How Gawx Recreates Hollywood in His Bedroom

- What you can't see in this beautiful cinematic shot is that the spotlight in the back is made from a roll of paper and the camera is being pushed on a skateboard with one hand while the other hand is dimming up a light. You're fading it in- - Yeah. - On your phone, oh my god. That's the creator Gawx and his videos are like watching a fricking magic trick. He captures these rich, dynamic, cinematic shots that look like they would only be achievable on a Hollywood set. - To film that, I used a C

-stand to get a top down shot and then I used two skateboards to move it and I put the C-stand on the skateboards. - No. - And that's my dad's hand because the marker can't support the weight of the camera. I like to have small details that I know not everyone is gonna notice but the people who pay a lot of attention to the video are gonna say "Oh, that's cool." - I'm sitting down with Gawx and breaking down the first minute of one of his videos to see if I can get to the bottom of the detail or

ientation and craftsmanship that make his work so extraordinary. (dogs barking) (cow moos) Gawx, we're gonna watch your video, "I Finished a Sketchbook in 24 Hours" and I think the thing that is so incredible about your work is the amount of detail and energy that you pack into every second- - Thank you. - Of your videos. Every second is meticulously crafted and designed to be exactly what you want. - Yeah. - And I think it's a level of craftsmanship and creativity that we rarely see, not on You

Tube, we rarely see in the world. We rarely see people care this much about every little detail and I think that's just what really stands out about your work. So what I want to do in this episode is really dive in to all the details that make you who you are as an artist. - Thank you very much. I'm excited to do this and this is a great pick of a video. - Okay, I'm stopping right there. - Yeah. - How did you do this? So you're obviously motion tracking the title. - Yeah. - We think it's a still

title and then as soon as the video comes in, it matches. - Yeah. - How did you do that? Are you using like After Effects or something? - Yeah, for that I used After Effects. First, I wrote the title in the video in the clip and then I brought that to After Effects, tracked the title, the sequence with like the living room. - Right. - And then I did a still frame for the black section, for the still section. - And that's why it's not moving in the black section. - Yeah, that's why it's not movi

ng. I want to have a little bit of surprise at the start. - Right. - Like that and I did that. - You know what's funny about it is like a lot of videos on the internet do like a cold open, you know? - Yeah. - Where like the first minute is really exciting but what you're doing is you're sending us, I mean, maybe I'm misinterpreting this but it seems like a signal that you put a fuck ton of hours and energy into the smallest details. In the first three seconds of the video, we know that like you'

re gonna give us a bunch of really exciting detail and we need to watch closely. - Yeah. - Is kind of what that feels like. - Yeah, maybe, I don't know if I did that on purpose but yeah, I like to have small details that I know not everyone is gonna notice but the people who pay a lot of attention to the video are gonna say "Oh, that's cool, that's interesting, yeah. How does he do that?" - So I have to ask you, how long, how many hours does it take to like do all that motion tracking on this sh

ot and add that title like this? Where now we zoom past it. - Yeah. - Like you have to create layers and depth spaces and things in After Effect, how long does that take? - Well, I just used the tracking tool and then I played with Gaussian blur and a little bit of motion blur as well to make it smooth. It takes around 40 minutes to an hour for the title. (door creaks) - Is that you? - That's my brother. Yeah, that's my brother and my dad opened the door and I filmed the shot. - I was gonna ask

how you're able to, so where's, oh, your dad's behind the door? - Yeah, he's behind the door. (door creaks) He opened it. - Yep. - We did that a bunch of times because it was difficult. - Yep. - And my brother was standing there with the sketchbook. - Okay. Right there and you're filming it and you did this kind of swooping shot. - Yeah. - To go in the door and then come out. - Yes. - It looks like there's light beams coming through the window. Do you have a fog machine or something? Are you haz

ing before you shoot? - Yeah, that's a fog machine. Yeah, it's a fog machine with a, I am lucky because my window has very good lighting. The light comes, in the afternoon, it comes right inside and I have some trees, so it gives this really cool effect. - Oh my god. Okay, and then this light, what is this? - That's, when I turned I think 17, my dad got me some lights for me to start making videos and these are some Amazon lights, some newer Amazon lights. It's funny because this video, I starte

