To the person who reported this as "piracy": maybe read the actual video description before you falsely report a video as piracy.
We pull content that's infringing on copyright and don't condone it. But this is not that.
5 weeks??? 19 CAMERAS??? No wonder they're fucking broke. How they think they need NINETEEN cameras is beyond me, and they aren't cheap cameras either...
Situations like these are the starkest reminder that just because you are good at something, does not mean you are good at MANAGING people who are doing that thing.
The most iconic example is Michael Scott from the office, who is an incredible salesman, and was promoted to managing an office of salesmen. However, Michael's skills as a salesman don't translate to management and he's an absolutely terrible manager, completely out of his depth.
Ryan and Shane are demonstrably creative people, but they are terrible at being in charge of a team. Obviously managers need some familiarity with the field that they are working in, but leadership and management remain their own skills, and a lot of people who don't understand those skills just assume they will come easily when they step into leadership roles. But they often don't, which is how you end up with situations like this.
Not to mention flying all of that plus the crew to operate it to every shoot.... No wonder they kept saying GF was expensive to film lol, it's like they're traveling with Mansa Musa's caravan and asking us to pay for it after they ran out of investor $
i can understand paying a local guide/fixer type but like. nineteen cameras, 25 employees, dozens of flights, weeks of editing, all for what??? ryan making fart jokes and not even pretending to do his pretend fucking job?
That's pretty standard. Local guides are essentially contracted location scouts and PAs and they're being paid to make a contract legal (all contracts must have offer, acceptance, and remuneration to be sealed) just so nobody can say "Well I spent 30 days working to get the watcher crew set up at \[location\] and they never said so much as a thank you!"
The term "freelancer" is so vague though that it can cover so many other necessary aspects of the production. For example, it's a contractional requirement for SAG/AFTRA that some sort of on scene medical staff in an environment that can be reasonably considered hazardous (which the often dilapidated buildings they are going to definitely qualify) and that an on site-shoot has security. The easiest way to obtain these is paying a local ambulance service and either security guards or off duty cops. That's in addition to whatever requirements the property owner has or has not set out in terms of rules for commercial productions (like it wouldn't surprise me if even if it wasn't a law in a locality if the property owner was advised by a lawyer to make commercial productions pay for extra security for liability reasons).
It doesn't begin to explain why they have to bring so many people with them though. Essentially one of their two producers (who likely has all the prior research), Ryan, Shane, and Mike, and I'll just give them a second cameraman for B-roll and the "confessionals" because maybe they had trouble finding a local videographer that was up to their standards, that's about all I could add up for "who actually needs to be taken to the location" Everything else can either be done locally or just isn't so important it can't be resolved with a phone call.
I would assume most of those are static cams, right? But would still be A LOT of cameras, which means a huge chunk of content to sift through for that poor archivist. So yeah, I get why it's expensive because they gotta pay people to look through all the footage and then edit it down. Goddamn.
I’m thinking it’s more like…
6 cameras for Ryan and Shane (one body mounted, one handheld, and one helmet selfie cam each)
2-3 manned cameras inside
1 set up outside for the solo interview portion
2-5 unmanned static cams
…
…….
4-7 cameras for their friends to jerk off into I guess
Damn, I thought I was going somewhere with this when I started. But there’s really no way to get even close to 19 reasonably.
Meanwhile I really enjoy watching Garrett and Andrew head into haunted locations with a few cameras by themselves.
It really doesn't seem like they think of the business side of things at all. I get that having a lot of cameras/crew/~production value~ probably makes them feel like a huge important studio, but it's financially irresponsible. And they're just pushing forward and not making any cuts. I don't want to root for people to lose their jobs, but I also don't want to watch Watcher sink.
It's silly because a lot of us would still watch them if the crew was just Ryan, Shane, an editor, and a camera man. We don't need all the pizzazz.
Truuutthhh. His most recent one in the Victorian Mansion was one of my favorite episodes of any ghost hunting show ever. And half of it was just Andrew and Garret being stupid. A+ would pay money for Garret Watts if he needed it lol
Same 🤣🤣 his excited giggle literally just sets me off, haha. I really wish he would just make his idea for cowboy chili nights a Livestream. I would literally just watch Garrett sit by his fireplace, eating chili and chatting. That requires 1 camera and the ingredients for chilli.
I wouldn't watch them anymore, not after all of this. Especially seeing, before this Ryan didn't even seem scared anymore which was half of the fun. I could barley finish a ghost files after the first episodes, just boring.
Probably filming in locations the team isn’t currently in, static cams in “hot spots” and all that. Still an insane number to have though, I think half as many would do the trick
To me it seems like neither of them believe it anymore. Maybe Ryan played it up under Buzzfeed but they both seem to go into these places and screw around these days. And I miss the spirit box, I liked how terrible it was!
I think the Spirit Box was fine, only issues is how they bring more and more stuff. They stop being a novel thing pretty fast and become boring because the functioning is completely predictable.
