Josh Best - ERB Editor - Answers Your Questions

Thank you to everyone who submitted questions for our editor Josh Best to answer. He's answered a whole bunch of them below...

What got you into video editing in the first place? [submitted by Evan Powell]

The first time video effects or editing piqued my interest was watching "Whose Line Is It Anyway?" as a kid. They had a sketch where Colin Mochrie would act as a news reporter in front of a green screen, and he'd have to guess where he was based on the clues he was given from the other guests. I remember Drew Carey explaining that through TV magic, we could see what was there but Colin couldn’t. It sounded intriguing to me and I wanted to learn more about it. 

What projects did you work on before joining ERB? [submitted by Wheat_A_Bix28]

Before ERB I worked on children’s YouTube shows for Pocket Watch, and before that I was an assistant editor at Disney Digital Network, which is now part of Disney+. 

What version of After Effects (and other software) do you use? [submitted by YDGeon]

We use the latest Adobe CC versions that exist at the start of a project, but we never change mid-project. Staying updated helps us work more smoothly with remote editors and effects artists. We use a variety of programs throughout a project. Backgrounds are built in After Effects, Photoshop, Blender, 3DS Max, and a terrain simulation program from e-on software called Vue. An initial edit is made is Premiere and then composited with the backgrounds and given final color treatment in After Effects. Then it’s back into Premiere for subtitles and end-slate graphics and a final export. 

How long does it take for you to make a 3D background? [submitted by GabrielolXP]

Unfortunately there isn’t one answer, backgrounds can take from hours to days to build. A partial 3D background like with Jacque Cousteau took maybe 6 hours. For that one it was mostly finding the right elements. The sky, mountains, and foreground water are all separate video elements composited together to look ambiguously tropical as requested by Pete. The boat was a detailed 3D model that we purchased and then manipulated in 3ds Max to have the look we needed. The longest part of building that background was finding the camera angle Pete liked of the boat. I had an early test angle of the boats bow that he thought was perfect, but it wasn’t the finished boat, so we spent a few hours exporting dozens of minutely different angles of the bow trying to recreate it just right, and that is the angle you see in the video. More complex backgrounds take days to make just because there are so many more elements. For example: the Joker has several backgrounds that build in complexity as the song progresses mirroring the evolution of the depiction of Joker over the last 80 years, that took a few days to get right. 

How much of the original draft or the pieces you edit early on wind up making it into the final cut? [submitted by Luke Ruggirello]

I would say 10% of a final video looks the same as the first draft. But even then the first draft isn’t usually the true first draft. Often it is built from the best bits of tests and drafts that come from the whole team. Given the free form nature of working with composited characters and backgrounds it is helpful to get a lot of ideas as to how the footage could be used and then refine it. Our edits go through countless drafts; usually everyone hates the first couple and it isn’t until we’ve tested a few versions of what doesn’t work before we find what we are looking for. 

What has been the hardest and easiest video to edit?  [submitted by swegmaster &  CodeNano & Dustin & MC Fawful]

The easiest battle was probably Cousteau vs. Irwin. We kept the backgrounds simple, Pete and Lloyd easily fell into their characters and no-one was wearing a mask or green clothes. The edit was made at least a little bit easier by the fact that both characters were TV personalities, whose styles we were able to mimic and draw inspiration from. The hardest battle was probably Krueger vs Wolverine, solely due to Freddy Krueger with his green striped shirt and thick mask. We had to do a lot of work in the edit to hide the fact that the mask was too thick to be glued at the lips and when Wax would rap faster the mask lips wouldn’t keep up. The claw was also a challenge, made of thin reflective metal, it often disappeared when we keyed out the green screen. Which lead me to mask out the claw, essentially drawing a line around its edges, and tracking its motion, keeping my line around the claw, frame by frame. Masking and tracking is a process that we have to do for every battle, in some way, and the computer can do a pretty good job of tracking motion for you, but the thin edges of the claw were hard for the computer to track and most of it was done manually. That was the hardest battle because it was the most painstaking work of frame by frame editing.

Which do you think is your best work and/or what is your favourite battle? [submitted by MC Fawful & Pennylessz & Beni Williams]

The most work in general I would say went into what I think is the best editing/ VFX battle of S6 is Joker vs Pennywise. Joker moves through about a dozen different environments that are all thematically linked and Javi’s Pennywise background had the perfect feel and evolution throughout the battle. Javi always brings a level of magic to an edit, but his work with the deadlights, when Pennywise’s head opens up, is phenomenal, show stopping, and awe inspiring that he did it alone, when an entire effects team would be proud to pull that off. Though that is my favorite of our work so far, my favorite battle of all time, is Alexander the Great vs Ivan the Terrible. I love how that battle progresses and builds. The detail is astounding; the period costumes, subtle prop references (like Catherine’s penis handled garrote wire), even the death of each character is historically correct.  The writing is also amazing,  “I brought FOES to their KNEES in Phoenicia,” that flow is just inspired. 

Has anyone ever told you you're a handsome lad? Also, what's the funniest take you've seen while editing that you didn't end up including in a video? [submitted by Foxdoc]

First off, thank you very much. Secondly, the funniest thing that actually made it on camera has got to be the extended takes of Bill Cosby getting loopy and passing out in Carlin vs Pryor. Gary Anthony Williams was great as Cosby and he has amazing comedic timing that made that bit really stand out in my mind. 

