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Comment by dredmorbius | Hacker News Reader

Even as a non-cinemaphile, this channel, and the post-mortem essay, had resonated with me. Both are excellent, both provide far more than insights into a century of cinema, although if that's all that you take from it it's more than worth the time.

I'd commented on the postmortem essay shortly after it was published with some additional thoughts of relevance to my own (very non-cinematic) work:

https://old.reddit.com/r/dredmorbius/comments/7hgb24/brillia...

(I'd also submitted the same link, a minute after smacktoward did, full credit to them it's a very worthwhile submission.)

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Same here. As a... let's say, cinema-newbie, I found the Every Frame a Painting channel simply fascinating. I devoured every chapter in a short time. To me this kind of channels is a triumph, what YouTube can be and should strive to be.

I think they did overreach with some conclusions. For example, his "obvious" conclusion about the story told by the edition in the clip with the father and the two young daughters wasn't at all obvious to me (and judging by the comments on that video, a lot of other viewers didn't get it either). I suppose it's part of the subconscious knowledge someone in the industry has which someone outside doesn't.

Is anyone aware of other content like it on YouTube? Long-form , artistic, very high quality. Channels like 3Blue1Brown and Kurzgesagt are usually great, but I don't think they're the same kind of thing.

Longer form than EFaP, but Lindsay Ellis has some great film/TV analysis videos. She's usually more focused on writing than anything else, though. Here's a postmortem she did on the Hobbit films, which was recently nominated for a Hugo award:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTRUQ-RKfUs

Other solid works by her include a postmortem on the last season of Game of Thrones and an analysis of themes in Michael Bay's Transformers. (I know that last one sounds weird, but it's really well done.)

Ellis' hobbit videos are absolutely wonderful. I love the unexpected direction she takes the videos when she [spoiler] visits New Zealand and talks to people involved in the films.

I follow a decent amount of video essay channels on YouTube, some better than others, here are a few that I think operate around the same level of quality as Every Frame a Painting:

Lessons from the Screenplay - Similar to EFaP but for screenplays (obviously)

Wendover Productions - Many topics but generally focuses on Logistics, Aviation, Economics, Geography, and their intersections

Ahoy - Video games, firearms, and their intersection

NoClip - Video games; Their format is more traditional documentary as opposed to video essay, but I feel compelled to mention them here due to their quality work (disclaimer: I donate to them via Patreon)

I like Lessons from the Screenplay and Wendover Productions, but Every Frame a Painting seemed to have something that those channels are missing.

I think it helped that the creator (Tony Zhou) is himself a filmmaker and editor. It felt like I was watching a well-done film about films, rather than a "video essay". A lot of these other media analysis channels seem to be from fairly ordinary people without professional experience.

Primitive Technology is a big one, turn on captions or you're really missing out

Other long-form movie content - Movies with Mikey (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEtB-nx5ngoNJWEzYa-yXBg) thought provoking movie commentary with a great visual style. Patrick Willems (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCF1fG3gT44nGTPU2sVLoFWg) analysis of movie structure and technique.

Music Commentary - Middle8 (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfeppgcy70ERp4gQrsYijsg) Nerdwriter-esque content focusing on music.

Besides commentary there is also the whole maker community that produces fantastically produced videos for metal/woodwork - Clickspring (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCworsKCR-Sx6R6-BnIjS2MA), This Old Tony (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5NO8MgTQKHAWXp6z8Xl7yQ), DiResta (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiEk4xHBbz0hZNIBBpowdYQ), etc

Weirdly niche, but I love James Hoffman for coffee stuff. He's extremely thorough (he has a 12 minute video on the best V60 technique!) and has a great sense of style. Plus he's very careful about buying the products he reviews with his own money (well, Patreon) or disclosing if they've been sent.

If you want film stuff, Criterion's Observations on Film Art is fantastic but not on YouTube. They have short excerpts but the whole videos are far better. I do love Criterion's channel though for its closet series where famous film people pick out Blu-rays and DVDs to take home. Seeing what filmmakers pick and say about their picks is super interesting.

Cinema-related, you have CinemaWins (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCL8h3ri2WN_-IbviBlWtUcQ) which is probably a spin off of CinemaSins, but you can tell the guy really loves his motion pictures. Take Coco, or take Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse, and you'll see what I mean.

Historia Civilis makes great videos on history and politics. The main focus is a series on Rome and Julius Caeser, but also had side videos like "Can animals commit crimes?" with notes from ancient philosophers.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCv_vLHiWVBh_FR9vbeuiY-A

As a general case: academic lectures / lecturers on certain topics fill this bill for me. They're typically not episodic, as with channels, but if you're looking for deep dives into solid subjects, they're golden. This includes both current productions and old / archived materials republished on YouTube or other video distribution systems.

Nerdwriter: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJkMlOu7faDgqh4PfzbpLdg

I've come to feel nearly all of his content is just blogspam in video form.

Definitely not artistic or high quality.

Ben Eater is also top notch content: https://www.youtube.com/user/eaterbc

but it's not artistic

This might make a good "Ask HN" question / submission.

https://youtube.com/Polyphonic

> part of the subconscious knowledge someone in the industry has which someone outside doesn't

Yeah, when you watch a lot of stuff with an analytical eye, you start to see patterns. Eventually you get to the point where you can pause it, make a prediction about what's gonna happen, and be right 90% of the time. Which is either super annoying to the people you're watching it with, or a really fun game if everyone involved is this genre-savvy.

Getting close to that level is pretty much a requirement for getting a job like "editor" or "storyboard" or "script-writer".

Apologies for stepping on your submission :-/

Not at all. I was very amused. Thanks for posting this, it really is a great piece.

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