Will the Next Scorsese shoot with an iPhone? | Ft. Ryan Ng

- Have you ever seen this on a video and wondered what the hell that is? (audience applauding) Well, this is the creator who came up with the name behind the movement that is the YouTube New Wave. (keyboard clacking) - Can someone that shot with an iPhone for their entire career be alongside some of the greatest filmmakers of all time? I'm an aspiring YouTuber. - Ryan Ng's unique voice and style is created by combining raw emotional storytelling and meticulous planning. - One time, I went hiking

and I fell into the river with my camera gear. This lens, it got water in it. - I can tell. It's super cloudy. - Then I started shooting a video with it, and I was like, "Wait, it looks good." - Wow, and you're literally saying what the aspect ratio is gonna be for certain shots. - Yeah. Everything is written before I film a single shot. - Ryan's approach to storytelling is so inspiring and thoughtful. - To try to find every way to not have to say things. If I can show it, perfect. - And he has

the best attitude about gear. - You don't need a $3,000 cinema camera. - Exactly. - Just use your phone or use a broken lens. It adds to your story. - I'm sitting down with Ryan to see if I can understand how he creates these cinematic, personal films that stand out from everything else on YouTube. (rumbling) I'm so psyched to have you here and to be doing this with you. I love your storytelling. - Thank you. - You have such a unique voice. I don't know anyone else who makes videos like you, ev

en in the New Wave, the pacing, the quietness, the self-reflection, the stillness of the whole thing. And then I think your sort of ability to kind of convey your thoughts and your inner monologue is standout. - Yeah. - Okay, should we do this? - Let's do it. (clicking) (tone beeps) (Ryan sighs) (chuckles) I'm done. I don't care anymore. I don't care anymore. (brooding electronic music) (energetic hip-hop music) ♪ Turn my lights on ♪ ♪ I don't fucking ♪ - That's such a powerful intro. And to hav

e that song come up is so gangster of a moment paired with the fuck you. It just sets a tone for the whole thing. - Thank you. - I love that choice. What were you going for there in that moment? - I've actually watched Bo Burnham's "Inside." And when he started off the film, it was inside, and then it turned red. And I was like, that's the most simple thing in the world, but it says so much. The color red is just so, it's kinda like an angry color. - It's violent, yeah. - Yeah, (chuckles) so tha

t's what I thought about, yeah. - It's nice. This opening shot here above your bed, that zoom, is that just done in post? - Yeah, yeah. - Okay, and- - Everything's done in... I don't film with anybody, so it's all done in post. - Okay, got it. So you're just literally cropping in to 120% or something and then zooming out? - Yeah. - Okay. - So that's the other thing with Bo Burnham's "Inside," one of the first shots of his first song in the film was this extremely zoomed in and pixelated shot of

him. And I felt like that was such a courageous thing to do. It's bad quality, but he doesn't care. He's filming by himself, so that's the only way he could get a dolly shot. There's a shot here with the YouTube plaque. It's not a good-quality shot, but Bo Burnham gave me the courage to actually make it bad, which I think adds to it in some ways, to the anger and to the roughness of the scene. - It feels very raw. It feels like it's right off the camera. - Yeah, yeah. Can I actually show you my

camera? - I would love to see your camera. (Ryan chuckles) So did you bring your camera? - I brought my camera just to show it to you- - Wow. - 'Cause I thought you would get a kick out of it. - Let's see what you got. - Okay, so this is the camera that I use to shoot everything. - Wow. - It's a Fuji X-E4. - Wow. - But the thing that makes it special was that, one time, I went hiking with my friends- - Mm-hmm. - And I fell into the river with all of my camera gear. And this lens, it wasn't even

my lens, it was my friend's lens, it got water in all of it. - I can tell. It's super cloudy. - Yes. You know like the water residue when you don't squeegee your shower? - Yeah, yeah. - That's what happened to this lens. And I was gonna go get it fixed, but then I started shooting a video with it, and I was like, "Wait, it looks kind of good." And this is what I shoot all my videos on, this half-broken lens, which I think adds to the video. That's also- - It gives you a visual style. - Yeah. - I

've seen a lot of folks in New Wave, like cameras maybe 20 or 30 feet away, and then they just take out their phone and they're just speaking into their phone. - Yeah, yeah. (laughs) - That's like kind of the new hot thing versus like a RODE Wireless GO or something like that. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - Yeah. - That's the other thing with the New Wave stuff is you could shoot with anything, man. - Right. - You know? - Right. - And you just shoot with your thing. You don't need a $3,000 cinema camera.

