Inside the mind of Artist Van Neistat

The Colin and Samir Show

Colin and Samir

Business

4.9 • 665 Ratings

🗓️ 14 March 2022

⏱️ 32 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Van Neistat is an artist, a filmmaker, a writer and now a YouTube Creator. Van's artistic career started when he began working with NYC contemporary artist, Tom Sachs. He and his brother Casey both worked for Sachs and soon after started creating films together that went viral before the term Viral even existed. They then developed a series of short films that they turned into a TV show that ended up getting picked up by HBO. When HBO didn't renew the series, Casey and Van split up, Casey turned to YouTube to start uploading videos and Van wanted to continue down the path of being a traditional filmmaker. Years later, Van has now turned to YouTube to distribute his work and launched a kickstarter which raised over $120,000 and helped bring his series, The Spirited Man, to life. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	At what point did you see YouTube as a place that you could monetize?
0:03.2	I think when my brother started making millions of dollars.
0:06.6	This is Van Nystatt. He's an artist and a filmmaker who's been making videos long before YouTube was a thing.
0:12.6	He also shares a last name with this guy.
0:14.8	Shorty Award for YouTube over the year goes to Casey Nystatt.
0:20.1	The Nystatt brothers got their start with contemporary artist Tom Sacks in the early 2000s,
0:24.6	but they were also producing movies of their own on the side.
0:27.6	Their first major breakthrough came with iPod's dirty secret.
0:30.6	It was Van's idea and he was the one holding the camera.
0:33.6	And that was like the big break.
0:34.6	It went viral.
0:35.6	The Washington posted a big spread about it.
0:38.3	We took our little partnership, the Knysstaff Brothers, all the way to having our own show on HBO.
0:45.3	I remember feeling really disappointed with the HBO thing because whenever you did something that made a little bit of a splash on the internet, it was like a big news story. It was like a big deal. You got a lot of attention. And then when the HBO show came out, it was just like another TV show's coming out.
0:59.0	And like, that's not, nobody gives a shit. Like, that's no big deal.
1:02.0	When HBO didn't pick up the show for another season, the NYSTAP brothers came to a creative crossroads.
1:07.0	Casey went right and Van went left. I thought it was going to be a studio film director.
1:13.6	During this time, Van continued his collaborative relationship with Sacks, directing a feature
1:18.1	film for his space program exhibition and producing ad campaigns for fashion brands.
1:22.6	One thing Van has never done is start a YouTube channel.
1:26.6	That is until now.
1:28.4	We sat down with Van at his studio in Topanga Canyon to talk about his YouTube channel,
	...

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