TikToks, Trailers, and Breaking the mold with David Burnz

BoredFMEpisode 2

Feb 4

Written By Liv .

Listen to our full conversation on Spotify here or watch on YouTube here.

When you think about the geniuses behind viral content, the names that come to mind are often shrouded in mystery. But on the latest episode of Bored FM, the veil is lifted as we meet David Burns, a maestro of trailer editing whose TikTok fame is just the tip of the iceberg.

He takes us back to his high school days when his musical prowess was already turning heads. But it wasn't just about making music for David; it was about crafting a sound that was entirely his own. This drive led him to sign a record deal at 17, only to face the harsh reality of the industry when he was dropped a year later.

But where one door closes, another opens. David's relentless spirit saw him through multiple record deals, each one a stepping stone to his true calling. It was the art of the cold email that eventually landed him a seat at the table with industry giants, proving that sometimes the boldest moves are the simplest ones. Please enjoy.

David: I saw that people were afraid to really be vulnerable in what they were pursuing. So, yeah, you're here for music. Don't do a cover. Write a song. If you're here for theater, write a little monologue. Perform it for us. Blow our minds. You get older and you realize those things actually get stronger with people. People are less likely to show you how they feel and what they're thinking and how it affects them. And then when someone does, though, it's beautiful and you are gravitated towards it. But I remember thinking, like, I don't want to be that person that hides behind something else. If this fails, I want to fail as me. I remember there was a band called the Makeup Monsters. I wonder if you could find them on the Internet. And I still think about them today. I'm like, God, those were amazing. One band at a whole art school. Come on. And all these kids had to audition to get in, and we had a showcase that was once a month, and it was at this big theater my first year there, I was like, I'm going to do showcase, and I'm going to do an original song. Because this cover thing is boring. If you ask people why they knew me from high school is because I rapped and I had rap songs with my friend. And then I started producing songs for other people because then that got so much traction. I didn't want to rap, but I liked making the beats. I signed a record contract when I was 17, so I dropped out of high school and I was doing music.

Liv: Wait, go into a little bit about that.

David: I signed a deal with last gang Records, which was like the coolest thing ever because I was like boys, noise, metric, • Mastercraft. And I was in high school, so that was just like the coolest thing ever to me. Biggest failure ever got dropped like a year later.

Liv: Why?

David: Honestly, I screwed it up because I got signed for a pop song I wrote with a girlfriend because I had her sing it, and then we were supposed to sign as an act, and then she hated singing the songs I wrote. Then they're going, well, we're going to do a 360 deal with you. We're going to have publishing, and we're going to put out whatever music you want to make. And then, of course, I chose to make, like, the weirdest crap possible. And they're like, this isn't moving.

Liv: Experimental?

David: Very experimental. Like Apex Twin type stuff. I got signed for writing Justin Bieber pop, and then I was trying to do some weird warp records type stuff, and you could tell they're like, we got to drop this kid. And it was cool, though, because I think if I didn't have that failure first, I wouldn't have had the same attitude of just pushing along with everything I wanted to do.

Liv: But at 17, how do you even get into that world? Like, how do you even get in front of them?

David: Cold emails have changed my life. I sent a cold email to Chris Taylor, who owned last king Records. He was running the whole thing. He's like the president of E.One now.

Liv: Wow.

David: I was like, maybe he'll see it, because I liked all the acts on Last King, and there was, like, five other record labels I sent this email to. I think it was like, two days later, I got an email back, and he's like, can we meet? And I got to go to the Country Music Awards and meet him. Yeah. He's like, you got to start thinking about you and your girlfriend and what you guys are going to do. And I'm like, oh, my God, this is so big for us. And then I find out she's like, I hate singing those songs. I get pissed off when I do a show and people ask me to sing that song because we only did one song together. That was huge. So then I went back to school. There was a program for, like, bad kids that if you dropped out, you could get back into it and also get your college degree. So then I did that,

Liv: Like, a vocational?