- Exactly. - Just use your phone or use a broken lens. It adds to your story. ♪ Quiet with the mic on ♪ ♪ I don't get anxiety, you Sam Bowie-ass niggas ♪ ♪ I just get Mike on ♪ - Today, I just bought- ♪ Y'all said ♪ ♪ I wouldn't go nowhere ♪ - This entire hospital. ♪ I took the detour ♪ ♪ When you see there's someone in the crack ♪ ♪ Right by the seashore ♪ ♪ When you see them brand-new le Fleurs on the floor ♪ - There's so much anger in this first 30 seconds here. Are you angry? Is that what i

t feels like to you? - That was kinda like me towards the algorithm during that period of time in my life. - Right. Talk about this. - The YouTube New Wave? - Yeah. - It started out as this kind of a joke. My friends and I, we felt like the creator industry was so heavily focused on the algorithm, analytics-based stuff. I don't like using the word MrBeastification or the Beastification of YouTube 'cause I feel like it's more than just MrBeast. He might have influenced a bunch of people, but it's

a bunch of people wanting to chase at work high click-through rate, high watch time, you're good, and you'll be famous like MrBeast. And there wasn't kind of a community of people that were pushing against that, making slower content, and seeing if there can actually be creators that are using their iPhones still in their bedrooms that can still make things that are as culturally impactful. And I feel like the majority of the creator industry right now are like Marvel movies. - Yes. - And Disne

y movies. - Interesting, yeah. - Which is great, but can there be like an A24 area? Can there be- - Yes, there can. - A Scorsese, right? - Yes, yes. - Yeah. - I mean, I think there can. - I think so, too. And so one side is to push against the MrBeastification of YouTube, but the other side is like, can someone that shot with an iPhone for their entire career be alongside some of the greatest filmmakers of all time? And that was a thought process behind that. And I went to film school, so I lear

ned about like the French New Wave and like the Hong Kong New Wave. And I was like, we could be the YouTube... - You're like watching "Wild Strawberries" (Ryan laughs) and deciding to go for it on YouTube. - Yeah, yeah. - Yeah. - So it was kind of a joke at first to call it the YouTube New Wave, and then it stuck. - It's funny 'cause I was thinking about this recently, especially with more YouTubers kinda taking a break or retiring, and over the last 10 years, the concept of watch time has becom

e all of our goals. - Yeah. - But the thing is, that's a very new and kind of not really important metric. - Yeah, I heard this in a podcast about... I don't know who it was, but it's like, "Well, if you have high watch time, that means they enjoy it." It sounded so simple, but I was like, I don't think so 'cause I can watch something disgusting and watch it all the way through. It'll just suck me in. - Yeah. - And I'll feel so terrible afterwards. - I think the watch time metric optimizes for w

hat people will consume. - Yeah. - Not necessarily what people, what is meaningful for a human. - It's not just that anymore. It's the categorization of your content. Back in like the Casey Neistat and like Emma Chamberlain days, in 2016, 2015, you break down what a Casey Neistat channel is, and you realize that can be 10 YouTube channels today. But with Casey, he's the running guy. He's the filmmaking guy. He's the family guy. He's the tech review guy. - Yeah. - Even I became the hating on YouT

ube guy on YouTube. I feel like the algorithm nowadays is encouraging you to just make the same things, which also could be a factor for why it's so hard for artists to make it on YouTube. (jazzy hip-hop music) ♪ Uh-huh ♪ ♪ Ayo ♪ (jazzy hip-hop music continues) - You do your own animations? - Yeah. (snoring) Using my iPhone. (snoring) - Oh, nice. - Okay. I have a question. How long would you give yourself until you moved on from your dreams? (snoring continues) (static fizzing) ♪ Good mornin' ♪

