Magic: The Gathering Drive to Work Podcast - #538: Making Videos

Episode Date: May 18, 2018

I was asked to make some "How to" videos for Magic (alongside Gaby Spartz). This podcast is all about the day I spent making Magic videos.

I'm pulling out of the parking lot. We all know what that means. It's time to run the drive to work. And I had to take my son to school. Okay, so today is going to be a fun day. Yesterday, I got asked to do something. And today, I'm going to tell the story of what I did yesterday. So a little background to this. So, from time to time, I'm asked to do videos. And one of the qualities that I'm known for in my videos is enthusiasm. I'm very enthusiastic, which you would probably

know if you've ever seen any of my videos. Now, it's a genuine enthusiasm. I'm just an enthusiastic person. But I have a pretty high energy level. And so they were making a bunch of how-to videos. And so they decided that they wanted somebody with enthusiasm. That ended up being me. So they asked if I could come and shoot a day's worth of videos, of how-to videos, on various OP programs. And I said, sure. OP programs, and I said, sure. And so my co-host was Gabby Sparks, who you guys might know.

She does a lot of Pro Tour coverage. She does a lot of magic streaming. So anyway, Gabby and I were, we had six videos to do. Five of them were me and Gabby, and one was just me. That was last. So anyway, I want to talk a little bit about this experience of shooting videos. So that's today's podcast is shooting videos. Okay, so I'm almost over my cold. I'll do a cough still. Okay, so it started, my call time was at 8.15 at this, there's a studio that we tend to shoot at um and so i had to be there by

8 15 i had to get into makeup and such um so what happened was they asked me to bring a variety of clothes because they wanted options of what to pick i thought because we were shooting six videos they needed six different outfits so i brought a lot literally a suitcase full of magic related shirts and the funny thing is that's not even close to the number of magic-related shirts. And the funny thing is, that's not even close to the number of magic-related shirts I own. It's a... but a fraction. But anyway, I

I gathered together mostly what I brought together was a lot of stuff that seemed more generic because I was doing how-to videos. These videos are aimed at more beginning players. So, I have a lot of, like, old-school t-shirts are the kind of things I wear when I'm doing how-to videos. These videos are aimed at more beginning players. So I have a lot of like old school t-shirts are the kind of things I wear when I'm doing videos more in franchise

players and stuff. I love when I'm doing like for example when we did the thank you for the 25th anniversary, I wore my A Deck of Brain and a Friend t-shirt which is an ad campaign from like 97 or something. But anyway, this was

more of me bringing symbology, some characters, some symbols, like planeswalker symbols and different things. So anyway, I literally brought a suitcase full of shirts, and then a separate giant bag full of flannels. I brought just every color of flannel you can imagine. So whatever shirt

they brought, there's options for flannels. Because pretty much, if you don't know my look, they brought, there's options for flannels. Because pretty much, if you don't know my look, my look is t-shirts and flannels. I always wear magic-related t-shirts when I do videos, obviously. But anyway, so I show up. There's some traffic,

so I think I got there a smidgen late, although I was actually the first one there. But anyway, I show up and I show them all my shirts. So interestingly, the one they ended up selecting for me was the newest shirt I had. So we are running the Great Designer Search 3 right now. And as part of a thank you and a little sort of reward for the top eight, because it's a lot of work,

we made them T-shirts and play mats that we sent them as sort of a, hey, you made the top eight. And actually, it says the Great Designer for You on the back of the shirt. The front of the shirt is kind of like a shiv and dragon, kind of the pieces of it broken apart as if you're putting it together. At some point, I should post a picture of it. I think Melissa posted hers on Twitter, but you guys might not have seen it. One thing is I had to remember to post my picture of my shirt on my social media so you guys can see it. Maybe if people remind me around the time this is coming out, I will post it again. Anyway,

so they picked that shirt. It was like a light blue shirt. And then I was like, oh, I have a blue flannel. Like, no, no, no. They wanted like a gray flannel to go with it because they wanted, I don't know, I guess they like the shirt pops more. It's a darker flannel. But anyway, I left them to pick up my wardrobe. And then I had to do makeup. I's a darker flannel. But anyway, I left them to pick up my wardrobe. And then I had to do makeup. I had a professional makeup person. And so they always sort of adjust my hair and make sure my clothes look right. And then they'll do my makeup. Gabby showed up.

And actually, Gabby did her makeup first. Then I did my makeup. So Gabby, real quick. I have interacted with Gabby in the past. But this is probably the longest amount of time that I've ever had one-on-one time So Gabby, real quick, I have interacted with Gabby in the past, but this is probably the longest amount of time that I've ever had one-on-one time with Gabby. I got to learn a lot more about Gabby. They're originally from Ecuador.

I did not know that. But anyway, we had fun. We chatted a bit because they had to set up the studio so it took some time. Even though I showed up a smidgen late, it turns out I was fine because they were... So the way it works is there's a giant studio. And then if you've ever seen Access Magic, we did one for Dominaria.

We did one for Eldritch Moon. There's a set. And depending on what we're shooting, when we do Access Magic, usually there's a couch. There's a chair and a couch. So the host sits in like a chair and the guests sit on a couch, there's a chair and a couch, so the host sits in a chair, and the guests sit on a couch, and there's a coffee table. So this was that set, but without the

talk show components of it, because Gabby and I were just standing. But behind us, if you look behind us, there's the photos of the gate watch, the ones that are the monochromatic five different pictures, and it's pictures of the first planeswalk they had. This is from Magic Origins.

