MrBeast's $14 Million YouTube Video: Behind-the-Scenes of a $5 Million Competition

MrBeast's YouTube video cost $14 million, excluding the $5 million prize.

### Behind the Scenes of MrBeast's $14 Million YouTube Challenge
* 🎥 MrBeast is set to create the **highest-budget YouTube video ever**, featuring 2,000 contestants competing for a **staggering $5 million prize**.
* 💪 Contestants will face four challenges, starting with a **boulder-pulling contest designed to eliminate teams quickly**, with the required pulling force adjusted from **32,000 Newtons to just 10,000** for better viewer engagement.
* 🏗 The production team has custom-built structures and used innovative techniques, such as **NFC wristbands for tracking contestants** and **adjudication cameras to determine winners accurately**.
* 🎤 The filming setup includes **28 high-spec cameras worth $100,000**, 35 Sony FX9 cinema cameras, and **400 GoPros**, ensuring **comprehensive coverage of the action**.
* 📊 With a total of **3.2 petabytes of storage** and multiple backup systems in place, the footage is meticulously organized to **streamline the editing process**, which can involve **sifting through hours of content**.
* 💵 The financial logistics are immense, with **$2 million allocated for contestant payouts** and an estimated total production cost of **$14 million**, rising to **$19 million** when including the prize money.
* 🚨 Security measures are stringent, involving police, armored trucks, and constant surveillance to protect the cash prize, ensuring that **"no one is robbing me."**
* 📺 The final video aims to **captivate viewers** with a blend of **high-stakes challenges** and **emotional storytelling**, showcasing the **elaborate planning and execution** behind the scenes.

Open the gates! That's MrBeast, and this is how he's about to pull off the highest-budget, biggest-production YouTube video ever created. Storming this field are 2,000 contestants! Look at them! 2,000 people competing for that $5

million! So, how on Earth do you run and record a competition show for this many people? And the biggest question: how much does it cost to pull all of this off? Well, it wasn't without some very real challenges, but one thing's for sure: from a technical perspective, this is

absolutely insane! And I'm giving him all-access to everything behind the scenes—from the cameras, the logistics—and he's going to show it all to you. And also, that's $5 million real dollars—don't rob me!

So, there are four challenges that the contestants are going to be going through. This is us just before the first. I gathered all the guards over here so you can test them. They're not supposed to show motion—basically, just like mannequins. You guys are not supposed to speak.

This feels mean! They're not going to talk, but they are going to dance if you catch them after hours!

That's right, ladies and gentlemen! That's not his real skin! For challenge one, in which the contestants had to split up into five groups, and each group had to pull up a

very heavy boulder as fast as they could. Every person in the losing team gets eliminated. I realize there's 2,000 contestants behind me shouting and screaming, but this is the coolest thing for me right now. So this structure right here has been custom-built for this

Challenge to basically regulate the amount of pulling force required to lift that boulder, so the rope feeds through this contraption before it goes out to the contestants. And the way that it's weaved through on the inside determines how easy it is to pull. So just to give

you an idea of how important this is, the Beast team originally set this mechanism up to require 32,000 Newtons of pulling force, but it's only as they started to play-test it a few days before with a whole extra crew of play testers, by the

way, let's move in a little bit. They realized 32,000 Newtons is going to take people way too long for the challenge to be fun to watch. So just by weaving this rope through the contraption in a slightly different way, they could

quickly lower the required pulling force to just 10,000. Oh, and also this microphone here is sat there specifically to capture just the sound effect of the rope being pulled. It's a little bit crazy just how many things you have to think about if you want to

do this right. Even literally the flooring; Jimmy decided that he wanted this place to look like a coliseum, so they pulled out every single bit of astroturf from it, and then they've covered it with these olive pits to basically give it that cinematic sand

being thrown up the ceiling when people are running around through it. This is the box camera we're using to adjudicate; as soon as one of these boulders crosses the finish line, that's the winner, and so we'll be able to see from this camera

Which boulders and that team's eliminated didn't even occur to me. That you need adjudication cameras! We set our camera at the same height as the finish line so we can see exactly who won. They're both at 80 ft, so every single

contestant also has an NFC wristband that they're scanning to keep track of who's in the game and who's out. When you're out, they'll know that you need to go out too. If you leave... we're not leaving. You're not leaving.

