As we conclude our celebration of 10 years of the Gentleman’s Gazette, we’re looking back on the first videos we each filmed and published on our Youtube channel. Let’s take a trip down memory lane, and see how far we’ve come!
Video Transcript:
Sven Raphael Schneider: Welcome back to the Gentleman’s Gazette!
Preston Schlueter: Today, our ten-year anniversary celebration continues as we review the first videos we each filmed for the channel.
SRS: Cheers, Preston!
SRS: Even though we did not really start publishing YouTube videos until 2014, we started the Gentleman’s Gazette website in 2010, that’s why it’s a ten-year anniversary.
PS: So we’ve filmed a number of videos celebrating this anniversary and you can find the first part of our collaborative effort where we answer your frequently asked questions, here.
Video 1: 50 Things About Sven Raphael Schneider
SRS: Alright, let’s stay in chronological order and start with my first video which was titled “50 Things About Me” and no, I’m not a narcissist but at the time, we saw these Vogue video trailers which were things about me, and we thought it was a good idea to have it as our first video just to tell people a little bit more about me, what I like, and what I don’t like, so it’s easier to connect. Obviously, as it was our first video, a lot of things were quite amateurish. At the time though, I thought I had already done so much theoretical research that would have a good first video. Well, look for yourself!
SRS: Wow, right? I mean low energy, I’m just sitting there and like “Oh yeah I get a lot of questions about myself in my emails.” Just, I’m not like that in real life but when you start out filming it’s just hard, right? Because you just talk like you normally do, and then you watch it on camera and then it feels like all the oxygen was sucked out of it. It just takes a little time to find your voice. This, though, sounded more like an arrogant pr*ck, not like a gentleman, so sorry about that.
PS: You said it, not me!
SRS: Look at that! 40 seconds into the video, we haven’t even started, like live and learn, right?
SRS: I mean that’s still true but honestly, you can tell it’s very slow, I speak like with a natural pace like you would when you talk to a person. In a video, it’s just always so much slower.
PS: A lot has changed since then.
SRS: Just look at my hair! It looks so like poofy. It’s kind of funny, I like my hairstyle now a lot better, for sure.
SRS: Obviously, you know, it wasn’t that well thought through. I think, at that point, we were more concerned about the lighting, and is the sound going to work, and we bought these lights and we were like, “Oh let’s let’s use it,” but then we turned them on and we heard a noise, we were like ***, you can actually hear it on when we recorded. We’re like “Is that right?” We didn’t know so we actually turned off the lights we had bought and just filmed it with natural daylight so that’s why you can see some variation later on but it’s just we were so concerned about that and we didn’t do a whole lot of prep work.
PS: Paper plates are a big pet peeve, huh? [Laughs]
SRS: Check out the video on proper tie length!
PS: So, I think, the distinction we would make now is saying you know we want to, if you’d see somebody like that, reach out to them and hope we can communicate to them what the benefits of classic style are rather than just sort of writing them off as a lost cause and not worrying about it.
SRS: Well and even then, right, I have people who don’t care about dressing up but I still, like, respect them and talk to them. I think I’m less preachy and we’re trying to convert people because I realize it’s you know it has to come from within. There has to be an interest and if you try to tell other people what to do, they’re much less likely to do it than if they think they had the idea and they came up with it, right? It’s like basic psychology.
SRS: It’s kind of funny when you describe your weaknesses.
SRS: Sometimes, I don’t [wear a tie]. If I just pick up my daughter and I do not have a tie on, it’s okay.
PS: Speaking of superlatives, more on that later when we take a look at my first video.
SRS: [Regarding entertainment,] I like longer shows now where there’s a bit more like depth to it in the character development. Right? I don’t know, I watched like Narcos, for example.
PS: Really, why spend all that time watching TV when you can just watch old Gentleman’s Gazette videos, right?
SRS: [Laughs] Oh, nice outro!