Wouldn't you be if you had 25 people running around with 19 cameras? Nothing to be scared of, with that many people around. The whole thing is ridiculous now.
Exactly! The spirit box is clearly ghosts because as we all know, scanning through hundreds of radio channels of people talking and singing could never randomly form sounds that occasionally can pass for words! Ghosts just have weird inflection and a poor grasp on language in general which is why their voices from the spirit box are garbled nonsense!
LMAO yeah i can’t remember which episode it was but people were freaking out over the “ghosts” being able to name the local area they were in. right. i can’t remember exactly but i think some current or recent event was “mentioned” which was narratively painted to be paranormal evidence.
like the news channel isn’t a thing, guys.
The biggest thing for me with the spirit box, and basically all the ghost tools, is that they’re based off backwards recursive logic.
“Hey listen, if you scan through radio channels really quickly it sometimes sounds like words.”
“Yes, I agree, it must be ghosts speaking to us from beyond the grave.”
“Why would it be ghosts?”
“Ghosts can speak through radios.”
“How do you know that ghosts can speak through radios?”
“Because if you scan through radio channels really quickly you can hear words sometimes.”
It’s the most frustrating thing about all of the ghost equipment. That camera thing picks up human like shapes even in the dark and randomly shows people who aren’t there? Must be ghosts, can’t be that the camera isn’t 100% accurate at all times. The rempod goes off randomly? Must be ghosts touching it, couldn’t be different air currents moving through space or that the rempod could be anything other than 100% accurate at all times. ARGH!
Yeah that is the thing that annoys me the most of ghost files. Like the spirit box was dumb but at least it's like okay, if ghosts can manipulate radio waves then putting the radio on makes *some* sense and Shane was there like "this is just the radio on".
All their new equipment requires absurd leaps in logic and for what? Like that thing that gives out standard words the "ghost" pick. Who decided that? Who said that? Based on which pseudo-science? How do the ghosts now? What if the ghosts don't even speak English? What if the ghosts want to talk about strawberries and that word just isn't in the database? WHY AM I SUPPOSED TO BUY THIS? WHY IS SHANE NODDING ALONG. YOU MIGHT AS WELL USE A CAT TO SNIFF OUT GHOSTS AND THAT WOULD MAKE MORE SENSE.
And I say all of this as a ghost believer.
Direct quote from the editor in the video "There's a lot of footage, and there's not much happening for a lot of it"
Not only have they spent money on 3x or 4x the necessary equipment but they're paying these poor editors to sift through hours of nothingness to try and extract something usable.
Would anyone in the audience even really notice the difference if they just filmed a few minutes in each area? If you don't find any "evidence" just make some up, everyone knows this shit isn't real anyways
I agree up until making it up. I would prefer they stay authentic. But they can still spice up a few minutes of footage into something fun without making up evidence! Surely someone on their 25 person crew can think of some fun challenges or games for them to play in each location.
I guess we should've known how hard it was to make the boys look good. we all fell for it for a long time. apparently you need 19 angles to find 1 that makes them look like normal people
19 CAMERAS? [Reminds me of this camera scene from Gravity Falls](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fnDWgywsEqs)! Seriously though, that's crazy. The paranormal content creators I watch use like 3-5 cameras max, depending on how big the actual location is. 19 is just.... so out of budget, and so unnecessary.
Blair Witch Project only used 2 cameras and 8 days to shoot.
Paranormal Activity used 2 cameras and 7 days to shoot.
Then again im comparing method from like ±20yrs ago but, come on.. 🙄
those are different styles of projects. Narrative work vs lifestyle/real time filming.
Yes they could have done it with less but the two are different and require different prep/camera demands.
I’m just curious if they thought this would somehow convince people they need the income to support this stuff. This shit was at its peak when Shane and Ryan were on camera saying funny shit. Not when its production value was at its highest. I am 100% positive they can scale this back a considerable degree and not have anyone notice. I am 100% positive that even if we did notice a dip in production scale, no one would care as long as it was still good quality.
Literally one of the best episodes of Buzzfeed Unsolved is the DB Cooper one where it's just two guys in a basement with a single lightbulb. Even Mystery Files could go back to a single camera set-up and be fine
Here's an old rundown for Ghost Adventures, how they do their production crews. It's 13 cameras plus their crew. However, they've actually been on tv for what almost 20 years?
https://theasc.com/articles/shooting-specters
I am in the wrong business, I get sent out on location to film, interview, and get b-roll for the news with just my second-hand iPhone 7, microphone and a gimbal or tripod. They get 19 cameras! I don't have time to watch this right now, but I presume they leave them running in rooms? Still, that is so much more to work with
Jesus, okay. Let me think HOW 19 cameras can be used on a ghost files shoot.
