Lockpicking Videos - What's up with the silent treatment?

[VancouverSpecial]

Hello Good Folks of KP,

I have noticed that many lockpicking videos seem to take a page out of the silent-film era with nary a word spoken. One high profile example would be our very own resident mod xeo (Samus Aran on youtube), whose incredible picking skills seem beyond the reach of newbs like myself. Yet, I find myself wanting to say 'I can hear you breathing, so speak up man' - or 'tell me how the feck you did that' as if talking might somehow make the impossible possible?

Whereas, many lockpickers add their voices whether as commentary, explanation or entertainment. Two well known examples are Awol70 (wizwazzle on youtube) a pioneer in the lockpicking video genre but who no longer seems to be active and of course bosnianbill who's the most viewed English-speaking lockpicker on the planet at the moment. Yet even Bill started out with a handful of silent videos - if my memory serves correct.

So, what's with the tradition of the silent treatment? What's your opinion either way?

Cheers all,
Sean

[Farmerfreak]

I usually don't talk during my videos. It tends to break my concentration. I do agree that talking would make the videos better, but if it's harder to get the lock picked on camera then it's an issue.

[GWiens2001]

Think they have high, squeaky voices and are shy about it.

Probably more of keeping some semblance of privacy. Like not showing their faces.

Gordon

[VancouverSpecial]

Heya Farmer,

Funny enough but I considered adding you as a third type - as example of those who make both silent and 'talkies' - as I've enjoyed watching both types of videos from you. Now I understand - silence in your videos means maximum concentration. Thanks for the input.

One question, when viewing other picking videos do you have a preference - whether silent or not?

Also, just gotta say huge fan of your videos! Mad skills! Please make more.

Cheers,
Sean

[Farmerfreak]

Talking is preferred. But it depends on the lock, a lot of locks that are camera worthy require concentration.

I don't consider myself to be a good talker during videos. Do I really have many that I actually talk in?

[VancouverSpecial]

Think they have high, squeaky voices and are shy about it.

Probably more of keeping some semblance of privacy. Like not showing their faces.

Gordon

Heya Gordon,

I was hoping someone would bring up this aspect of lockpicking - the desire to remain anonymous.

In this way it seems similar to hacking sub-cultures where pseudonyms are used and real-world identifying information kept to a minimum. And, where so-called black-hat activities or using one's skills to break the law remain a common stereotype in most peoples imaginations. As in, when someone hear's I am learning about lockpicking they often jest something to the effect of "so you're training to be a burglar now?" The irony to me is that these silent videos seems almost more illicit by the act of not talking.

Thanks for the input.
Sean

[flywheel]

Why are you calling out xeo? Everyone knows he has a serious speech impediment.

Do you understand meow?

[VancouverSpecial]

Talking is preferred. But it depends on the lock, a lot of locks that are camera worthy require concentration.

I don't consider myself to be a good talker during videos. Do I really have many that I actually talk in?

Perhaps not but the talking ones always stand out more to me anyway. For example the one where you are demonstrating your green case of tools but I guess thats not a picking video per se.

At my (beginner) level, I very much prefer talking videos. I don't find a whole lot of benefit to watching silent videos unless I am working on that lock myself. Not to mention the enjoyment of hearing all the different accents and turns-of-phrase, whether American or British, which I love to hear.

Have a great night,
Sean

[VancouverSpecial]

Why are you calling out xeo? Everyone knows he has a serious speech impediment.

Do you understand meow?

LOL!!!

[VancouverSpecial]

Think they have high, squeaky voices and are shy about it.

AH-HA!
Now I know how those guys got so good - practice smactice - they're taking performance enhancing steroids.
All those silent video guys are hopped up on Lock-Enhancing 'Roids.

