Agon Hare's top video on Facebook exceeds 25 million views and his other videos regularly reach millions of views and receive tens of thousands of shares – so the guy is doing something right when it comes to creating powerfully engaging video content.
He runs a channel called Project Nightfall with over 462 thousand subscribers, and you might also recognize his name from his work with the Nas Daily team. Agon travels full time with Nas Daily and Dear Alyne recording, editing, and producing Nas's one minute daily videos.
See Also: 21 Things I Learned From Nas Daily About Travel Vlogging
Last week I interviewed Agon about how to create attention grabbing videos for Facebook. The interview was amazing – the guy is a genius – and I learned strategies that I'll be implementing into my own videos on Travel is Life. However, before Agon revealed his secrets to making viral videos, I wanted to learn more about the man behind the performer, how he got started with video production, and the path that led him to traveling the world and producing videos for Nas Daily. It's quite an amazing success story!
You can watch the 15 minute interview at the top of the page, on YouTube, or on Facebook. There's also a transcribed version below.
🎙️ The Full 1 Hour Interview
In the full interview, Agon shares his video production secrets so that you too can learn to create captivating and viral videos on your channel. He also shares some insight into his processes for script writing, planning, filming, and editing, which have allowed him to amass millions of views on his videos.
💬 15 Minute Interview Transcript
Paul
Agon, most of us listening know the performer Project Nightfall from your videos, but I want to ask you, who is the real Agon Hare? Before we get started, what should our listeners know about your background, personally, professionally, or both?
Agon
Who is the real Agon? Okay.. I'm a guy from a small Polish city. I come from a musical background. I started my journey with like chasing my dreams and working really hard as a singer and music producer back in Poland, and at some point I said to myself that I want to take it seriously. So I decided to leave to London.
That was exactly seven years ago. And in that time, I was busking on the streets, I've worked in recycling center, I was working in food industry and fast food chain, and after five years of really hard work, it started paying off, and now I travel around the world. And from that experience of coming from a humble background and a lot of work that went unnoticed, now I feel like I can have some message behind my words because I've been like most of the people – from zero to somewhere.
Paul
When did video enter the mix? You said seven years ago you went to London, but when did the videos start?
Agon
Video entered the mix two years ago, two and a half years ago exactly, and it's a funny story because I was making a music video of a professional video maker, and when we finished, it took him half of a year to bring me that music video. And I was so frustrated. I was telling myself I can't wait. My hype for this song died and I wanted the song to go out, but he couldn't edit the video on time, so I said to myself, “Okay I'm going to learn music video production, and the next video I release will be my own.”
And that's how it started. The first few videos were horrible, and I quickly caught up. And once I caught up I got into mix of working with people who are successful on YouTube and that's how my professional video making started.
Paul
I'm very surprised to hear two years ago. That's insane to me, and I think probably insane to a lot of people listening who have heard your videos and seen your videos, because with the way you edit your videos, I would've guessed at least 10-15 years experience. Possibly you're a prodigy who got started when you were six years old for all I knew.
Agon
You know it's possible that in two years I've managed to push six years of work cause once I started video making, I saw an extreme difference in my music making skills and video making. I felt really really weak with my video making so I was catching up working like 10 hours every single day, putting random videos that I never released on the timeline in Premiere Pro back then and just editing them to learn, and watching tutorials, and just pushing it all the time. And I think it's the fact that I had the experience of making music for so many years so I could sit on my computer for 10 hours mastering one note in a song that made me learn video production in a really intense way.
Paul
That's fantastic. And during this past two years, about one year ago, that's when you joined Nas Daily's team. And from what I know, you edit his videos, you travel with him full time, and you help him film and do everything involving producing. How did you first get connected with Nas and start working together?
Agon
Okay, so about 200 days ago, Nas had this thing in Morocco. Now we do it together, but before he was doing it by himself. He organizes boot camps for creators. And back then, a friend tagged me on his video, on his post, because I wasn't watching his videos like every day, so probably I wouldn't notice it, but my friend Hartic, if you're listening to it, thank you for tagging me, you changed my life! (laughs) He tagged me in a post and said, “Yo, check this out!”
Nas created a video saying, “Join me to travel with me for seven days. We're going to learn from each other and all this stuff.” So I wrote him an email and after that email, they wrote me back, because it's also his girlfriend Alyne who reads these emails, and they said, “Yo come over to Morocco.” They really liked my video. I did a video on YouTube and they saw big potential in it.
So they invited me to Morocco – I came there. I packed my bag for nine days exactly because I had my tickets bought to Los Angeles. I was already established as an editor on YouTube and I didn't plan on staying at all. But after about five days of being together, we released this big video called We Killed the Internet on Nas's channel that went viral and was really strong and realized that we worked really well together.
So Nas calls me in the room and he's like, “So how about you join us on travel. We go to Japan next.” (laughs) And back then I was like, “Oh my goodness. Okay.” I didn't expect that.