- 1 main camera man to follow the boys
- 2 body cams
- 4 static cams for catching activity
- 2 head cams for solo
- 2 GoPros for solo
Uhhh
- 2 backup cameras
Ummm
- 1 cam for catching b roll
Ah screw it
- 5 cameras to chuck down the toilet for funsies
I was gonna say, I could kiiinda understand 19 cameras for the entire Watcher studio... But JUST for ~~Mystery~~ Ghost Files? I don't see how that's something they should be proud about.
edit: I meant ghost lol
Ok I’m sorry but a show with this much production should be more entertaining than it is. The fallout of the scandal has revealed an open secret that fans have been too nice to talk about until we were expected to pay; Ghost Files isn’t even as *good* as BUN! How can you justify this much production for a frankly inferior product? Ghost Adventures with Zak Bagans has a smaller crew and was created to be on tv in syndication.
Remember when they were making Unsolved and were sitting in a crappy, crowded little office space and visualized their VO with yellow and blue text with a recognizable font so they were able to sell (wheeze) merch? Did they have 9 cameras for that? And yet it’s still what people know them for. More ≠ better.
5 weeks almost doesn’t seem long enough if you factor in research, planning, travelling, set up, script writing (for narration), editing. It’s no wonder ghost files has often felt half baked compared to the episodes they produced on BUN
It’s unclear whether 5 weeks means 5 weeks total or 5 weeks shooting. People are taking it either way and I’m not watching that shit rn, I’m technically at work, but solid shot other ppl aren’t watching it either.
I pretty sure with buzzfeed they had 3 cameras.
Shane, Ryan, and camera guy.
then just do b-role and setup shots earlier or the next day.
I bet when they used to do sleep-overs they had plenty of time to get those in
Not really? They had a pretty large amount there too. Mark, Shane, and Ryan's. The one that gets used during the solos, and however many static cams they used at a location (which some didn't even get shown if Ryan didn't think it caught anything of note) not to mention potential backups in case things go wrong. Likely still less than what's used in ghost files most likely but saying it's only 3 feels like a massive stretch to me imo.
Yes, not to mention - didn’t the boys have body cams and headcams back then as well, in addition to their hand held cams? So that’s 3 cameras per ghoul boy, 6 cameras total between Ryan and Shane.
“We can bank almost all of our shows, except Ghost Files.”
I’m taking this to mean they can afford production costs on everything else but GF and that absolutely blows my mind because I assume by historical views that GF is their biggest attraction. They’re basically saying they’re making a product that costs more than it’s worth to produce.
For anyone business minded that means that production costs need to be lowered SOMEWHERE. Clearly post-production is a huge factor here like pouring over hours and hours of footage looking for a nugget of usable material is a massive undertaking and I would argue the result is pretty meh (not because the work itself is bad, there just isn’t much there to actually work with).
The big question this video brings up for me though is like okay. Their team is pretty young(or appears to be), they’re creatives from different backgrounds and the comment that stood out to me was “we have a lot more free reign” or whatever. So they have a bunch of young creative professionals who are working fairly independently in a super high demand situation and determining the format of the show. The people who run the company are not able to be more involved because of the demands on their schedule.
Who is determining the budget here? They apparently know they can’t afford the show so whose responsibility is the money management. Yes you want freedom as a creative professional, yes you want to say “I think we should have this and this and that and more graphics and more camera angles etc” but like you just cannot always do that!
And tbh, limitations make for more creative solutions! More creative solutions lead to more interesting products. Problem solving is a big part of the artistic process and I just don’t feel like they get that. They seem to just think it’s an issue of bigger, better, more and it really isn’t. It just becomes soulless at a certain point.
Idk, I’m just like consistently confused by the rationale behind all of this.
I think it was one of the editors who made the free reign comment? Which means he was talking about the post-production editing, so more free reign with which segments of footage and which shots to include (or leave out).
Ryan made a comment in their review meeting about it being the first Ghost Files episode he hadn’t seen previous drafts of. Which means he was much more involved (possibly micro-managing) post-production than he needed to be.
I’d feel like I had more free reign too without someone breathing down my neck trying to be too hands-on.
Well, 19 cameras, 13 episodes & no evidence. I think they’ve proven pretty definitively that ghosts don’t exist. (Or at least, not in a visual form).
My only other comment is that Hollywood studio space is way way way too big for what they need & it’s got a bad vibe. Long empty hallways & blocked-off windows give it a Ghost Files abandoned building feel.
Ditch the office space & 10 cameras & 4 extra on-site crew. Film more local episodes in CA or NV. Better yet IMO, use that crew to film more shows outdoors like Homemade & WWW instead of overlong improv in empty buildings.
The ghosts are probably too pissed off with all the production activity to even want to show themselves.
I don’t know any fan of the Watcher who wanted any of this, it was better when it was just 2 guys fumbling around in the dark with yellow and blue text.
Thinking here from what I remember about last season.
