The secret life of the van life YouTuber - funding a life on the road.

[Music] welcome back folks and you are joining us at a typical French air in a typical French Village and tomorrow we're going to have a very typical work day so we're going to be showing you behind the scenes actually showing you not telling you all the things we do in a day to make this YouTube channel work as well as the deep dark secrets behind exactly what this one does I do lives I do live she does Captain our ship very well if you stay tuned to the end we're even going to let you into a little secret yes could we fund this entire lifestyle from our YouTube Revenue alone so without further Ado we're going to start this thing from tomorrow morning when I kick things off [Music] [Music] on a typical filming day it's usually me that gets up first depending on the time of year can obviously dictate what time I get up and that's because I like to fly my drone at sunrise foreign [Music] there's a couple reasons why I like to there's a couple reasons why I like to get up early and do it one is the best time of day there's nobody else around which means hey No One's Gonna whinge at me and B I can concentrate on what I'm doing a bit more the other reason is obviously the light the light is much much better at silly o'clock in the morning and like to give you guys a good sense of where we are so I just yeah I just get up and do it it's my favorite shot if I'm honest of the whole videos are the sunrise drone shots because I just think it does show you properly exactly where we are granted this morning isn't the most epic location we've ever been in but I do like the film wherever we're parked just because I think it gives a true sense of what the travel really is right over here the air mosquitoes one other thing I like to do while I'm upping out is get a load of other b-roll like close-up b-roll of where we are obviously all this stuff takes time setting up the camera composing shots changing the settings and whatnot so yeah I do a bit of that and while I'm doing that is when Emily gets up [Music] Louise is faffing outside I'm normally one that gets ready and takes AJ out and I don't know if you can tell I'm not normally a morning person I'm definitely not as chirpy as Louise in the morning that's for sure despite the fact that mornings are not my favorite I do actually like this time of day when I get to take AJ out because it's just the Calm before the storm and it's how I get my wake up time [Music] whilst Emily is out with AJ that's when I come back and I start getting all the footage off of everything that I've filmed so far this morning from each camera now normally in the morning that's only two or three cameras so it's not so bad this is undoubtedly the biggest faff of my job because it takes absolutely ages to get all the cards out all their footage off and then like to organize it on the computer so that when I come to edit it's all very easy to find this is also when I put anything on charge that needs to go back on charge anything I forgot to charge up last night and it's also when I put the kettle on for when Emily gets back this is also normally the time when I start filming like us than what we're getting up to for the day and whatnot but obviously you've seen me make coffee a million times before now so if you want to see that go and watch any of our other Vlogs but for this video we're just going to concentrate on how we make the videos hopefully she won't be long because I'm gasping for a coffee by now thank you at nine o'clock sometimes eight depending on what country we're in I start work so I am a operations and project manager for an outdoor events company and I also handle all of the companies HR as well I work for four hours in the morning and I spend a lot of my time on the phone answering emails at the laptop because I'm basically the head of my department so I have an operations team I have drivers I have site guys and I'm also part of the Senior Management Group so I'm on board meeting Zoom meetings I have my own client base and then when other inquiries come in once I've come in and Crook's gone out I then take it over all of that from the installation events all the way through to the d-rig so it's a constant on the phone making sure that the guys know what they're doing where they gotta go and yeah sometimes a bit of firefighting as well and very reactive work so that four hours the M does it can be quite intentionally down playing a bit and because it's so reactive we don't always know exactly what she's going to be doing day to day now if it looks like she's got a simple day we'll often travel on those days and you've seen a lot of that so Emily will be working away on the laptop whilst I'm driving and I'll film like the road and things we see along the way and a bit of information and whatnot but more often than not we are usually stationary like we are today a big reason for that is because obviously we need a stable internet connection if Emily's on a zoom meeting or whatnot we can't have the internet keep cutting in and out I have done a whole video in the past about how we stay connected on the road so I'll leave a link to that in the video description if you're interested this is probably the hardest part of my day so a lot of you ask how we balance the two jobs and this is when it gets difficult because I would like to be able to edit now but I can't because when Emily's on the phone she's very loud she's very animated um it's just distracting even with headphones on I find it really hard to be able to do that so I will use this time to walk the cat which is a very important job so normally summer would be out here with me having a bit of an explore but I also use it to do things like emails reply to sponsors the back and forth a lot of you think that's quite easy but actually takes up a lot of time is going through because we get a lot of pointless emails again through all of that deleting it all sending