What kind of artistic freedom do you contribute to the battles? Are there certain edits that you choose to reflect who the character(s) are/reference pictures that maybe Pete and Lloyd didn't ask for? [submitted by Christian Benford]

We have an amazing team dynamic at ERB. We have built a level of trust and respect for each other that makes for a lot of artistic freedom. It always has to be to Pete and Lloyd’s standards, but if it’s presented well enough, almost no idea is too wild to be considered. The area that I personally express the most artistic freedom in, is the backgrounds. When match up ideas are starting to get kicked around we usually talk broadly about the setting and feel for each character, whether it’s a more physical location or abstract “spinny” background. From there Javi and I pass references back and forth with Pete and Lloyd, and come up with a few options for them to chose from. The biggest example of a reference I’ve personally made that wasn’t asked for is Sigmund Freud’s background. It is an abstract version of his carpet broken out into 3D space with characters appearing at different depths. The idea broke a few ERB “rules” by having the character interwoven with the background, and bringing both characters into the same world for a few lines. Originally Pete and Lloyd were not totally sold, but were willing to let the idea grow and get more polished, and after going through rounds of notes with them, we ended up with a new ERB background style that met Pete and Lloyd’s standards. 

Have you ever been editing and found an issue with the video that required extensive revision (i.e. choosing different shots you wouldn't have or even having to re-shoot scenes)? If so how did you go about fixing the issue? [submitted by Peacelove]

The best example of that is the Freddy Krueger mask. The production team bought an amazing mask that saved a ton of time and work on makeup. It fit well onto Pete’s head during tests, but on the day of the shoot we found that Wax’s face shape didn’t match with the mask as well, and there were major issues at the eyes and mouth. Hair and makeup did everything they could to make it work as best as it could, and for the most part it worked, but after editing it was clear that the mask was not up to ERB standards in the close ups.  So, after we edited around as many of the bad angles as we could, we threw up a green screen cloth in the studio and had Pete put the mask on to recreate the close up shots we needed. It was a dramatic solution but it worked and we were able to get the edit we wanted.

If you could take a battle from Season 1 and redo the visuals up to your standards, which would you pick? [submitted by Eoghan]

It’s funny you ask that because we are always going back to season 1 to inspire our edits. It can be easy to fall into ideas of “rules,”  like starting on a wide shots, matching profile angles or having 3D backgrounds. But then we re-watch Lennon Vs O’Reilly and it’s all extreme close ups, mismatched profiles and plain backgrounds, breaking any notion of ERB rules in our minds and bringing us back to earth. That said I do think that Gandalf vs Dumbledore would be an amazing battle to bring our current level of VFX work to.

Will you be filming more Post Production stuff for rap battle behind the scenes' and Patreon in the future? I personally would love to see more of the editing magic. The effects in season 6 were amazing! [submitted by Sandwich Sauce]

Thank you! It’s great to know that they are noticed. The work load gets heavy in post production, especially when we have multiple projects working at the same time, so that is why we rarely pick up the camera to talk about what we are doing, but I will make a strong effort to get more BTS videos of the post process out there so that you can all more clearly see the work that goes into it. 

What is the worst and best things about working on ERB? [submitted by Blink420]

The best thing is the people. Pete and Lloyd are amazing bosses and creators and they have built an amazing team and everyone works tirelessly and selflessly to make the best possible battle. It is great to work with people who drive you to do your best and expect you to push boundaries. I like to think of our edit process as sculpting, we start out with a rough block and through countless rounds of revisions and refining, from many people, we have a finished battle, and that process is amazing to watch work. The worst thing is stressing out over whether or not a battle is going to come out right, especially when we have multiple ones in the editing process. At some point early on with almost every battle, someone looks at a cut and says, “Is this good enough?” That moment is always a little stressful, but it’s good to have because it means we still have the same standards and all we have to do is keep refining until it reaches our expectations.  

Well done for making the cameo of the Secret Service Agent in Trump vs Hilary! If you had to be a Secret Service Agent to any historical figure, who would they be? [submitted by Mortal]

Thank you, haha. That was a game time decision on set for me to jump in there. I am not sure about modern day Presidents but I guess I like the idea of being in and around George Washington. He seems like an interesting character and has so much lore about him that I would love to get a first hand experience of his personality and demeanour. 

Do you have any favorite edits in other videos (past ERBs or other videos) that inspire you? [submitted by J-Star]

We are always going back to early battles to get inspiration on edits. Some of my favorites that I watch for editing are Lennon vs O’Reilly, Spielberg vs Hitchcock, and Eastern vs Western philosopher. I just like the visual flow of those battles and how the videos work with the lyrics. For each individual battle we also watch specific references related to the battle such as movies, shows, or games that characters are in so that we can make as many references as we can. 

Have you ever danced with the devil in the pale moon light? [submitted by Ironbite]

Only once, I’m lucky to be alive. 

If you were given the power to choose between Emperor Nero vs Pol Pot or Rosa Parks vs Malcolm X which would you prefer? [submitted by Beni Williams]

Emperor Nero would be interesting, as I am a huge fan of ancient history. But as a quality rap battle where the characters could have an interesting dialogue, Rosa Parks vs Malcolm X is the winner, I would love to hear what beef Rosa Parks drags up between them. 

Have you played Final Fantasy 7 Remake and if so - do you like it? [submitted by Neo]

I have not played the remake, but I have played and liked the original. 

Can you rap at all and if you were in a ERB which character from history would you want to be? Do you have a dream battle match-up? [submitted by YesTess, KaibaLord236 & Spookymon44]

I cannot rap at all, so I do not think I will be guest starring anytime soon, but if I would play anyone it would probably be Indiana Jones. He's one character I'd love to see in an ERB. And I already have the hat. The obvious opponent would be Lara Croft but I would be open to a more historical opponent too.

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Thanks again to everyone who submitted questions.