David: It was called fresh start. And boy, was it. It was boot camp. Hell, it was tough, man. This was the toughest kids in town, and they honestly, like, the funnest group of kids. Oh, man, you were treated like shit on the college campus. Everybody knew who the fresh start kids were. And then I would be in college classes, and they'd start talking shit. I'm like, hey, I'm one of those fresh start kids. How dare you? So, yeah, I thought it was done. And then I put some music on Soundcloud again. And then I got another record deal with Mini Fresh that didn't turn out. Then I got another publishing deal that was more towards sync stuff, so it was more towards advertisements, trailers. And then that fell through. And then I got a, 360 deal with Cobalt Publishing. It's interesting because you have all these failures over and over everything. Up until that point, for me, I was like, I never saw anything as being successful. I was like, oh, it's going to fail, and then I'll move on to the next thing that's going to fail. I had a weird mindset of like, nothing's going to work, but I'm going to try. I was with Cobalt and I had this really cool song, and I was like, you guys got to push this to the sink people. You got to email this to them because this is cool. And he's like, nah, sounds too much like a Beatles song. I, don't think that's going to work. And so I was like, well, fuck it, I'm going to make my own. And I made that and I sent it to him and he goes, where'd you find this? We need to make sure this is copyrighted and all that. I'm like, no, I made this. I'm trying to show you how it could be used. And then something just clicked in my head.

All of this came out of being resourceful

I was like, I had so much more fun putting that together than just music and hoping it worked somewhere, hoping, some singer would want to sing it or a producer would want to take parts of it. And so I kept doing more.

Liv: So all of this just sort of came out from-

David: Pity. Liv: Being resourceful.

[Laughing]

David: And so then I started kind of seeing music as a tool for that. It was like, well, I don't want to do music, but I see if you're an editor and you have that background too, you could probably make some pretty cool stuff. So then I got obsessed with that. I sent my work around town cold emails, and Phil decord emailed me back and he was like, can we talk on the phone tomorrow? I was like, oh, my God, this is crazy.

Liv: How many emails did you send?

David: Like, probably ten, I'm sure. You know, there's only, like, 30 trailer companies. There's not a lot of them. So then just talking to him was crazy. I couldn't believe I was getting to speak to him. He wanted to know, how did you make this?

Liv: That's crazy that these big executives are asking you, who you taught yourself how to edit. If I remember correctly. I mean, you didn't get formal education?

David: No, not at all. Basically I got kicked out of junior high and then I had to go to an alternative school. But then there was a teacher at the junior high that was like she knew I made like cartoon stuff and she's like, I think you could get into this art school and they have an option to do extra credits and you could go here. And I was like, oh, well, try that. So then I got into there but they wouldn't let me in the music studio. They wouldn't let me near any of the film equipment.

Liv: Why?

David: You had to take like four classes to get in the studio. You had to do all sorts of to do the film stuff. And I was like, f*** that like.

Liv: All these rules to be creative.

David: I just wanted to have fun. And then maybe 16/17 and I got that call like, hey, we want to sign you. I was like, oh, I'm out of here. I'm dropping out of high school. This is what I want to do. The school won't let me try it. So yeah, it just was like this downfall of all these things, failing and then kind of figuring out what I want to do. I was also filming stuff just for fun. And then I'm sure you've done this too. You film something and you go, oh, the edit is where it comes together. Yeah, you could film the coolest shots and it could be terrible. With a bad edit.

Liv: You just have no idea what it's going to look like until-

David: You can film some boring stuff and put it together and it can be amazing because of the edit. And I think that's like when that clicks in your head and you realize, oh, this is like a really powerful tool. You're hooked. And I want to push this to see how far it can go. I've seen other editors and I saw their work and I was like, okay, I can do something a little bit different. I can bring a different perspective here. When you spend three days editing something and you're not sure, you're not sure, you're not sure and then at all you finally get done with it and you're like, holy shit, this is so cool. I'm hooked. I want to do that again.

Liv: Was the gratification something you couldn't find in any other creative field you were doing?

David: No. I realized I didn't even like music that much when I started putting edits together. I was like, oh, I like it as a tool. But to be able to use that towards an edit, I was like, this is a whole new thing, and I love this. Music was like something. I was like, I'll do that for the edits, but I'm not going to just be making music to make music anymore.

going viral on TikTok after only two days

Liv: Yeah. And these big executives asking you how you did what you did, how did that feel? To know that someone that built a company is asking you how you did what you did.