d filming it in 2022. - Yeah. - So you can see the lights in some shots and I finished it in 2023 where I got new lights and C-stands and then I said "Okay, now I have these good lights. I don't want them to be in the shots" to make it a little more professional. So you can see this difference in this video. - Got it, okay. - Yeah. - So these are the old lights that you had. - These are the old lights, yeah. - Okay, and this is your actual room where you do all your work? - Yeah, yeah, yeah and

where I sleep as well. - Okay. - Yeah. - And so you said your dad helped you open the door, that's your brother. - Yeah. - But obviously the conceit is that this is you. - Yeah, but he looks just like me. (Jack laughs) - And we can't really tell because he's hazed and backlit. - Yeah. - So you can't see it anyway and then you instructed him to just like have his back turned and hold up the sketchbook like this? - Yeah, to first have the hand here and then move it up. - And then are you pulling f

ocus or is this auto-focus? - This is auto-focus. - It's auto focus? - Yeah, it's auto-focus. - Okay. - [Gawx] This is the most important sketchbook I have ever had. - Was this your idea for the opening shot of the film to do this door push in? - Yeah. - So you wanted this to be the opening shot? - Yeah, I don't do storyboarding. I kinda have everything in my mind and the only thing, well, the main thing I had for the video was this shot. Like I wanted this shot to be the first shot and then go

from there. - And how did you come up with this idea for the shot? Because this is a very striking thing to see on YouTube. You don't usually see something that looks like this. This looks like something from a Jean-Pierre Jeunet film, you know? It looks like "Amelie." (classical ensemble music) (thunder booms) - Yeah, yeah. Well, I think I get my ideas from movies. Like I watch a bunch of movies and then like not on purpose but some of that sticks with me and then I mix everything and I come up

with these ideas. - What movies do you like, what directors? - I like, well, I like everything. I like dramas, I like some dramas. There's an Iranian director, his name is Abbas Kiarostami. A Mexican, Inarritu. Kubrick, oh, Kubrick is a huge inspiration, yeah. - Yeah. - For this video as well, yeah. I watched a bunch of Kubrick films before filming this, so you can see hints. - Amazing. Okay, and when you map out a video like this, do you have the whole idea for the video in your head? Do you h

ave like an outline for the video start to finish before you start shooting or are you just kind of shooting things that look cool and then you come up with a story as you're going? - Well, I kinda have an outline but, well, I know the theme of the video. I kinda know how I want to do it. But first, I film the shot and then I say "Oh, how can I follow up?" And I film the next thing. - Really? Okay, so you're actually like in production getting cool shots that you think are awesome. - [Gawx] Yeah

. - Maybe even before you know where the story is going. - Yeah. - Okay, so it's very like emergent. - Yeah. - The way you tell stories. - Yeah, because I draw, so I don't really know what's gonna happen next in my drawing. I don't know what I'm going to draw. So yeah, I kinda go from there and if I need to fix something or maybe to film something more, I go back and forward with editing, filming, editing, filming. - Yeah. - Yeah. - Amazing. Okay, let's look at this lettering here. - [Gawx] This

is the most important sketchbook I have ever had. - Okay, so is this DaVinci Resolve? Do you edit in DaVinci Resolve? - No, I edit on Premiere. - Oh, you do? - Yeah. - Okay, got it. So you do color correction in DaVinci Resolve? - Yeah. - Okay, so then how do you do that? Do you take the clips into Da Vinci and then color correct and then bring them back into Premiere? - Well, first I edit everything in Premiere. Then I export a ProRes file. - Yeah. - No compression ProRes file. - Right. - And

I export the timeline to have the cuts. Then I move that to Da Vinci, it's a mess, I move that to Da Vinci, add the ProRes file, then add the timeline, copy the cuts. - Oh my god. - I color correct. Then I export it on ProRes again, bring it back to Premiere and do titles and finishing details and then I export to post on YouTube. - Okay, that's a ton of workflow. - Yeah. - Is that because you like Da Vinci's color correction suite better than Premiere's? - Yeah, I love it, yeah. - Are you readi

ng a lot about color correction? - No, no. - Okay, all right. - I watch YouTube videos where I see, oh, this color is great. - Yeah. - How did they do it? And I try new things. - Which YouTube channels or videos do you like for like color correction? Because I've been watching a lot of color correction videos too. - Yeah. - Which are the ones you like? - Well, my favorite is a YouTuber called serr. He's great, he's from LA. - Okay. - [Gawx] His colors are absolutely incredible. - Wow, okay. - Ye