I wasn't packed. I was ready to fly to Los Angeles and just do my life and stuff. It took me five minutes to decide, and I was like, “Okay”. I quit my YouTube job and I started traveling with him. I have no idea how long it was going to last, if we were going to be together forever or not, cause we might hate each other at some point. I had no idea how much money there will be in it. But I can tell you for sure that it will be a lot of fun and a lot of hard work. And it was. After 5 days of working with him, it became obvious to me that I had to do it.
Paul
I remember the video. I remember his call to action for people about this boot camp. A few people tagged me in it. I've been watching Nas's videos for a while, and back then… I've actually introduced a lot of people to his videos, I think the world of him… and folks tagged me in it, but I was so brand new to making videos myself then, I didn't even.. I had zero idea what I was doing. I said I'm not ready for something like this. But I remember, if I'm not mistaken, it was you and a couple other folks that went to the boot camp?
Agon
Yes it was four other people.
Paul
When you submitted a video to him, was it a video you created specifically for him, to get his attention, or was it another video you had produced?
Agon
It's totally insane coincidence. About a month before I made my first scripted video ever without even seeing Nas's videos. Up until then I was making vlog content, so I would just run around with camera and be entertaining, and have fun and stuff like this, but I decided to make one scripted video. And once I finished that video and I saw Nas's video afterwards, I realized that his videos were kind of similar to what I did.
And I feel that's what caught his attention because he saw a part of him in my video, and I didn't even see him making his videos. So I kind of had his style shaped in a different form, so I could put a new twist into his videos. And after like 600 videos he made, he needed that extra fresh energy. So it wasn't specifically for him, but it was in a style that was attractive for Nas Daily.
Paul
I didn't realize the story, that you had a job lined up, that you were on the way to Los Angeles. What was it about Nas, his energy, his personality, that made you so confident? Or were you confident to take that big gamble – and I have to call it a gamble?
Agon
It was a gamble! It definitely was. But it was so obvious to me because before being on Facebook and joining Nas, I was working on YouTube and I was working with many YouTubers who vlog, who make videos and who are popular in American market, and I was mainly their editor. But I also went to Los Angeles and lived on Vine Street which was, which still is, a place kind of like a social media entertainment middle of the world. All of the big people we see on the Internet live there. And I was in that environment and I felt that it's not necessarily where I belong, because I never wanted to just create entertaining content.
You know, I always felt like it would be great if I could have some positive impact on people with my videos, and once I joined Nas, I realized that you don't have to be a clickbaiter and a sensationalist guy who always looks for ways to attract people with nude girls or stupid titles, you just have to be confident in what you say. You have to be inspirational or just intelligent with your content. And it was such a breath of fresh air to me to a guy who works on YouTube, so I created my Facebook account like a month after being with Nas. I never even thought of making videos on Facebook, but the power of this platform is just awesome.
And Nas himself was real. I had a pleasure of working with a lot of YouTubers, including PewDiePie, for example, who's the biggest guy on YouTube, and I felt with PewDiePie he was real too. I found a genuine human energy when I worked with PewDiePie. And I felt the same thing with Nas. When I met him, it was the same guy as I see in his videos. Very smart, very believing in what he does, and wanting to make his videos for the people and not just for himself. And that made me realize that I don't want to go back to Los Angeles. I don't want to have a high paid editors job with entertaining YouTubers, I want to risk it all and make my own channel.
I felt the same thing from Nas – a really really unique creator who has a great message and is just real. Someone who believes in what they do and doesn't use their audience as a tool to make money, and to use for his own gain. And that was something that I felt I wanted for myself too. So it really attracted me and it was obvious for me to join his team.
Paul
I lived in Los Angeles for three years, right in Los Feliz, close to Hollywood, and I know that it's not the place for everybody. And from the outside looking in, I know this is the first day I'm talking to you, but I've seen your videos, and I think that you've found your place. Because you especially, but the three of you, always look like you're having so much fun in your videos. I don't know if people who see the videos, and see how much fun you're having, realize just how hard you work and how many long days you put into creating these videos. So I wanted to ask you, what is a day in the life like on the Nas Daily team and the Project Nightfall channel?
Agon
Our days are insane, and this is the perfect timing because yesterday I had one of the craziest days. Basically what happened yesterday is Nas doesn't have a visa to Malaysia, he can't go there, so we had to flew me into Malaysia just for 5 hours to make a video with a guy who's been trapped in the airport for six months. He lives at the airport because he's a Syrian refugee whose passport expired and Malaysia doesn't have a refugee status, so he has to live there until someone helps out. And I hope that the video we made will push it.