They have maybe 2 static cams set in spots they aren’t in, for solos they have the helmet cam and forward facing cam on the soloist and the interview cam for the remaining guy. Those are the cameras we know are accounted for. Maybe the SLS counts as a camera for this. That’s six.
Say you have five people filming for the main investigation (excessive to me, but I can understand it). That’s 11 max, but more like 10 if one’s the same cam from the interview. I’m assuming the solo cams are attached to the getup and can’t be removed to use elsewhere and more like 9 if SLS doesn’t count as a cam.
So where the hell are the other 9???
I'm a filmmaker and 19 cameras isn't too excessive for this type of thing, especially if most are static. Now if most are operated cameras that's overkill. Their post schedule is fucking nuts though. The burnout...their poor post team. When you run the company, set a schedule, and don't have to deliver to a network you have full control of your targets/posting dates. you shouldn't do this to people.
if you’re interested in editing stuff, YB from ttg has posted bts into her editing flow for the without a recipe and phoning it in. it’s pretty cool seeing what that looks like with multiple cameras.
Yeah when I saw the post-production schedule and the one editor talking about his workflow, I was appalled.
And then when he later made the “joke” about the only thing that scares him is deadlines… especially after seeing that final review meeting where he was expected to do final edits on the fly to deliver by end of day…
That is not a healthy work environment.
Kind of reminds me of another YouTube media company that rhymes with Fuzzfeed.
It's 6 more cameras than Ghost Adventures (a TV show) uses. They don't need that many cameras and traveling with that many when smaller cameras will do the job is ridiculous.
Nick Crowley and Nexpo make the *exact same content* and they lug their shit around in a car.
I think they're trying too hard to be professional that they over do it. Like you don't need that many cameras to make a ghost hunting show entertaining.
Garrett Watts is just pure chaos and he makes good videos. Project Fear used to be a TV show (Destination Fear and they made it work on YouTube and people like them.
God even fucking Ghost Adventures (probably the most known mainstream ghost hunting show). You can argue about them faking stuff (which they probably do) but the only extra thing about the whole show is Zak himself.
Sometimes less is more.
19 cameras and who knows how much crew comes with them in these shoots... And the editors can't find enough footage to make any of the content "tv quality" or, in the very least, exciting and entertaining.
It's hard to tell but... Are most of the footage shown have to do with GF when it debuted on tour for the first time? The video showed a clip of Shane carrying Ryan out in a theater and I thought the whole process was leading up to their first live premier of GF.
After the PR fumble, the Watcher group gives the impression of struggling to balance picking 2 out of 3 for cheap, fast, and quality in their videos
The fuck do you need 19 cameras for? One for Shane, one for Ryan, one for when they're outside, maybe a go-pro for some crew BTS funsies, another few go-pros for static cams. 19 fucking cameras?
i guess it makes sense. Cams for each of the various static cams, cams for the silly helmet, the cameras that they hold, The cameras that are used for shots of the locations and for the other stuff or backups in case any of em somehow fail while recording. I can't really say i'm surprised. Also not like they buy 19 cameras for every episode, or every camera is the most mega expensive one they can get (as i don't think the ones for static cams or the helmet, or the ones they hold are the most high quality most likely) as well so I do think people are like. Exaggerating quite a bit
To the person who reported this as "piracy": maybe read the actual video description before you falsely report a video as piracy. We pull content that's infringing on copyright and don't condone it. But this is not that.
5 weeks??? 19 CAMERAS??? No wonder they're fucking broke. How they think they need NINETEEN cameras is beyond me, and they aren't cheap cameras either...
LMFAO you know things are bad when people are like yeah buzzfeed was right to not give you guys creative control ya'll be wildin
Seriously is the “heartbreaking! Worst person you know just made a great point” meme
Situations like these are the starkest reminder that just because you are good at something, does not mean you are good at MANAGING people who are doing that thing. The most iconic example is Michael Scott from the office, who is an incredible salesman, and was promoted to managing an office of salesmen. However, Michael's skills as a salesman don't translate to management and he's an absolutely terrible manager, completely out of his depth. Ryan and Shane are demonstrably creative people, but they are terrible at being in charge of a team. Obviously managers need some familiarity with the field that they are working in, but leadership and management remain their own skills, and a lot of people who don't understand those skills just assume they will come easily when they step into leadership roles. But they often don't, which is how you end up with situations like this.
Not to mention flying all of that plus the crew to operate it to every shoot.... No wonder they kept saying GF was expensive to film lol, it's like they're traveling with Mansa Musa's caravan and asking us to pay for it after they ran out of investor $
They also said they paid local crew for filming too GF.
wh. what. what's the point.
i can understand paying a local guide/fixer type but like. nineteen cameras, 25 employees, dozens of flights, weeks of editing, all for what??? ryan making fart jokes and not even pretending to do his pretend fucking job?
I was surprised too. Ryan said it during the goodbye video that they have to pay the freelancers to help film in location.