♪ Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh ♪ - When my mom asked me back in 2020, I told her to give me two years. Give me two years, (alarm clock beeping) and I will make more money chasing my YouTube dream than dad's ever made. ♪ All my love to give ♪ ♪ And I'll survive ♪ (upbeat disco music) (thumping) - The pacing, it's just, I feel like I'm watching "Alien." It's just, it's so patient. - Thank you. (gentle music) - Perfect music choice, too, after that moment. - In the last month, I spent more time playing

video games than I did working (keyboard clacking) on this channel. Maybe it was to steer my attention away from my failures, but it was also the first time I've really started to ask myself, why? Why were you still putting in 80-hour work weeks? Why did you put two years of love into a platform that didn't love you back? - Okay, so question about these vlog sections here. Are you writing out a script before? How do you actually articulate the story? And do you know where you're going before you

start shooting stuff like this? Or are you just speaking to the camera and then editing in post-production to kind of create meaning in the story? - I can't just film on the fly, so everything is written before I film a single shot. - The whole story? - This ending right here, the ending of this film, not so much 'cause it was like a vloggy type of thing. But typically, with most of my videos, I write everything before I film a single shot. - Yeah. - And in these shots right here, I'm using Goo

gle Docs as a teleprompter and I'm like- - Right. - Reading off of it 'cause I obviously can't memorize the entire script. - And what is this? Is that like a little- - It's a lav mic. - A little lav? What lav is it? - It's like a $20 Amazon lav mic. (Jack chuckling) It's all scratched up. - Yeah. - I lost the clip thing, so I have to hold it. (Jack laughs) And I love it. - And do you record a lot in Photo Booth? - Yeah, actually, this is a shot that I've screen recorded this Photo Booth thing ma

ybe like three years ago, and I use the same Photo Booth every single time and I just place my face over it. - You just superimpose the video on top of it? - Yeah, yeah. - Yeah, nice. - I would've wasted hours of my life if I just screen recorded it every single time. - (laughs) Yeah, right. Yeah, right. - Yeah. - Nice. - Did you put two years of love into a platform that didn't love you back? You're not gonna make an impact here. (thunder rumbling) You can't even make a living here. Besides, li

fe makes a lot more sense in this world. - I love the voiceover, the things that you're saying. I think a lot of YouTube, it's very literal in terms of the picture matching the voiceover. And instead, this section, you're talking about a platform loving you and you loving it back and the work that you do and this sort of dream. And instead, you're showing a close-up of your eyes, rain outside, a fucking chimney. How do you decide what footage to use in these moments? Because it feels right, but

it's not anything in particular. - I'm not really thinking about it when I'm putting it all together. It just feels right. Obviously, I'm not gonna put a sunny day with what I'm talking about. But I don't know. It's just intuition, I guess. - Are you thinking about the emotional arc of a section or of the whole story, and thinking about how it makes you feel or how you want other people to feel when you're thinking about it? Or is it literally just you're not even thinking about any of that, you

're just like, you're sitting in front of your timeline and just kinda adding footage that is right? - I do all of that in the writing process. - You do? - So my editing process is actually more manual than anything. It's just me throwing together things that I had already planned. I mean, I could show you the script. - Yeah, do you have it? - I do. So I put all my music that I planned on doing Tyler, the Creator, Bo Burnham. - Oh, wow. - And then this is how I write all my videos. So it's like

a documentary. - Wow. This is your actual like- - This is my script, yeah. - Wow, okay. - And then I have it color-coded, so graphics and animation, found footage. (whirring) - Wait, so film footage, so you shoot that. Stop motion is like you're gonna do a little- - Yeah. - Okay. Screen recording is just like the Photo Booth thing. - Photo Booth stuff. - Wow. - The editing process for me doesn't take super long 'cause I've already edited everything in my mind- - Wow. - Here. - So you finish the

whole thing here first- - Yes. - Before you shoot a beat. Okay. - Yeah, yeah. - Wow, and you're literally saying what the aspect ratio is gonna be for certain shots. - Yeah. - It's a really cool way to organize your thoughts. - Yeah, yeah. I can't do the... I know Casey Neistat just film on the go. - Right. - I'm like, how do you do... I have to kind of have everything nice and neat, organized before I film a single thing. - Wow. (gentle music) - Fighting monsters and feeding my pet goats. (goat

bleating) It's nice to be rewarded for all your hard work. (keyboard clacking) Yesterday, I harvested all my pumpkins and made $100,000. (coins jingling) (Jack chuckling) I know what you might be thinking. "Ryan- - Oh, you're doing- - "What the fuck happened?" - The phone thing. - Yup. (laughs) - Are you speaking into your phone? - Actually, no. (laughs) (Jack laughs) This was me lip-syncing it. - That is incredible. - Yeah. - You're fakin' the phone thing. - Yeah. (laughs) - Oh, my God, dude.