So it is kind of a silhouette of Gideon, but he's clearly on Alara. And a silhouette of Jace, who's on Ravnica. And Liliana on Innistrad. And Chandra on Ragatha. And Nissa on Lorwyn. Anyway, and then there are shelves

and there's a cool Karn statue, and there are art books, and a bunch of knickknacks. There's swords on the other wall. But anyway, it's the set that you've seen Access Magic. It's kind of that set. Dressed down a little bit because it wasn't... They add some more stuff. Usually when we're doing the talk show, it's about a particular theme,

and so they'll add elements from that set. There was a cool shield they added for Dominaria and there's some creepy infrastructure stuff they added for Eldritch Moon. So anyway, so it comes in. So the idea was we had six videos to shoot. So I'm going to walk through the videos

and talk about them. So the way this had worked was I was what you call talent. I was not involved in any... I didn't make, I mean, I was reading the lines and doing the parts, but I didn't write the scripts. I wasn't involved.

Sometimes, for example, I'll be more involved depending on what we're shooting. Like if you guys remember when we did the video introducing Unstable, for example, I was, I wrote the section where I'm trying to break free and tell you that Unstable's coming. Like, I came up with that section. I wrote that. So sometimes I write things.

This particular one, I was more, talent is what they call you in the industry, what actors are called. We need talent to the set. So they call you talent. So we were the talent, me and Gabby. Okay, so we got all ready. We got our makeup on and got our wardrobe and everything was good to go. And then the first video was called How to F&M. So F&M stands for Friday Night Magic.

So most of the stuff I'm telling you, these videos were aimed at beginners. So my guess is if you're listening to my podcast, probably you're a little more enfranchised than the audience for this. Now, I'm hoping by the time this comes out, because there's a lag, that these will be posted and you can watch in all your glory as I am very enthusiastic in my response. So one of the things that's funny is, before we get to the shooting, is they sent me the scripts ahead of time so that I could see them, because like I said,

I didn't write them. And it was clear that the attribute they were going for was enthusiasm. Often when I shoot my videos, I am normally enthusiastic, but sometimes I'm really enthusiastic, and they were looking for really enthusiastic. So if you watch these

videos and I seem really enthusiastic, that's what they were going for. They asked me, I mean, like I said, I generally, genuinely love Magic. My enthusiasm is genuine enthusiasm. But they definitely wanted me to, the videos are, I'm quite enthusiastic. Now, I'm talking about fun, cool stuff.

Like, one of the things we learned about, by the way, with new players is that a lot of players are just unaware of all the resources the game has. A lot of people, for unaware of all the resources the game has. A lot of people, for example, don't know about things like Friday Night Magic, which is why we're doing a video so we can teach people about it. So the point of these videos, like I said, are more introductory to teach you what things are. And then the script was trying to have a little bit of comedy to it.

So anyway, let's start with the first one. The first one was called How to F&M. So Friday Night Magic. So the idea of the video is we're introducing Friday Night Magic. And usually the way it would work is I would introduce myself and Gabby would introduce herself. Like literally all six videos. Sorry, five of the six videos. The one I did by myself, I don't actually introduce myself, I don't think. The in-store tournaments. Because that one was for a more franchised crowd, the assumption was they would know

who I was and I didn't have to introduce myself. But the other five, it all started with, Hi, I'm Mark, and I'm Geddy. And, you know, we'd go into whatever it was. So the first one was explaining Friday Night Magic, and the other thing is we started with an easy one. It was one of the shorter ones. So the way it was explaining Friday Night Magic. And the other thing is we started with an easy one. It was one of the shorter ones.

So the way it works is there are three cameras. There's a fourth one in the final shot. I'll get to that when I get to the final shot. There's three cameras, what we'll call A, B, and C. The A camera was the center camera. B was off to our left from the actor's perspective. And C was to the right. And the A camera had a teleprompter, so they'd given us the scripts ahead of time.

I didn't really memorize it per se, but I mean, I looked through them, and then we could run through it. And when you run through it, you pick up your lines pretty quick. Plus, they're on the teleprompter, so you can read them off the teleprompter to remind you. And the way the teleprompter, for those that never see a teleprompter, the way it works is there's glass in front of camera A, the center camera, and so if you're looking at the words, you're looking at the camera. A lot of people use, I mean, a lot of actors, politicians, teleprompters are very common because it keeps you from having to memorize everything.

And so obviously this was not memorized. Hopefully it seems sincere, not like I'm just reading it. And because we did it a lot of times, you start to get a real grasp of what the words are. So anyway, we started. Now, to get a sense of what's going on here is, so each camera has a camera person. There is a director who is directing. And there is various wizards people there.

And then there's a person who does the wardrobe and the hair. There's a sound person who does the sound. And there are a bunch of technicians that were there for the setup that were sort of around, and if things needed to be changed, they would move things around. So maybe there was like 15 people. Oh, remember, one thing I forgot. Before I came in, we had to get mic'd.

So the way it works is there's a mic that's on you. There's a little battery pack that you put on your belt, and then you put the mic underneath your shirt, and then you sort of hide it so the audience doesn't really see the mic, but it's right there so it can pick up the sound um because a lot one of the things about having done video uh i've done a lot of video is audio is probably the hardest part about doing video um i mean there's a lot of technicalities with the visuals and you need a lot of lights and things um one of the reasons you tend to shoot in the studio is video requires a decent amount of light and so there's a whole

bunch of lights there's a grid above you so there's a whole bunch of lights. There's a grid above you, and there's a whole bunch of lights hanging in there. Normally, when you shoot on set, it's pretty hot because you're under all the lights, but it was just a cold day, and the studio was actually a little on the colder side, a little colder than I'm used to when I'm shooting. Usually, when you shoot, there's so many lights,

it gets so hot that it gets really hot on set, and you're always hot. But this time, I was not. I was a little more cold than hot, which is a unique thing, thing usually in a shooting video. So the idea is that, and then the director sort of walks you through, like you'll do something and then they'll give you notes on it. One of the other issues we had was the location of

the studio was not far away from some airfield. And occasionally a plane would fly by, and then we'd have to stop. We'd have to wait to make sure the sound was clear. And now when there were planes, for some reason we had trucks and fire engines. Anyway, it was a loud day. A lot of vehicles making a lot of noise.

