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gentleoverdrive · 2 years

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(154/?) And when they drag the lake there's nothing left at all...

I think video essays, especially those that concern entertainment, need a little check-up really bad. A ton of podcasts have fucking poisoned the landscape at large with their predisposition towards meandering, and the thing is that using certain stuff as "background noise" while you do other activities is hurting media at large.

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...was that too "old man yells at cloud"-y? It was, wasn't it? Fuck! Look, unless your topic is specifically concerning that, it ain't rocket science: If you are going to write essays and then film a video around said essays, trust me that there's nothing wrong with having the guts to make hard cuts. That, or have the guts to admit that your voice/presence is not good enough and have someone with actual charisma tackle the topic.

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"But why go through all that bullshit?" you ask, expectedly (listen, I know you don't exist, strawman-I-just-made-up, so just bear with me here, a'ight?); well, that's simple! Unless you're there to educate and you're actually qualified to teach something, if you're on YouTube or Vimeo or whichever video-sharing website, you probably want to be entertaining and keep the viewers attention.

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Do you know why something like this...

(not a Scooby-Doo guy, by the way, but is it ever entertaining to hear this dork go on and on about it)

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...actually manages to work while something like this...

(listen, I generally enjoy the games, but no character in the franchise needs a feature-length documentary about them. Come on)

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... just kinda makes you wonder if the guy bothered to actually listen to his editors about making hard cuts (and yes, I am aware that the video essay/"documentary" about Edelgard is around 40% longer). And I know that a tremendous amount of effort went into both of these videos before they saw the light of day, but I legitimately think that the approach in both of these is like night and day.

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Neither of them have a particularly good voice, but the guy in the scooby-doo video at least seems aware of his limitations and manages to make up for them in other ways and by playing to his strengths and the topic's strength to make for an effective, infectious and fairly entertaining video.

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The Fire Emblem guy has been doing this sort of thing for at least half a decade and, while he's always been a little janky on his delivery, some of his previous content was bearable/even entertaining (even if literary analysis has never been his strong point). So again, please: Even if you're making longer format content, have the guts to cut.

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If it worked for Elmore Leonard and Kurt Vonnegut, it should reasonably work for you. Have the guts to cut and get out there and start kicking much ass! See ya' later!

#diary #daily life of an old shithead #the mars volta reference #some of my weirdest walks about town have been soundtracked by a the mars volta record. still not sure if I'm a fan after all these years #i loved at the drive-in. especially since I got to see them live before they broke up the first time. absolute madmen all of them #the mars volta were good but at that point I had simply moved away from what they had to offer me. it happens #that being said I still totally pop De-Loused in the Comatorium and Amputechture on occasion on occasion. as a treat.#video essay #on writing #jelloapocalypse #ghaaast #it's legitimately remarkable how good-enough control on your editing can get me interested in the topic #meanwhile the guy 20-year-old me would've been like 'Shut up and take my money'... I often just feel like telling him 'hey! restraint bro'#if I never see the Dimitri and Edelgard videos every again #it'd be too soon.#because jeez louise: The padding on his videos

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circlesofthesoul · 5 years

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There were tiny people in the stoplights...

As children, we saw the world through a completely different lens. We were naive and fanciful dreamers, full of big ideas and plans for the future. We were going to be astronauts, ballerinas, and rockstars. We were going to buy candy bars whenever we wanted and, of course, we knew everything about everything and exactly how the world worked. It wasn't until we got older, when we finally realize, Life Sucks. It's hard and messy and more difficult than we'd ever anticipated. But, we figured it out. We have jobs and we pay our bills and, yes, every so often we DO buy a candy bar whenever we want. But, we're still learning. Those misconceptions we had as children are still revealing their true forms and shocking people to their inner core every day. What's interesting is, these are the smallest things of which you or I, knowing how they truly work, would never have given them a second thought. But, to that one individual who had a completely different reality, it's earth-shattering. Here are a few of those, more uncommon ones I've found:

"I thought all of your bills came from one person. When it was time to pay up, you would simply write a check or hand over the cash. (I'm still wondering why it's NOT like that?)" -Facebook User

"As a kid, I used to believe that your body somehow knew the time you got married and therefore automatically made you pregnant after (exact words I thought). I didn’t know that any kind of sexual activity was involved. When my mother became pregnant with my younger sister, I remember arguing and getting so mad about this and telling her she was wrong and I was right (she kept saying no and couldn’t stop laughing)." -thoughtcatalog.com

"When I was a kid, I thought that, when it rained, it rained all over the world." -Anon

"I thought the smokestacks from the factories in my city were literally making the clouds." -Facebook User

"When I was a kid, I thought vegetarian and lesbian were the same thing." -Twitter @Ghaaast

"I thought the black market was an actual marketplace with stalls and people would come and go to buy illegal things." -Reddit @kyle8998

"There were tiny little people in the stoplights. When enough cars went by, they'd all work together to change the lights. Like a Borrowers construction team... " -Me

"The first time my grandma asked if I wanted to go 'yard sailing', I was excited and confused, imagining a huge sailboat, gliding gracefully across people's front lawns." -Me

"I also once thought that cheesecake was, like, birthday cake with Velveeta melted over the top and couldn't understand why ANYONE would want to eat that." -Facebook User

"My Mum would say "that darn cat is flying around the house again". I would walk around trying to catch a glimpse of my cat flying in the house." -Facebook User

These are just a few I happened upon or which were sent to me. I hope you enjoyed this and thinking about your own childhood misconceptions. Let me know what they were in the comments!

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