David: It's crazy because you do question yourself sometimes. You're like, is this kind of a waste of time? I remember I had a girlfriend, I showed her this edit I did, and she goes, this is why we couldn't hang out last weekend. And I was like, well, I had spent, like, two days on this. And she was like, did you get paid? I'm like, no. And she's like, that's stupid. Why did you do this? That same edit was the one that Phil called me and was like, can you explain how you did this? And then we ended up working together. That was pretty crazy because there was trailers he did there. I was like, those are some of my favorite cuts. And, yeah, it is surreal to start from zero to that. Again, you're not thinking you're going to succeed, but you're like, I want to just keep doing this, and I want to keep getting better and better. TikTok's the best tool for seeing what works and what doesn't.

Liv: The audience now is at our fingertips, and they'll tell you exactly what's working, what's not, even if you don't.

David: Boy, they tell you. They tell you, I was so self conscious because every time someone would go, you're telling too much of the story. I'm like, f***.

Liv: I originally found you through TikTok. I think it was, the Wolf of Wall street trailer.

David: No shit. That's funny.

Liv: And I was blown away. And then I went to your Instagram, and I immediately followed you, and I think I messaged you, and I was like, this is insane. How'd you do this? Because I just never seen anything else like that. And I think you had put in your caption that you had edited the music, too. And that was just something that stood out to me because I feel like most people don't do both. But going viral on TikTok, like, those first few videos that really picked up, what was that like? Was it scary? Was it intimidating?

David: It was so weird, because it's so funny that you noticed me through Wolf of Wall street, because I did Wolf of Wall Street. I did Mission Impossible. And those got like 50,000 plays. I'm like, oh, my gosh. People like this. So I thought that was weird. I remember the day I uploaded Zootopia. And I was like, it's a different take on this, but I love that movie more than anything. And I saw it differently. And so I made the trailer the way I saw it. I went to bed, and it already had 20,000 plays in the first day. I was like, Jesus, I wonder what this is going to be at when I wake up. And I woke up and it was at 1.5 million. And then that day, it went up 2 million plays. So then that whole week, it's every day

A million,

A million. And I'm like, what is going on? Because I'm like, it's going to stop. This is ridiculous. And then it got to a point where it was like, am I going to get as many views as the actual trailer did? Like, this is so weird. TikTok in the algorithm. And it just hitting with people. And it's the right time. So, it's really funny that there's, like a small group of people that were like, oh, I like your edits, your Harry Potter stuff, your Wolf of Wall street. And then all of a sudden, this Zootopia thing just blew up. There were friends that were like, dude, a friend sent me this. And I'm like, I know the guy who made that. And I'm like, wow. My sister was like, she was watching some influencer's story on Instagram that she likes. And she was like, she uploaded your trailer! And I was like, that's crazy. It was just so weird. The coolest part about it, honestly, was, I told everyone about Zootopia. I saw that in 2018. And anytime I talk to people about movies, I'm like, have you seen Zootopia? Zootopia is one of the coolest movies I've ever seen. It teaches kids amazing lessons. Morals, values. And it's a mystery, and it's uplifting. It has everything. It's so cool. And so, for someone like me, who was really passionate about how great that movie was. To be able to make something that promotes it. That's the coolest thing in the world. Yeah, that's probably the coolest part about it all, is I got to reach so many people and show them, like, look how cool this movie is.

Liv: It's pretty gratifying. I mean, when I started editing, I fell in love with it, too. Just because it was like, whatever you're making is universally loved. Or loved. But your spin on it, your personal angle of how you present it is like a new way of introducing something. And it's just so exciting when it blows up or people appreciate it.

David: Yeah. And it's weird, too, because there's no right way to edit and there's no wrong way to edit. And sometimes certain things just make you feel something and there's no explanation why.

Liv: Yeah.

David: There's no stats and analytics of looking at it and going, oh, well, this is what they did and this is how that worked. It's like sometimes just things come together. And I think that's like the magic of editing, too, is you just don't know.