The studio is somewhat soundproof, so most of it's okay, but if you get something that's super close sometimes, like planes will make some sound. Okay, so the way it works is we do the run-through. So we started with front-end magic because it was really short, and the other thing that happened was Gabby and I would make notes on set if we, like sometimes, the way it would work is they wanted both of us

roughly, each of us have about the same amount of lines and they wanted a natural flow and the idea was to borrow from I guess from commentating Gabby was more the straight

person and I was more the color that she was more sort of explaining things, and I was supposed to be making it entertaining and exciting, I guess was the idea. We ended up sharing, I mean, clearly I know the information, so we kind of shared a little bit. I tended to give information where I could get more excited about it, because remember, I was excited.

And Gabby gave more of the straightforward stuff. So when we explain stuff, we'll get to that. Okay, so Friday Night Magic, most of the idea of this one was just introducing people to the idea that on Friday nights, there is magic played every Friday night at your local game store, and that you can go play, and then we talked about, you know, there's promos you have a chance to get, and it's a fun experience, and you can play with other people.

So, this one was super intro uh the idea the idea for this video was if you play magic already but you might not uh you might not know that there's organized play and this was kind of telling you about friday magic so friday magic is the main thing the it's the first um thing people tend to get involved sometimes pre-releases which we'll get to in a second. But Friday Night Magic is a regular thing that once people start to play Magic, it's a nice place if they want to have other people to play with.

So one of the things that people don't realize is the vast, vast, vast majority of Magic is not played in tournaments. I know that a lot of focus goes on tournaments and a lot of awareness is on tournaments, but in-store play and tournament play is actually a tiny percentage of Magic. It's an important part,

and we know that the more people, like, the more you play in tournaments, the more invested you get to be, just because the more regularly you can play. A lot of people that don't play somewhere, they play more irregularly, but when you get to a tournament in a store and things in which, oh, every Friday we play,

it tends to pull you in. Note, by the way, that there's different stores will run events different nights. Friday Night Magic, we tend to run, we try to, well, Friday Night Magic is run on Fridays. If you are a store and you want to have Friday Night Magic, that is when, you can't run Friday Night Magic on Saturday or something.

Friday Night Magic is Friday. Now, a lot of stores will run different events at different times. Friday Night Magic is focused on, I think, I know there's standard and there's limited, and there is modern played. There may or may not be Commander played to Friday Night Magic.

You guys probably know the answer. I'm not sure. But anyway, the first video was short, was quick. Hey, here's what we're doing. And we got in, we were sort of warming up a little bit. There was something to come that were a little bit longer,

so we're like, okay, let's start with a quick, easy, simple one. So that's the first one we did. And one of the other things that we needed to do a little bit was just get a rapport between me and Gabby. We had a pretty good rapport. She and I got along great, and a lot of the funny thing also is, I don't know whether they're going to make an outtake reel, by the way. They should, because because especially me.

I goofed up constantly. Gabby goofed up some, obviously. But I do this thing when I lose track of where I'm at where I just sort of say gobbledygook. When I'm like blah, blah, blah. I don't want to lose the tempo of what I'm saying, but I don't have words. And so I kind of continue talking, but without actually saying actual words. And anyway, I do that a lot. I hope they make a

blooper reel, because there's some funny stuff. When I make a mistake, I go big. So I'm hoping that you guys get a chance to see that. Okay, so Friday, our first one's Friday Magic. That went smooth. These all went pretty smoothly.

Okay, next was Open House. So Open House is an event that happens the week before the pre-release. And the idea is, have you never been to a store before? This is the very first thing you can go to. And the idea of an Open House is we give you a 30-card

starter deck, or a sample deck, I think they call it, which is a free deck that you can start playing with right away. And the idea is open house is for people that have never played Magic or are just unfamiliar with coming to play, getting outside your house and playing in a structured environment. I think if you know how to play Magic, you can start with Friday Night Magic. You don't have to start with Open House.

But if you're nervous, or if you want to sort of test the waters, Open Houses are designed so they're always a week before the pre-release. So if you, for example, have friends that are a little bit intimidated, that either already play Magic or would like to learn Magic,

Open House is a good thing. We made this video... The video is more for someone to get them to come to Open House, Open House is a good thing. We made this video... The video is more for someone to get them to come to Open House, but we also sort of said, hey, if you know someone to bring to Open House... And this one was another pretty simple one. I think we wanted to start with the relatively simple stuff to sort of

get warmed up. This was another relatively fast one. And the other thing that's funny is, so usually what would happen, actually this was true with the very first video, is the goal that they had in mind was they wanted me to have lots of energy.

So I would do the scene and I'd have lots of energy! And the note would be, Mark, could you just bring it up a little bit? So if you've ever watched me do videos, by the way, I have I I have, okay, how many levels, I have, let's, let's say five levels, okay, first is like, I'm talking, and I'm generally excited, first level is, I'm talking, there's an undercurrent of excitement, but it's not,

I'm not particularly excited, I'm not exuding excitement, but I'm, you can tell underneath that there's some excitement there, the level two is where I'm clearly excited, I'm not exuding excitement, but you can tell underneath that there's some excitement there. Then level two is where I'm clearly excited. I'm excited. Like, this excites me. You know, the voice is a little raised or a little more, and you can tell that. Then three is the really excited, where I am pumped. I am just beyond.