Video 2: Preston’s GG Application
SRS: Alright, next up, let’s look at Preston’s application video. It’s not anything you guys have ever seen but I saw it and when we were looking for people to be a host, we wanted it to be difficult so we asked people to make a video and just make a segment about something that, you know, they would like to present on our YouTube channel. So they had to put in a lot of work that you make the video and we wanted to be hard because we only wanted people who were that excited about the job who are willing to put in all that effort.
PS: Right!
SRS: I mean look at that, he even used the logo and stuff. He tried to make it as close as possible to us so that’s good, right? He kind of paid attention to it.
PS: I can see me looking at my script there.
SRS: Oh yeah, I get that, right? It’s like you’re nervous, it’s something new like you haven’t done that. When I looked at you, I said “okay, he has a collar with a collar pin, the tie bar, a tie, a pocket square,” and I noticed the illustrations in the back. So I was like that was intentionally put there, I don’t know about this like candle thing or whatever there…but at least, you know, you cared about the subject matter and that was important to me.
PS: It’s actually really funny to think back on this now. My phone, which I used to shoot this was precariously perched. I had like a random assortment; it was on top of a lampshade and I had a cutting board and a series of small books and some coasters. It could have fallen over at any time but hey, it worked long enough just to get the shot.
PS: I talked way too much in this so I had to cut in between parts of sentences.
SRS: Take a look. One thing I noticed about Preston is that you have very active eyebrows.
SRS: Preston kind of reads off the camera but you don’t, right? He is a very impressive speaker, he speaks like he’s reading it but he’s not. He’s just able to do that better than I am. I think I have more interruptions than you have when I film.
PS: Yeah, it was really cool for me to have mentioned the Black Tie guide as one of the sources that I had first come to when I was on this menswear journey. I used it a lot. I read pretty much every page on the website and then lo and behold. after beginning work here at the Gentleman’s Gazette, an offer came along for us to purchase the Black Tie guide and so we did and for me, personally, it was a lot of fun to actually be working on and kind of fixing up and polishing up this website that had meant so much to me as I was starting out on that style journey.
SRS: Exactly, I mean you were into it right? And it was a lot of work. You have to go in and make everything like mobile responsive, change all the content, add and just make it overall better, especially the picture sourcing, that was a big piece of it.
PS: So it’s funny that I mentioned this part-time position. After I filmed this application video, I was actually in the middle of kind of figuring out, you know obviously, what my next phase of employment would be and because there was a bit of a window between when I submitted my application and when you got back to me, I had actually taken on at this firm where I work part-time. I had just started in a full-time position and then I heard back from Raphael and I thought I knew this was going to happen so…
SRS: No! According to you, you didn’t just think that! You yelled it out.
PS: I did. It’s true! I saw Raphael’s email and I yelled across the house “I knew it!”
SRS: And his mom was like, “What’s happening?” I knew Preston would probably take the job because he was really into it but we had, I think, 56 applications with, you know, anywhere from 5- to 20-minute videos so we took the time to watch them and it just takes some time because after, you know, watching 10 videos you’re like I need a break.
SRS: I thought it was smart and you put the extra effort in to bring in a friend. I mean, of course, you don’t bring in someone who says, “This guy sucks, don’t hire him,” I know that but at least, you kind of try to provide some information or just show that you go the extra mile.
PS: Well, in the way I thought about it too was, you know, I could sit here and talk myself up all day and say “I’m so great, I meet all of your criteria and qualifications,” but I thought if I could bring somebody else in who would vouch for me and say, “You know, he’s not just talking a big game, he actually could help you out,” that it would probably be helpful to my chances.
SRS: “Yeah! He paid me $25 and three beers and he’s the best thing since sliced bread!” I mean, people don’t really know Drew. He is a great guy; he’s actually a conductor, he also wears White Tie and he also conducted your music video, right?
PS: That is correct! Yes, he conducted the concert that you will be seeing footage from. He and I love to collaborate whenever we can.
SRS: There you go! Alright, let’s move on here. Back to Preston!
SRS: Fred Astaire! See, it took us until now or just until a few months ago to publish a Fred Astaire video. He was Preston’s style icon so it made sense for him to make the video.
