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  • - God! This (beep) is not fair, man!

  • What does that mean?

  • - I don't know what it means!

  • - Okay, so like,

  • please put that down.

  • (laughing)

  • Thank you.

  • These videos are taking years off my life.

  • I'm John, I'm a private investigator.

  • Today I've been asked by Buzzfeed

  • for some reason, to figure out which one

  • of these subjects is the boss.

  • How about you? Would you join me?

  • - Yeah.

  • I'm Aidan.

  • - Aidan?

  • - Yeah, nice to meet you.

  • - That's my first question. Where are you from?

  • - I'm from Connecticut originally.

  • - Where do you live now?

  • - I live in LA, Silver Lake.

  • - What do you do?

  • - I work at Buzzfeed.

  • - What do you do?

  • - I work in media management, I'm the lead there.

  • - Media management, that sounds kinda vague.

  • - So I actually work with Stanley here,

  • we each have one person under us.

  • We do a lot of archiving and then,

  • like, redistribution of videos.

  • - So does stuff come off of, for example, like,

  • eventually get pulled off the social channels

  • but you guys have to back it up on drives?

  • - Yeah, like, glorified librarians.

  • - Okay, right on. Who's your boss?

  • - Me.

  • - You're the boss?

  • - I'm within post-production. But, yeah,

  • I'm a lead.

  • - Do you have employees that report to you

  • or that are, like, under you?

  • - Yeah, there's three.

  • - You're a lead, you said?

  • - Yeah.

  • - Okay. What's your football team?

  • - 49ers.

  • I'm not like Jets, Giants,

  • I don't subscribe to those teams.

  • - Okay.

  • - Are you an East Coast guy?

  • You seem offended.

  • - No, I like talking sports,

  • I find it interesting more than anything,

  • but no.

  • - Are you Tom Brady's brother?

  • - I'm not personally affronted,

  • no I'm not.

  • You said you do work with Stanley, right?

  • - Yeah, yeah.

  • - Okay, so what's his role?

  • - He does more like the archiving side

  • of things, I do like the redistribution side of things.

  • - How'd you get the job?

  • - Through a friend of mine actually.

  • - Were there any sort of like cloak

  • and dagger behind closed doors,

  • turning people against him,

  • kind of plotting his downfall,

  • anything Shakespearean going on there?

  • - Yeah, Big time.

  • - Okay, so that would indicate your more

  • of like a team effort,

  • not necessarily the boss.

  • So how long have you been working at BuzzFeed?

  • - Bout a year and a half.

  • - All right, well I think I'm good for now Aidan.

  • Why don't you join me please.

  • - Hello

  • - What's your name?

  • - Destiny.

  • - What do you do here Destiny?

  • - Video producer and manager.

  • - What does that really mean?

  • - I kinda just help facilitate,

  • making sure all the needs are met for production,

  • look over the videos,

  • leave notes.

  • - What does that mean, making sure the needs are met?

  • - I guess if they have any questions about

  • like production or like the shoots that we have

  • or like just working with the editors

  • or just making sure everyone is cool.

  • - Yeah, but what does that mean?

  • - I don't know what it means.

  • - Okay, so like use this as an example,

  • this is one of the producers ideas

  • to shoot this video,

  • he needs a place to shoot it,

  • he has to book this room,

  • and schedule it right?

  • - Right.

  • - Does that run through you at all?

  • - Nah we have like a production team

  • with like coordinators who kinda handle that.

  • - Do they have anything to do with you?

  • - I mean I talk to them sometimes,

  • but not really.

  • - Okay well what is something

  • that your subordinates would need

  • that they would come to you asking for help with?

  • - Honestly, I have a lot of meetings.

  • I don't think their like, oh I need,

  • Destiny needs to approve this or see this.

  • It's more of like.

  • - Sounds easy

  • - Just there, It is.

  • - Most bosses don't really do any work so.

  • - True that.

  • - How are you?

  • - I'm good, how are you?

  • - I'm a little down,

  • I got my last one of these videos wrong so.

  • - I'm sorry.

  • - Kinda really hit my ego harder than I thought.

  • (buzzer)

  • - All right you got me!

  • I was close, but.

  • - You can't win 'em all.

  • - Yeah but I had a good run there for a while.

  • Also, I really have no idea what

  • the point of this video is,

  • I don't even know why I'm here really.

  • Sort of an existential thing I'm going through.

  • I just don't even know what questions

  • to ask you so I'm just kinda making small talk.

  • - Okay, that's fine.

  • - Have you seen any movies lately?

  • - I haven't.

  • - Really?

  • - Really, not lately.

  • - I've seen 3 this weekend

  • and I'm like dying to talk about movies,

  • but how long have you worked here?

  • - 7 months.

  • - So who's your boss?

  • - Well, I'm the boss.

  • It's weird even bosses here have bosses,

  • like it doesn't just stop,

  • like it you know.

  • - Am I supposed to figure out who three

  • of these people work for the fourth one, is that it?

  • So their all telling me their managers.

  • - There's really no way of you knowing.

  • I hope you know that.

  • - I don't really need that right now.

  • All right well that makes sense cause you can't

  • really seem to explain to me what a manager does.