Being able to trust your gut is incredibly important in any creative endeavor

There's no right way to approach it and there's no wrong way. It's like a gut feeling. I hate all those classes you see on YouTube that are like, we'll teach you how to edit. We'll teach you this. And it's like, there's tools and stuff, but the main thing is there's this gut feeling where you go, oh, that was cool. Or, oh, that made me feel this way. And I don't think you can ever teach that to someone.

Liv: Definitely. I think you can learn technical rules, but when it comes down to it, to actually have the intuitive ability to know what looks good in the flow of things, that's all just in your intuition, in your gut.

David: Just all gut.

Liv: But I think that's for every creative avenue, being able to trust yourself. I think that's so important to know where to go next, I guess. Creatively.

David: Yeah.

Social media is messing with people's attention spans with trailers

Liv: How do you keep up with the attention spans with your trailers? Because I know that's longer form content. Do you worry about that?

David: I do. I think about it all the time. I'm editing something and I think about it when I see trailers. Like, there'll be a trailer and it's like. And it's a slow note. What are you doing? I'm like, you're losing people already. This is taking too long. You're losing them.Yeah, but then there's the ones that start off where it's like, And then it goes into the slow thing. I'm like, it is tough, but I think about that all the time. Like, the attention span you have to grab them. You cannot do something too slow right away.

Liv: You can even see on TikTok analytics or Instagram the attention span of how long people will watch your edit for. I don't know about you, but for me it's literally like 90% of people are watching 2 seconds and then it's like. And only probably 20% actually watch the full edit of what I post.

David: I looked at the analytics in YouTube and it was like 30 seconds. People are watching for 30 seconds. And I don't know how to look at the analytics on my TikTok, though.

Liv: Wouldn't recommend it.

[Laughing]

David: No?

Liv: Yeah, I think people are just constantly scrolling, so it's really rare to have somebody to watch an entire thing.

David: I do that at the CD store. I will listen. I go to the little tester thing, I listen to a couple of seconds, boom, onto the next, onto the next. And something you do and you don't even realize it. But I think about that with trailers. Like a kid is going to decide in the first couple of seconds if he wants to keep watching this or not. The attention span from TikTok and all that is low, but I don't think it's a bad thing because I think it's just forcing people to make more exciting stuff.

Liv: Yeah, I feel like trailers will be like 20 seconds now, or like the five second trailers before YouTube videos that you can skip. They'll be like 5 seconds.

David: And you know what's funny? I was just about to say that those are too quick. They're too quick.

Liv: Yeah.

David: There's one for Aquaman I just watched and it was like, bomb, bomb, jump down. I'm going to kill him. Aquaman. I'm like, what's that about? I don't want to go see that. Because of that ad. I guess it informed me there's an Aquaman trailer. But yeah, it did. Nothing. Too fast, too quick. Those ten second ads are weird. I don't know whose idea that was.

Liv: I think it's just the industry changing right now and it's so up in the air and there's like social media and it's just messing with people's attention spans, honestly.

David: It totally is. There's a lot of people I know that can't even watch a movie. Their attention spans are so small.

Liv: So many of my friends, I have to force them to watch a movie and they'll look over and they'll just be like this. And I'm like, okay, we could watch something else or nothing.

David: With people in my family, like, if we're watching something, it'll go. There's a moment where they just start to look down at their phones, like, I'm more interested in this than what's going on in the screen. And see, I think that forces movies. It's like, make some cooler stuff. Don't bore us.

Liv: We need real stories.

David: I want to know where things are going to be in five years because I don't think it's going to be tv shows.

Liv: Really?

David: That whole model isn't going to work. Spending millions of dollars on stuff people are hardly watching and they're not going to watch it again. Remember everyone talking about Wednesday? I m don't hear anything about Wednesday. Remember Squid Games? I don't hear anything about Squid Games anymore. But it's like the attention span is like one week, that's all I heard about. And then never again gone. And you're just like, shit, that was disposable. And I bet they spent millions and I bet they spent months, years. And it all comes down to people talking about it for a week.

Liv: Until the next thing comes out.

David: Yes.

I think short-form social media will be huge in the future

Liv: So what do you think? Like a short-form social media series or a whole new social media?