PS: And in fact, I repurposed some of the script elements from this video so you may be able to see some similarities there.
SRS: How many hours you think you’ve put in to this application video?
PS: That’s a good question! Gosh, well it took me about an hour to an hour and a half to film this A-footage. Probably took about another half hour to 45 minutes to do the voice-over portion, maybe an hour to do all the scripting stuff and then several hours, I don’t know, maybe up to like 6 to 8 hours I spent editing this thing, putting it all together.
SRS: I knew that someone would have to spend at least you know a full or 2 full days on this. We wanted that because if you’re willing do that, you’re really into this and that’s why I knew that even if he had another job offer, he would take this job because it was much more aligned with his interests.
PS: Having been a History Major in college, I wanted to supplement with primary sources, you know, an interview that Fred Astaire had done in 1957. Use a secondary source of a blog post that had been written about him. So it wasn’t just my ideas, it was backed up by other information.
SRS: Exactly the way we work at Gentleman’s Gazette so I could see by the way he did it on how he would approach something like that, that’s what I wanted to see. It’s like, are you really kind of doing the hard work? Doing the leg work? Going into the detail, providing information, providing the history, and he did. So I was like, okay that’s good. This is good alignment here. You were pretty confident about this, otherwise, he wouldn’t have said “I knew it,” right? Do you at least hope that you would get a shot?
PS: Yes!
SRS: Made sense and why was that?
PS: Well, I was proud of the product that I put together. I put a lot of time and effort into it so I thought it would at least merit some consideration. I did hope to hear back and maybe expect a little bit to hear back but I’m glad that I did.
Video 3: Are Superlatives Diminishing Your Credibility?
PS: Even though the first video that you, viewers, saw me in was the eyeglasses two-parter that we did and we filmed an introductory sequence for that, that was actually not the video that I shot first for the channel.
PS: The first one I did was our video on superlatives, and I think you’ll definitely be able to see even a difference from my application video to this video. Being in my house, I was reasonably comfortable putting that application together but here, under these studio lights and with our videographer and with Raphael in the studio coaching me on everything I was doing, I instantly got a lot more nervous than I had been and I think that comes through here. Alright, let’s jump in here and see what we find.
PS: We don’t really use this orange sidebar much anymore.
SRS: We don’t. We used it for a while but you know, constantly improving, experimenting.
SRS: Make fun of yourself. It’s a good way to make the viewer more forgiving.
SRS: I mean look at him, he didn’t read any of that, he all spoke like that. It was like yeah I can tell you really kind of you want to make this really go well and he just speaks naturally so scripted that most people will feel like it’s too artificial even though it’s not. So I realized it was hard but at the same time, I wanted you to just go right in. You can only change so many things at the time and you have to take it step by step. I thought it was a brilliant first video compared to mine. I mean just compare it, energy level, cadence, your mimic and everything.
PS: Well, now that you’re seeing these videos back-to-back, I guess you can be the judge. So now we’ve got like the entire Merriam-Webster dictionary definition of variety here. I think, now, we’ve learned if anything requires that much text on screen, it’s probably worth making simpler.
SRS: Yeah! There’s a lot of orange space right, in that case, it’s like spacing it out, making it visually more appealing, making it easy to read.
SRS: I remember, Preston was like “He made me swear.” [Laughs]
PS: So you can see there that I’m kind of, and a lot of commenters pointed this out, that I have this very pronounced on-camera lean. I think we have figured t how to mitigate this a little bit now.
SRS: Our studio is in a very old building so the floors are crooked.
PS: [Laughs] Well, as I laid out in my FAQ video, that has to do with two things. Partly that I have cerebral palsy which is a condition that affects the muscles in my legs and also that I have one leg that is shorter than the other so those two factors together mean that I naturally stand with a little bit of a lean but since filming this video and my first handful of videos, I’ve tried to be more conscious of that and not quite so tilted so that it’s not distracting to the viewer.
SRS: Exactly!