contracts agreeing to trial products because we're very committed to actually trying things out long term before we'll promote them so there's a lot of back and forth and communication with that I'll also use this time to maybe edit some photos because I don't need to concentrate so much on that maybe I'll go and take some photos I'll respond to some of your comments that Emily's left for me so like maybe technical van build comments questions about making the videos and whatnot and I'll also use this time as thinking time so it might look like I'm sitting around doing bugger all but actually there's always a car actually what I'll do is if a comment comes up over and over again or a question comes up over and over again rather than us keep answering it it will form into like a video idea so for example this video that we're making now formed over the last few weeks of me sitting out here and I will spend the time and so that you get the relevant information like I'll make a whole list of notes so this is the video I'm currently making of all the different questions that have popped up the things that people are interested in and then I'll try and turn that into a video format because as much as I enjoy making the travel videos and I really do constantly being creative every single week it can be quite exhausting so it's nice every now and again to make a sit-down video like this one that's a bit easier plus it gives a bit of value back to you guys hopefully that you find interesting and gives a bit of information whether it be about travel video making all kinds of different topics so hopefully that explains why I'm sat on my ass for a few hours sometimes if we're in a really nice location or if we'll buy a river or something good I'll go off and do solo loose stuff so you see me kayaking all over Europe by now and that's when I find the time to do the bits of things that I I like to do that Emily doesn't enjoy so much that's why you've got an awful lot of video clips of me kayaking and hiking and doing things in different places right Mrs have you finished is it time for lunch it's always time for lunch it's always time for food isn't there we're gonna have our new favorite thing on this trip we've been really enjoying these waifu bars they're full of protein fiber and 25 vitamins and minerals we've been carrying white Foods in this van on every trip now for over two years we're lucky enough to have them sponsor the video and we're lucky enough to have these bars the reason I like these is because our proper healthy snacks are on the go they have a long shelf life which means I can Ram the cupboard full of them which is really really handy because it means we can carry loads of these things in the van and they are ideal for when we go off and Hikes or when we go kayaking and we haven't got a stop at a shop or carry loads of extra food we've got these and we know they're going to keep us full up for a good two to three hours they've got different flavors to choose from my personal favorite is this vegan one it's The Salted Hazelnut and chocolate and it's really nice they are gluten free and there's no added sugar even in this chocolate coating and you know they must taste good otherwise Emily wouldn't be eating them if you want to give waifu to go then we've got an ongoing discount code so go to the link in the description and use the code that's on the screen now I recommend you try these bars because they are awesome aren't they love them absolutely love them foreign [Applause] normally go out and do something fun so a hike or kayaking again or go to a town and visit a city and if you've watched our videos you know there are a lot of shots like this where you have to come back and forth to get the camera [Music] and like this one and this one although Bill and Ben did help set this one up so [Music] thank you okay now it's actually too hot today at 36 degrees to go out and hiking and filming it for you and filming us filming the hike would be a bit of a challenge too far there's Nick we're in a public restroom this next sequence May baffle you a little bit but there is a point to it I promise foreign [Applause] [Music] so that was a ridiculously unnecessary toilet scene b-roll feature that you had there the reason I've put in is because this is what we spend a lot of our time doing so when we're on a hike there is a lot of setting up of cameras finding angles so you set up a shop Luis he got the angle you can't see my knickers can you come on my bum yeah because normally we'd have maybe a GoPro and obviously the Drone as well so when you see us go on a hike I'll be going to the toilet takes what a minute it probably took us what 12-15 minutes to film that whole thing easily easily 15 minutes definitely so there is a lot of that but hopefully for you guys it adds to the video and gives you a feeling or more of a sense of what it's like to be there in some kind of way I like to think so yeah because there's more um submersive isn't that is that word immense is that massive immersive is what I do if I stick your head in the toilet that's not nice is it but anyway I hope that gives you a bit of concept of what goes into it and um so when a lot of you say oh you should have done this this or this and this and you're always like speaking fast and rushing it's because usually we are because we want to see as much as we can and film as much as we can and because it's so hot on filming days when we don't have AJ and particularly summer with us we like to make sure we always find time to spend some time with them doing things that they like and going to the toilet to film a b-roll sequence is up neither of their straight so we're gonna go and check that they're okay get them into the shade and cool them down and we'll see you guys in a bit [Music] Emily is still outside of AJ and summer keeping them cool and apologies I've got all the doors and windows open so there may be some background noise once we've been out