This is something that I'm so excited to do. Level four is like, I didn't think Mark would get more excited than level 3, but somehow he did. He's even more excited than level 4. And then level 5 is like bonkers. Level 5, I don't do level

5 all that often, but every once in a while I go to level 5, which is just super excited. So anyway, I felt like I started shooting this at like maybe a level two and they're like how about level three how about level four does level five exist so anyway there's you guys watch these videos i'm really excited um so that that's the oh the other thing that would happen is some of the wizards people weren't in the studio but they were watching through a feed at work

so they could see the video. And so occasionally we'd get notes. And a lot of times what would happen is we'd get the script and stuff and I would ask them something and they would talk to the Wizards people who were watching back at the office, the brand people were watching

back at the office. And then they would give notes. And then the funny thing is sometimes I would argue with them, but I knew they were watching me on camera. So I would talk to the camera and then I'd hear the comeback from them. So anyway,

that was a fun little quirky thing. But anyway, so the open house went pretty smoothly. One of the things that was interesting is I don't think Gabby was aware or maybe Gabby had been to an open house but didn't realize how frequent they were, how recent they were.

One of the things that I always do each time we'd start something is I would share with Gabby the history of however the thing came to be. Like Friday Night Magic, we started many years ago. And when we originally started it, it wasn't set to a particular night. But what we found was

that it was hard to have the messaging that we wanted to sort of, we wanted people to know when and where it was. So we wanted the name of the thing to tell you exactly when it was. So we wanted the name of the thing to tell you exactly when it was. Because Friday Night Magic says, oh, when would I play? How about Friday night? But the next step from doing

that was we had to get other stores, because what we realized is we actually wanted to be Friday nights. And so it took us a while, like, early on stores ran it whenever they wanted to, and eventually we're like, oh, well, you can run other things, but if you want to write Friday Night Magic, that has to be Friday nights. And we did that worldwide.

There was a lot of growing pains to sort of get everybody on board. Look, it's a unified thing around the world that at Friday nights you play Magic. But eventually we did it, and it's become actually one of our most popular programs. And from a standpoint of the local

game store, it is the strongest program we run out of local game stores. And that's become super, super important for us. The local game stores are lifeblood. Very important. Open House was more recent. What happened was, so pre-releases we learned were the number one place where new players tended to start, is the most common new experience. But what we discovered was that there were people that were intimidated at pre-releases. So we decided to run an in-store event the week before that kind of got to be a primer and teach people.

And also ended up becoming a place where people could bring people to learn how to play Magic, or people just could come to learn how to play Magic. But OpenDoc Knowledge is relatively recent. We just started it I think it was two years ago, I think. Maybe three if I'm forgetting.

But I think it's only been two years, I think. Anyway, if I'm wrong, I apologize. Okay, the third video was about Grand Prix. And so the Grand Prix, for those who don't know,

I assume you guys know, but it's giant events we run around the world. The top eight, I think the top eight get, is it top eight or top four? Some number of top people advance to the Pro Tour, but it's a chance, it's kind of the biggest tournament that the average person can play in that might show up in their hometown. So Grand Prix's, I mean, there's Pro Tours,

but the average person isn't going to a Pro Tour. So the Grand Prix's are kind of like the biggest magic thing that the average person will play in. So the funny thing about this is the big argument we got into was the opening sentence referred to Grand Prix in plural as Grand Prix. And I'm like, oh, is Grand Prix, is that the plural? Is it Grand Prixs? Is Grand Prix the plural? Is it like deer, is Grand Prix is that the plural? Is it Grand Prix's? Is Grand Prix the plural? Is it like deer that is both the singular and the plural? And there's two issues. One is what is literally the correct answer? And the second

thing was what sounds right so the audience doesn't get confused? Because sometimes you can have the correct answer, but it still confuses people. Because sometimes people don't like the correct answer of the plural for Grand Prix might be something that technically is this, but that might still lead to confusion.

So it turns out the Grand Prix, I think, is the plural. But I think we tried to reword it so we weren't quite confusing you whether we were talking about one Grand Prix or multiple Grand Prix. And so that was the one we were sort of walking through and talking about what to, you know, trying to explain what a Grand Prix was.

The other thing was they had a joke for me to do at the end that, I think the original joke was like I was out of breath. But the problem is it's hard in order to actually play out of breath, for those that have not done the acting of out of breath, is you really have to sort of get yourself to hyperventilate a little bit to get the feel, like to sound right like you're out of breath. And the problem was I could do that once, maybe twice. It is not something that's easy to replicate. And the way these videos shot, like for example, usually we were shooting 10, 11, 12 times. You know, we were doing a bunch of takes.

And the idea was, a lot of these videos, I don't know how much cutting there's going to be in them. So the idea is, when they're shooting right now, they're basically shooting long shots of us and they there's three cameras so we can cut between the cameras as far as the shot um but there's not um we before we left we did some takeaways meaning just reaction shots but it's a lot of the way the editing wants to be is you want a flow so you want sort of a continuous thing so even though you're cutting um cameras it's clear what take you're in. And so it's harder to blend takes together.