  • - Yeah.

  • - So maybe you don't know anything about it.

  • - Maybe I don't.

  • - What's your biggest strength?

  • - I think communication.

  • - What do you think is a weakness that you may need

  • to work on?

  • Professionally.

  • - Time management.

  • - You keep getting pulled away

  • to these videos so.

  • - I mean.

  • - Maybe you could speak to your boss about that.

  • Thanks Destiny, I think I'm okay for now.

  • - Okay.

  • - You can head on back to the wall if you want.

  • - Great.

  • - Will you join me?

  • - Sure.

  • - Hello.

  • - What's up?

  • - What do you do here?

  • - I actually lead a team for

  • the archiving department of this company.

  • - How big is your team?

  • - It's like 4 people.

  • - Can you take me through like a day

  • or like a week with the archive department?

  • Cause God's honest truth it's all digital,

  • so like how hands on is an archiving process even?

  • - You can kind of get away

  • with doing a lot of nothing,

  • but there's a ton of videos we've made here,

  • and then we distribute it to our team,

  • then they have to like upload it to a cloud.

  • We otherwise have like these hard drives

  • but they're archaic and it's something we're phasing out,

  • that's technical stuff.

  • - As a matter of principle I don't trust clouds.

  • I mean I trust drives.

  • - Damn.

  • - I gotta be able to run into my burning house

  • and like grab something and run out with it.

  • - But if it's on the cloud you don't even have

  • to go into the burning house to begin with.

  • - Yeah but eventually the cloud is gonna

  • be the burning house.

  • - I'm gonna have to talk to my.

  • - Boss?

  • - Subordinates about that one.

  • - Subordinates?

  • - I mean you know it's a big company,

  • everyone's got a boss here.

  • - How long have you worked here?

  • - Going on like a year.

  • - How'd you get the job?

  • - My former roommate just kinda like plugged me in,

  • I didn't even have to interview.

  • How about that?

  • - You just showed up one day?

  • - Technically, yeah.

  • Nepotism is a hell of a thing.

  • - Did you go to college?

  • - Went to the University of New Orleans,

  • it was otherwise known as

  • the University of no opportunity

  • but you know here I am.

  • - Okay, so 4 people under you,

  • and what do they do?

  • - They have to like make sure everything's there

  • and then they have to like put it up in the cloud.

  • While everyone is like editing projects

  • but nobody knows what they're doing,

  • so they'll give us these projects

  • but they won't realize like half

  • the stuff in the actual video is like on their desktop.

  • - So you think all of the editors at BuzzFeed,

  • are kind of hacks and they're not good at what they do?

  • - Well I mean some of them are some of them aren't,

  • I can pinpoint some,

  • probably not the best idea.

  • (techno noise)

  • - I can too.

  • - There's 2 pens here.

  • - Please put that down.

  • (laughing)

  • Thank you, Stanley,

  • thanks for now I think I'm done.

  • Perhaps we'll chat later.

  • Will you join me?

  • What's your name?

  • - Becky.

  • - What do you do?

  • - I'm an attorney here at BuzzFeed.

  • - So what do you do on a daily basis?

  • - I do a lot of rights

  • and clearances reviews,

  • I confirm with our media management team

  • to make sure that all necessary releases

  • for people who are not BuzzFeed employees are signed,

  • and archived, and properly put with the videos.

  • I negotiate contracts,

  • both talent for internal and external people.

  • Production releases, location agreements

  • (echoes)

  • See this is why I don't get invited to parties,

  • I swear I'm fun.

  • - What's your title?

  • - Staff attorney.

  • - Do you have people that report to you?

  • - 1 directly and then I help out some folks in New York.

  • Do you wanna know if I've seen any movies?

  • I never get the fun questions.

  • - Yeah I guess you're right.

  • - I'm more than a set of law books, you know.

  • - All right, well I think I'm done for now Becky,

  • thanks.

  • Well this is just impossible to figure out without

  • just taking a wild guess.

  • It's almost like these videos have nothing

  • to do with being a private investigator at all.

  • Becky talks the talk,

  • she's obviously a lawyer,

  • but eventually I just kinda snapped out of it

  • and realized my brain had shut off

  • cause she had just kept talking about it.

  • Destiny, I'm pretty sure I know for a fact,

  • is a figure of some kind of authority here at BuzzFeed.

  • I kept asking her to describe what she does

  • and it really doesn't sound like she has a job at all.

  • Aidan, I've never seen before,

  • so maybe he's so important he usually can't be bothered

  • to come down here and shoot these things,

  • also referred to his job position as glorified librarians,

  • also he talked (bleep) to me in the green room.

  • Stanley, was talking a lot about what it means

  • to be a boss.

  • He said there's 4 people who work under him,

  • Aidan said there's only 1,

  • seems like maybe Aidan told a lie

  • and Stanley had to back it up.

  • Which begs the question why would Aidan lie for Stanley?

  • Becky's nodding with me,

  • - I think it's a good question.

  • - This guy's a troll.

  • - Stanley is getting defensive.

  • Well let me say this,

  • I think Becky should be the boss,

  • maybe I don't talk about movies with her as much

  • cause I'm intimidated by her.

