Editing The Pen Addict 248/transcript (section)

== Squarespace ==


'''Myke Hurley:''' Today's show is brought to you by Squarespace. Use the offer code INK at checkout, and you'll get 10% of your first purchase. With a unique domain name, award-winning templates, and more, you can make your next move with Squarespace. They let you easily create that website for your next idea. Whether you're looking to create a blog, portfolio, online store, site for your restaurant, maybe a site for your local group or charity. No matter what it is you're looking to put online, Squarespace is the all-in-one platform that lets you do just that. You don't have to worry about installing stuff, patching things, upgrading things. You don't have to do any of the boring tweaking, as I like to think of it. You just get to go onto squarespace.com, set everything up, tweak it to your heart's content with all the fun stuff. So, like, where you can adapt their beautiful templates with colors and fonts, and everything's drag and drop. All of the stuff that you get to do on Squarespace is just the fun stuff, the stuff that allows you to get your ideas out to the world. They have the ability for you to grab a domain name if you're looking for one, and they also have 24-7 customer support if you need any help of anything at all. Squarespace plans start at just $12 a month, but you can sign up for a free trial with no credit card required by going to squarespace.com. Then, when you do sign up for a plan, use the code INK at checkout to get 10% off your first purchase and show your support for this show and RelayFM. Squarespace, make your next move, make your next website.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Alright, Mr. Armstrong. So, we've known each other for a while, but we really haven't gotten to know each other on a more personal level until, like, the past year or two. And, I'm obviously a huge fan of yours, and I really, really respect what you do and what you bring to the community. And, you know, as we've talked and become closer friends over the past couple years, I realized that I don't really know how you started the pen habit and, like, what your background is with pens. So, why don't you kind of take us from the beginning, like, you know, when did you fall in love with stationery? When did you realize that's a thing? And then, when did you decide to want to write about it?

'''Matt Armstrong:''' Well, it's, I don't know, it's kind of interesting. It's only been maybe the last, well, it's actually February 23rd was my fourth anniversary of pens, of the pen world. So, it hasn't been as long as it feels like sometimes. But, yeah, I, so I live in Seattle, the Seattle area, and my dad has been using a fountain pen. He's had the same one since 1976. And my mom sent me to the market, the Pike Place market. There's a guy there who sells kit pens, you know, turned out of wood. And she sent me down there to go pick up a pen for him for a Christmas present in the end of 2012. And that idea kind of got stuck in my head. And so, one of the things I wanted to do starting in 2013 was start writing in a journal. And I am never not looking for excuses to spend money. So, I was like, oh, I should go get myself a nice pen. And maybe that will encourage me to write in my journal. And I went and spent what I thought at the time was the most I would ever spend on a pen, which was $65.

'''Matt Armstrong:''' We'll just leave that there. And brought it home. And it did not work very well. Which, if you're familiar with super cheap kit pens, is probably not a surprise to anybody. I didn't know any better. So, the very first thing I did is what I always do. I went on the internet to try to find out how to fix it. And that's when I fell down the rabbit hole. So, I've been, you know, within the end of the first month, I had my first probably 10 bottles of ink. And my first 10 fountain pens. And it was just, you know, I stumbled into this world that I hadn't even really known existed before. So, it was, I don't know. It was a really fast start. And I'm one of those, I don't just kind of get my toes wet in anything. I just dive right in to whatever it is I'm interested in and go way overboard right off the bat. And that's pretty much how it happened.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, that's crazy how fast that was. Like, I think I almost refused to do fountain pens for like the longest time. And I've eaten so many words from things I've said about fountain pens in the past. But it still wasn't quite at that pace. So, what you went from that pace to saying, hey, let me share, you know, what I'm finding and what I'm discovering online. What made you want to start writing and then eventually doing videos about fountain pens and everything you were discovering?

'''Matt Armstrong:''' Well, I mean, it was really Brian Goulet and Stephen Brown who got me into it. And so, there was, plus I've always had, you know, I've done several podcasts in the past and I've always had this kind of urge to share what I learned. I used to teach at the college level. And so, I love to teach. I love to be in front of an audience of any kind. And so, it was kind of a natural transition for me. Yeah, plus I felt like at the time, which is funny considering where I am now, that there really wasn't anyone who was kind of sharing their experience as a newcomer. You know, Brian to me felt like a longtime expert. Stephen felt like a longtime expert with way more experience than I would ever have. And I was brand new. And so, I wanted to share my experience from the very beginning, which if you go back and watch some of my old videos is pretty funny. You know, just the stuff I didn't know back then and what I came up with in some of my early reviews is kind of cringe-inducing. I can imagine. We have all been there.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I know that's the truth. Yeah. So, did you plan on the video as being your primary format in the beginning?