David: I think you can still film stuff and wrap it up in a theatrical way, but I'm not sure if spending millions of dollars and hoping to make a profit is going to be the model of the future. When kids on their iPads are watching someone play a video game on Twitch versus the morning show that spent $20 million an episode, it just makes you think, where are things going to be? And is it for the better or for worse?

Liv: I think the rise of personality is going to be huge. Just seeing real people living their real life, like, not reality tv, but an actual person.

David: Yeah. And I think that's why podcasts are so big now too, because it's people sitting down and talking like you would with your friends. I think people like it because it just seems real and plain. Pretend maybe just is a thing people don't want to see anymore.

Liv: They can see through it.

David: There's this guy I worked with recently, Michael Lee. He had a really interesting thing to say because I was doing like a little cut for him. And I go, are you ever worried about views? Because I feel like these views are just, they're up and down, man. It doesn't make sense. And he's like, I'm worried about making the coolest stuff possible. Views and all that. I do not care about. If it's cool, it might get views a year from now, a week from now. And I thought that was really cool because I've met other Youtubers and Influencers. That's all they're thinking about, even when they're making stuff. And I thought you've got the right mindset here. It's just make the cool stuff, and maybe it's beyond its time, maybe it's not cool, but that should be your goal, not, oh, I hope everyone sees this. I hope I get a ton of views and then I'll like myself. Right.

Liv: You need to have a thick skin or at least be confident in your creative endeavors to continuously put out stuff that you don't know will be popular. But you just have that passion for it that shines through.

David: Yeah. And it's because all these people started with this new thing that had a new sound, a more punk way of doing it than what was known before. And so I feel like the Cap Cuts and all this stuff, the fast all this, I feel like it's just going to make its way into mainstream theatrical releases somehow. I don't know how I just see that happening because it might just be my For You Page, but no, it's edits. They love those edits.

Liv: Edits will get people to watch things now. Like, I think people don't even watch trailers to find things to watch. They'll just go to TikTok, watch an edit, love it. Watch whatever it's from.

David: I think people are more influenced by that than they are the trailers because-

Liv: It's from someone like them, not such, like, a big company.

David: Why did I see that TikTok edit and go, I have to watch this right now. I need to go sit down and dedicate the next 2 hours to watching this. And maybe it wasn't the best edit in the world, but what they did was make me go watch it. That's the magic of editing. It's crazy. And you can manipulate those feelings with music and sound effects and cuts, and you can try to put it on paper and it's like, no, you don't know. You can try everything, but until the hairs on your neck stand up and you're like, holy shit, this is so cool. That's when you know you just captured some lightning in a bottle. And for me, don't know how long it takes you, but it'll be days. And I'm like, I'm not sure if this is cool. I'm not sure if this is cool. And then right when I'm done, I'm like, oh, this is pretty neat.

Liv: Yeah, that is the process, usually for me. I mean, I get really hard on myself. And then once you add that final coloring or that final layer of, you're just like, oh, there it is.

David: I think this is something that's really interesting. So I filmed my sister. We made, like, a fake movie trailer. And the way you present it makes a difference because if I posted that and I said, here's this new movie coming out next month, I don't know if people would be interested in that. They'd go, looks indie and cheap. Now if I post that and I go, me and my sister were wondering if we can make our own movie trailer. Now all of a sudden you are rooting for the sibling duo that has a lot of ods against them and you want this to be good. And so just that caption alone will change the way someone sees it. I think that makes the biggest difference when you're posting anything is, are you trying to look cool? Are you being vulnerable and saying, hey, this is what we're doing. And that feels more real to people. And it is real. You're not being phony. People are done with the phony shoes. Someone on my Instagram said, didn't you make this edit? And they sent it to me. And I go, yeah, yeah, that's all you can do. So then he comments and he goes, David made this and he tagged me. And then of course there's a comment that replies back and goes, how do we know? And I go, there's actually a watermark at the very end if you guys look close enough. And I think 40 people comment on that and they were like, give him his credit. Give him his credit. And it's weird because you're like, listen, this happens. And I know it does, but it'd be nice because I want to work. If you have 3 million followers on your instagram and you post this, guys, could you put my name on it? Because if someone likes that and they want to hire me, that's what I'm looking for. But then a bunch of people commented and then they gave me the credit.