ah. - Cool, and so you watch like his tutorials and stuff? - Yeah, yeah. - Okay, cool. Wow, awesome, okay, let's keep going. - [Gawx] Why, you may ask? Well, let me explain. - Okay, one more question about voiceover in your videos. So voiceover is a common theme in your videos and then it looks like sometimes you film after you've recorded your voice and you're mouthing to match your voiceover. - Yeah. Well, I'm glad you asked because a lot has changed since I last answered this question two yea

rs ago. For instance- - How do you do voiceover? Do you have a nice mic or something that you use? Where do you record? - I use Adobe Audition for my voiceovers and I got a mic like five years ago, a Blue Yeti mic. - Oh yeah. - Yeah. - Those are great. - Yeah, and I use that one. Maybe it's not the most professional but it gets the job done. - It's a great mic and it sits on your desk or something? - Yeah, it sits on my desk and when I need it, I just bring it. - Yep. - Record my voice and- - Ye

ah. And that's the Blue Yeti you said? - The Blue Yeti, yeah. - Okay. (dramatic violin music) Okay, come on, like tracking shots and stuff, like what? So what do you have, like rails above your desk and the camera's tilted down, how do you do this? - That's later. The first shot is 2022, this is 2023. - Okay. - Well in the video, it's supposed to be 2019 because I built like a crazy story with this. - Yeah. - But to film that, I used a C-stand. - Yeah. - To get the top-down shot and then I used

two skateboards to move it. So I put the C-stand on the skateboards. - No, you have your C-stand on skateboards? - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - And you're moving the skateboards with the C-stand hanging over the desk? - Yeah, and that's my dad's hand. That's not mine. - What's your dad's hand? - The first one. I had just started high school- That's my dad's hand. - That's your dad's hand? - Yeah. - So you're doing the camera and you got your dad's hand? - Yeah, he's supposed to be me. You can tell becaus

e, yeah, he's older than me. - And do you say like "Okay, open the computer now?" Like how are you doing it? - Yeah, I say "First draw and then open the computer." We try some shots but I give them, yeah, I say "Now open." - So you're like calling out instruction. - Yeah, yeah, kind of directing. - So let's watch this beautiful shot. - Thank you. - By the way, Gawx, this is so fun, man. Like this is fucking beautiful work. - Thank you very much. - It's so fun to dive into and hear how you think

about this and how you do this. I think what's so exciting to me is like, you know, like hearing that it's your dad and that you got an Amazon light. - Yeah. - You're able somehow to achieve output that looks on par with like the best movies in the world. - Thank you very much. - And you're doing it with like skateboards. - Yeah. - And it's just incredible. So okay, let's watch how beautiful this shot is here. - [Gawx] I got this one about four years ago. I had just started high- - Okay, is that

the light from the actual monitor? - Yeah, that's the light from the monitor. It has some haze machine to get like a little bit beam it gets so you can see the light. Yeah, that's the light and I have a light over here filming the whole thing. - Okay, and is that like a soft light with like some kind of a diffusion over it or something? - Yeah, that's a soft light with this grid that you put. - Yeah. - Yeah. - Yeah, do you happen to know what kind of light it is? - Yeah, it's an Amaran 60x. - A

maran 60x. - Aputure Amaran 60x. - Okay, all right, cool. The glow of the monitor on the laptop and on your hand- - Oh yeah. - Looks so nice. - I wanted to get that. So I opened this tab, which is just white. - Yeah. - And has nothing on it to get the light. - Okay, got it. So you actually preloaded a tab that was white on the computer? - Yeah. - Then did you turn up the- - Yeah. - The brightness? - The brightness, yeah. - So that you got this lovely glow coming in. - Yeah. - God, it's so beauti

ful. Okay, I have a question for you about haze and fog. So one of the things that you do really well is you create these hazy memory sort of nostalgic feelings by using the fog and the way light moves through fog. How do you do that and make sure that you get really deep, rich blacks and like dark colors as well? How do you color correct those super hazy, milky shots to make them look full? - Well first, I don't try to put way too much fog. If I put way too much fog, I open the windows, let a l

ittle bit go out and then I film and on Da Vinci when I color grade, I just move the blacks down a little bit more of contrast until I think the image looks good, and yeah. - And then you go. - I don't really use the histograms. - Oh, you don't? Okay, you don't use metering or tools like that? - No. I get confused with that and it gets slower. So I go with the flow and if I export it and the blacks look too black, then I go back and fix them. - Okay, got it. So you're really just using your eye.