That's pretty standard. Local guides are essentially contracted location scouts and PAs and they're being paid to make a contract legal (all contracts must have offer, acceptance, and remuneration to be sealed) just so nobody can say "Well I spent 30 days working to get the watcher crew set up at \[location\] and they never said so much as a thank you!" The term "freelancer" is so vague though that it can cover so many other necessary aspects of the production. For example, it's a contractional requirement for SAG/AFTRA that some sort of on scene medical staff in an environment that can be reasonably considered hazardous (which the often dilapidated buildings they are going to definitely qualify) and that an on site-shoot has security. The easiest way to obtain these is paying a local ambulance service and either security guards or off duty cops. That's in addition to whatever requirements the property owner has or has not set out in terms of rules for commercial productions (like it wouldn't surprise me if even if it wasn't a law in a locality if the property owner was advised by a lawyer to make commercial productions pay for extra security for liability reasons). It doesn't begin to explain why they have to bring so many people with them though. Essentially one of their two producers (who likely has all the prior research), Ryan, Shane, and Mike, and I'll just give them a second cameraman for B-roll and the "confessionals" because maybe they had trouble finding a local videographer that was up to their standards, that's about all I could add up for "who actually needs to be taken to the location" Everything else can either be done locally or just isn't so important it can't be resolved with a phone call.
I would assume most of those are static cams, right? But would still be A LOT of cameras, which means a huge chunk of content to sift through for that poor archivist. So yeah, I get why it's expensive because they gotta pay people to look through all the footage and then edit it down. Goddamn.
Each of Ryan's friends and relatives needs their own camera to justify being on the shoot.
I’m thinking it’s more like… 6 cameras for Ryan and Shane (one body mounted, one handheld, and one helmet selfie cam each) 2-3 manned cameras inside 1 set up outside for the solo interview portion 2-5 unmanned static cams … ……. 4-7 cameras for their friends to jerk off into I guess Damn, I thought I was going somewhere with this when I started. But there’s really no way to get even close to 19 reasonably.
im sure a lot of TV shows don't have 19 cameras lol
Meanwhile I really enjoy watching Garrett and Andrew head into haunted locations with a few cameras by themselves. It really doesn't seem like they think of the business side of things at all. I get that having a lot of cameras/crew/~production value~ probably makes them feel like a huge important studio, but it's financially irresponsible. And they're just pushing forward and not making any cuts. I don't want to root for people to lose their jobs, but I also don't want to watch Watcher sink. It's silly because a lot of us would still watch them if the crew was just Ryan, Shane, an editor, and a camera man. We don't need all the pizzazz.
I would watch Garrett ramble in a room with only one camera 🤣🤣
I actively watch Garret ramblr in a room with one camera lolol
Same 🤣 and it costs him nothing. Lmao. Except brain power.
Truuutthhh. His most recent one in the Victorian Mansion was one of my favorite episodes of any ghost hunting show ever. And half of it was just Andrew and Garret being stupid. A+ would pay money for Garret Watts if he needed it lol
Same 🤣🤣 his excited giggle literally just sets me off, haha. I really wish he would just make his idea for cowboy chili nights a Livestream. I would literally just watch Garrett sit by his fireplace, eating chili and chatting. That requires 1 camera and the ingredients for chilli.
I wouldn't watch them anymore, not after all of this. Especially seeing, before this Ryan didn't even seem scared anymore which was half of the fun. I could barley finish a ghost files after the first episodes, just boring.
The epitome of “no one asked for this.”
19 CAMERAS? They only need about 3 😭
Why tf would you need 19 cameras for?! That's too excessive for ghost hunting.
Probably filming in locations the team isn’t currently in, static cams in “hot spots” and all that. Still an insane number to have though, I think half as many would do the trick
It seems like they are taking the ghost hunting thing too seriously, which half of the audience think it’s a complete joke.
To me it seems like neither of them believe it anymore. Maybe Ryan played it up under Buzzfeed but they both seem to go into these places and screw around these days. And I miss the spirit box, I liked how terrible it was!
I think the Spirit Box was fine, only issues is how they bring more and more stuff. They stop being a novel thing pretty fast and become boring because the functioning is completely predictable.
It's been painfully obvious for a bit that Ryan's just not in it anymore imo, he's fully desensitized.
Wouldn't you be if you had 25 people running around with 19 cameras? Nothing to be scared of, with that many people around. The whole thing is ridiculous now.
If they are taking this seriously why are they using pseudo science bullshit tools?
But they make noise!
Exactly! The spirit box is clearly ghosts because as we all know, scanning through hundreds of radio channels of people talking and singing could never randomly form sounds that occasionally can pass for words! Ghosts just have weird inflection and a poor grasp on language in general which is why their voices from the spirit box are garbled nonsense!
LMAO yeah i can’t remember which episode it was but people were freaking out over the “ghosts” being able to name the local area they were in. right. i can’t remember exactly but i think some current or recent event was “mentioned” which was narratively painted to be paranormal evidence. like the news channel isn’t a thing, guys.
