Award-winning digital studio TheSoul Publishing was founded more than six years ago, and like many aspiring content creators, began with just a single DSLR camera, a tripod, two light sources, and — most importantly — an idea. Over time, our creative content, innovative ideas and openness to experimentation have grown TheSoul to where it is today – with our brands generating more than 16 billion views a month.
TheSoul Publishing’s universe of well-known channels includes 5-Minute Crafts, Bright Side, 123 GO!, Avocado Couple, La La Life, Teen-Z, Baby Zoo, Slick Slime Sam and Polar.
Global demand for entertaining, positive and original digital content shows no sign of slowing down. Simultaneously, additional platforms and media offer new and engaging formats, such as AR, VR and the metaverse. To match this demand, TheSoul is expanding its content production facilities with new technology.
We ultimately switched to the Panasonic S1H, the first mirrorless camera approved by Netflix, to be able to compete with higher standards of production. We also installed a large green screen/cyclorama to give us endless possibilities in VFX editing, from running in space, to walking on clouds with a much higher result in quality.
Our improved lighting suspension system allows us to perfectly hang all of our lights from the ceiling. This helped our video designers significantly by minimizing complications and allowing for more versatility. This modern system allows more opportunities to get creative and use all of the available space for actually shooting content.
As far as editing, TheSoul uses powerful computers running software such as Adobe Premiere Pro, After Effects and Photoshop that are constantly getting updated, providing the newest and best features, and giving us the opportunity to further improve our content.
As we prepare to launch our new Budapest studio, we are continuously ensuring our incredible team members have the most up-to-date and revolutionary technology. We recognize and appreciate that their creative ideas have driven TheSoul’s exponential success, and we want to enhance their content creation further. Their imagination should be the only limit to what they can create.
The Budapest facility is the latest in a series of global expansions to facilitate TheSoul’s aim to further harness the power of emerging technologies. The success of these ventures has already been demonstrated by the 2021 launch of another super studio in Riga, Latvia, which has supported the development of TheSoul’s music division. To appreciate the rapid technological changes, you only have to compare Riga’s state-of-the-art audio hub to our original audio recording setup, which involved recording sound in toilets and showers, with carpets and egg boxes as makeshift soundproofing materials.
With the support of new technologies, our team’s capability to develop creative production solutions has increased substantially. In Riga, we have introduced a fully movable wall system, allowing a single location to contain four different filming sets. Combined with embedded ceiling lighting systems, this dramatically simplifies the content production process, with each transition taking less than fifteen seconds.
TheSoul’s Budapest production studio will focus on our existing brands, including the global phenomenon 5-Minute Crafts, which has already experienced technological change in all aspects of production. The most significant change was our investment in 6K cameras, which allowed us to film for multiple formats simultaneously and tailor our content to the native aspect ratios of all our digital distribution partners.
The studio will also house experimental projects involving advanced VR, gaming and animation technology. TheSoul believes in the revolutionary power of these technologies to facilitate our team’s creativity and provide audiences with continuously-engaging content. The demand is already there: our 360-degree VR videos on Bright Side have become so popular they now have their own dedicated channel. Creating VR content has been a welcome challenge that has unlocked an entirely-new and unique animation style for us, and it’s been amazing to see the positive audience reaction.
Writing about these changes is one thing, but experiencing the results is another. To celebrate and highlight these technological evolutions, we invite everyone to see the technological changes in
our latest video.
Victor Potrel is Vice President of Platform Partnerships at TheSoul Publishing (www.thesoul-publishing.com), a digital studio that creates positive and inspiring original content. Formerly at Google and LEGO, Victor Potrel now works closely with key content distribution platforms, including YouTube, Meta, Snap, TikTok, Pinterest, Roku, and many others.