Anyway, I'm being technical. So we were trying to get a smooth take in which they liked everything all the way through so that when they edited, they didn't have to take different pieces. Now, some videos we would cut away and show something, meaning some videos there's a section where we could change up

and that the audience wouldn't notice up and and you know the um that the audience wouldn't notice normally when you shoot the little um i'll put my communication uh major hat on um when you um shoot video the way the video gets shot is you shot and you shoot on multiple cameras and what you're trying to do really is uh when you get to editing you're trying to give yourself a lot of options and choices so that when you edit it, you can sort of get the flow that you want. And a lot of directing is doing what we call coverage, which means that you have enough shots that you then can edit the thing together. And one of the things you have to understand when you're directing is, do you need to have continuous stuff

or can you have a lot of separate broke about shots? So one of the things in making a movie and stuff is they'll storyboard, which means they'll know specifically how they want to shoot it. Like, it's a long angle

and then we're coming in close and there everything is blocked ahead of time. And so, for example, if they want a close-up, they know to shoot the close-up because they know they're cutting to the close-up because it's all been sort of blocked ahead of time. And so, for example, if they want a close-up, they know to shoot the close-up because they know they're cutting to the close-up

because it's all been sort of blocked ahead of time. Now, sometimes in the editing room, what'll happen is they'll sometimes do coverage where they shoot a two-shot, like a shot of both people talking and a shot of just the one person talking

and a separate shot of the other person talking so that they can cut between them. But usually, in good film, the directors know what they're doing. A lot of the stuff is figured ahead in storyboards, so they know a lot of how they want to cut it ahead of time. Usually the editor and the director,

sometimes the director is the editor, will sort of get a sense of how they want to cut the film as they're shooting it to make sure they have what they need. Anyway, there's a long, rounded way of saying that when we shot this, they were trying to make sure they had what they needed so they could cut this thing together. And the nature of how they wanted to do most of these was they wanted, because they were

short, a pretty quick flow, which meant they kind of wanted them done in one take. Not that there wouldn't be cut between, but you can tell when you're cutting between different takes of things if you're not careful. So they wanted a clean version of the take. That is the reason why we were doing like 10, 11, 12 copies of it. Just to make sure. I mean, sometimes we would mess up. Sometimes, as I said, there's a whole blooper reel.

But a lot of it was trying to make sure that we had the right edit. Because if the energy is a little different between takes, then it's hard to cut them together. Also, sometimes, like I said, it was like, okay, that was great. That was really good. Oh, the plane flew dry. We got to do it again. Or, okay, Mark, could you just be a little more excited? Can you ramp it up a little bit more? So when you see these videos, you're like, wow, Mark seems really excited. That is why. I was told to be very, I mean, I love magic, but I was told to be quite excited.

Next was how to draft, I mean, I love magic, but I was told to be quite excited. Next was how to draft. This one took us a while because how the script described it ended up being a little inaccurate in some ways. And so I ended up sort of explaining it. This is one of the ones where I rewrote a bunch of stuff and I mostly did this one. This wasn't on script. If you see me talking, that's me talking. I mean, we practice it so I said the same thing multiple times but

this was me going a little off script to explain how drafting worked. And then what we did is I did the part of explaining the physical part of drafting and then Gabby did the technical part of like, you want about 23 spells and 17 lands, stuff like that. So she did a little more technical. In general, the idea

of the scripts was I was supposed to do the part that was the enthusiastic, the part that I could be more enthusiastic about, and then she would do the more technical part of explaining things. The other thing you'll notice is between videos sometimes there's, the idea wasn't that all people watch all videos,

so some of the verbiage would copy between stuff. I was joking with Gabby because just one sequence she did, or I forget which one it was for, but like something will be provided for you. And it sounded like a flight attendant when they're like, you know, anyway, the pacing she did, I was joking with her.

It sounded like there are two exits. Anyway, so that she did, I was joking with her. It sounded like, there are two exits. Anyway, so that was how to draft. So that video was, we do draft weekends, and that's something we do, that stores can do on the weekends, where people can come in and draft. Draft weekends, I think, is the first weekend that the product is out. So the idea is, the product's just come out, let's draft! And so we really encourage doing drafting.

And so that video was all about the drafting. So by the way, it's interesting. I am sitting in traffic. So we are now at the 30. Normally, by the way, for those that know my drive, I should be at work right now. I should be like,

and time to wrap it up. And instead, so when I drive from work, I actually, there's two freeways that I take. Um, and normally it takes about half the time to get, about half, it takes about half the time to get to the intersection where I change over, um, from one freeway to the other. So usually when I get there, I'm like, oh, the show is about half over. I have not gotten to that freeway yet. I'm still waiting to get I'm close, although the fact that there's so many cars here means that me being close might still be a while. So the interesting thing is I'm going to go into some great detail because

normally when I put together a show, my assumption is I'll have about half an hour. Most shows I have enough material if I need to stretch a little bit. Well, some shows are multi-part shows in which I have a lot to say, so if I have more to say, whatever, it doesn't matter, unless it's the third show or the final show. Usually when I do card shows, I do about three episodes. But sometimes, for example, if I have more and I just get into traffic, like, oh, it's, it's an hour of this, which would have been two shows, but now it's one show.

Um, usually when it's not a multi-part show, I build in, I have a little extra I can say. Um, one of the reasons I'm getting some technical stuff, like how we shoot videos, uh, is I realized I had a lot of extra time. Um, but, uh, this is, well, we'll see. If we have, essentially what happens is at some point I'll have, and this has happened to me

numerous times, my topic has X amount of time that I can talk about. And so what I will do is I will, normally it's, I optimize for things

that I have about half an hour because that's about how long my ride takes. And then if it stretches a little bit, usually I can get to 45 minutes and be okay. I can get to 45 minutes and be okay.

