheap location can make you look like a really high-budget outfit with literally no extra work on your part.

• Speaking of, start a YT channel, and the second you get to 10k subs, you are eligible to schedule time to use the wonderful YT studios and equipment free of charge. It's a great program. This of course only applies if there's a YT Studios building in your area.

Okay, so, as to how to get lots of content out, should you want to. For the record, we put out a lot of content because it's in our natures, but there's no clear indication that a ton of content sets you apart. We have friends who have succeeded by only releasing a few, big pieces of great content over the course of a couple years. BriTANicK is an all-time great sketch troupe, even though we've made roughly 10x the number of videos they have, and they didn't need to make that many videos to get their feet in the door and score writing jobs at SNL. So it's whatever you want to do. But if you love to create and feel like life is too short not to create a lot, here's how we try to do that without sacrificing quality.

• We work too much, too long, too hard, for free. Not recommended as the first tactic to jump to, but sometimes the only way to climb the hill is to climb the fucking hill, unfortunately.

• We always produce in batches. If we're going to spend the time to arrange guests and set up equipment and get a podcast episode, we make a day of it and get seven podcast episodes. We collate shoots that have the same locations or actors to shoot on the same day. Always think through the most efficient way to run your machine.

• At least take the time to brainstorm with restrictions in mind. Namely, if you had to make something that was genuinely funny or insightful or impactful, but it had to be so easy to make that you could turn around an episode in 24 hours, what would that look like? If you had to make something that was genuinely awesome and you were proud of it, but you're not allowed to spend any money other than the equipment you already bought, what would that be? Don't make every project that "scrappy," but don't be afraid to be clever and minimal and cheap, IF the end result isn't something that feels like you're projecting yourself as cheap or lazy, or that detracts from your brand or vision.

• Plant a lot of seeds at once and watch them grow. Different projects take different lengths of time to come to fulmination, so bite off as much as you can chew, and keep as many balls rolling at once as you're able to. As you get to a tipping point where lots of different shows or ideas start becoming ready to run at different times, and you continue to plant new seeds and start new things ramping up as you have time to, you will discover the bandwidth your organization currently has. That's your rhythm, and you only get to know it by getting the train rolling and observing it. The only real way to speed up from there is convince another person to join the cause, because it's only work-hours that move these things forward. You can't cut corners, and you can't make it less work than it is, if you want it to be good, which you should.