- Yeah. - Looking at the screen without looking at like meters or tools or measurements? - Yeah. - Yeah, okay, cool. - [Gawx] School and I needed a new sketchbook since my previous eight- - Okay, now the camera's tracking backwards. So what is that now, skateboards again? - Yeah, skateboards and a tripod and that's me and my dad is filming. - Okay, so your dad's pulling the camera back now? - Yeah. - Okay, got it. - [Gawx] Were already filled out. After receiving it, I started carrying it aroun

d. - Okay. (laughs) So I love this about your videos. There's this conceit that like there's a doorbell and a package outside your bedroom. - Yeah, that's good. - Like that's kind of, I mean obviously that's the joke but like where is the inspiration for that idea coming from? - Well since I started, every time I get a package, it's outside my bedroom. - Yeah. - So I don't know why I did that. I didn't want to show the front door of my house, so I used my bedroom. - Yeah. - And it stayed. Now ev

ery time I get a package, it's outside my bedroom. - It's so good. - Thank you. - Is this, like when you're setting up a shot like this, is this blown out? Like are you getting zebras here? Do you film with zebras? - No, I don't but I use, what the camera says if you're overexposed is plus two. - Right. - Yeah, and it blinks. - Oh, okay. - So for that one, I was a little bit overexposed but it was the look I wanted to get. I wanted like this light behind me. - Yeah. So sorry, what's this plus tw

o thing? - Oh yeah, what is it? Exposure compensation. - Okay. - Yeah. - And is that on the A-7S III, is that what you use? - FX3. - Oh, the FX3? - Yeah. - Oh, did you just get that? - I got it in 2021. - Okay, got it. - Yeah. - So you shoot all of your videos on the FX now? - Everything, yeah. - And then obviously your room again is super hazed right now, right? - Yeah, super, yes. - A ton of haze. - Yeah. - Okay, all right, cool. - [Gawx] With me everywhere I went. I used to draw in it almost

every day. - Okay, like even the way you pick up the package there is so deliberate and funny. It's almost like cartoony or something. - Yeah, yeah, cartoony. - Did you watch a lot of cartoons? - I used to, "SpongeBob." My favorite was "SpongeBob" but I think this is more Wes Anderson style. (frantic ensemble music) - Yes. - Yeah. - Oh, it definitely is Wes Anderson. Oh, that's a good call out. Yeah, it's like robotic. You walk out. - Yeah, like. - Yes. - Yeah. - Oh, so cool. - [Gawx] Everywhere

I went. I used to draw in it almost every day. - Now the camera's tracking backwards there, right? - Yeah. - So who's shooting that? - My dad or my brother, one of my dad or my brother. - On a skateboard again? - On a skateboard, yeah and those are difficult to get because the skateboard moves a little bit and it doesn't go still like a dolly would. - Yeah. - So for that one, it went a little bit like this and then I just fixed that in post. - Oh, you do? So you track in post using After Effect

s or something to make it smoother? - Yeah, for that one, I used Premiere. So I put like a ruler, a line, a guide and I just placed it here. - Oh, you just like keyframed it frame-by-frame? - Yeah. - Really? That looks like it's a three or four second shot. So that's like 150 frames or something. - Yeah. - 150 keyframes tracking backwards. - Yeah. (Gawx laughs) - My god. - It gets crazy sometimes, yeah. - So, (sigh) okay. I don't even know how to frame this question. It's just like why do you ca

re so much about all those little details? There's so many videos on YouTube where the camera moves a bit and people don't spend six hours doing 180 keyframes- - Yeah. - To make it perfect. Why do you care so much about that? - Well, I really like to make this type of video. I have a lot of fun and I think I get a little bit obsessive with the little details. Sometimes there's one shot where I feel it's a little bit off and I just obsess over it. I don't know if that's healthy but I just want it