Liv: That's the cool part, though, is that you end up having your own little army and you didn't even know until it starts happening. People start sticking up for you.

David: They didn't fight for you because you didn't say, because I'm the best and I made the coolest shit and you took it. They fought for you because they go, look, all he did was say, yeah, it's mine. And I think that's what's cool about the Internet. People talk about how evil it is. I'm like, I don't know. I've met so many cool people through TikTok. And, some of the comments, yeah, there'll be some rude ones, and there's hundreds of ones that are super nice and they're from complete strangers, and they took time out of their day to say something nice to you.

Liv: Do you ever feel like you're down some days and you are discouraged in what you're editing or you don't know if it's good or you're just in your head about it and then you get a comment? That's the nicest thing you've read in months. And it's just like, I love this edit. Keep posting or something. Do you ever get comments like that?

A complete stranger compliments you on your work

David: Yes. Hold on. I want to pop it up right now because this just happened to me the other day. So I posted a thing of, like, a collage of a bunch of stuff that I shot, and he goes, are we going to see a full version? I see more shots here. So it's like a collage of a bunch of stuff I've shot, right? And I said, oh, yeah, but it's not that great, bro. Nothing is great. It's amazing. You're an inspiration to me. I would kill to see more of your work like this. It was just so nice. And I was like. And I wasn't fishing for a compliment. I was just like, oh, this was the highlight reel. And, yeah, here's this person I don't even know that's like, dude, I would love to see more of this. Why don't you film more? And I'm like, gosh, why don't I film more? Yeah, you're like, I feel like this person's like, I have to do this now. Because that was just too nice to hear.

Liv: A complete stranger can say something that you didn't even know you need to hear. They have faith in you that you didn't even have in yourself, or they see something in you that you didn't even see.

David: I think I posted on Instagram. I was like, I'm never going to download TikTok. Stop showing me these ads. It was like, really cringy ads. But Covid happened, and then, boom, everyone was using it. The only reason I started using it, too, was I was like, oh, I could just post my edits on here. And then all of a sudden, you meet these people, and then you're friends with them, and then you're talking to them, and then all of a sudden, years go by, and you're like, Jesus, so much stuff has happened because of this app. It, led me down this whole career path I didn't even think was going to happen.

Even when you're successful, you're going to fail

Liv: Is there any advice you would give yourself?

David: I would say, you are not cool. You are never going to be cool. Don't ever think you're cooler than anyone. You're not. And just get ready to fail, because you're going to fail over and over and over again and it's going to seem like it's never going to stop. And then when you least expect it. I hate when people say that to you because you're like, bullshit. You knew I had no clue I was going to get into trailer editing. Then all of a sudden you're cutting stuff with some of the best editors in the world and you're like, what happened? How did I even get here? When you're young, though, you have those failures and they seem so personal and you carry it with you everywhere you go in your shoulders. You can feel it. You're like, oh, fuck. But I just wish someone could tell you, like, no, this is part of it. Even when you're successful, you're going to fail. So just get ready to fail and it's okay.

Liv: I think that's very good advice because, I don't know, people think if you're pursuing your passions, it just comes and it's just success because you're passionate about and you love it. But no, you could be doing anything and you will fail. And it's okay because you're not defined by your mistakes or your mess ups or your failures. That's not accumulation of what you've accomplished.

David: It’s not. But doesn't it feel like it when you're in that moment? You're like, no, I'm a loser. I'm a loser.

Liv: Get so blinded you can't even see your accomplishments because you're so focused on the next accomplishment.

David: And I was the worst with that, with TikTok because there could be thousands of comments that are like, this is amazing. This is amazing. There's one comment that's like, this is too fast. And I am focused on that, and I'm thinking about it all day. I'm like, what do you mean too fucking fast? And I'm like, I'm second guessing myself. I'm watching again, like, it's too fast, right?

Liv: You watch it from their perspective, but you could never. But you imagine what it'd be like if you watched it as a hater.