That's so awesome. - We'd successfully launched a three-day event in the beautiful backcountry of Colorado, bringing together 35 talented storytellers, musicians, and creators from around the world. - To the first-ever Creator Camp. (creators cheering) - The event was a message- - Pull, pull, pull. - That now more than ever- - Ah! - We needed to use our social platforms (creators cheering) not just to make more money, but to empower the next generation. - Wanna know what they don't have? The pow

er of friendship. - Ah! - Is that your drone or is that a friend's footage? - Friend's footage. - Friend's footage. - That's what happens when you're living with other creators and stuff like that. You just spend like two or three hours just sitting with your laptops. "Okay, here's my SD card. Here's your SD card." (Jack chuckling) Just going in a circle. - And everybody's swapping and downloading. - Yeah, yeah. - So fun. So then this part, the footage here, at least, wasn't scripted, but you kn

ew this part was gonna be in the script. - Yes, yeah. - But you hadn't shot any of it yet. And then you go out and you just shoot a bunch of stuff and you know what beat that's gonna play in the story. - Yeah. Well, in this case, it's like a more vlogging type of thing. And if I don't have control over the shots, I just film everything- - Mm. - Just to make sure that I know that I have enough footage- - Yeah. - To work with. - Yeah. (uplifting music) (creator chuckling) - Beautiful shot. (creato

rs cheering) - Oh! - Oh. - That's Aiden. (Jack chuckling) (Ryan chuckles) - Three, two- - That's Reisinger right there. - One. - Oh. - Creator Camp! - This sequence of the film was so nice and such a breath of humanity. Is that what it felt like? Is that why you added... Did you know that was gonna happen beforehand when you were writing all this? - A lot of the events that were out there at the time were so analytics-focused. And we just wanted to create something that would bring together peop

le that were more underground and making slower content, making more story-based stuff. So we were like, "We should do something. We should come together for two days and just learn from each other." And that time in Colorado was magical. I mean, I'm still friends with so many of them. Some of them are some of my closest friends today. On the ride back, (luggage unzips) I couldn't stop thinking (luggage clattering) about how I could share our story with the world. A video about five 20-year-old

nobodies, (keyboard clacking) pushing through the noise to build an authentic community of creators. I mean, how inspiring is that? (keyboard clacks) But as I opened up Google Docs to begin writing, something stopped me in my tracks. (keyboard clacking) I mean, if I wanted to reach as many people as possible, I should probably come up with a good title and thumbnail first. - Oh, god. - Right? Maybe something a little bit clickbaity - This is so painful to watch. - Something that could grab peopl

e's attention. (keyboard clacking) (clock ticking) Nah, nah, I could think of something better. - Oh, God. (keyboard clacking) What's so painful about that, it so beautifully captures the thing that I struggle with and I know so many YouTubers struggle with, which is like, "Wow, I just experienced this amazing story and I want to make meaning out of these experiences and string them together in a way that tells people." And then you're like, "No, no, no. Let me do the title and thumb." - Yeah. -

And then it just like fucks your creativity immediately. - Yeah. - It's the worst kind of constraint. We have that with "Digital Spaghetti." - Yeah. - We're like, "We just had the most meaningful conversation, and now we have to come up with some bullshit like..." Ah, God, (Ryan chuckles) it's so frustrating. And this- - "How Jack Conte blah blah blah." Yeah, you know? (Jack laughs) - But this sequence captures that feeling beautifully without even saying any of that. - That's like the stuff th

at goes on in my mind when I'm thinking about this stuff. 'Cause at the time, my channel was doing well. - Yeah. - It was. I was talking about the YouTube New Wave stuff, I was talking about this shift that was happening, and my YouTube channel had become that information center. And then I wanna make a video about the sleep-away camp that I built with my friends, so me trying to fit that sleep-away camp thing into the creator industry, and it was the most frustrating thing. And I had like the b

iggest existential crisis 'cause of it. Out of the blue, (clock ticking) (notification dings) I get an unexpected text. - Yo, Ryan, what's up? - How'd you do that? - I just wanted you to know- - I just filmed in the dark. - Me and some of the guys- - And I used my phone- - From Creator Camp- - As my light. - Gonna be going to Hawaii. - Did you ask Natalie to do this voiceover? - Yeah, yeah. She sent me a bunch of takes on it. I was like, "Thank you so much." - Wow. - Going to Hawaii. And I wante