If I get to an hour, it has to be a topic that I really know and I have a lot to say about. But, anyway, we'll see. I have a little deal with,

I know how much is ahead of me of this thing, so we'll see, we'll see how much more I can fill it. I've been stretching, if it hasn't been, I don't know how you guys are aware when I'm stretching, when I know that I is ahead of me of this thing, so we'll see how much more I can fill it. I've been stretching. I don't know how you guys are aware when I'm stretching, when I know that I have to stretch stuff. The other thing I've learned from doing this so long is when I'm driving and I see traffic,

and I'm like, I know, for example, if there's a lot of traffic on the first freeway, that that's going to slow me down. And so I'm like, oh, I can take my time. I can go in more detail. You know what I'm saying? I will slow roll things a little bit more. Hopefully it's not super apparent. Today is going to be apparent because I'm, like I said,

we're at the 30-minute mark and I'm, I mean, once I get to the intersection, the second half will go fast. But the second half is about 15 minutes by itself and I'm not quite to the second part. So like the best we can hope for,

or the best I can hope for today is a 45-minute commute. It might be a little bit longer. So what happens, by the way, if I exceed, and this happens a lot, where I talk and I talk and I talk and I get to the point where I just can't say anymore, and then I'll go, oh, I

give up. And so there's a bunch of podcasters that go, I give up. You've beaten me, traffic. I cannot say anymore. Because there's some topics. This is at least a topic where I had a whole day of things going on it plays into my background

so I can talk a little bit about the filming and this and that so I have some extra stuff to talk about but sometimes I have topics where like for example

I'll do a topic where I have n number of things I'm talking about like it's symbols and I have a certain number of symbols and now symbols

I probably could I could because there were a lot of symbols. And now symbols, I probably could, I could, because there were a lot of symbols, I could probably stretch that a little bit. But sometimes I do it like, there's six things. There's six things to talk about. Okay, I have enough to fill up my, I have five minutes per thing of six things and that's 30 minutes.

And then I have, end up having like an hour and like, do I have 12 minutes? We'll see. Okay, sorry. So this is more behind the scenes stuff ok so we were talking about how to draft yeah that one took a while I was figuring out how best to do the draft

oh sorry I forgot a funny story on the Grand Prix one so there's a joke they gave me for the Grand Prix I think I I set this up and then didn't finish the story so the joke originally was me hyperventilating because I'm getting so excited. And what I said to them is,

we were shooting it many times. I can't hyperventilate 11 times. I would fall over. You can sort of get your body to do it a number of times, but it stresses your body out to sort of do that. And if you're acting and trying to get a sense of, you know, I've done it and I can do it. And if this was like a film where we're, you know, just have a one take or two takes, maybe I could pull it off.

But watching and knowing how we were doing this, the amount of retakes and stuff we were doing was so high. You know, we were doing 10, 11, 12 takes. And sometimes we wouldn't stop between takes, meaning we would start 11 or 12 times, but sometimes we'd even do extra takes. We'd like, oh, just pick it up again or pick up from this section.

So knowing that, I knew that I couldn't do it. So we were trying to get a joke for the end. And for some reason, I mean, I'm a comedy writer, obviously. I have a background in writing comedy. Somehow just where it was setting up for the ending just wasn't quite playing right for a joke. And so we tried a bunch of different, I don't know what they're going to end up with.

I believe we're going to end up with Gabby and I really excited to go to a Grand Prix, is I think where we ended up. Because there's one ending, which I probably won't use where I did something and I thought it was so funny I fell to the ground. Maybe they'll show that in the blooper reel. They're not probably going to show that in the actual video. Where I was just trying to be excited.

It struck me as so funny how over the top excited I was that I found it funny. Anyway, if you don't know, I can get giggly at times. I didn't really... I... Sometimes in videos, if something's funny when I'm doing... More when I'm doing comedy stuff, this stuff is not quite as

comedic. I will start laughing and get the giggles. I didn't get the giggles. I don't think I got the giggles this time. There was more of just messing up the line than that. Okay, I'm on the new freeway. So now it means... Now I only have like 10 to 15 minutes than that. Okay, I'm on the new freeway, so now it means now I only have like 10 to 15 minutes to fill. Okay, so

that was the Grand Prix. That was the third one. Fourth one was how to draft. We spent a lot of time reworking that one because we were trying to explain how to draft. And the other thing that's funny is it is tricky sometimes when you're explaining something that you explain, that you know what's going on, but sometimes when you're explaining something that you explain that you know what's going on

but the person you're explaining for doesn't. That it's really hard explaining how to do something and you don't even realize if you start trying to explain and then I would explain something and they'd give notes

and say, well, you said this, which we know what you mean but they might not know. You said pass the card but you didn't mean the card you drafted, you meant the card you didn't draft

and stuff like that where I would say something and think well i know what you mean and so we i think we shot more shots than that how to draft might be the one we shot the most shots of i think um of all of them then we get to how to pre-release this was the long one um every other one was either was a single page of script. Sometimes there was script on the back, front and back, but this is the one that like front, back, another front, another back, it was a long one. Now this one was broken up into parts because we were talking about, I think, the promo card, which some of it was voiceover, which we did, I'll get to that in a second. So the idea was that we were talking about pre-releases and explaining what pre-releases

are. Most of these videos were sort of, assuming you don't know the thing we're telling you, let's tell you. One or two of them were like, hey, in-franchise player, you might know someone who would benefit from this. Let's give you the information so you can give it to them. Stuff like Open House. Pre-release was more of, hey, did you know you could play with cards before they come out?