David: Yeah. And the thing is, you just ignored all these amazing, wonderful comments because there's one stupid asshole that they always have, like, a weird picture of their default, no videos posted, and they said some stupid crap and that you're focused on. You're thinking about it and you're overthinking. Now you're deciding the next thing I make, it's going to be slow because it was too fast and, oh, you showed too much on this edit. Okay, I'm not showing shit in the next one.

Liv: But when you start catering to those people, they'll find something else or they'll pick out something else that you didn't before.

David: The only thing that's been fueling me lately is like, I need to impress these trailer companies. I need them to see this and go, holy shit, if we don't hire him, he's going to start making better edits than we are and we can't have that happen.

Liv: Yeah, I think they're already worried about that. With a lot of people online.

David: The trailer industry seems pretty cool the way they select trailers. And I thought I'd be okay with that. The TV spots are, they're not the most creative, but it's still creative thinking. How can I make this entertaining with all these constraints? Basically from what I gathered was movie studios have a big movie and they send it out to like five different trailer companies and they pick the best one. So you still get paid to do your cut and you still get to be creative, but they just might not pick it.

Liv: Yeah, I think people are afraid to be vulnerable online because hate comments or people are just afraid to fully express themselves because-

David: Cringe! You ever get those comments?

Liv: Yeah they don't want to be cringe.

David: What's cringe about that? I don't give a fuck. And what's cringe to someone is something that someone else holds really dear to themselves. I thought about it and I thought, I think everything I've gotten involved in has been because I was curious of, well, what if I could do this? What if I could do that? What if I took these tools and I did this? And I would think that if you talk to a bunch of creative people, they'd have similar responses of like, because it's not ego they got broken up with and did this. It's because they were curious. They saw something and inspired them and they were wondering, what if I could do something like that? Put yourself out there. It is tough. It's like one of those things like you talk to people and they fear something, you go, how are they scared of that? Who gives a shit? There are people scared to death to show you how they really feel or something that they made. And it's usually some of the people that nonstop talk about it like, I could do this. I've not seen you even attempt it. And then the people that do attempt it, of course, cringe. It's like, yeah, but you know what? The next thing they do is going to be better, and then the next thing they do is going to be even better than that, and then all of a sudden, they're going to be making some amazing shit. I didn't like how predictable the TV Spots were because you had a music supervisor that picked 10 songs, and they all picked them from the same website, because all those get synced for $1,500, and each spot is about $10,000. And then you do a 30 second, a 15 second, and a 10 second, and then you're told you have to put this at the end. You have to put this at the beginning. And it was like, cookie-cutter, right? All right, do this, do this, do this. All right, go next one. And of course, there's, like, certain things. You got to be creative about it. But I didn't like, man, you could actually get someone interested in this in a different way rather than just having these things set. So that's why I think it's fun to, like, let's throw Coiler Ray with Finding Nemo.

There's a different type of satisfaction when you make an edit

Let's do a Kanye, let's just do something that's kind of weird and doesn't make sense, but make it fit. We are not the same people we were 20 years ago. There's a different type of satisfaction when you just made an edit that you're in love with and you wake up different. You're like, your day's better. I don't know if you feel that way too, but after a cool edit, I am feeling real good. Even if something didn't work, I'm still like, well, I got to make this the best it can be.

Liv: Perfectionism. I feel like, in editing, go-hand-in-hand because you're able to do every single millisecond.

David: Oh, yeah. I constantly do that too. With frames. I go, well, how's that look with one more frame? Okay, how's that look with one less frame? And, you're going over and over. I'm like, I wonder if other people do this, or this is just, like, crazy David thing to do.

Liv: No, I think that's definitely editing 101.

David: Watching the same thing, like, 50 times with just two frames less. Two frames more going, does that work? Does that not feel right? And then I swear, every time, it's like, two days later, I'll watch it, and I'll go, oh, my God. I should delete this. This is awful. Why did I think this was good?

Liv: Sometimes I get the urge to delete all my social media.

David: I don't know why I never got that, because I remember hearing about that from people. I'm like, what does that mean? I feel that way now.

Liv: Really?

David: I'll see something that just turns me off and I'll go, fuck it. I want to get rid of all this.