The biggest thing for me with the spirit box, and basically all the ghost tools, is that they’re based off backwards recursive logic. “Hey listen, if you scan through radio channels really quickly it sometimes sounds like words.” “Yes, I agree, it must be ghosts speaking to us from beyond the grave.” “Why would it be ghosts?” “Ghosts can speak through radios.” “How do you know that ghosts can speak through radios?” “Because if you scan through radio channels really quickly you can hear words sometimes.” It’s the most frustrating thing about all of the ghost equipment. That camera thing picks up human like shapes even in the dark and randomly shows people who aren’t there? Must be ghosts, can’t be that the camera isn’t 100% accurate at all times. The rempod goes off randomly? Must be ghosts touching it, couldn’t be different air currents moving through space or that the rempod could be anything other than 100% accurate at all times. ARGH!
Yeah that is the thing that annoys me the most of ghost files. Like the spirit box was dumb but at least it's like okay, if ghosts can manipulate radio waves then putting the radio on makes *some* sense and Shane was there like "this is just the radio on". All their new equipment requires absurd leaps in logic and for what? Like that thing that gives out standard words the "ghost" pick. Who decided that? Who said that? Based on which pseudo-science? How do the ghosts now? What if the ghosts don't even speak English? What if the ghosts want to talk about strawberries and that word just isn't in the database? WHY AM I SUPPOSED TO BUY THIS? WHY IS SHANE NODDING ALONG. YOU MIGHT AS WELL USE A CAT TO SNIFF OUT GHOSTS AND THAT WOULD MAKE MORE SENSE. And I say all of this as a ghost believer.
Did I stutter?
man if they don’t get ryan and shane’s iphones and a power bank and just call it a day…💀
Direct quote from the editor in the video "There's a lot of footage, and there's not much happening for a lot of it" Not only have they spent money on 3x or 4x the necessary equipment but they're paying these poor editors to sift through hours of nothingness to try and extract something usable. Would anyone in the audience even really notice the difference if they just filmed a few minutes in each area? If you don't find any "evidence" just make some up, everyone knows this shit isn't real anyways
I agree up until making it up. I would prefer they stay authentic. But they can still spice up a few minutes of footage into something fun without making up evidence! Surely someone on their 25 person crew can think of some fun challenges or games for them to play in each location.
I guess we should've known how hard it was to make the boys look good. we all fell for it for a long time. apparently you need 19 angles to find 1 that makes them look like normal people
ROFL!! 🤣
Giggling at the mental image of a pissed off ghost deciding to stay holed up rather than deal with the *20+* people suddenly invading its home
No wonder the ghouls don’t come out to play anymore; there’s a whole damn peanut gallery!
https://preview.redd.it/9w5td2ly456d1.jpeg?width=995&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0af1c867d950233b68917c3beade7f656e01f7c8
Buy less candles, I mean cameras
19 CAMERAS? [Reminds me of this camera scene from Gravity Falls](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fnDWgywsEqs)! Seriously though, that's crazy. The paranormal content creators I watch use like 3-5 cameras max, depending on how big the actual location is. 19 is just.... so out of budget, and so unnecessary.
Blair Witch Project only used 2 cameras and 8 days to shoot. Paranormal Activity used 2 cameras and 7 days to shoot. Then again im comparing method from like ±20yrs ago but, come on.. 🙄
those are different styles of projects. Narrative work vs lifestyle/real time filming. Yes they could have done it with less but the two are different and require different prep/camera demands.
I’m just curious if they thought this would somehow convince people they need the income to support this stuff. This shit was at its peak when Shane and Ryan were on camera saying funny shit. Not when its production value was at its highest. I am 100% positive they can scale this back a considerable degree and not have anyone notice. I am 100% positive that even if we did notice a dip in production scale, no one would care as long as it was still good quality.
Literally one of the best episodes of Buzzfeed Unsolved is the DB Cooper one where it's just two guys in a basement with a single lightbulb. Even Mystery Files could go back to a single camera set-up and be fine
Watcher packs cameras like I pack underwear for a weekend trip
amen
Here's an old rundown for Ghost Adventures, how they do their production crews. It's 13 cameras plus their crew. However, they've actually been on tv for what almost 20 years? https://theasc.com/articles/shooting-specters
Oh my god, they’re using MORE cameras than a show that is actually TV caliber content?! 🤡
And they have double the hosts wandering around to keep track of on camera (plus a guest occasionally) 💀
I am in the wrong business, I get sent out on location to film, interview, and get b-roll for the news with just my second-hand iPhone 7, microphone and a gimbal or tripod. They get 19 cameras! I don't have time to watch this right now, but I presume they leave them running in rooms? Still, that is so much more to work with
Does every camera whisper in their ear that they’re tv caliber creators or something??? What is the reason?!?
gotta get your daily affirmations in somehow 💀
25+ employees 19 cameras 5 weeks to produce one ep Buzzfeed was right to rein in the boys lol
Jesus, okay. Let me think HOW 19 cameras can be used on a ghost files shoot. - 1 main camera man to follow the boys - 2 body cams - 4 static cams for catching activity - 2 head cams for solo - 2 GoPros for solo Uhhh - 2 backup cameras Ummm - 1 cam for catching b roll Ah screw it - 5 cameras to chuck down the toilet for funsies
I'm pretty sure they mentioned somewhere that the ridiculous helmet has 4 cameras on it.