on a big hike or to a city and filmed it or whatnot the next thing I do is I come back and yet again I get all the memory cards out and take all the footage off and put it onto the laptop it is definitely the most tedious job of doing this YouTube Vlog but I thought it'd be a good opportunity for me to show you all the different cameras we use because it is our most popular question I'll start with the Drone so I've got everything else I use at the minute a DJI mavic Air 2 not the air 2s this is the DJI mavic air 2. it's a brilliant drone you've seen the Drone footage it does really well it flies really easy if you're looking for a beginner's drone though I would probably go for the DJI mavic free midi Pro I'll put links to both in the description but if you're just starting out you don't need the bigger drones the little one is less regulations and just probably a bit easier to manage so I'd definitely go for that the main camera that we use while I filming the one I'm talking to now is a Sony a7c now that is a full frame camera and again I wouldn't recommend it out for beginners it's a bit pricey the full frame does make things a bit tricky and I do film in manual settings so starting out maybe not but if you're a bit further on and you like our footage then that's what I'm using uh usually coupled up with either a Zeiss 16 to 35 millimeter F4 lens or I think it's a sigma 24 to 70 mil lens on that I've got the rode videomic Pro most of the time although occasionally I've just bought you might have seen them in some footage like the DJI wireless mics really impressed with them so they're pretty good then Emily cam so Emily cam this is what she films all of her two minute tours with this is the GoPro 10 that's the one we're currently using I'll probably upgrade that soon maybe where the 12 comes out but stabilization wise you can't really beat your image quality is great this is also the camera we use for driving shots so when we're driving along and I mean the driving shots facing us so when we're driving along and the camera's facing us this is the camera we use it's also the thing I take out kayaking or when we go on Long hikes where there's like a bit of climbing involved this is our quite it's our second camera basically the one I don't mind if it gets a little bit broken when that one goes in in trouble I panic why did you do that we also have the GoPro 8 which is what we started with and this is great as well it's not quite as good as a GoPro 10 but again if you're looking to start out there's nothing wrong with it the image quality is not quite as good but the stabilization and everything else is is just as good in my opinion we also have the insta 360. we don't use this very often but this is like well you'll see next week actually what we use this for there we go on a little pedalo bicycle thing so that's what we use for some of those shots when we're filming going along the road I just use my iPhone I think this is the iPhone 12 Pro the bigger one Emily's got the 13 and iPhones now they give out great footage so that's what we use for the static Road footage um I think that's it for cameras really sometimes there's Emily's phone as well if she's filmed a few bits but that's generally the bulk of what we use a lot of you have asked about mounts this is the camera mount we use for the driving shots looking out of the van so I just pop my phone in that and then that suction cups to the window and then that just holds that so that stays there and then this is the other one this just suction cups in the corner of the windscreen and this points at us again I'll put links to these in the description they may not be the best they're just what we're using I haven't gone expensive with those but tripod wise a lot of you have asked about tripods we've just upgraded we spent a lot of money on a carbon fiber tripod when you're carrying all that kit um weight starts to become an issue so we've got the peak design I can't remember what it's called but again I'll put it in the description please don't go and buy it if you're starting out it's a ridiculous expense and unless you're going to be carrying a backpack with lots of weight in all the time you don't really need it and then finally all the wildlife footage so if you see like the red squirrels or when I film the toenail that's all shot on an old Nikon d750 with a sigma 150 to 600 millimeter lens on again not perfect but it's all I've got we can only have so much it gets very expensive very quickly and then editing wise I have gone to the dark side so I'm using a brand new to Apple MacBooks so I don't know what the is an apple this is Posh is ridiculously overpriced but it is a game changer when it comes to editing and then my editing software is DaVinci Resolve so that's it on camera gear hopefully that's answered the questions I've got for it as quickly as I possibly can so I hope you haven't bored too many of you but yeah normally after the hiking I'd come back offload all the footage file it into categories again so again when I come to the edit I know where everything is and usually while I'm doing this Emily would be there doing a last hour of work yes come the last hour of the day I would normally sit here when Louise has moved all of her crap off of it off of my little desk and I'll log back on I'll make some phone calls I'll catch up with my guys make sure stuff um is going okay if it needs to be changed and I'll change it pretty much make sure the hasn't hit the fan and if it has then I'll make sure it's all okay so basically she jumps back on the phone shouts and hollers at people for an hour while kicks off and then that's it in it I do it really well I do it well you do do it very well right she has some dinner yes now this is an angle you're all used to seeing Emily cooking in the kitchen I don't know why but you not seem to have a vested interest in what we eat for dinner so normally once we've done all of our normal work during the day comes