The TalentWorks Podcast: Episode 19: Phil Lester (11 March 2020)

[itasca00]

Listen to the podcast episode using any of the links below:

• Acast (Original Host)
• Apple Podcasts
• Spotify
• Google Podcasts

[itasca00]

Podcast timestamps!

2:30 - Phil would have shown up in pajamas if he'd known it was for a podcast.
2:37 - Interviewer asks Phil when he first realizes he was creative. "I think I just came out of the womb and did jazz hands in the hospital."
3:00 - His parents gave him a video camera for Christmas when he was eight and he made little friends with his friends. He talks about the horror film he and his friends made when they were ten (that he's made youtube videos about). He learned to edit then by pausing a video cassette tape and putting the footage in and editing in real time, before he could do it on a computer. He doesn't know where that creativity came from, but he's been making videos as long as he's been able to make videos.
3:51 - He used to watch movies hundreds of times. He wore out the Gremlins VHS tape. He wanted to make things like that, or his own version of that entertainment.
4:05 - Gizmo the Gremlin was his mentor. No, he didn't have a mentor, but he's thankful to his parents for letting him do it. If he'd done his homework they'd just say, "Go for it. I'll get you a video camera if you want to make videos." He acknowledges that not everyone had that means of doing it, though now everyone has a phone and anyone can do it if they wanted to with a phone recording.
4:40 - When he was young his family was mostly his audience, though they let him play the horror film he made when he was ten at school. "I think having that audience reaction, I was like oh people are actually laughing and enjoying it."
5:20 - He started youtube because he was impressed by the fact that anyone, anywhere can make something and have the chance to broadcast yourself. He saw people like Smosh and LonelyGirl15. He liked watching people's lives all over the world.
6:01 - He got two comments on his first video and couldn't believe it. One from Australia and one 'somewhere else' saw it and cared.
6:39 - He had imposter syndrome at the first Vidcon he went to. He went into a party and thought he shouldn't be in the same room as people like Smosh. It was a learning experience.
6:58 - He found it crazy that a hundred people would come to a panel or meet and greet to see him and it made him feel like this was real, it was really happening.
7:32 - The interviewer asks him how he's maintained trust with the audience and his answer is, "You'd have to ask the audience, they're the ones that are still watching.
7:40 - He thinks being himself in his videos has help, he hasn't had the need to reinvent himself or become somebody else. He feels like his audience are more friends than fans.
8:26 - "You have your long term collaborator, Dan Howell-" "Yes."
8:27 - He finds it refreshing to collaborate, especially in comedy videos. He thinks he works well in an improvisation style environment, like on the gaming channel. It helps to have someone to laugh and have comedy banter with. It also helps to have someone else with creative ideas so you aren't in your own head all the time.
9:20 - The interviewer asks about the transition from youtube to the stage shows. It was a big leap - they had ten crew members and it was a learning curve. He's quite a shy person so going on stage in front of 2000 people was far out of his comfort zone compared to making videos alone. "It was kind of... fighting off my anxiety and thinking, I can do this, these people are here to see me for a reason."
10:33 - They interviewed potential crew members (about a five minute interview) and they needed to be other creative people and understand the internet. They needed people who understood what they were making, and also wanted people that had a sense of humor and knew how to have a laugh.
11:30 - Specifically talking about TATINOF: they were trying to turn everything people loved about their youtube videos into a stage show, with a narrative flowing through the whole thing. They wanted it to be bigger than anything anyone had seen from youtubers before.
12:12 - You will not be seeing Phil on Strictly any time soon.
12:45 - TATINOF was about 70% scripted but it got changed up based on what the audience were like or what the reactions were. American found different jokes funny than Sweden and they learned to change and mold it.
13:09 - During TATINOF learned he can actually do scripted stuff, because there were scripted sections. He used to say he can't act but he thinks he did okay with the scripted stuff in TATINOF.
13:52 - Section about the Radio 1 show. It started with him and Dan collaborating as youtubers with Radio 1, and the BBC decided to give them a show. He specifically says that Youtube say how many good comments and views youtube videos get, and that's how the show came about. It started freelance and then they got the main show.
14:40 - With the radio show, because it's live you really have to be aware of what you're saying. There's an art to working the desk with the music in the background and when to dip it down. They were learning on the go and it was terrifying. For the first three months he'd wake up in the middle of the night with night sweats and have nightmares about saying something wrong. He had panic dreams about the radio, but they got into a flow and he thinks it was an entertaining and innovative radio show. He always likes something that pushes the boundaries of the technology.
15:25 - He shades how 'old school' the radio is because they had to play music videos off of dvds. If a dvd skipped or broke then the show would just go off air and they'd have to improvise. It was good preparation for doing stuff on stage.
