Javi Sánchez-Blanco - Answers Your Questions

ERB Editor Javi Sánchez-Blanco has answered a whole bunch of the questions submitted by patrons. [Sorry if your specific question wasn't answered]

So let's hear what Javi had to say...

How did you hear about ERB? What was the first battle you watched? [submitted by CodeNano)

I found ERB on Spotify around December 2011, when I was looking for a Beethoven inspired rap base for a project I was working on. After that, I looked up the rest of the battles on YouTube, loved the channel and kept watching the new ones.

How did you become involved with ERB? Was it something you were a fan of before coming to work for them or did you just get to know the show after you became a part of the crew? [submitted by Evan Powell]

I was definitely a big fan! I still am, haha! I met Pete and Dante at a show in Manchester, England in 2014 and showed them a few seconds of my work. We kept in touch and the next time we met I started re-editing the Hulk Hogan vs Kim Jong-Il battle which opened the door for me to keep working with them.

What was the hardest battle to shoot / edit? And how long approx. does it take to edit each battle? [submitted by MC Fawful & Marius Alnæs Sletten]

I am not that involved with the shots, so that might be a better question for Atul, who knows everything about everything. I would guess the hardest shoot days are the ones involving special shots (camera movements/angles, specific lighting…) and the ones with a lot of characterization and props. The editing and VFX takes between two weeks and a month, depending on the complexity required. For me, the longest was Pennywise, which took about 200 hours, not counting the rendering times.

What has been your favorite battle to edit and what is your favorite particular sequence to edit so far? [submitted by swegmaster & Ironbite & CodeNano]

I have had a great time so far in season six with a lot of sequences: The Genie, McDonald’s second verse, Teresa’s first, Pennywise etc. I especially enjoy when there’s a lot of movement going on. The first big one for me was Wonder Woman’s third verse with ‘The rotating flower’. That was Pete’s idea and I’m really happy how it turned out. I like moving around the little characters and finding how they look best to me (and the audience!).

Which one character do you most want to see and edit in a future rap battle? [submitted bt DrPritch & JustGamer]

I really think Jules Verne could have some interesting visuals. I would also like to see Schrödinger, but, at the same time, I would not. ;) On the other hand, I do actually love discovering and researching about characters I didn’t previously know in depth. So there's always something that excites me about battles.

What do you like to do in your spare time? [submitted by Wheat_A_Bix28]

I like to be always doing something. I have been learning some music these past months and from time to time I play some melodies. Very basic stuff though. 

What do you do when you forget to save your edit during a power cut or computer crash etc? [submitted by Oldendorf]

It sounds like something you recently experienced, so I’m sorry Oldendorf, we’ve all been there. Since I auto save, I have not lost more than 5-10 mins of work in a long time. And I don’t mean only the auto save feature on the program, but I embedded that in my brain. I have automatized the process of saving my work without thinking; every single time right before doing anything risky. That way, when it crashes, which it does, it’s not a big deal.

How often do you clean the cache in After Effects? [submitted by Dustin]

Haha, all the time Dustin, all the time! I clean both memory & cache. Especially right before previewing or rendering, as sometimes the render would crash because of lack of memory or some glitchy frame. One current goal is to upgrade my computer soon and get more memory. I was about to do it when the whole 2020 thing happened.

How long did it take you to make the dead-lights sequence in the Pennywise battle and also how long did it take to do all the Thanos’ backgrounds? [submitted by CodeNano]

I would say the dead-lights took me two or three weeks. I also didn’t know much 3D animation before that, so I created an absurdly inefficient mesh which caused the rendering of those 192 frames to take 5 days between three computers. Not the best computers either. That’s why I did all those drawn cardboard backgrounds because I had rather a lot of time to spare haha. Thanos’ Titan background was easier, as there’s no closeup of it and there’s repetition in the elements there (rocks, spaceships). The hardest part with him was tracking the camera movement done on set to match the virtual camera. I had to process the footage to find little imperfections on the green background to track it. But I’m happy how it all turned out.

What kind of matchup do you like best? e.g. Historical-Fictional, Historical-Historical, or Fictional-Fictional. [submitted by 2Hats]

I particularly like matching characters that don’t/didn’t have an antagonism in their world (doesn’t matter if they are real or fictional), but either they collide in their most defining characteristic or they have similar goals. An example of the former would be Thanos vs Oppenheimer and of the latter Hitler vs Vader.

Were there any battles that you got burnt out from working on because of the time spent on them? [submitted by Christian Benford]

Dracula comes to mind. I made some bad choices there and worked on a bunch of stuff that never actually got used haha. But that happens. Sometimes you get used to something you are working on, but when seen from a different pair of eyes it doesn’t work as well.

What is a battle that you didn't edit in the past, that you think you'd have enjoyed editing? [submitted by Pads & Luke Ruggirello]

I have never thought of that before, but looking back I'd maybe like to have a bash at editing Poe vs King or Marilyn vs Cleopatra. They are so abstract I think I would have liked moving them around a little.

Is it difficult editing stuff in Spain when the rest of the guys are over in USA? Does it get lonely? [submitted by BlockBite]

Even though I work on post-production, I like being there for the other parts of the project too to give my best input. Especially during shoot days, where I could help with planning all the VFX shots. It is also harder to get feedback from over here too and sending files is much slower than showing the guys effects in person. ERB is a great team though - that’s what makes the loneliness tougher.

Do you have any aspirations for a career in video production beyond the rap battles or is editing mainly a hobby of yours? [submitted by Tuff McAwesome]

I’m writing some scripts for a project of mine that I want to do at some point and I recently got into animation, which I want to use in a short video for a song I have in storage. That’s as far as I have planned :) 

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Thanks again to everyone who submitted questions. We will do another Q&A soon.