Copyright © 2007–2018 Tim Ferriss. All Rights Reserved.
as people ask me more and more, and especially with the launch of
my tech company. And, looking back, I think it’s a pretty specific
thing, which is that: as one of four kids, as the middle, sort of
forgotten child – not the youngest, not the oldest, not the girl, but
the other one; that was me – I always was sort of the loudest, to get
the most attention, because nobody paid attention to me. That’s
what my psychiatrist says, anyway.
And I think when my older brother, Van, who I credit with getting
me into filmmaking – when he showed me, in 2000 or 1999, how
the first iMac – that big, blue, bubbly-looking iMac thing – how
you could edit video on that, I just saw something that really
captured my imagination. And when he and I edited the very first
thing I edited, which was taking my – at the time – baby son to the
zoo –
all of a sudden I saw this opportunity to take what was an idea or
set of ideas that only existed in my head, and turn it into something
tangible, turn it into something that I could then share with people.
And for someone who had spent my whole life – then, all 18, 19
years of it – feeling like I’d never had a voice, all of a sudden, via
filmmaking, I sort of felt like I had a voice; I had a loudspeaker.
Tim Ferriss: That makes perfect sense. And, from that feeling, let’s flash
forward for a second because I really want to introduce people to
some of your work if they haven’t seen it before. But could you
talk about Bike Lanes or Make It Count, whichever came first?
Casey Neistat: Yeah. Bike Lanes came first. Bike Lanes is a really good example
of that. How do I preface this? People ask, “Where do you come
up with the ideas for your movies?” I always say, “Whatever
affects me, whatever impacts me, whatever I care about is what I
make a movie about.”
And Bike Lanes was a movie I made in 2010 I think. Maybe it was
2011. I was given a summons from a police officer for riding my
bike outside of the bike lanes, which, for starters, it turns out is not
an actual infraction. But, beyond that, it really frustrated me
because I wasn’t breaking any laws and I felt I was doing
something that was completely just. And I think what most people
would have done is maybe gone to court and fought the $50.00
summons, and probably would have won and wasted half of their
day in the process. But I redirected my anger and I made a movie
that really expressed my frustration, but did it in a somewhat
sardonic way.