We're not leaving. Okay. It took around 3 hours after revealing this first game before the thing actually kicked off. Partly to give the teams time to strategize, partly because everything takes longer than you expect when you're trying to organize this many people.

Ready? Wow! This game genuinely lasted about 15 seconds in total, and it was specifically designed to be that way. Oh my god, that's literally it! Red team is done. We just lost out on this chance to win $5 million. We... I can't believe how

quickly that happened. MrBeast wanted to make sure that the first game people saw was as easy to explain as possible and as quick to finish as possible; not so much for the people here, but more so that the viewers of the final video are able to get easily invested without

feeling like they're suddenly having to learn something really complicated. You can actually see people in that queue; they're so defeated. Some of them are crying. You know, when you watch MrBeast videos online and you think it can't be like that in real life, the feeling is

Very much here. I love you too! You all watch our videos; love your videos! Oh my God, Ricky! Ricky, you guys must feel like you're on top of the world right now! It was so nerve-wracking, so nerve-wracking. Does that scare you, like...

seeing what the other teams can do? I can't be scared; we're a part of history here. Well, I'm rooting for you guys personally, because you're fans! Yellow team! You heard that, Yellow team! Yellow team! Yep, I heard that. All right, Yellow

team for the win! And now, while we waited for game two to start, now felt like as good a time as any to head to the main camera room to see the belly of the beast. And while the camera team were out actually filming the show, who better to

show us this room than Mr. Tariq? Since the last time I saw you, a lot has changed—from the equipment to how we go about things to the lighting. You've seen the scale of the projects has to be better, and Jimmy's not as particular

about the cameras anymore. So he used to be really in the weeds with it; now it's like, I trust him, and I like it. So these are just the ground cameras; they'll be for talent, they'll be just for close-ups on any of the contestants, just like a grab

and go; run and capture that moment. This is very rigged up. Very rigged up. Yeah, I noticed every single one of these cameras has a light on it. Darker images don't perform better retention-wise, at least, is what we've learned. And then we have the time code here; it's just so we

Make sure everything is time-coded. Ah, yes, the timecode. So they bought one of these devices to plug into every camera on this shoot, for one job. So whenever it goes to editing, they know exactly what happened and when it happened. So, for example, if somebody falls and it's a

really funny moment, every single camera, you could just search for that second and you'll have 100 viewpoints of that one shot. Almost 500 for this kid. Almost 500. I'm curious how the rig has evolved. A lot heavier; we have more stuff, especially like, tailored for editing,

better mic, the signal just makes it easier to grab it and just get everything you need in one shot. Holding this for about five minutes, I can see why there's an extra strap. Oh yeah, I mean, you get some strong shoulders. So that's

the run-and-gun cameras. There are 28 of those, and they are pretty high-spec, totaling $100,000 in value. The only one of these that's a tiny bit different is Mr. B's personal camera rig, which has two lights on it instead of one to make him

the brightest thing on screen, so that your eyes are naturally drawn towards him. There's a whole cornercopia of lenses, and they all have different purposes. You guys use GoPros a lot, but GoPros capture a very different kind of shot to something like this. Is there

a difference in what shots you use for what purpose? Emotional shots, we try to do telephoto, so we put somebody on the other side and just zoom in on their face as much as you can, and then just kind of get that reaction. You'll see a

A lot of the most vulnerable, real moments on MrBeast videos are being captured like this because the camera is so far away that the contestant isn't spotting it and so isn't acting for it. But that is far from the full suite of cameras here.

There are 35 Sony FX9 cinema cameras dotted all around the stadium to get the main wide, fixed shots of the games. There are 10 pan-tilt-zoom, or PTZ, cameras which are also fixed in place but can be remotely operated to control what they're looking at.

20 DJI Osmos for handing to the contestants to vlog certain sequences, since they are literally the easiest cameras to operate. All rounded off with 400—I kid you not, 400—GoPros. They use these because they're small enough to fit

inside of things and also just blend into the background so they don't appear in the rest of the camera's shots. And that's not even factoring in all of the accessories like power banks for every single GoPro and also the proper flagship camera gear like the box

cameras, the sky cameras, and the whole army of drones. But we are getting to that. I noticed everyone's got delightful little nicknames for the different... SE... SE... and so hot and cold for this battery section. I assume hot means fully charged, cold means empty?

