This is going up a few days later because it’s a little longer than my usual entries, and needed a bit more attention before going up.

Every snooty Mac blogger, at some point, invokes Steve Jobs’ line about the intersection of liberal arts and technology. Though the WWDC keynote was last week, I’ll instead use that line to talk about another tech company, YouTube. The platform has serious issues as they figure out how to deal with Racists and Nationalists hijacking the algorithm to ensure every Fortnite streamer eventually leads you to some Identitarian explaining why the Civil War was never about slavery. So starting with that caveat, I wanted to boost some channels demonstrating why the platform is valuable—even if the people running the company have no idea what they are doing. Also, this is by no means a comprehensive list of who to follow, nor the only people doing this type of work.

Every Frame A Painting: Jackie Chan - How To Do Action Comedy

My first foray into the world of movie YouTube is the classic but sadly defunct Every Frame A Painting. Their essay on the differences between Hollywood and Hong Kong action explained via the films of Jackie Chan was a step by step breakdown of something I previously could only describe as a difference in feeling. I had felt my vocabulary was lacking when I reviewed movies for Dignews, which set me out on a quest to become more fluent in the language of film. Because I feel that one video signifies what that channel did best, I’d like to use the same format to demonstrate other creator’s best moments.

Movies With Mikey: Let’s Talk About Thanos

Mikey Neumann has a ton of videos to choose from. You have his early days doing deep dives on cult classics. (Best choice here is any of the Edgar Wright videos.) Or, his more recent videos discussing the cultural influence of specific films and genres. (His three-parter on the extraordinary success of Harry Potter and what each film did right is particularly well executed.)

My example is a video where I disagree with the premise, but can’t argue with the evidence as presented. In discussing the crush the internet had on Thanos after Infinity War, Neumann lays out his case perfectly starting with a simple line, “The Empire Strikes Back ruined everything, we took the wrong lesson from it.”

Neumann picks apart how fucked up that line of thinking was. He’s right about that, but I feel that blaming the movie for our current moment isn’t a fair criticism. The world seems obsessed with oddly colored men selling pithy sounding solutions to complex problems that don’t stand up to scrutiny. He also calls out the movie for being an emotionally exhausting slog, but that’s the creator’s intent. Neumann acknowledges that but cites it as a betrayal of the universe’s tone.

Even when I disagree with him, I do come away with insight. From that video, I agree that filmmakers need to move beyond Empire. Structuring all of the stories in the long shadow of the OG Star Wars trilogy is bordering on cliche, and that ensuring that you kick the shit out of the main cast is just raising stakes for their own sake.

Patrick Willems: The Best Movies Within Movies

What best defines Patrick Willems is that he is a filmmaker. His channel has plenty of his own short movies in addition to video essays. (The what if Wes Anderson Directed X-Men fake trailer is one of my favorites.) The reason that I chose this video is that it shows not only Willems ability to frame his essays by demonstrating the technique he’s talking about, but also his keen eye for details.

Choosing what to most people are throwaway jokes or brief background moments to highlight the way that they support their parent film is what Willems does best. He dissects films down to their basic elements and how they support or undermine the aims of the filmmaker. Even when doing a bigger trend piece, he shows a mastery of movie history beyond the video store canon.

Looking at movies within movies could just end up another video that’s basically a listicle. Connecting those movies to what purpose they server in the narrative, or how they fail to serve the framing shows you not only how the device works but how it can go wrong. I’m not heading out to make my first short film, but do I feel like I can intelligently dicuss many of the common mechanics.

Lindsay Ellis: YouTube: Manufacturing Authenticity (For Fun and Profit!)

Lindsay Ellis has a variety of videos breaking down films and their themes and how they fit into larger trends. She approaches these topics with a mix of history and cultural deconstruction, but without getting bogged down in pretentious posturing. Which is why when she dissects the way YouTube creators market their “authenticity”, it’s not a boring lecture.

Her channel really is an excellent source for serious thoughts about movies, art, and literature. However, taking that same critical lens and applying it to the tropes of YouTube is unique. It’s paired with an exploration of brand placement, giving a one-two punch about the state of modern media.

The idea of the hyperreal self as a persona dates all the way back to the Radio and TV days, but it’s not nearly as personal as internet videos. Ellis shows the way that the unique formatting for these videos increases the illusion of a personal relationship and the ways that can be bad for the audience and the performer. It’s not all bad, but it shows the way that you can use these tools to analyze any medium.

Debt-Free Education

You won’t be able to get a degree watching videos. What you will get is a series of tools that allow you to be more fluent in films, and media in general. You learn how tropes work, and how they support some filmmakers and hamper others. Getting a better idea about the language of film.

Each of these channels use genre and popular movies to explain film in ways that often are hidden behind the Art House films. Not that there is anything wrong with Art House movies, but they aren’t exactly accessible to everyone. Using Marvel, Disney, and Edgar Wright to lay down a foundation of film knowledge can help you find your way to the Art House movies.

Neumann introduced me to the other two, and I learned about him via his short lived podcast with Wil Wheaton and his appearances on Night Attack. What the internet does really well is connecting niche creators to niche audiences.