dinner time and it's often a film and opportunity because like I say for some reason you want to know what we're eating so normally film dinner again lots of camera angles for that so we might film Emily chopping a pepper this way around then we'll go for the old top down shot why not and then if we're feeling fancy we'll even throw in a slo-mo pepper into the pan shot it's exciting content this isn't it um I actually like to know what people eat because it's good for recipe ideas when you're in the van actually don't point that knife so close to my face and also she's a nosy Parker [Music] dinner out of the way and the sun about the set you'd think we'd be done but no no no we have the most probably the most important job of all to get on with and that is you lot this is the time when I spent answering comments messages on Facebook Instagram YouTube a must admit Facebook takes a bit of a back step but I do love doing it it is technically work because it's to do with the channel but I feel it's really important and I love chatting to people so it's one of my favorite bits yes and we love the banter we get from you guys and I especially love it because nine times out of ten Emily's either in bed replying to comment or she's on the toilet as you saw earlier doing it that is true actually that's generally when I do so when I do my best work what Emily also does is she'll save any technical questions and whatnot for me and files them all away and then tomorrow when I'm sitting around doing nothing while she's doing her work I'll try and answer as many of them as I can now obviously we can't get to them all but we do our very best don't we we do indeed we try to get as many as possible if you're going to start a Channel or you want to grow a business this way then I think Community respect in your community isn't that'll be one of you lot now respect in your community is very very important but like Emily said it's not really work it is one of the things we love the most about doing this is building relationships with you lot and Evan Banner in the comments the ban art is honestly as Next Level I'm telling you I love it she does also do some really boring stuff at this time so that's when you do like our invoicing our accounts yeah and all that rubbish go for the work emails yeah the ones I've been to boy neglected to do earlier on in the day what Emily is doing all that I get on with something else yes I am back in this seat getting more footage and files off of memory cards this is all the stuff we shot at dinner and normally I would go out now and I'd get some more Drone footage of where we are some nice Sunset footage however um I've had the Drone up a couple of times here and we've had two locals come over and express very kindly I must say their discomfort of the Drone being up so I'm not going to do that tonight the other reason is we are getting eaten alive by mosquitoes and I don't fancy waking up with loads of mosquito bites so whilst Emily is doing all that and I get all the footage off the cards I will then start to edit every think we filmed today so I'll probably do that until about 11 12 o'clock at night I'm an early riser and I don't mind going to bed late but I've got to reiterate you've got to really enjoy this if you're going to do it because filming all day and getting stuff off the memory cards and keep doing this and editing until late and spreading out across your whole day is tiring but luckily I really enjoy it and I like getting all the shots I get because when I come to the edit if I haven't got them if I've been lazy I really regret it and I've got a flat battery so I'm gonna have to charge it up so that's pretty much our day I will do this like I say till quite late and by the time I go to bed Emily will be asleep foreign the next morning we get up and we repeat the whole process again but don't worry we're not going to show you that I think you've seen enough of generally what our day involves but don't panic we only do that like those big long days maybe three days a week yeah I'd say about three years the other two days so we work five days a week the other two days is like um I'll edit while Emily's not working so we'll both spend half the day doing our own work so we get like half a day each to go off and do our own things which we really enjoy and then the final day will be like the um so Emily and I have her half a day's work again and then it'll be like the upload the thumbnail the title which takes up a lot of time thinking of things that you lot are willing to click on without going drama clickbait is very tricky part of our job in it a part of your job to be fair I don't get involved in that because yeah it's too hard yeah so there's those kind of things and then any funny final emails and whatnot to sponsors and all those that kind of stuff so generally it's about five days now we get asked a lot how long does it take to produce a video and it's a very difficult um question to answer to quantify into time is almost possible because I don't know where to start with that so say we go for a three hour drive and we film it we might only film 15 minutes of it and use maybe five minutes of it but it took us three hours to go out and get it so I I don't know how you'd quantify that so what I tell people is it usually takes us four to five full days to produce a travel video depending obviously how long it is how much we've done yeah that's how it's about bad because as well you do different things so it certain things take different amounts of time don't they yeah and then obviously there's always issues and things that you can run into so you plan a filming day and then it turns out the weather's so bad that you can't film anything or the park up that you're in that was stunning and remote when you got there the night before has now been flooded with um you know people doing things for the day so then it gets difficult so to counteract around all those things it's very hard to quantify