to be perfect and since I don't post that often, it's like three months, two months between videos, I want it to be really good. - Yeah. - Yeah. - So okay, so then the trade-off in your mind is like look, I'm not coming out with videos every week. - Yeah. - So I'm just gonna make really great videos and if they come out every two months or three months, fine. - Yeah. - Okay, got it. So you live right now with your, who? Do you live at home or where do you live? - Yeah, I live at home with my mo

m, my dad and my brother. - Mom, dad and brother. - Yeah. - And it seems like everybody helps you with your videos. - Yeah, yeah. Sometimes they don't want to but (laughs) I ask, "Now help me a little bit." - Do they argue with you about shots and stuff or are you calling the shots? - No, not really. Well, sometimes they suggest maybe we should do it this way but mainly I tell them and we go from there. Sometimes it doesn't work, what I had in my head. - Yeah. - So we try different things. - Are

they filmmakers too, is your brother a filmmaker? - No, my brother is in high school. He likes music production. - Okay. - And my dad, my parents are musicians. - Oh, they're musicians? - Yeah. - So they're in the arts? - Yeah, they're in the arts. - How cool, are they professional musicians? - Yeah, they play, my dad plays in the Philharmonic Orchestra. - Oh my gosh. - And my mom used to and now she has a string quartet. - Okay, so they're like super, they must be really supportive and excited

that you're- - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - Okay, how cool, wow. - And then they also help me, well my dad helps me with, now I use a lot of classical music, so he helps me with the music selection sometimes. I edit and I show him, "What do you think of this music?" - Yeah, okay, so where are you getting that music? - From the music licensing platforms, mainly Musicbed and Artlist. - Yeah. - I use those. - It's so different again than everything else on YouTube. It feels way more cinematic to use classi

cal. - Thank you. - It feels very Kubrick actually to use classic. - It's very Kubrick. - Yeah, yeah. Okay, all right, let's keep watching. - [Gawx] Without prior notice, I stopped. - Those shots, it seems like there's some rotation. Like what's happening there? - So I wanted to show this passing of time and working on different drawings. That's why I have different lighting for each drawing. - I see. - And I filmed that with a slider, a motorized slider, yeah. - Okay, got it and is it a curved

slider or is the camera just on a spinner? - Yeah, so it's a slider and you have two, like one pole here which you can move and if you move it like this, the camera moves. - I see, right. So the camera's literally going like this as it goes on the slider. - Yeah, like this. - Okay, so you've just got a little motorized slider and so that's your hand, your drawing. - Yeah. - And you've got an automated camera motion going. - Yeah. - And is it just going back and forth? Is that what's happening? -

Yeah, it's going back and forward and I changed the drawings with each movement and then I did this matched cut, so I placed the clips and tried to match them to do the cuts. - Okay, so you're finding the exact point in the camera motion- - Yeah. - Where you can cut that the camera's in the same place, the book is in the same place, your hand is in the same place. - Yeah. - But it's a different drawing. - Yeah. (Jack gasps) - Let's watch this. - [Gawx] Day until without prior- - Right there. -

Yeah. - Notice. - Right there. - Yeah. - God, that's beautiful. - Thank you. - What is this cinematic vocabulary or whatever that makes us feel like this is time passing? Is it the lighting change? - Yeah, I think it's the lighting because it's like different scenarios. So you kinda feel like different days of me working on that. - Yeah. - Yeah. - It feels like, yeah, it feels like a long time has passed when we see that motion tracking, different lighting, different drawings. - [Gawx] Until wit

hout prior notice, I stopped. - And then the camera slider ended clearly here. - Yeah. - And stopped. - Yeah. - And then you closed the book. - And then I closed the book, yeah. - And did you know, did you write the script first? Because the story and the video matches the script perfectly. - I think for this one, I went a lot back and forth between the edit, the writing and the editing and the filming. So I think I filmed the first shot, then I filmed the next ones, then I brought that to Premi

ere and checked if it was working without a script and the script usually goes at the end of the video. But just the rhythm, I want to get the rhythm right. - In those two months, are you kind of starting to edit and then shooting a little bit more and then putting that stuff in? - Yeah. - And then editing a little more? Okay, so you're like mixing editing, production, post-production, it's all happening at the same time. - Yeah, it's a beautiful mess but that's how I do it, yeah. - I think that