PS: I think part of the reason that these examples were maybe not as polished is because, if I’m remembering correctly, I didn’t actually put any of those examples in the script. That was something that I had to learn within the process of filming my first two videos is that examples are always important. I had not written any down ahead of time so I believe you were just kind of offering me suggestions of maybe say something like this, maybe say something like that, so I was coming up with these examples on the spot and as you can see, they were not great because a lot of them still had some superlatives in them. So all part of the learning experience, I guess. This was an interesting scene to film on my first day of filming!
SRS: But again, you wanted to add a little bit of fun to it. Because Preston could appear very kind of academic, like a teacher or professor. We wanted to make it softer.
PS: Well, granted we started me with kind of a dry concept for a first video of this linguistic technique and the break down very very academic in setting.
PS: I still own that jacket but I don’t wear it at the moment because I’ve not gotten those sleeves lengthened and yeah obviously you can tell that they’re way too short, especially when compared to the sleeves of my shirt.
SRS: And I mean we noticed that right, but again, I didn’t want to give the feeling that you know everything he does is wrong or incorrect, it’s a progression.
PS: I don’t own those shoes anymore, had to throw those out because they were cheap and fell apart.
SRS: Awesome! Well, I think that was it! Yeah, you have seen our first videos and I think we’ve come a long way. I don’t know what you think but hopefully, in 10 years, we can sit here and laugh about the crap we produced 9 years ago.
PS: Exactly yeah! Who knows, we might even be looking back on this video and saying, “What were we thinking?”
Conclusion
SRS: Alright guys, I get it. These videos were really, really long and I know hardly anyone that’s gonna watch them from start to finish but we thought you know people ask a lot of questions and it’s about us so we wanted to make it somewhat funny and entertaining and provide some insights. I hope you enjoyed it if not that’s okay our other videos are very different so I hope you can watch those.
PS: Right. Well, thanks for coming along on this celebration with us and congrats on ten years and here’s to many more!
SRS: That’s right!
Gentlemen, thank you for being a beacon of good taste in a sea of cargo shorts and flip flops.
Great job, gentlemen!!
I like Preston’s hair much more. His scalp doesn’t show on the sides.
Keep up the good work!!
That was great.
Dear Raphael and Preston,
Over all a really great post. (Preston – is this the dreaded “Superlative Comment?”)
Raphael, your comments on tie length are spot on, (OMG, did I do it again?) I must say, however, your Four-In-Hand-Knots are poorly executed. Tugged, stretched and tie width totally wrong for your jacket lapel width. I won’t even comment on your “dimple?”
Preston, I’m an “old codger,” (71) What the years have taught me is that many people, (most younger than myself) give themselves to “superlatives” read: hyperbole, to compliment and be accepted. It is wise to be always be generous in spirit…..
Also – Preston, higher collars – you are blessed with a sophisticated look. Invest in it.
All the best,
James
Dear Raphael and Preston,
Over all a really great post. (Preston – is this the dreaded “Superlative Comment?”)
Raphael, your comments on tie length are spot on, (OMG, did I do it again?) I must say, however, your Four-In-Hand-Knots are poorly executed. Tugged, stretched and tie width totally wrong for your jacket lapel width. I won’t even comment on your “dimple?”
Preston, I’m an “old codger,” (71) What the years have taught me is that many people, (most younger than myself) give themselves to “superlatives” read: hyperbole, to compliment and be accepted. It is wise to be always be generous in spirit…..
Also – Preston, higher collars – you are blessed with a sophisticated look. Invest in it.
All the best,
James I. Laursen
Well, gents, I watched it all the way through, and truly enjoyed the opportunity to get to know more about each of you. It was fun to see how far you have both come, and I’m excited to see where you’ll be in the future. WELL DONE!
Thank you, David! :)
P.S. Is it a plus to have a German last name to be considered for a job at the Gentleman’s Gazette? :-D
Of course not!
Chuckled the whole way through. I enjoy the back-and-forth. Don’t abandon the conversational format from time to time.
Cheers!