yeah exactly what's what but if you said about four to five days that will give you a rough idea of time I'd say so so as you can see it's quite a lot of work to accommodate the two jobs or we think it's quite a lot of work some of you might think it's easy peasy but in reality it's no different really to having a regular job is it no no I don't think so yeah you've got to work around each other and stuff like that anyway haven't you so yeah the only real difference is like from 6am to sort of 11 p.m one of us is always working so there are those longish days and that brings us to our big question that you all ask is is it worth it is YouTube really worth it and can we could Emily not work and we could fund this whole thing from just the YouTube Revenue alone so is it worth it I'd say yes yes we really enjoyed doing it and every time I get a little bit um and see where the whole process process because there's all obviously outside influence comments and all those kind of things that can affect you I just think I just thank God that YouTube's there because it's given me a way out if you like it's given me a job a creative job that I really enjoyed doing something that is ongoing learning wise so it never gets boring because you're always learning new things and it facilitates this so yes we're working for five days a week but the other two days a week we are in an epic location usually and we couldn't do that no you couldn't be in the south of France on your weekend off if you was working in an office no you'd always have to fly somewhere every weekend that would get very expensive very tiring so every usually we try and take two days off together so we wake up and we're in the place that we want to be in plus like I say we really enjoy the other side of it the film in the travel we have such a laugh don't we ah yeah it can be so much fun and it is it's just nice to it's just a completely different way of life yes even like yesterday film going to the toilet and filming a silly toilet reap like we can have a laugh doing that so it's it's enjoyable for us it is yeah and like I said earlier in the video it's so important one that you enjoy it because otherwise it could get very tedious very quickly right monetary wise could we survive on our YouTube Revenue alone so just for the money we earn direct from YouTube so like the ads you see at the beginning of the video and the one ad or sometimes two because YouTube can be cheeky and sneaking extra on that one in that we don't we can't we don't have full control of where they go but those ads would pay for both of us to be on the road full-time just so that is why you see video sponsors because obviously the travel alone costs a lot of money but the cost of running the channel is ever increasing so cameras break laptops need upgrading we have to pay for things like music licensing um insurances we have to have separate insurances for being a business an accountant to help us do our taxes our taxis themselves yeah even internet yeah internet we need to make sure that we've got good internet all of the time so there's quite a lot of expense to actually running a Channel of this especially a travel channel of this size so yes we could just about get by on YouTube Revenue alone but we don't uh we do do sponsors which are a massive help and a bonus to doing it and that gives us like fun money if you like so we can go and do the fun things that you see us do and then we can film them and we can eat the food that that I like this this is the thing I look we we do the sponsors and I keep my job so that we can actually still enjoy it and we're not just like traveling the at the minimal isn't it yeah no I'm not scrimping and scraping and we worked a long time in our regular life before YouTube to get to a point where we didn't need to because we've been skinned trust me we know what it's like to be yes and we don't want to do this that way if we can avoid it so we don't and obviously we've got a house at home that costs money and stuff and that's another thing we might not want to live conventional nine to five live stationary but we don't necessarily not want a conventional like nine to five structure or a retirement that a nine to five would bring so we're still planning for retirement we're still planning on improving our home base and getting something that is like really nice for us forever to live in and obviously all of that takes prior thought planning and saving so yeah so that's why I only keeps a job for that reason and you genuinely love your job I do yes as with any job it's always you have them moments but yeah I do love it so let us know in the comments do you think all this effort is worth it do you think it's worth the time and what not to um go to the trouble of making the videos could you do it if you didn't enjoy it because I think that's the the main thing yeah I definitely think it shows when people don't enjoy it yes and remember every time someone subscribes a fairy is born so do your bit for the ferry population hit that subscribe button and we'll see you on the next one bye you're such an idiot although wouldn't that be cool if it was true it's true every time someone subscribes a favorite anyone someone unsubscribes or hits the thumbs down a fairy dies that's bad and it's true it's true story right should we go yes any coffee

Channel: Camper Vibe

Views: 66,754

Keywords: van life, vanlife europe, female travellers, living in a van, travel vlog, youtube travel series, travelling in a van, female van life, self built campervan, van life couple, van life uk, vanlife, van life youtuber, day in the life, is this worth it, digital nomad, how we make videos, what we ran from youtube, is YouTube enough, working on the road, working from a van, jobs on the road, being a content creator, travel content creation, how to make travel videos, van, couple

Id: SuqGhbOEtlE

Length: 26min 48sec (1608 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 11 2023