is such a great way. It feels like that. - Yeah. - Because you can, yeah, you get a level of detail and I don't know, you end up with shots like this. - Yeah. - That you may not have gotten if you just tried to write it all first. - Yeah, yeah, and I also like to do everything chronologically. So that's why, yeah. - Okay, so you're not like going to the end of the video and then editing a scene here? - No, no. - You're literally going- - Yeah. - Second-by-second until you build the story you wa

nt to tell. - Yeah. - Oh, so cool. I've talked to different creators and editors and filmmakers about this. Some people really love chronology and some people don't work chronologically at all. - Yeah. - And it just seems like it's whatever type of- - Maybe the people who don't work chronologically, they're more organized or they have their plan really well done. Because I saw the Casey episode, he edits chronologically. - Yeah. - I have sorta two rules when it comes to editing. One is that I ca

n only edit chronologically. I start with the first frame and when I get to the last frame, the movie's done. Sometimes I do like storyboard complex shots. I think I might have done it for the floating sketchbook. I have my notebook here if you want to see it but it helps me a lot that I edit and film. So I go back and forward. So in case I need a shot to fit the rhythm of the music or to fit the story, I can film that and then bring it back to Premiere and continue with my edit. - When I was tr

ying to make, 'cause I made a video that was like a "Dear Casey Neistat" video where I tried to kind of use his style and when I made that video, I had to make it chronologically. - Yeah. (relaxed electronic tones) - I couldn't like script it out too much first. It couldn't match his style if I did it that way. - Yeah. - So okay, here we go. - [Gawx] And now that I look through it- - Okay, come on. So by the way, we're like 37 seconds into the video at this point and the amount of detail and bea

uty in these shots is like incredible. They're just so packed with fun little pieces of eye candy. It's no wonder that millions of people watch your videos. Let's talk about this wonderful transition over the letters here. - Yeah. - How did you do that? - I did a mask, not an exact mask, like a really rough mask around myself. - Yeah? - To transition the type. - [Jack] So you basically just like outlined a mask here? - Yeah, like right here. - Okay. - So I didn't have to outline the whole thing,

just the part that touches the table. - Right, and you're using Premiere for the mask? - Yeah, Premiere. - Okay. - It's not perfect but- - Yeah. - You don't need it to be perfect. - The effect is so impactful and meaningful. I mean, it works really well. - Thank you. - So are you filming at 24p or how are you filming? - Yeah, 23.97. - Okay, 'cause you like that cinematic frame rate. - Yeah, I like that cinematic look. - Yeah, me too. Okay, can we talk about the lighting here? So is this your ro

om or a different room in the house? - My room. - This is your room still? - Yeah. - Okay, and so this is all yellow but is it white walls and you have a yellow light? What's going on here? - Yeah. Well, the light is supposed to be motivated by this lamp but it's a little bit exaggerated. So it's this lamp and I have a big lamp over here. - You used the term, the light is supposed to be motivated by this lamp. In other words, what you're saying is the conceit is that the light is coming from her

e. - Yeah, well part of the light, maybe you don't see the rest of the room, so you could imagine that there are other lamps, like practical lamps over here. But yeah, it's basically supposed to be motivated by this little lamp right here. - Yep, okay, that's great. I mean, even the fact that you use the term motivated, clearly you're watching a lot of YouTube videos and stuff- - Yeah, yeah. - On lighting and, okay, all right, all right. What are your favorite YouTube videos on lighting? What sh

ould we watch to make Gawx-style videos? - There's an Australian cinematographer, Lewis Potts. He's great, he did a really awesome video on lighting. - Okay, great. - And also Danny Gevirtz. - Yep. - He's great as well. - [Jack] Okay, cool. - [Gawx] Through it, I realized- - Who's shooting this, how are they getting that push in? - That's my dad, I think that's my dad, yeah. - Okay, and skateboard again? - Skateboard, yeah. We filmed everything, the intro sequence on the same day. Like in one ho

ur, we filmed everything. - Got it and did you ask him to push in really fast? - Really fast, yeah. - Why did you want a fast push in there? - Because the music gets a little bit more energetic and the story like is building up. So I wanted faster movement than before. - Got it. - [Gawx] That there are only two pages left to go. - So this is like a 24 lens or something or like a 16 even. This looks really wide. - Yeah, this is, yeah, I think it's a 16 millimeter. - Do you shoot on primes or do y

ou use zoom lenses? How are you getting like a super wide shot like that? - I use a lot of lenses, like lot of different lenses. But for this video, the wide shot is a zoom. It's a 17 to 28. Okay. Do you know what lens it is? Do you know who makes it? - Yeah, it's a Tamron. - [Jack] Tamron, okay, okay, a 17 to 28 Tamron. - 17 to 28 and for the rest of the video, I used a 31.4. - Okay. - From Sigma which is APS-C, so it doesn't cover the full frame sensor of my camera but it doesn't really matter