So the pre-release one had this joke where I'm opening up a booster pack, I'm so excited, and the cards spill, and then I have to go pick up the cards. So we had a whole box of, I think it was Magic 2013, and so I would

open, and the goal was, I was trying to open with such force that the cards would flip everywhere. And it turns out the cards went all over the place. Like, every time I would open and the goal was I was trying to open with such force that the cards would flip everywhere and it turns out the cards went all over the place like every time I would open they would go

different places and we shot this one a lot and if you'll notice by the way what happened is I would open the pack and then I would disappear

and I would come back with the cards but every time we would do the shot we'd get more cards so I would come up with all the cards for all the takes when I would come up, because we decided

it was funny. So you see me when I come up, I'm not sure which takes they're going to use, but I'm holding way, way, way more than a booster's worth of cards when I come back up. And we did a lot to try to sort of play the comedy, and because we didn't know where the booster pack was going to go when we opened it,

and the other thing that's funny is there's a bunch of outtakes in this one, because Gabby kept laughing at the craziness of the booster pack. The guy doing it, they would fly everywhere. So anyway, I'm not sure what we ended up with that one. That's the physical comedy one. Or there's one more with some physical comedy.

So anyway, we had to practice doing that one, and I think we ended up using, like, a good chunk of a box. Now, it turns out, which is a funny story, is Gabby first started drafting with Magic 2013. So it ended up being this... We gave all the cards to her. And she was, like, looking through and reminiscing. Oh, I remember this. I remember this.

And so one thing that's fun for me is there was a cycle in the set that was an off-color activated cycle. So the white had a green activation, so it went that way around the circle. So white had green, green had red, red had black, black had blue, blue had white. And so the idea was the creature had an ability,

it got plus one, plus one if the land of the second type was there and an activated ability of the second color. So like the blue one, I think, was a 2-2 flyer, but it'd be a 3-3 flyer with activated lifelink for white mana. So the idea was these were cards that encouraged you to play a second color. So the funny thing was I didn't make 2013, but once I saw one card, I said, okay, Gabby, let me see if I can figure out the rest of the cycle.

And I was able to, the most, I think I figured all, I think one of them, my guess was wrong, but the other three were correct. I'm like, oh, it's a blue card with a white activation. Let's see. It's probably a flying creature. It either has lifelink or vigilance. I'm like, oh, it's a blue card with a white activation. Let's see. It's probably a flying creature. It either has lifelink or vigilance. I'll bet lifelink. I was right. And like, oh, the green one, yeah, the green one probably is an activated haste.

And it could be first strike or haste, but it's probably haste. And, you know, it's a smaller creature, like, you know, so it ended up being like a 2-2 becomes a 3-3 for 1G. And anyway, I think I guessed them all right. The one I missed was the red one, the black activation was regeneration, and just, I was thinking modern, how we do it now, not, oh, regeneration was available.

Okay, yeah, we do regeneration back then. I think I got the other one, so, anyway. So that was the pre-release. So then after the pre-release video, how the pre-release was done, then we had to shoot the voiceovers. So what a voiceover is, is it's just audio. So what happens is some of the things we say, hey, there's a promo card or there's something that's fun at the thing. And then what we do is because we want to be able to use the video longer, we do voiceover. So let's say there's a promo card and we want to talk about the promo card.

If we talked about it on air, then that video can only be used for that promo card. But if we do a voiceover and then we bring up the promo card and we talk on video, then they can swap in different promo cards as need be. So the idea was we want to shoot these videos and use them for a while. So what we did for the voiceover was we needed to record all of Gabby's voiceover because Gabby flew in for the day. Gabby lives in Denver, I believe. And she flew in for the day. She flew in the previous night, and then she flew out that night to go back home. So she's not normally around, so we recorded all of the video. She flew in the previous night, and then she flew out that night to go back home.

So she's not normally around, so we recorded our VO. I'm in the office, so we did a little bit of my VO, but if we need to do more stuff, I'm in the office. Literally, the recording studio is on the third floor where I work, so I'm, you know, a half step away. So we did a little bit of my voiceover and did a lot more of her voiceover. And we had Gabby recording things, and I did a lot more of her voiceover. And we had Gabby recording things and I did a little bit. The tricky part about it is you want to match the energy level from where the video is at and the energy level, as you will see, is pretty

high. So we were trying to, they're like, okay, get more exciting in the video. You can get this card! Woo! So anyway, that was fun. So we did all the voiceover work, and then, oh,

by the way, we did break for lunch and stuff. I'm skipping over the mundane things. I think we had, I think we had Greek food for lunch.

I had hero, little hero meat, which I think is beef, beef or lamb. But anyway, we, that was the wrap

for Gabby. And like I said, it was a lot, I had a great time hanging with Gabby so thank you Gabby it was a lot of fun hopefully maybe there's videos in the future I thought we had a good rapport hopefully you guys enjoyed the videos I thought it played well and we had fun doing it and it was fun to do but

I was not done yet so the funny thing is my call time was 8.15, and I was told that I, my rep was at five, meaning I ended at five, and when Gabby left, it was like, um, it was like 10 to five or something, or 20 to five, and they're like, oh, we have to, uh, reset, uh, they needed to set up a camera for the final shoot, which I'll get to in a second. But anyway, so Gabby left, and I ended up being there until about 6.10, I think. Anyway, so the way the final thing was, it was for how to store championships. So it was about store championships. And so the way it worked was that I, there was the normal three cameras, A, B, and C,

and then a D camera that was up above. Okay, I might be ruining the video here for you. But anyway, the idea was for the store championship was that I was supposed to be looking at different cameras at different times. And I was constantly changing where I was looking. Have you ever seen like the Daily Show? They do this shit all the time. Like camera three. Let me talk to camera three.

He'll turn and talk to camera three. So I was just changing where I was looking. And they wanted me to be, I ended up doing kind of like a wrestling announcer. Like super, super high octane. So I was doing like that. Which, by the way, is hard to do many, many times. Because the blood all rushes to your head because you're, ah! So we had to do more pausing there so I could rest a little bit.