15:55 - He talks about the stage show in America that lost power and improvising it in an unplugged way. He was relieved when people were happy with it.
16:38 - He thinks there are things traditional media could take from digital media: free flowing, less restrictions. On the radio ideas had to go through about ten processes. "By the time you've gone through these ten steps of checking, the fun of the creativity is gone about. It's not about breaking the rules, it's about trying to be more improvisational and spontaneous when you can. Not everything needs signing off by five people before you tell a joke."
27:49 - He likes that youtube is more fresh and reactive to pop culture. It feels fresher than television - cites people doing the floss dance on Netflix shows now. It was funny a year ago, and it was written a year ago, but it's not as funny now.
18:35 - The positive to traditional media is more people bringing experienced voices to the table helping you develop something. Youtubers know a few things instinctively but someone that's been a scriptwriter for ten years can completely blow your mind.
19:25 - He would like to think the main thing his audience values is authenticity, but he actually thinks it is accessibility that they value more. He's not like a movie or pop star.
20:14 - He's fourteen years in and still tries to think of videos that would make him laugh or he wants to watch, but he's trying to branch out some this year. "Trying new things." He doesn't think there's any shame in seeing someone else's video and thinking of doing his own take on that.
21:20 - He looks to Safiya Nygard for inspiration - he likes that there's so much research and planning in her videos. Even if it's a silly video she has all the facts and goes to all the videos. He got to meet her the last Vidcon and it was nice to hang out with her.
21:56 - He's inspired by traditional media, too. For a long time it was Scot Pilgrim vs. the World, he used to think if he was going to make a video that was it. He starts talking about editing here and goes in pretty hard on what editing means to him over the next few minutes.
22:50 - He's good at suspending his disbelief. It's a good sign if you're lost in a world. When he saw 1917, he forgot he was in the cinema.
23:13 - "It's more when I'm watching my own videos, I can't - I find it really hard to watch it as a viewer. I find I'm so critical of myself and I just see the edits and I'm just like, oh that could be different, that could be different. And even if after I've uploaded it I'll get a text from my friend and they're like 'oh that was so funny' but in my head I'm like oh but I could have cut two seconds off that bit. So I think I should learn, and other people should learn, not to be so critical of yourself. Because there can be a point where - I made a video in December and I was looking back at the footage and I was like, I can't upload this, this isn't - this isn't good enough. But then I just persevered with the editing and it turned out to be really funny. But that self doubt was creeping in like, people aren't gonna watch this, people aren't gonna like this. So I need to work on that a bit and think - if people are enjoying my videos I should be able to enjoy them as well."
24:11 - It's hard not to be numbers obsessed because youtube tells you as soon as you sign in what's performing well and not. You don't want to get that feeling when you first log in to your channel, and you can't really avoid it. "You've got to see it as a learning thing rather than an everybody hates me thing."
25:42 - Once a video is out in the world, he lets it go. He doesn't obsess over it. He's more critical in the editing process and actually pressing go rather than after the fact.
26:08 - He's particularly proud of his coming out video because of the unexpected reaction. The video production wasn't incredible but he's proud of the message.
26:40 - They ask him how he'd have felt in 2006 knowing where he's at now. "No. I'd probably run away."
26:47 - "I was so shy and anxious, I couldn't even like... phone for a hairdressers appointment. I was that nervous about public interaction and talking and stuff like that. So the fact that I've got to this level now where I can go on stage or talk on a panel it's just like - it's kind of mindblowing looking back at where I was. I'm proud of myself for that."
27:15 - He's ready to sink his teeth into a big new project, to do something new that's very Phil and his own thing. He's obsessed with interactivity. He was making interactive videos ten years ago with youtube annotations and he thinks now broadcasters and traditional media is more accepting of that technology and narrative structure.
28:15 - He pitched one interactive thing that didn't work out. He shouts out Complex and also Markiplier's interactive youtube original.
29:02 - It's good to get feedback on an idea that's rejected. It would be weird if everyone said yes all the time. He goes a bit in depth here on potential reasons why a project may be rejected and not taking it as an attack or a big negative thing.
30:33 - If he made a film he'd write it, not be the star of it. He's excited to see where that creative process goes. He's written a few short stories and tried a long form script. He's a control freak so he won't release it until it's perfect.
31:03 - He sees Youtube as his work, and scripting and pitches as a hobby. He's not under a deadline with writing and can enjoy free flowing creativity, unlike youtube where he needs to make a video every week.
32:00 - Discussion about the illustrator they had for TABINOF, who worked on The Mighty Boosh.
33:00 - When ask him for one thing he's inspired by at the moment, he says Bandersnatch and talks about it a bit. He still has Scott Pilgrim and Gremlins in his heart, though. "Gizmo's the one."