Yes, it's exceptionally organized. You can tell this is someone's job to create this pile. Absolutely. Tariq then took us to Mac, who is the lead editor of the MrBeast team. Why he so tall, man? He's all dressed up. He's tall, and he pulls me out when I'm in my

Underwear, and I'm all short. Sticks me right on camera. I am not short; that's all we came here for. Yeah, and now that we've established that Mac definitely isn't short, I thought, well, MrBeast videos are pretty much the most consistent, highly viewed videos on the internet. So, given

how involved Mac is, especially in the intros of them, how do these guys make sure that they perfectly capture your attention at the start? The way we look at intros is basically just like a continuation of the thumbnail. Most people don't have YouTube Premium, right? And so they'll click on a video, then

they'll watch like a minute or 5 seconds and skip it, whatever they do; they will literally forget what they clicked on. So what kind of things have you thought about with this video specifically, the intro? We were thinking about basically flying the camera back

instead of flying the camera forward. I want to see Jimmy's face, I want to see the $5 million cash prize, and I also want to communicate the spectacle. The other thing I thought was really interesting about the intro shot is they filmed it on two separate occasions across 6 hours of

time. Given that the intro is the single most important 10 seconds of the entire video, these guys actually set up and recorded the full thing once before any contestants had even arrived. When they have the time to make sure that they have one intro that they know works, but

then once again with all the contestants, just in case that take ends up having better energy. Is there a shortage of shirts? I just keep ripping them. I'm not that short. I'll tell you what isn't short: the amount of footage that these guys' editors have to get through, but

There's a solution to that. We have the best editors in the world. If we have 10 hours of footage, it gets sunk. The assistant editors will take it down to 2 hours of what's usable. Like, a really great editor, an editor that can do

videos at this level, I can't find them anywhere. And so preserving them and preventing them from burning out as much as possible is like the name of the game. Thank you, dude. You're a legend. I love your videos, by the way. Actually, your editors are really good. Don't get any

ideas, man. You guys looking to jump ship? No, I'm just kidding. All right, let me take this off. Okay, we're going to call it for tonight after the first challenge. The timing on this is absolutely crazy. My brain is so fried; it doesn't feel like 3:42 a.m.

guess there's fluorescent lighting all around the place. Can you see my face here, by the way? This is the face of a man who's been awake for nearly 24 hours because of the sudden decision change today to switch from day filming to night filming. In fact, scheduling just

generally was easily one of the toughest parts of the shoot because, instead of the original plan of 2 days of filming, it actually ended up being three nights. Not to mention the extra 3 days around those three nights that everyone involved in the shoot had to

make sure they were always ready for. Not easy for anyone involved, contestants included. I'm just kind of used to it. Usually, we end up filming deep into the night like this. At night, I can point lights and control where your focus is. During the day, you see everything, so I

I prefer to film at night. I mean, it's pretty brutal. Rest up, okay? Night two, game two. So in this game, contestants will stand around a whole load of briefcases. They'll look at a board which will tell them which briefcases are safe and which will get

them eliminated, and then they will have to get to one of those safe briefcases before anyone else can. So what's going through your mind right now? Well, I just honestly want to make sure the briefcases get put out right. I just want to make sure it all looks good. We have a

lot of writing on this show. One thing you've talked about a lot is the way you tell stories. Is that changing? Go watch a MrBeast video from 3 years ago. I'll be like 50% louder, it'll be like 50% faster.