Because I could only do that so many times in a row. And then I'm screaming and looking all of a different bit. Because I could only do that so many times in a row. And then I'm screaming and looking in a different way. And so we did all that. And we were trying to figure out where to look at what camera when so that we were consistent. So the camera operators knew when I was looking at them. And so that was

super rehearsed so that we knew exactly what was happening. We did it a bunch of times. Like I said, the problem was the voice I was doing was hard for me to do a lot of times in a row. Because when you talk like this, it really all the blood goes to your head and you can only do it for so long. You can't do it for infinite. So I would rest and get water. And so we did that and we mapped it all

out and shot it. and the other thing is normally I'd read off the teleprompter so I can look at A and read off the teleprompter but because I was looking at A then B then C then D and all around

I needed to know my lines because I didn't have the teleprompter when I was looking at A I could read off the teleprompter but I was looking at B or C or D I couldn't

and so we did small chunks so that I could get through it so that I could remember what my lines were because like I said I hadn't. And so we did small chunks so that I could get through it so that I could remember what my lines were. Because like I said, I hadn't memorized anything coming in. We changed a lot of lines on the spot anyway, so I'm not sure having memorized them would have been good anyway. So we shot that, and then at the end of that thing there is a little montage thing that we had to shoot. I wanted to have fun watching the video, but we had to shoot. And so, I wanted to have fun watching the video,

but we had to shoot a whole bunch of different things that were, some were a bit physical. I'm not sure which pieces they're going to use, but some were a bit physical. And I had to shoot for every camera. So I would do something and do it for camera A, now look at camera B, now look at camera C, now look

at camera D. And so I had to do everything I did like four times, and I did a whole bunch of different things, and we didn't share what we wanted to use, so like, I don't know how many things I did, but I must have done like 12, 13, 14 things, and then I had to do one for each camera. Some of them were, not all of them were physical, but some were physical. And so I was quite tired by the time that was done. But after that was done, it was a wrap. So then I was done.

So once again, just to recap, there's six videos, which I'm hoping by the time that this airs, because there's a gap between me recording this and this airing, that these videos will be up so you guys can see them. I think you'll get, I think you'll enjoy watching me be extra enthusiastic. So the first one is called How to FNM, which is Since Friday Magic. Second one's called How to Open House. The third one's called How to Grand Prix.

The fourth one's called How to Draft. The fifth one's called How to Pre-Release. And the sixth one's called How to Store Championship. And I don't... There's some chance they changed the names. That's what they were called on the scripts. They're all how-to. I don't know whether or when they were done and they're edited so the way it'll

work is um so now that we've shot it um they will take all the raw footage that we did and then they we have editing facilities at work and they will they will put it together and edit it um and we have people on staff that we have video people that their job is making and compiling and editing video. And so what will happen is they will, at some point, when there's what we call a rough cut, they will let me come see it. Whether or not they want my input is whether I'll see it early or not. If they have some input they want from me, like this one, they might want some input just because I'm the talent in it.

So they might show me an earlier cut to get some feedback. Sometimes I'll see the rough cut means it's super early and they want feedback from me, so I'll see it. Sometimes I won't see it until what they call the final, which is this is what we think the audience is going to see. Sometimes there's notes on the final. So, I mean, the final isn't always actually 100% final. So what will happen at this point is they're going to put together these videos. There's six different videos, so I don't know their time.

Because there's six videos, no one says the videos will all premiere at the same time. I'm hoping by the time this records that they've come out. It's possible that not all of them have even come out by the time. There's like an eight-week gap, I think, when I record this to when you guys hear it,

or seven to eight weeks. So I don't know how long it takes to edit it and get them up. And they might be saving some of them, so it's possible that some of them are, like, some of them might be up, some of them might not be up. I think they're all fun. I think the pre-release one with the pack opening

and the store championship with me screaming, those are the two that I think are going to be the most entertaining for you guys to watch. We'll see. Who knows? There's some fun stuff in all of them, but a lot of them are informative. They're made more to be informative videos than necessarily comedic videos, although we try to get a little

energy and fun in them. But anyway, like I said, you guys listening to me are mostly not the target audience, but since you've heard me talk about it for close to what is an hour yet, Oh, 50 minutes. So I'm basically driving up to work right now. So this is a long but not... The record I have, I think, was... I think I had a show that was an hour and 20 minutes, I think, for my record.

So this is actually not even close to my record. For a while, there was what we called the bread truck episode, where there was a bread truck, truck jackknifed. I think that was like a minute five. And for a while, that had been my longest. And then something else happened. And I ended up having to go the back way to work, which is tricky for me because it's not the way I'm normally used to driving.

But it's not like I can look at a map or something because I'm doing a podcast, and I decided to do it anyway. It's a way I'd driven before. It wasn't like I'd never gone, but anyway. I think that was the longest one, but anyway, today will not be the longest one, so I hope you guys enjoyed my story of the thing,

and like I said, you can go watch the videos and see me in all my extra enthusiasm, but anyway, that was my thing, and so I wanted to thank Gabby see me in all my extra enthusiasm. But anyway, that was my thing. And so I wanted to thank Gabby for being an excellent co-host and for all the people behind the scenes that put it all together

and wrote the scripts and directed it and all the cameramen and all the people, a lot of technical people. It takes a lot of people to put on a thing like that. So anyway, I want to thank everybody

and thank you guys for listening for a full 51 minutes. But, I'm actually finally at work. So, we all know what that means. This is the end of my drive to work. So, instead of talking magic, it's time for me to be making magic. See you guys next time.