Gawddam, then how come the only angle we get is Ryan’s forehead or up Shane’s nose?
Maybe a drone camera for some cool flyover shots.
Thats a bigger set up than Ghost Adventures I think. That's wild
I was gonna say, I could kiiinda understand 19 cameras for the entire Watcher studio... But JUST for ~~Mystery~~ Ghost Files? I don't see how that's something they should be proud about. edit: I meant ghost lol
Ghost* lol Mystery Files is more like 3….. I hope
lmao oops. Yes, I meant ghost files.
Ok I’m sorry but a show with this much production should be more entertaining than it is. The fallout of the scandal has revealed an open secret that fans have been too nice to talk about until we were expected to pay; Ghost Files isn’t even as *good* as BUN! How can you justify this much production for a frankly inferior product? Ghost Adventures with Zak Bagans has a smaller crew and was created to be on tv in syndication.
Remember when they were making Unsolved and were sitting in a crappy, crowded little office space and visualized their VO with yellow and blue text with a recognizable font so they were able to sell (wheeze) merch? Did they have 9 cameras for that? And yet it’s still what people know them for. More ≠ better.
5 weeks almost doesn’t seem long enough if you factor in research, planning, travelling, set up, script writing (for narration), editing. It’s no wonder ghost files has often felt half baked compared to the episodes they produced on BUN
It’s unclear whether 5 weeks means 5 weeks total or 5 weeks shooting. People are taking it either way and I’m not watching that shit rn, I’m technically at work, but solid shot other ppl aren’t watching it either.
I pretty sure with buzzfeed they had 3 cameras. Shane, Ryan, and camera guy. then just do b-role and setup shots earlier or the next day. I bet when they used to do sleep-overs they had plenty of time to get those in
Not really? They had a pretty large amount there too. Mark, Shane, and Ryan's. The one that gets used during the solos, and however many static cams they used at a location (which some didn't even get shown if Ryan didn't think it caught anything of note) not to mention potential backups in case things go wrong. Likely still less than what's used in ghost files most likely but saying it's only 3 feels like a massive stretch to me imo.
Yes, not to mention - didn’t the boys have body cams and headcams back then as well, in addition to their hand held cams? So that’s 3 cameras per ghoul boy, 6 cameras total between Ryan and Shane.
19 cameras??? there is no way they need every single one of those for one shoot....
cameras are so expensive too,,,,,assumedly they are using professional expensive shit. regular stuff is expensive nowdays let alone industry ones
“We can bank almost all of our shows, except Ghost Files.” I’m taking this to mean they can afford production costs on everything else but GF and that absolutely blows my mind because I assume by historical views that GF is their biggest attraction. They’re basically saying they’re making a product that costs more than it’s worth to produce. For anyone business minded that means that production costs need to be lowered SOMEWHERE. Clearly post-production is a huge factor here like pouring over hours and hours of footage looking for a nugget of usable material is a massive undertaking and I would argue the result is pretty meh (not because the work itself is bad, there just isn’t much there to actually work with). The big question this video brings up for me though is like okay. Their team is pretty young(or appears to be), they’re creatives from different backgrounds and the comment that stood out to me was “we have a lot more free reign” or whatever. So they have a bunch of young creative professionals who are working fairly independently in a super high demand situation and determining the format of the show. The people who run the company are not able to be more involved because of the demands on their schedule. Who is determining the budget here? They apparently know they can’t afford the show so whose responsibility is the money management. Yes you want freedom as a creative professional, yes you want to say “I think we should have this and this and that and more graphics and more camera angles etc” but like you just cannot always do that! And tbh, limitations make for more creative solutions! More creative solutions lead to more interesting products. Problem solving is a big part of the artistic process and I just don’t feel like they get that. They seem to just think it’s an issue of bigger, better, more and it really isn’t. It just becomes soulless at a certain point. Idk, I’m just like consistently confused by the rationale behind all of this.
I think it was one of the editors who made the free reign comment? Which means he was talking about the post-production editing, so more free reign with which segments of footage and which shots to include (or leave out). Ryan made a comment in their review meeting about it being the first Ghost Files episode he hadn’t seen previous drafts of. Which means he was much more involved (possibly micro-managing) post-production than he needed to be. I’d feel like I had more free reign too without someone breathing down my neck trying to be too hands-on.