Yeah, and you'll get like a headache. You're making a purposeful effort in this video, for example, to just slow down. Exactly. Let some moments just sit. Trust that people will watch because they're very invested in the story, as opposed to being tricked into

watching because there's like, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut. What time is it right now? It's only like 10:00. Right, actually yeah, it's 9:00 p.m. Oh yeah, this is pretty early. This is great! Like, I actually should be

awake right now, and that's crazy. Did you talk to the people who got eliminated? I felt so bad. Yeah, there were some pretty real tears. We tried to make it easier on them by giving everyone $2,000, that way everyone at least had something to go

Home with the first challenge, we eliminated 400 people, and since we gave each of them $2,000, that's $800,000. The money isn't the only thing these guys have to think about when people are eliminated. Do you remember these RFID

bracelets? Well, this is where they come in again. There's some sort of checkout process as well. When they entered the arena, we scanned them so we knew they were here. So, we counted that we had 2,000 exactly, then we could start the game. Then, when they got into teams...

when they sorted themselves, you added that data onto their RFID's so that your system knows exactly which team—Green Team, Yellow Team. Then we have all those lists ready. It's the same as eliminations, so all of the Red Team that was eliminated, even though we knew it

was Red Team, just to be absolutely sure, we scanned every single one on the way out. Wow. Then we know if somebody's missing in the stadium. Is this because you've been burned before on previous games? People are hiding... Did you see the end of that game but Jimmy had to call

her up to tell her that, "Oh, come on!" And Red Team's out. She was a Red Team contestant. He was trying to stay... trying to stay in the game. Yeah, so the bracelets are really a way for us to keep track of everybody. Now, if you

already thought the shoot was a complicated affair, you have not seen the start of it, because it was at this point that I was introduced to a whole new branch of the operation. This is Emily, and she is a story producer, having all of us here and just taking notes of

Things that happen, little quotes we hear that would make good content. It just overall helps the post-production process. So the entire role of these guys is to look and listen to what's happening on the field to try and figure out what the story is going to be while

the video is still being shot, so that by the time it ends up in the post-production editing stage, that team can be as efficient as possible. Part of the recruitment process, you ask people to send a one-minute video of themselves and you use that to judge their

character and their energy. And so you're saying as part of that, you pick the top-tier people and you're like, 'You get a microphone.' Yes. 40 contestants are miked up out of the 200,000. This board was the initial idea of who would get miked up. I

think as they meet the people and as people show their true selves on the field, they'll switch it out. This is absolutely crazy! This is movie-investigation pinboard type.  Once people get eliminated, they'll remik other people. Obviously, like things change and mics change, so like we have

people designated to go out there and keep track of who gets remiked, which helps us tremendously during the post-production process. You've got heroes, villains, family, and then others. You've not just pegged people as being main characters, but you've pegged that

they've got a personality trait that might make them a villain. Yes, so yeah, you can't predict the stories that will form, but you can predict the people who are most likely to form them. Those people are given the microphone. So that's fascinating. Are you listening to those

People in real time, on the average Beast video, will have one person listening. So we have six people, and then I'm doing like visuals right now. Everyone gets seven people to listen to, so that instead of listening to 40 people at once, you only have to listen to seven.

people. So this is the live universal time code, and that's synced with all the cameras, so you know exactly what's shooting when. And then these are the notes the story editors are leading. So this means that when the editors get the footage, it will not just automatically

slot in at the exact time that each shot was actually taken, but they will also get all of this guiding information from the story producers, so they know specifically what to look for within those shots. Everything's been thought about. Yes, so that's where all the story

producers hang out. This is basically Jimmy's private viewing suite. So whoa, it's basically the same thing, but this room is specifically designed for Jimmy to come and have a kind of one-glance view of every single thing that's happening, so he can give really quick

feedback in between him being on camera. There's a lot of screens here, so there's 18 TVs in this one room. Quite impressed with the uh, the bezels on these as well. It almost looks like one continuous video wall. They're bringing out the briefcases for the next game; we should

probably go. You know what's extra crazy about this? Because everything that happens in the stadium is recorded and might end up being part of the video, even the setup of things needs to be a rehearsed affair. It took 100 people nearly an entire day just practicing how

To set up this one game, we lined up these briefcases, figuring out how to enter the stadium in an organized way. We timed the process to make sure it didn't drag and also measured to make sure that every table was equidistant. I hate when it's like, 'day of' and we do those things

and it's not choreographed, because it just looks very amateur. When it's time to choreograph, we can timelapse it. It can be like, 'bring out the briefcases,' but if it's not sped up, timelapses are good, so it has to come out

in an organized way that looks good when it's sped up. Yeah, or then it just looks weird. It's perfect for retention. Oh my god, dude, I love you more than this beast! I should say that. Oh my god, is that on camera? No, it's not. Yes, delete it!