So the day is like a constant grind. We work almost all the time. When people ask us on the meet ups, “How long does it take to make one video?” – we used to say, “Okay 10 hours.” Then we said, “12 hours”. But when we spoke back home we realized that from now on we're always going to say, “24 hours of video making every single day,” because even when the video is finished, we constantly think of what we have to do. Nas scripts all the time in his head. We have extra videos on the side. The one minute videos sound so easy to make, but sometimes we have to travel for 3 hours to get 2 shots. We never use stock footage. We always try to deliver the best thing and finding ideas takes forever. So it's a lot of hard work, but it's so rewarding, that as you said, it looks really fun.
And when it comes to Project Nightfall, I have one day off per week, so this is also a really intense time for me because every time I have a day off, I need to make sure that before that, I have my script for a video done. So on my day off, I will wake up early around 8 in the morning. I will quickly prepare myself, go outside, and record all the lines from the script, and everything creative that I thought before, I will record this. I'll come back home and then I'll edit for about 10-12 hours. So my days off are actually also the most intense days. There's never a day off in the daily content video making.
Paul
When you're traveling, what type of work do you typically do? When you're in the airport waiting, when you're on the airplane, when you're in the taxi cab, when you're on the train… what happens during those times?
Agon
When we travel we usually – we know in advance, okay. We know five days before – okay we're going to have a flight, so we usually have a video lined up. We try our best to make two videos before that so we can have a video lined up, but sometimes it doesn't happen. Sometimes we don't have a video so we need to come out with a video that aligns with traveling. Like for example, we had a video, The Best Layover, which we had a layover in Philippines for 5 hours and we got stuck at the airport, but we still managed to have gather a big meetup of people, record a video with them, then edit it on the plane – hope that the battery lasts long enough. When the flight is long, it's all about editing on the flight.
Paul
So there are times, if I'm hearing correctly, that you need a video for the very next day?
Agon
Yes, all the time! Almost every day we make videos on the day before.
Paul
That makes me feel a lot better. I put out a video every Tuesday. That makes me feel a lot better working into the night Monday.
Agon
(laughs) Definitely!
Paul
So the ones you produce for Nas are one minute. That's his specialty…
Agon
It's his specialty but it's not every day. About five or six days per month are long videos.
Paul
Gotcha – similar to the ones that you put out for Project Nightfall?
Agon
Yes, I believe that's the main reason why I joined the team, to make Nas more capable of making long videos because he has so much work. I can't imagine him working on what he does and editing long videos on top of it all the time – that's so much work.
Paul
Can you tell us a little bit about the difference between making the longer videos and the shorter videos in terms of your process? What work – before and after the video – is different for making a short video and a longer one?
Agon
Well I think almost every element of a long video is harder to be made than short videos because you need to grab attention of an audience for much longer. You need to script a longer video, so you have more to say but it's easy to be boring over the words. The editing takes at least 3x longer. Just the subtitles themselves take 70-80 minutes to create. It's definitely a different process, but some long videos, they come easier because if you discuss a topic that's around one location, that's around one concept, you record everything at once, so it can be almost as easy as the short videos, but most of the time there's way more work involved in long format.
Paul
But you don't seem like a person who's afraid of work. So I don't think the work is going to be the thing that… I want to ask you, which one do you prefer more – the one minute or the longer ones? And I don't think that how much work goes into is probably the answer or the determining factor for you.
Agon
I think it's the longer ones without a doubt, but if we would be making long videos every single day, we wouldn't be on Earth anymore. (laughs) We would be long gone. The editing really take so much work. When I make videos for my channel or we make long videos for Nas, it's always the extra work, which I'm feeling on me right now because we had a long video yesterday that's about to go out in an hour or too.
During the rest of the interview, we discussed Agon's specific strategies for creating viral videos – from topic selection and script writing to equipment and video editing. Agon revealed how he structures the first 20 seconds of each video to instantly capture attention, engage the viewer, and bring them into the conversation. It's an absolutely epic interview and I personally learned a lot from Agon about creating attention grabbing videos that I'll be incorporating into my own videos on Travel is Life.
🎙️ The Full 1 Hour Interview
In the full interview, Agon shares his video production secrets so that you too can learn to create captivating and viral videos on your channel. He also shares some insight into his processes for script writing, planning, filming, and editing, which have allowed him to amass millions of views on his videos.
And of course, don't forget to follow Project Nightfall, Nas Daily, and Travel is Life on Facebook.
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Awesome blog! Best article on Project Nightfall I’ve read. I appreciate your analysis and perspective
Thanks Jake!
Hey, Agon I am curious are you connected with Nasdaily? Who is the one started the vlog?
Hey Jell — Paul here from Travel is Life (not Agon). Agon doesn’t get notifications about the comments on this post, so I doubt he’d see your questions. He does, however, work with Nas Daily. He joined the Nas Daily Team early on and started helping Nas produce his videos.
Here’s his FB page if you’d like to connect: https://www.facebook.com/ProjectNightfall/