d to see if few would be down to come 'cause I feel like you deserve a break with like all the- (clicking) - Oh, I love that cut. How do you decide where to cut? - Intuition. I don't know. - But like in this sequence, you literally cut her off. - To cut her off, it was like to continue to kind of display my frustration with everything. I'm like, "No, I don't... Anything creator-related, Natalie, I don't... No, thank you," you know? - Mm, mm-hmm. - It's just more emotional in that sense. You don'

t have to say anything. - It is- - It speaks for itself. - And I think, yeah. It's also like you don't need to have her speak for longer than that 'cause you get that it's an invitation and you get that you're shutting it down. - Yeah. - Which is like this very sad story point because her invitation is so earnest and caring. - Yeah, yeah. - And to cut there feels visceral. - Yeah. Nowadays, I try to find every way to not have to say things. If I can show it, perfect. It's better storytelling if

I don't go through the process of telling you how I feel all the time. You know what I mean? - Yes, yes, totally, totally. - It began to dawn on me how special these moments were. - Oh, my God! - Whoo! - Oh, my God! - Oh, no! - These were my coworkers. - No! - Fellow creators- - Is that where you dropped the camera? - That were all going- - Just go. - No. - Okay. - The same problems. - Whoa, whoa, whoa. - Ah! And here we were- I'm holding my phone right there. - Playing in Hawaii. - Is that the

audio from your phone? (friends laughing) - Mm-hmm. (tender music) (waterfall burbling) - I'm on the phone. - Wait, what? - Wait, (indistinct). - As I relaxed on the rocks- - Just on sticks? - It all hit me. Mm-mm. (keyboard clacking) It's on a rock. I couldn't quit. At least, I couldn't leave this behind. (waterfall burbling) (birds chirping) That week I spent with my friends was the greatest reminder of why I'd stuck it through for this long. I think it's so easy in today's world to give up an

d accept that your voice will never be heard. I mean, it's justified in a world that promotes thirst traps over good stories to feel like nothing you do matters. But I wonder if this mindset (door clicking) actually accomplishes anything. Sure, (luggage clattering) nobody will blame you for being sad, nobody will blame you for quitting. But as hard as that is, (laptop clatters) maybe it's actually better to stay optimistic, to lock arms with your friends and trudge forward (mouse clicking) in wh

at you believe in. - Ah, I love you, too, ah. - Group hug, group hug, group hug. (mouse clicking) (tender music continues) - I don't think I'm going to quit. Actually, I think now more than ever I know that I want to make videos for the rest of my life, just not in the way YouTube expects me to. I'm done with the whole YouTube algorithm and playing the game. And maybe that means I'll never make a living from YouTube. Maybe this is the start of getting less and less of views. But maybe that's als

o okay. If YouTube can't be my full-time job, at the very least, my authentic voice will be out there. And who's to say that that alone wasn't a success? - Two, one, two, three, four. (drumsticks tapping) (upbeat rock music) ♪ I don't feel pain ♪ - That's such a powerful message at the end of this movie. - Thank you. - It would be so easy, I think, to tell a nihilistic story about the meaninglessness of the internet and all of this. - Yeah. - I think to root it all in that optimistic take as thi

s source of meaning for the film was just the harder choice. - Yeah. - The message at the end really resonates with me. I'm like, "No, I do wanna do it, but I wanna do it the way I wanna do it, not the way they want me to do it." - Mm-hmm. - That is, I think, such a powerful message. - Thank you. It's hard. - Yeah. - It's so hard. There's so much, especially in the creator industry, there's so much noise telling you what to do. When you're meeting other creators that have a million subscribers,

that have 100,000 subscribers, that are friends with creators that you've watched for so long, you just wanna get out there. But one of the biggest things that I've learned is the importance of your family, and the importance of your hometown friends, and where you came from, and to stay rooted and grounded in those things 'cause that's where all your stories, that's where so much of it is gonna come from that world that you grew up in. My mom knows me the most, so I value her opinions on my fil

ms more than I do a lot of filmmakers. - Wow. - Because she knows me. When I show her videos, she's like, "Nah, Ryan, I don't know if this is you," I take it very seriously, and I think that's what makes you a better storyteller in so many ways. - Ryan, this is amazing, man. Thank you so much for doing this and being here with us and watching your films. - Yeah, man. - Inspiring, and beautiful, and yeah, you're a special soul. Thanks for being here. - Thank you so much. Thanks for having me, man

. This was so fun. - Awesome. (jazzy pop music) (static fizzing)