'''Matt Armstrong:''' Yeah. Right out of the bat, I knew that video was the format I was interested in. So, back in my – well, not back in my tech days. I'm still in my tech days. But my first job after I retired from performing, I worked at Microsoft during the Zune era. If we're all familiar. And I worked on the Zune team. So, I was with the team that was responsible for getting in all the TV shows and movies from the studios. Gotcha. And then publishing those into their video marketplace. And I had done that for about three years and had really gotten into the whole video. I'm a YouTube junkie and have been for a long time. So, it was kind of a natural transition. Plus, with all the equipment I had at my house, I was like, I really ought to be doing something with all this stuff that I bought and is just sitting around collecting dust.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So, that, you know, getting in front of the camera then is nothing for you, right? I mean, that's like – you didn't even have to think about it. You're just like, let's set this up and go.

'''Matt Armstrong:''' Yeah. I mean, I've got the performer genes and always have. The other thing, I think a lot of people sometimes forget this, is that there's just not – it doesn't feel like you're in front of an audience when you're recording YouTube videos. Because it's just – you know, the way I often put it is I'm sitting alone in a padded room talking to myself. Because that's really what it feels like most of the time is I'm, you know, I'm just in a bedroom in my house with padding on the walls and I'm talking to myself and I hardly even realize the camera's there. So, it doesn't – the hardest thing was just dealing with the feedback that comes from the YouTube community, which is not always great.

'''Matt Armstrong:''' But once I kind of thickened my skin and got used to that a little bit more, it was just a natural fit.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, I know that that feedback is hugely challenging. And we've talked about it like crazy amounts, like when one person – like, is there anything you can do to change that? Like, how do you handle that? And there's still no great answer for that, unfortunately. But what I've noticed over the years of following you is there is no one that – I'm not a YouTube junkie like you and Myke are. But there's no one that I watch who does a better job with the video, the quality, the production, the writing, if you will. I mean, you have to – your videos are 20 to 30 minutes long. You know, you have to plan this out. I'll just get on there and ramble for like five minutes. But you've – this is serious high-level stuff. So, what got you into – this is a huge commitment, right, to make a single video for a fountain pen. I can't fathom what that process is like knowing, you know, kind of what's going on behind the scenes. I can't picture that. So, let me in inside like how long it takes you to put together like one of your videos.

'''Matt Armstrong:''' Yeah. So, if I were to break it down by hours, it's about 20 hours of work for every 20-minute video. Wow. 15 to 20-minute video. And my videos keep getting longer and longer and longer, and I'm trying to rein that in. I'm not always successful because I like to talk. But – so, usually the way it works is I'll get a pen, I'll ink it up, and use it for a couple of months. I generally – because the turnaround time for me is so long, I can't often do the – I just got this brand new pen. I'm going to turn around a review really quick. So, I'm almost never the first one out with a review of anything. Right. But I'll use it for a couple months. During that time, I'll take – ideally take the photos. I'll sit down and record, and I record with three cameras simultaneously. So, that actually speeds up the editing process later. But – so, you know, I'll – usually on a Saturday or Sunday, I'll sit down in my studio and record three or four videos at once.

'''Matt Armstrong:''' I'll edit them one at a time. I create After Effects transitions to go in there, you know, music and color correct all the video and all that stuff, edit it. And then I write a written blog post to go along with the video, and I usually do that last. I used to do it first, but sometimes I just couldn't get to it and didn't want to hold up production until I did. So, I do that often last, and then I'll publish the whole thing together. So, that's kind of my process. It's – it's, you know, it's just a lot of work. It's not – nothing out of the ordinary. It's just a lot of work. Yeah. No big deal.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' No big deal. Just flip my hair. Yeah. Like, you just gloss over music. Like, yeah, just put the music in, you know, and overlay it wherever. Where you – the part you left out is where you composed the music originally, right?

'''Matt Armstrong:''' Yeah. That's what I do during my hiatuses is I compose all the music and make the big changes. So, you can actually see from season to season to season, which is something that's different for me than a lot of other video producers. There's usually big changes in the format of the show between each season because I use that time to kind of tweak and write new stuff and learn how to use After Effects. And, you know, all those other things because the thing for me is, like, you can tell when the end of my season comes because I'm so bored with the process that I just kind of zone out and go into automaton mode. And so, for me, the thing that's most important is making sure that I keep learning and experimenting and trying new things and adjusting the format and tweaking because otherwise it just gets so boring. Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yes. So, what's been the hardest part? And say over the past, you know, couple of years as you've kind of perfected what you're doing now, I think, what was the biggest hurdle to get over and just, you know, the technical aspects of it? I mean, this takes a lot, a lot of time to do.

'''Matt Armstrong:''' Yeah. So, the technical aspects, I think the big thing was just making sure that I established a really solid process and I understood, you know, you hear people like photographers or videographers talking about their workflow. Making sure I had one established and I understood every step of the way. And even still, that's a little tricky for me because I'll publish something and realize I forgot to color correct one of the video streams or I forgot to turn it back on. So, there's these huge black gaps in the video where the picture just disappears or things like that. So, just making sure I know my process and stick with it and don't change it up too much helps a lot.