Casey Neistat – Overcoming Limitations and Filmmaking

Casey Neistat On Filmmaking

 <img src="Casey-Neistat-Bhushan-Mahadani.jpg" alt="Casey Neistat Bhushan Mahadani">

Casey Neistat, ever heard of him? I bet you sure have and must have watch at least one movie on YouTube. Casey Neistat has made more than 90 videos which are in his YouTube account.  So whats the big deal? Well this guy was a dishwasher once and today he has become an internet sensation with more than 630000 followers. In July 2008, Home Box Office HBO purchased an eight-episode television series, “The Neistat Brothers”, for just under $2 million. Casey Neistat also directs television commercials, having worked with clients such as Nike, Inc, Google, J.Crew, and Mercedes-Benz.

Casey Neistat was born and raised in New London, Connecticut. He dropped out of Ledyard High School in the 10th grade at age 15 and did not return to school or graduate. At age 17 Neistat had a son, Owen. From age 17 until 20 he lived in a trailer park with his son and son’s mother, it was during this time Neistat was on welfare, a detail cited by Neistat when delivering his own biography. In 2001 Neistat moved to New York City. Prior to moving to New York City, Neistat worked as a dishwasher and short order cook in Mystic, Connecticut. His first job in New York City was as a bike messenger.

Casey Neistat first gained international fame in 2003 for a three-minute film titled iPod’s Dirty Secret, criticizing Apple’s lack of a battery replacement program for the iPod. The film received national media exposure and brought broad attention on Apple’s policy towards iPod battery replacements.The film quickly attracted media attention and the controversy was covered worldwide by over 130 sources including The Washington Post, Rolling Stone Magazine, Fox News, CBS News, and BBC News. The film was praised as “wonderfully renegade” by the Washington Post. Here is the film.

 

So whats the point? Well these days I am getting many mails asking how to get into filmmaking without having any film background, knowledge of proper equipment, don’t have high end cameras and fancy soft-wares, don’t have industry contacts,… and so on. That is the reason I have written this post. Now think for a second how this guy Casey Neistat started as a dishwasher became a filmmaker? The answer is overcoming his limitations and making films. Watch here TEDx ParkerSchool Casey Neistat lecture.

Spoiler Alert : The audio of the video is really bad at times. Watch between 1:48 to 13:00.

So can you make films? Yes you can. You just need passion and execute your ideas with the resources you have.

  • Write something based on your own experience.
  • Shoot with the camera you have. As I have written in my previous post Cinematography Masterclass camera doesn’t matter, the men behind the camera does.  Use cellphone, point to shoot, DSLR, iPad whatever you have. Just Shoot.
  • Editing can be free software like Windows Movie-Maker or iMovie. No need of fancy stuff.
  • Distribute your films worldwide using the power of internet. YouTube is the biggest film distributor. YouTube even pays you money with  YouTube Partner Program.
  • And the most important, if you wanna shoot something, then just shoot it.

I hope you like the post. Please let me know your thoughts in the comment box below and subscribe for the news letter above.

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