. - [Jack] Okay, so the FX3 is a full-frame? - Yeah. - Okay. So this is like an actual 17 is what we're getting here? - Yeah, this is an actual 17. - Okay, wow, that's cool. It looks, (laughs) again, it looks so cartoony and wide and the distortion on your face, the lens distortion is so nice. - Yeah, I like wide lenses. - Yeah, me too. Yeah, okay. - I love them. Well, two and a half, since one drawing just needs some color. (classical violin music) - Okay, so this is a famous Gawx-style shot. -

Yeah, yeah, I've seen people trying to discover how I did it. - Okay, tell us about the rig, what do you got here? - It's my FX3 with a SmallRig Magic Arm which you mount on the camera on the cage and then I mount it to the marker so you get the locked-in perspective. - So you're not actually holding the marker? - No. - You're just move, oh, so it's not locked onto your wrist. - No. - It's locked onto the marker. - Onto the marker, yeah. - Back here? - Yeah, and that's my dad's hand because the

marker can't support the weight- - Right. - Of the camera. So I had to hold the camera and he's doing the marker movement. - Okay, so let me see (laughs) if I got this right. - Yeah. - So there's a marker. - Yeah, it's like you're holding a marker. - Here, like this. - Yeah. - And there's a Magic Arm here. - Yeah. - Connected to the FX3 here. - Which is here, yeah. - Okay. - And you're doing the movement and I'm following you. - Okay, so I'm going like this and you're following. Okay, but the M

agic Arm is attached to the marker. So I'm just trying to make sure that I move my hand at the right pace for the marker. - Yeah. - Fuck, that is so beautiful. - Thank you. - It's so beautiful. Where did you get the idea for that shot? - I don't know, I used to do it, before I had a Magic Arm, I used to do that since some of my first videos and I used to use tape. So I taped the pen to my camera and I don't know where I got that. Maybe music videos. Music videos are a big source of inspiration a

s well. - Yeah, and you do this sometimes with like forks as well when you're- - Oh yeah, in this video, I did it with forks. - You're like eating mango and stuff. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - Yeah, okay. (classical violin, flute music) - That's 2022, so that's before, that's one year before. - So this is a time-lapse from 2022? - Yeah, from 2022 because this video wasn't supposed to, I wasn't going to finish it but I was checking my hard drives and I found some sequences and I thought oh, let's finish

this. - So then is this on the rails that you had? - Yeah. - Okay, so this is a motorized slider. - Yeah. - But in time-lapse mode. - In time-lapse mode. - And are you shooting one frame like every five seconds or something like that, how do you? - No, I just film and the files get huge but I just film. - Oh, so you're just filming 24 frames a second? - Yeah. - And then speeding it up. - Yeah. - So you're moving the slider really slowly. - Yeah. It moves like, you can program it, so from here t

o here in 30 minutes. - Got it. - Yeah. - Okay, all right. What kind of slider is this? - It's a NEEWER slider. It's the same brand of my old lights. It's a budget slider. - A budget slider, like on Amazon or something? - Yeah, on Amazon. - I have one of those too and it comes with a little USB plug and you can kind of program it and do stuff. - Yeah, they're great. - They're great. I think mine was something like 250 bucks or 300 bucks. - Yeah, mine as well. Now it's dying, it's in its final st

ages but it still works. (Jack laughs) - Awesome, okay, let's keep looking here. - [Gawx] Oh. - We see this kind of shot a lot where you have these massive backgrounds and this beautiful spotlight. Where is this, how did you get this? - That's in my room too. For that, I used the lamp without the soft box and I don't have like a spotlight, so I used some paper to create the spotlight effect. So I have this big lamp behind the sketchbook, the sketchbook here. Then I'm going in with the skateboard

