Transcription
Hey Carly, class! What do you think of my new vlog?
I love it! I'm a super fan. I've already watched it five times over. And have you been watching daily, Carly? Or no? I kind of binge-watch. Don't watch daily. I watched like five in one day.
Okay, okay. Alright, so I just want to make sure you're actually watching. Yeah, the one that I liked the most was where... I love that I'm on the spot right now to explain it. I just, you know, in my homework, I promise I watched your blog. No, but I did like the one down St. Barths where... where she didn't say... Okay, now you're making me nervous because you're sticking a chair in my face. I did.
Hey, I give up. Sisyphus was this king who wouldn't stop lying. So, as a punishment for his lying, he had to push this gigantic boulder up a hill. And every time it got to the top of the hill, it would roll back down to the bottom. And he'd have to roll it back up to the top. And then fall down the bottom. And he'd roll it back up at the top. And that was his life for all of eternity.
It is a ridiculously beautiful day in New York City today. But like every other day, I will spend it inside at my desk writing emails. I am Sisyphus, and email is my boulder.
I'm sick. I hate being sick. Morning. I don't even know that guy. Candice parked on the street last night and needs me to put money in the meter so her car doesn't get a ticket. But the money needs to go in the meter. 37 minutes ago. There's a very high likelihood that she got a ticket. $65. I shouldn't be running because I'm sick, but I'm gonna do like a quick run to three miles just to start the day off. Yes, three miles at a seven-minute pace. What? That going for a run is make me feel better. It didn't feel dizzy and just generally horrible. Died. Finds a little. Have a nice walk. Have a nice walk.
So, a lot of people in the comments were asked how I film my runs. I actually just use my iPhone, which the quality is like astounding. That the video is on this stage. And then, yeah, I just stick it wherever. So, like, I don't bring a tripod. I just, like, rest it against a garbage can or thermal lean it up against the curb or whatever. There's not a whole lot to it. I feel terrible today. Terrible.
In today's vlog, I want to tell a story. Tell the story of the studio space and and how it came to be. So, it was like 2002, maybe 2003. And I was like 21 years old. I just like found my footing in New York City. I had a full-time job where I have a really good paycheck. And I was hired to direct a candy bar commercial. And these weren't just regular candy bars. These were Atkins low-carb diet candy bars. It wasn't a particularly creative job. It wasn't like a super awesome gig. But it's the first like really paid job I had as like a filmmaker. And the paycheck for the gig was the paycheck was $10,000. Which seems like a whole lot of money. You know what? $10,000 is a whole lot of money. But after I got that paycheck, I immediately quit my job. It was like a really good, really safe job with like lots of potential. If someone were to come to me for advice and say, "I've got this $10,000, should I quit my day job?" My advice would be, "No." But that's right. I quit my day job. I had 10 G's and I started looking for an office space. And I came and looked at this building, which is in Chinatown in New York City. And they showed me a bunch of spaces in my price range. My price range was like $500-$600 a month. Can't get much in New York City for that amount of money. And the places they showed me had no windows. They're really small, crappy. They were less than what I had hoped for. And then they showed me this space. If this space was like a 250 square foot box. And it's 14 feet by 14 feet. But it had these two enormous windows that looked onto Broadway. But it was like, I think it was $1,100 a month. But I signed the lease. I took the space anyways. And after first month, last month, security deposit, and whatever other stupid charges they owe, I had to pay like several months in advance because I had terrible credit. I was left with enough money to last 30 days, to last one month in this space. So I was like, hustle, figure out how to pay next month's rent, or I was totally like up a creek. And on top of all that, I had quit my job. So I had no real income source. It was a major leap of faith. But it worked out. I don't know what the first paying job was, but it happened. And the rest is kind of history on the space.
This here is their gigantic hole. You see, this was in 2007 when I started production. I'm an HBO show and actually had some money. We evicted the woman next door and expanded from our little space into this much larger space, combining the two, making what is now like my production studio.
I looked through all my old footage and the only, the only content I could find of this studio space when it was really raw was the raw footage, the unedited footage from a from a commercial shoot that my brother and I did for a fancy tote bag company called Jack Spade. And to show off the durability of their bags, we thought we would fill up one of their tote bags with fireworks and light it off. And then show that the bag could withstand the explosion. And in the process, we accidentally left the entire studio on fire.
Just a disclaimer: this was a much younger, much more irresponsible Casey than the adult, married father of two that I am today. Please do not try this at home. Oh.