Right now, please. All right, three, two, go! Look, I see people. Oh, okay. 3, 2, 1, reveal! I can't believe you're getting reactions like this at 4:00 a.m. in the morning! But now, seeing this game being

filmed, there's another question that's been looming on my mind: where does all the footage from all of these cameras actually go? This is the DIT room. These guys are, I guess you could say, the very important but very unsung heroes of this project, because their entire job is to make

sure that no piece of footage goes missing, which, when there's like 500 cameras on a shoot, is a bit of a logistical problem. So the whole process starts with these drives. Someone will physically run into this room with a box full of these drives. What these guys are

Doing this involves taking the footage on that drive and categorizing it based on which game the footage is from, which camera recorded it, and which type of microphone picked up the audio.  This sounds like an absolute nightmare of a task, but they're doing it.

So that when the editors are editing the footage, all they need to do is think, "Which bit of footage do I need?" as opposed to having to rummage through 100 different folders to find it.  It will make the edit 10 times faster.

Right now, this is where the fun begins. They plug these drives into their computers, which are all Mac Studios, by the way, because, well, I'm told they don't like Windows. But then those Mac Studios are wired into something called an ingest station, which is eight very large

hard drives. Every single one is 20 terabytes, meaning that one ingest station has a max capacity of 160 terabytes. Then you realize that there are 20 of these ingest stations in this room, so 3.2 petabytes of storage. But it gets crazier because they're shooting

this show for Amazon. Amazon has insisted that they have at least three layers of backup for every single bit of footage. So, as well as these ingest stations, every single drive is never erased; it will just stay as a permanent hard copy of everything that's

been recorded. And then every single one of these ingest stations has a fiber cable coming out the back of it. This is a very fast connection; we're talking 25 Gbps per second. There's a very specific reason for this fiber cable, and we can

Actually, follow it out of the room, way out of the room. Still going, still going, still going. And you follow that cable all the way around, and you end up with this, which is basically just one massive server. And that serves as the third layer of backup. It almost seems stupid.

Just how many precautions are being taken! But then, when you start adding up how much they're spending to make the show, it starts to make sense how much they're spending to keep the show going. This room is actually particularly cool for a few more reasons because these are video

recording boxes. So you know how it normally works with a camera: you record onto an SD card that's inserted inside. But these guys are doing it a little bit differently because every single one of the fixed cameras dotted around the stadium is physically wired all the way

across the stadium into these boxes. And that has two pretty major benefits: one, that instead of recording on tiny, fiddly little SD cards, they record onto proper drives. But also, two, some of these cameras are no joke—100 meters up in the air!

So imagine how much manpower it would require to individually keep track of every single camera so that it doesn't run out of storage and then swap over the SD cards when it does. But with this setup, one person could literally manage everything. This is also super

interesting. So because this recording actually happens over a really long time—like, I think we hit record at 10 p.m., it's now 3:12 in the morning—the lighting changes. So this guy over here is actually, in real time, adjusting the

Color temperature, the black levels, the saturation of the cameras—to make sure that they stay consistent both as the time of day changes, but also between the many different types of cameras being used on the shoot. Because if you just left each one alone, they would all

naturally take footage that looks slightly different from each other. This is the video router, so it's the box in which every single one of the video signals that you see comes through first, to be able to be distributed to all these separate monitors. So, long story

short: if this box goes down, so does the entire video, which is why there's a 24/7 fan just blowing cool air at it. So, do you remember the pan-tilt-zoom cameras that we talked about earlier? Well, this room is also where those are being

remotely operated from. And the beauty of these cameras is they allow you to follow the action. So let's say I find a disruption happening with these briefcases; I can find where that disruption is happening, and then I can just zoom in all the way onto that

disruption. So it's allowing me, from a distance, to create these really stable, cinematic sub-stories within the biggest. That gets so close you forget that the camera is positioned right on the very end of the stadium. It's just blowing my mind that all of this—like, all of this

is the backend for one YouTube video. Just to be super clear: do not go until I actually say the word 'go'. He's our guy. Look up at the screen. All right, there you go. See? I'm—oh, actually, I said it. You're right. Oops! Oh my God, I messed up. But hey, I