  • Powerful women scare me.

  • These videos are taking years off my life.

  • This is going to destroy me if I get this wrong.

  • It could be anybody they're all in my head,

  • this is just unpleasant.

  • Destiny, will you come sit here?

  • Where'd you work before this?

  • - Amazon.

  • - Doing what?

  • - Video producing.

  • - Where was that, was this up in Washington?

  • - Seattle.

  • - Okay, how long have you lived in LA?

  • - About 7 months.

  • - How big is your staff?

  • - 5 people.

  • - How many videos do they produce a week?

  • - 50 videos every 2 months,

  • it's really confusing,

  • I would really love to spend all day breaking it down but.

  • - So what are your deliverables?

  • - Define deliverables.

  • - What the hell do you do?

  • (laughing)

  • - We've been through this John,

  • I do manage a small team of producers.

  • I'm not behind them like do this,

  • do that it's more so just like overseeing them,

  • I watch them.

  • - Okay thanks.

  • Aidan will you come here please?

  • Yeah thanks Destiny.

  • Where did you work before BuzzFeed?

  • - I worked at Showtime in New York for a while

  • and a small fortune company called Born Ready Films as well.

  • - What'd you do at Showtime, for example?

  • - I was in the creative services department

  • so I was a PA.

  • - What's your favorite movie?

  • - Good Will Hunting.

  • - Who's your favorite actor?

  • - Maybe Christian Bale.

  • - Okay. Thank you.

  • Becky will you join me here?

  • So do you run the legal department?

  • - Well no,

  • so we have a GC and then underneath GC we have,

  • general council, under that we have.

  • - I know.

  • - Associate general council,

  • people don't.

  • - Okay.

  • We have associate general councils,

  • I reporting to the associate general councils for IP.

  • - Okay.

  • Do you like country music?

  • - Yeah.

  • - Who's your favorite country musician?

  • - Either Dolly Parton or Patsy Cline.

  • - What's your favorite TV show?

  • - Of all time? Six Feet Under.

  • - All right, thanks.

  • - I appreciate that.

  • - Awe man, this is (bleep) impossible.

  • You know it's better to just be completely duped,

  • what's worse is when I feel closer,

  • I almost get it but I'm off a little bit.

  • All right, so Becky tells me she's not

  • the boss and look we gotta talk history,

  • I've seen Destiny and Becky a lot in these circumstances,

  • but what does that mean?

  • You'd think if someone you know was important

  • or like in charge they wouldn't be bothered

  • with this sort of thing.

  • I've never seen Aidan in my life,

  • not that that matters really I mean there are lots

  • of people I haven't seen yet.

  • Stanley and I, this isn't

  • the first time we've sparred,

  • battle of wits.

  • - That's a rough one.

  • - Not for me.

  • Aidan talks the talk,

  • I did catch him in some inconsistencies.

  • I mean it's totally random.

  • Could be Becky,

  • Becky would love to get one over on me.

  • Aidan likes Christian Bale,

  • I respect that.

  • I think it's Destiny.

  • (triumphant marching band music)

  • (clapping)

  • Dude I'm gonna be having nightmares about you for weeks man.

  • - Can I get the sound clip where he says I should

  • be the boss though?

  • I'd like to add that to my LinkedIn.

  • - Now I'm in a good mood.

  • These guys know I was in a very bad mood

  • before this video began.

  • God, this (bleep) is not fair man.

  • Becky talked a lot,

  • as I mentioned I couldn't,

  • I wanted to process it,

  • I do find it very interesting,

  • but I took a lot of notes on Aidan

  • and obviously you must work in this world.

  • I don't think anybody was like completely lying to me,

  • except Stanley.

  • Aren't you an editor?

  • - No.

  • - Okay. Well.

  • (laughing)

  • I guess I was wrong.

  • I was like if Becky was like at the top of

  • the food chain of legal,

  • she's gotta have more important things to do

  • than these videos,

  • but by that definition

  • if any of these people is in charge or manager

  • or whatever the shtick is,

  • the same logic applies.

  • I thought about Destiny

  • and I've observed sometimes how people kind of interact

  • with her out and about in the hallways

  • and stuff,

  • there's a certain there's a kind of deference there.

  • So I don't know if she was telling the truth

  • but the way she described being a manager,

  • you just watch other people do their jobs,

  • I guess was kind of convincing.

  • I think Aidan came in here he wanted to kill,

  • and he almost got me.

  • And listening to Becky talk about how big BuzzFeed is

  • and how vast their whole legal spider web is,

  • I just felt like if you were in charge of that,

  • you probably don't even like the internet.

  • You know, you probably like live

  • and breathe law and you know whatever torte reform

  • or whatever the hell lawyers do, I don't know.

  • - I would love to talk about torte reform.

  • - So, ultimately I got Becky off

  • the list and Destiny was

  • the last one there.

  • I was not convinced of Destiny,

  • but she had the least things going against her.

  • So that's that.

  • There's stress here there's pressure.

  • But you know that's what heroes have to go through,

  • I guess.

  • (zestful music)

- God! This (beep) is not fair, man!

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