s and I have another lamp right here which now will turn on. - Okay. - To rebuild, yeah. - And do you hook it up to a switch or something so you can move it in and then hit the switch? - You can control it with your phone. - Are you fading it in or did you like program a fade-in? - No, I'm fading it in. - You're fading it in on your phone? - Yeah, like move. - Like sliding the light up on your phone? Oh my god, let's look at this. - [Gawx] Sorry, needed some color. - Okay, and you got some lovel

y like film grain here. - Yeah. - Are you adding that film grain in? - Yeah, I'm adding that in DaVinci, yeah. - So as part of your color correction, you can add film grain? - Yeah, you can add. - Do you add it on every shot or do you add film grain on the whole timeline? - No, I add it on every shot. It's the same grain effect. Sometimes I do little changes. But yeah, I grade every clip separately. - Okay, got it. So maybe a little different grain depending on the shot? - Yeah. - Okay. - [Gawx]

Color. So today, I'm going finish a sketchbook in 24 hours. - That's the one-minute mark. - Yeah. - So you have this rotating sketchbook in the air. (Gawx laughs) How did you get this? - These are two different shots. So it's the background and the sketchbook shot. I tied the sketchbook to a string, then I filmed it rotating behind, I don't have a green screen, so I used a green towel. I filmed that, then I removed the background, which I don't use green screens very often, so that's a whole pr

ocess. So I had now the sketchbook rotating in a transparent background and then I added the background shot of me going in. So I just mixed them and color corrected. - So did you have to like zoom in on the sketchbook? - Yeah, I zoomed in on the sketchbook and the background is just a dolly in. - A plate, yeah. - [Gawx] I'm going to finish a sketchbook in 24 hours. - And then you motion-keyed the sketchbook? - I motion-keyed it, yeah, going down. - Okay. (upbeat music) - Let's do it. ♪ Ooh ♪ -

Okay, this music choice here is so hot. That "Ooh" like coming in right with act one and it's so different than the classical music we've been feeling to this moment, so yeah, how do you find the right music for the moment in a film that you're making? - I think it's intuitive but I just try a bunch of options and if I find something that feels right, I edit a little bit and then decide if I want to keep it or not. - I have another question for you here. - Yeah? - You sort of say things like "I'

m finishing a sketchbook in 24 hours." So then we think like oh, we're gonna watch you do this in 24 hours. But all these shots take like days to do. - Yeah, yeah. - So you're not, are you actually filming yourself doing it in 24 hours? - At first, I just filmed the time-lapses of me drawing and all these shots because I can do that and then I filmed this later. So I film me drawing the sketchbook, like just time-lapses and some simple shots and then I build the rest of the story later. - I see,

okay. So you actually do finish a sketchbook in 24 hours? - Yeah. But in this video, well, it's spoilers if you haven't seen it, I don't manage to finish it in 24 hours. - Right, right, okay, got it. Okay, so you tell the rest of the story over the next month and a half? - Yeah. - Okay. Wow, so you're scrapping together skateboards and Premiere and masks and like all these tools that literally now most people in the world have access to. - Yeah. - You kinda don't have anything that like, I mean

, the FX3 is a nice camera. - Yeah, it's nice. - It's a very nice camera. But then you started shooting on your iPhone and you're saying it looks just as good. So like why does your shit look so good compared to everybody else's? - Well, I think it's the experience because sometimes, well, sometimes I try something new and it looks horrible, so I don't use it. But yeah, like you have to try, experiment with the shots. Maybe it will look bad at the start but if you try something different, it mig

ht look better. Lighting is a great aspect of it because the lighting can turn like a very boring scene into something interesting. So yeah, spending time on your lighting, spending time framing the shots is like the main thing. I just spend time trying it for it to look good. - Yeah. - And if it doesn't, well maybe it will look better in the future when you have more knowledge. - This is kind of mind-blowing. - Thank you. - Yeah. Forgive the question, but how old are you? - I'm 20. Yeah. - When

you think about like your 20s and your 30s, do you have goals about being a filmmaker? Like do you want to do, what sort of things do you want to do? - Well, I want to be a film director. I want to make movies. I have to start with short films, which I also want to make but yeah, the end goal is to make films. - Yeah. - Like feature films. - Right. I mean, you're on your way. (relaxed jazzy ensemble music)