I think he's resigned to losing.  Have to be great. How are you feeling? Nervous? Yeah, I can see it on your face. Is it you versus every single person around you? Are everyone thinks I'm out? Really? Oh man, yeah. How will you feel if you are? It's

fine. It's my dad's birthday today. Is that worth losing $5 million? It's literally called Rick-e. It's too perfect. 3, 2, 1. Open your brief! [Applause] K, I'm with that. I decided that's enough Beast games for today. Too much

The INSANE Tech behind MrBeast’s Biggest Video Ever

Let's become the Greatest Tech Community on the Planet 🌍

I'm Arun Maini, I'm a 27 year old Economics graduate whose life's passion is Technology, and I'm on a mission to make the most FUN and USEFUL Tech videos on the Planet! 🙏





Mrwhosetheboss

MrBeast's High-Budget YouTube Video Production: Overview and Initial Challenges

Introduction to MrBeast's ambitious YouTube video project involving 2,000 contestants competing for $5 million.

Discussion of the logistical and technical challenges of filming a competition with this many participants.

Confirmation of the $5 million prize money and the all-access behind-the-scenes perspective offered in the video.

Description of the first challenge and the setup of 'guards' (mannequins) to test contestants.

Details of challenge one: contestants pulling a heavy boulder; losing teams are eliminated.

Technical Aspects of Challenge One: Boulder-Pulling Mechanism and Camera Setup

Explanation of the custom-built structure regulating the pulling force required for the boulder.

Details on adjusting the pulling force from 32,000 Newtons to 10,000 Newtons for better gameplay.

Mention of the microphone setup to capture the sound of the rope being pulled.

Description of the coliseum-like set design and the use of olive pits for a cinematic effect.

Explanation of the adjudication camera system used to determine the winning team.

First Challenge Results, Viewer Engagement, and Contestant Reactions

The first challenge lasted only 15 seconds and was designed for easy explanation and viewer engagement.

MrBeast's intention to make the first game easy to understand for viewers.

Observations of contestants' emotional reactions after elimination.

Interactions with remaining contestants, highlighting their experiences and emotions.

Behind the Scenes: Camera Equipment and Crew

A tour of the main camera room with Tariq, discussing camera equipment and changes in filming techniques.

Description of ground cameras for close-ups on contestants.

Importance of lighting and timecode for efficient editing.

The use of timecode devices for easy access to footage from multiple camera angles.

Description of MrBeast's personal camera rig and its purpose.

Overview of the various camera types used: Sony FX9s, PTZ cameras, DJI Osmos, and GoPros.

Discussion with Mac, the lead editor, about the editing process and the importance of the intro.

Mac's approach to intros as a continuation of the thumbnail to capture viewers' attention.

Filming the intro twice to ensure the best possible take, with and without contestants.

The immense amount of footage and the role of skilled editors in processing it.

Introduction to the DIT room and the crucial role of the DIT team in organizing and managing the vast amount of footage.

The process of categorizing footage based on game, camera, and microphone.

Description of the ingest stations and their massive storage capacity (3.2 petabytes).

Amazon's requirement of three layers of backup for all footage.

Explanation of video recording boxes and their advantages over SD cards.

The Flag Game, Drone Technology, and Production Details

Description of the flag game and its increasing difficulty.

Showcase of pre-visualization thumbnails for the Amazon Prime video.

Observation of the game's progression from organized to chaotic.

Introduction to Medin drum, the drone pilot and designer of the head-tracking system.

Two types of drones used: standard DJI drones and custom-built FPV drones for close-up shots.

Adjudication, Communication Systems, and Final Game Setup

The adjudication process for resolving disputes between contestants.

Description of the Bolero communication system for instant communication among staff.

The team's creation of a mobile phone network within the stadium.

The setup for the final game, 'Last to Leave,' and the time taken for setup.

Observation of a contestant planning to sabotage the event and the story producer's awareness.

Final Game, Prize Money, and Production Costs

Showcase of the $5 million cash prize and the process of obtaining it from JP Morgan Chase.

Security measures taken to protect the cash prize.

Breakdown of the total production cost, including staff, costumes, equipment, contestant expenses, and pre-production.

Final cost figures: $14 million for production and $19 million including the prize money.