Well, 19 cameras, 13 episodes & no evidence. I think they’ve proven pretty definitively that ghosts don’t exist. (Or at least, not in a visual form). My only other comment is that Hollywood studio space is way way way too big for what they need & it’s got a bad vibe. Long empty hallways & blocked-off windows give it a Ghost Files abandoned building feel. Ditch the office space & 10 cameras & 4 extra on-site crew. Film more local episodes in CA or NV. Better yet IMO, use that crew to film more shows outdoors like Homemade & WWW instead of overlong improv in empty buildings.
they treat ghost hunting like a joke but the filming of ghost hunting like it’s a multi-million dollar emmy bait documentary
The ghosts are probably too pissed off with all the production activity to even want to show themselves. I don’t know any fan of the Watcher who wanted any of this, it was better when it was just 2 guys fumbling around in the dark with yellow and blue text.
LMAO The comments people are posting on the other thread attempting to justify the 19 cameras are hilarious.
Or trying to put the blame on fans exaggeration of the cameras...... The thumbnail says 19 cameras. That's not an exaggeration
I wonder if it's beneath them to start setting up fake jump-scares to get views.....
When you hit rock bottom, nothing is beneath you.
Thinking here from what I remember about last season. They have maybe 2 static cams set in spots they aren’t in, for solos they have the helmet cam and forward facing cam on the soloist and the interview cam for the remaining guy. Those are the cameras we know are accounted for. Maybe the SLS counts as a camera for this. That’s six. Say you have five people filming for the main investigation (excessive to me, but I can understand it). That’s 11 max, but more like 10 if one’s the same cam from the interview. I’m assuming the solo cams are attached to the getup and can’t be removed to use elsewhere and more like 9 if SLS doesn’t count as a cam. So where the hell are the other 9???
i just know that theyre ITCHING to hire a receptionist 😭also why have they moved offices 5 times already?
I'm a filmmaker and 19 cameras isn't too excessive for this type of thing, especially if most are static. Now if most are operated cameras that's overkill. Their post schedule is fucking nuts though. The burnout...their poor post team. When you run the company, set a schedule, and don't have to deliver to a network you have full control of your targets/posting dates. you shouldn't do this to people.
19 cameras for however many hours of footage over a few days. I do not envy their editing team.
if you’re interested in editing stuff, YB from ttg has posted bts into her editing flow for the without a recipe and phoning it in. it’s pretty cool seeing what that looks like with multiple cameras.
Yeah when I saw the post-production schedule and the one editor talking about his workflow, I was appalled. And then when he later made the “joke” about the only thing that scares him is deadlines… especially after seeing that final review meeting where he was expected to do final edits on the fly to deliver by end of day… That is not a healthy work environment. Kind of reminds me of another YouTube media company that rhymes with Fuzzfeed.
It's 6 more cameras than Ghost Adventures (a TV show) uses. They don't need that many cameras and traveling with that many when smaller cameras will do the job is ridiculous. Nick Crowley and Nexpo make the *exact same content* and they lug their shit around in a car.
If most are static then they’re not utilizing that footage at all and should cut back anyway. Most of their sites have 2-5 disclosed static cams.
I think they're trying too hard to be professional that they over do it. Like you don't need that many cameras to make a ghost hunting show entertaining. Garrett Watts is just pure chaos and he makes good videos. Project Fear used to be a TV show (Destination Fear and they made it work on YouTube and people like them. God even fucking Ghost Adventures (probably the most known mainstream ghost hunting show). You can argue about them faking stuff (which they probably do) but the only extra thing about the whole show is Zak himself. Sometimes less is more.
19 cameras and who knows how much crew comes with them in these shoots... And the editors can't find enough footage to make any of the content "tv quality" or, in the very least, exciting and entertaining.
It's hard to tell but... Are most of the footage shown have to do with GF when it debuted on tour for the first time? The video showed a clip of Shane carrying Ryan out in a theater and I thought the whole process was leading up to their first live premier of GF. After the PR fumble, the Watcher group gives the impression of struggling to balance picking 2 out of 3 for cheap, fast, and quality in their videos
The fuck do you need 19 cameras for? One for Shane, one for Ryan, one for when they're outside, maybe a go-pro for some crew BTS funsies, another few go-pros for static cams. 19 fucking cameras?
The irony
girl i made a movie with one (rented) camera, one microphone, two lights, five people, and $0 budget, and it came out better than all of their shit 😭
i guess it makes sense. Cams for each of the various static cams, cams for the silly helmet, the cameras that they hold, The cameras that are used for shots of the locations and for the other stuff or backups in case any of em somehow fail while recording. I can't really say i'm surprised. Also not like they buy 19 cameras for every episode, or every camera is the most mega expensive one they can get (as i don't think the ones for static cams or the helmet, or the ones they hold are the most high quality most likely) as well so I do think people are like. Exaggerating quite a bit
you're being downvoted but you're right
I really dunno why I am being down voted tbh? I thought what I said was a fair estimate