Hi, this is Wayne again with a topic “Ask MKBHD V9: Building a Studio!”.
Hey, what is up guys, mkbhd here and i’m sure you’ve noticed the little gaps in videos since i’ve started putting together this studio space, this sort of video shooting space uh, but i figured since it’s taking up so much of my time might as well. Do a video about it or a q a and talk about it. So i asked you guys on twitter what you guys want to see or what questions you have at all about a video studio or this particular spot and uh. This is what we got. How do you get wi-fi coverage in all parts of the studio? Well, it is essentially just one big open space, so there’s no walls or anything in between the one router and any part of the studio. So there’s a great connection everywhere. This is the router that we’re using it’s been great and that’s what allows me to get speeds like this.
Do you think it’s better to partition it or leave it as one giant space? Honestly, that’s probably toss up for any studio. I think for me. I personally i like being able to see like all of it at once, so i don’t have any partitions. It’S just one big space right now for me, but for recording audio you tend to want to have a smaller area with less reverberation, so i will be working on that just for recording audio.
How long did it take to build your mega desk, so the mega desk? If you guys don’t already know it’s this, it’s the custom, nextdesk air pro. I already did a video about a next desk, this one’s just a bigger version of it, but it didn’t actually take that long. So i’ve already talked about next desk and honestly with a lot of the stuff you’re building in a studio if you’re putting things together. It’S really just about the number of parts that you have to put together so like this. This is like 400 pieces. I’M still not done with this, it’s still being built.
That was probably like nine. I built it in like an hour. It was on my snapchat story. It was actually pretty easy.
I have nothing to ask uh once your studio is done. Are you going to do a tour of it? I kind of like the idea of it and i actually kind of need a use for a 360 degree video, and i was thinking, maybe thumbs up below. If you like the idea, i was thinking a 360 degree. Video of the tour where i like, walk around the camera and show you stuff and i don’t know, seems like a cool idea but anyway. Yes, i probably will do a full tour when the things done.
How did you plan out the layout of where everything will go? Do you just guess, as you go along or make a plan so with me, i actually sketched out on my ipad pro with the pencil of like the outline of the floor plan and where i wanted things to be, and i’m kind of following that now it’s Kind of easier to just go with the way it looks well in the room, uh, not the most scientific thing ever, but i did actually sketch it out and i have ideas for where certain things will go. Certain sets certain looks certain ways to take advantage of the light coming in from one side kind of have a plan. How do you sound proof it? So there is no echo all right so, as you can probably tell i’m definitely still working on that, but there are a bunch of different ways to essentially it’s not even soundproofed. I mean this room isn’t soundproof from the rest of the world, but there’s a bunch of ways that you can reduce the amount of echo and the amount of bouncing off the wall that the sound can do before it gets back into the microphone. You want. The only way for audio to get into the microphone to be straight from the source, so behind the camera i’ll take a picture because i can’t even really show you guys, but behind the camera i have some foam pieces and that will hopefully stop the sound from Going past the camera and back into the back of the microphone but it’ll still, you know, bounce off the side, walls and i have foam on the ceiling and there’s some rugs and there’s furniture and there’s all sorts of other things to dampen the sound. But with the space, this big, you can never really sound proof it.
It’S just a matter of positioning things in a way to reduce the echo as much as possible. It’S the hardest part of starting your office over from scratch. So it’s actually not that bad. For me, i kind of enjoy the process of setting up something new.
Like you get a new computer, you know you drop a fresh wallpaper on it. You get all your apps installed, get everything logged in set up for the first time like it feels fresh and new. I kind of enjoy that process. So it’s not so bad.
I guess the worst part would just be just all the building of things that come. Some assembly required why fake grass, why not real ones? Man, if i had real plants in here it would all die. I mean i have the grass in here, because it’s green and green is a nice color on camera and it’s kind of cool to have some different colors in here once in a while, but yeah. I don’t think i could keep it alive for very long if it was real.
What is the one thing you plan on doing to your studio that you haven’t seen before that will be truly unique to you honestly. Most of what i’m putting together has probably been done already aside from the literally custom stuff, that’s built to order. Most of it has been already done. I think the most unique thing is probably going to be how i use the things that i’m using like again. This wardrobe here, for example, when you buy it from ikea, it’s mostly for people who are buying it to put clothes in it, i’m buying it and putting shelves in it to be able to put video gear and stuff like that. So using things as a youtuber, most of the time is different from using things as a normal person other than that most of the techniques i’m getting or like the places, i’m putting things it’s been done before.
What do you plan on putting on the walls? Any art – yes, of course i will definitely be having lots of art in here, uh and so justin mallor, who you’ve already seen the art by, is hooking me up with some stuff. That’S already gon na look really good, but also some other stuff. You probably haven’t. Even seen before to hopefully look dope in the backgrounds on the walls, the blank walls can only be so interesting to so many people. So yeah we got some stuff coming in to add some color to this space. Is there a lot of natural light in your new studio, or do you have to use artificial lighting, so this particular space does have an entire wall of windows, which is a ton of natural light? That’S probably not normal for a studio.
I think most photographers and some video people prefer to be able to control all the light and not have the clouds moving in and out so they like to have their own soft boxes and everything. But i have preached before, and i’ve said i love shooting with natural light all the time so anytime i can get outside and shoot in a park or use the sun. All that light is free and i don’t worry as much about the variation just because i think it looks that much better one of my biggest tips for video, especially when you’re recording an object like a smartphone, for example, is to focus on that object. Looking good with lighting first so before the camera or the lenses or the audio, which are all really important, is to just get the object to look as good as possible before the camera even turns on.
So photography is the capturing of light video being the moving photography. I think just having that look as good as possible before you turn the camera on is a big skill. How long did it take you to put together that huge wardrobe? So this thing this wardrobe right here is called the ikea pax system.
It’S pretty much again custom because you get to choose all the shelves and stuff you put inside of it. I chose a bunch of different things, but then you have to build it. Also.
I got it on monday and i’m still building it. It’S thursday does having a separated, studio and apartment, make you more productive. So that’s a good question. I thought about that. A lot for myself. I do think having a separate place to live and shoot makes me more productive. I kind of you know when you’re a youtuber, you tend to especially a lot of other youtubers you’ll roll out of bed into the place where you do work like you do videos, so it’s so easy to just sort of roll back into bed and back into Not working mode, so i think for me it actually helps when i get excited – and i have a video i want to make – i have to go get in the car and drive to the place to make the video so obviously it’ll take an extra second to Actually get here but yeah, i feel like having a dedicated space to work on this. One thing will, let me be more productive when i’m here, mkbhd edition pool table or ping pong, let’s just start with an mkbhd edition poker table and then just see where that goes, we’ll see where that goes. If you could put any one piece of furniture in your studio, what would it be? Okay? So you know the dream desk from the video over at john at tld did a couple of weeks back.
That is one of my favorite pieces of furniture of all time. That’S from a company called roach bebois. This is not a plug for them or anything, but i did order one.
It takes 12 to 16 weeks to build it. They build everything super custom. So that’s like the one piece of furniture. I’M really excited for that. I’M waiting for you won’t even see it here until like august you’ll, probably forget it even exists, but when it shows up on video, though it’s gon na be sick anyway, that’s pretty much it. Thank you for watching. Thank you for your questions and feel free to follow the twitter or the snapchat story.
Of course, if you want to see the progress of the stuff that’s being built in the studio every day, but uh yeah, that’s pretty much it. I’M gon na head off to san francisco to google, i o, and then there will be videos from there. Then i’ll come back and build some more anyway. There you go thanks for watching talk to you guys in the next one peace .