Hmmm....Anybody have some I can take? [holds pick earnestly in one hand but cradles testicles protectively in the other]

[xeo]

I'll just be totally honest with you, about my own personal reasons for not speaking:

The main reason is I am not on YouTube to entertain people. Speaking detracts from concentration. Farmerfreak is right in saying that some locks require immense concentration and thinking about what to say next unnecessarily occupies brainpower. The goal of my videos were to document my picking progress and accomplishments and to not educate the viewer about anything. I wanted to focus on the sounds of the lock instead of some annoying commentary. I am personally allergic to the pop culture commentary style "Tosh 2.0" canned laugh rapid fire motif that plagues modern television and media. It makes me sick at the amount of over-stimulation provided by content creators as if they're trying to medicate people with severe ADHD. People seem to be more and more uncomfortable with silence these days. They all seem to need to be constantly speaking even if the speaking means nothing. Yes, Bosnianbill is the "most popular" lock picker. That means absolutely nothing to me. What have you actually learned from him about raw picking skill? Is his endless speaking and entertaining helped you at all?

Enough about that, I wanted to record raw realistic lock picking where the picker is not doing anything but picking the lock. You can very clearly hear the pins clicking/setting in most of my videos. This is something that a lot of lock pickers who make videos neglect. I had one person send me a message on YouTube claiming that he used my videos as a way to fall asleep because of how relaxing they were. If you actually pay very close attention at what I'm doing with the picks and tensioners you can see some of the techniques I use and you can actually learn something by simply watching. You'd be surprised at how many messages I've gotten asking me what I was doing or how I was doing it when they could have learned by watching closely.

But, in any case, if you want to ask questions feel free to ask me.

[ForSquirel]

I had one person send me a message on YouTube claiming that he used my videos as a way to fall asleep because of how relaxing they were.

That's exactly what I was doing last night at work. Crazy day and I couldn't fall asleep.

Personally, I don't care if someone speaks or not in a video. If they don't speak I like to hear the lock feedback because when I'm picking by myself that's what I listen for. If they do and have something positive to say then that's all good.

I speak in my mine just to have something to do. My wife says I seem to space out when picking, and I do, sometimes staring off in space as my hands move. I guess i'm just speaking because it's late at night when I record and it keeps me from just falling over asleep. I doubt I really have anything truly valuable to say that hasn't been said before so, meh, it is what it is.

[Deadlock]

I prefer little or no talking in lockpicking videos. What I'd really like to see after each click, are subtitles explaining what's happened, ''Pin four set,'' and so on. No, I don't know how to do this.


The worst thing in videos is when you can hear the TV blaring away in the background. Unbelievable that some people think that's OK. Turn it off!

[Josephus]

I hardly ever watch lockpicking videos. They all seem to either be pandering to the lowest common denominator (same with pick manufacturers) or just showoff videos.

Now that it has been mentioned, I have never learned anything from Bosnianbill about picking skill itself. I have learned there are a ton of people that are interested in picking but never develop significant skill or knowledge. I have learned that he is really lucky to have such a large budget. I have learned that there are a ton of odd locks from around the world that I will likely never see in the wild. His videos along with those from people that don't quite know what is going on in the lock yet are particularly hard to watch. I instinctively skip the first two-thirds of lockpicking videos as that is mostly just fluff talk or just plain wrong information. The only time I have watched xeo's videos I don't actually watch them. I listen. Sometimes I don't even bother looking at the screen, I am taking in the sounds of false-set sidebars primarily. That is something of value.

It is like going to a lecture, there is nothing to see and most of what is said is just fluff for people that did not come prepared. Most of the difficulty is just filtering out what doesn't matter.

[huxleypig]

I only ever make picking videos when I pick a lock that nobody has (publicly) picked before or to demonstrate a new tool. I stay quiet because I do like to keep a certain amount of anonymity on the web. It is amazing what can be used against you when it has been twisted! Lockpicking videos fall into this category (for me).

The 1st video I did was the Kaba 20 padlock but I only did that because I had just joined Keypicking and nobody believed me!