Liv: I don't want to be a part of it. I don't want to be perceived anymore. I'm done.

David: What do you think was the cut that put you on the map?

Liv: Oh, my God. My editing story is funny. So I started in 2018, like, right when I graduated high school, because I was like, I don't want anybody from a high school to see what I post online because I was scared. Doesn't make sense, looking back.

David: Why?

Liv: I don't know. Like, you even started in high school. I should have asked you how you didn't let people's perception of you then affect you. I was just really anxious as a child. so I didn't start posting until I left high school. And two months into posting edits, I was posting every single day. Two months in, Do you remember David Dobrik, obviously, and Liza Koshy, YouTubers? They had broken up. And I was, like, one of the first people to watch that YouTube video when they posted it. And I made an edit of it immediately. And then I posted it the next day, and that, edit got over a million views within, like, the week it was posted, because people found out that they broke up from my edit.

David: From your edit, wow!

Liv: Yes! Because I posted it immediately after the announcement. So if people hadn't gone to YouTube, opened up Instagram, it was like World War three. My Instagram's comments for days and weeks. It was just nonstop. I was like, wow. but that definitely blew up and got people to follow me. And then I just posted every single day for, like, three years after and just grew a following. But that one edit really changed things. It was crazy.

David: Well, it's so funny because the people, you have a community, and they love everything you post. It just seems so, like, in harmony. And I think that's so interesting that there's, like, this group of people, not even group, there's a whole community of, all these comments that are like, I love this. This is amazing. I'm like, wow, that's pretty cool that she has all these people that have the same. They like this. They're so connected through the edit.

Liv: Yeah, it's so beautiful. I did not expect it to happen at all when I started posting. I just wanted to do what I saw people doing online because there were so many people that were posting edits already that I was like, this just looks fun.

David: What were you cutting on when you did that Dobrik thing?

Liv: Video Star. It's like an app for. I think it's just for iPhones, not androids.

David: So what do you use now?

Liv: Video Star, I still use it!

David: You still use it? That's funny.

Liv: Like, user-friendly. I learned everything through YouTube tutorials.

David: It's so funny that you've had a similar situation where you're editing, and then all of a sudden, some just takes off, and then people go down the rabbit hole of all your other stuff. And it's weird getting all sorts of eyes on something that you never had eyes on before. No one ever was looking at it, and then all of a sudden, it's your job. You're like, this is weird. Like, I talked to this class about it, and I thought, this is weird. I never went to school, but I'm telling kids that probably have more education about it than I do. And, I'm showing them the premiere project. I'm like, yeah, right here. I don't know what this is called, but this is what I did. I've noticed all sorts of creative stuff I've done. Like, you can't think about something being cringe or something not succeeding, or failing. You just hope to make the coolest stuff, and you're probably going to learn if something didn't work out, and then you'll take that in the next thing, and it'll be better. I'd rather see someone do that than fail and just go, fuck it, I'm done.

Liv: Yeah, you got to persevere, push through, because you're going to have setbacks no matter what.

David: And I think that you're going to want to root for those people. Right? Like, I'm, more interested in the people I follow and what they're doing, and I usually follow people through comments or something like that, but I'm never focused on the for you page as much as I am rooting for my friends and people I've met on TikTok.

Liv: And thank you for being my first guest.

David: Yeah, I'm super honored you asked me to do it because, how long ago did we talk on the phone? Over a year ago, maybe, I guess. Yeah. Had a blast talking with you then, about editing. so much has happened since then, too, with just certain editing adventures I went on working. I'm super happy you asked me to do this, because, yeah.

Liv: I think your story is so interesting. I mean, just from being 17 till now, it feels like you've always been in creative things and blazing your own trail, so I think that's inspiring to anybody who listens.

David’s story is a reminder that success is not a straight line. It's a complex, messy, and often unpredictable path that demands persistence and a willingness to embrace vulnerability. David's candidness about his failures is as refreshing as it is inspiring, making this episode a must-listen for anyone who's ever doubted their creative instincts.

Whether you're a creator, an entrepreneur, or simply someone with a dream, his story resonates on a universal level. It's a testament to the power of sticking to your guns, even when the world seems to be against you.