Film critiques, studies, documentaries on YouTube etc.

pixelburp

So just been wondering, what are people's go-tos for Film channels on YouTube, Vimeo etc?

Now, I don't mean review sites - there are more than enough channels with some random guy ranting in-front of his shelves of geekery; I'm talking about video essays, interviews, production documentaries & retrospectives, critical studies ... that sort of thing?

More than ever there's space for interesting, creative explorations of film & the production of it, and just curious what people around these parts might follow or watch that's noteworthy?

Just to get the ball rolling...

Now You See It are pretty good, the most recent video being about the infamous and much-maligned Dutch Angle:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofBDXc749wE

Every Frame a Painting is a particularly good channel, but there hasn't been a new video in a very long time so no idea if it has become totally dead:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGc-K7giqKM

Nerdwriter1 is ... OK; it's not really specifically focused on film, and honestly he has a tendency to really over-explain and stretch a simple concept into a 10 minute video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kavxsXhzD48

Fysh

I'm a big fan of Every Frame A Painting, but I think the channel is inactive which is a real pity.

I too would like more suggestion for detailed and thoughtful film analysis/discussion - I've been reluctant to search much because a lot of vlogging about film that I see skews more heavily to pop-culture stuff I'm not particularly interested in, and/or goes for ranty/hyperbolic presentation that doesn't engage me.

johnny_ultimate

Kogonada is a master of the short-form Internet film essay / critique. I think he can tell you more about how to read or understand an Ozu or Wes Anderson film in a few minutes than you'll get out of a lot of longer form pieces.

He himself has expanded into filmmaking with the superb Columbus - one of the best films of the past year, although still AFAIK without any formal UK/Ireland release

https://vimeo.com/kogonada

Also: the pair behind Every Frame... confirmed a few months ago the channel was indeed coming to an end:

https://twitter.com/tonyszhou/status/937202442835390466

p to the e

Not sure if relevant but I read a great article a few weeks back about Janusz Kaminski and his work on Saving Private Ryan and how he changed the shutter angle to achieve the shots he wanted. I'll definitely check out some of your recommendations above.

Here is the article:
https://cinemashock.org/2012/07/30/45-degree-shutter-in-saving-private-ryan/

pixelburp

Fysh wrote: »

I'm a big fan of Every Frame A Painting, but I think the channel is inactive which is a real pity.

I too would like more suggestion for detailed and thoughtful film analysis/discussion - I've been reluctant to search much because a lot of vlogging about film that I see skews more heavily to pop-culture stuff I'm not particularly interested in, and/or goes for ranty/hyperbolic presentation that doesn't engage me.

That's a shame Every Frame... has wound up, they really made some great in-depth (but not too naval-gazing, ala Nerdwriter) videos on film concepts. Really helped me better appreciate the craft of simple, effective filmmaking.

Like you I'd love more suggestions of these episodic analysis series, if they exist! I mean, they must, right? It can't all be UberFan567 ranting infront of all his plastic Star Wars tat.

silverharp

I havnt watched him in a while but I found Rob Ager interesting

https://www.youtube.com/user/robag88/videos?disable_polymer=1

Sad Professor

The team behind Every Frame... are now making essays for Criterion, some of which are online but are mostly only available on Blu-ray or FilmStruck. Here's two of them:

I'd also recommend Channel Criswell, Like Stories of Old, kaptainkristian, and Jacob T. Swinney (he's on Vimeo).

Nerdwriter has a quality vs quantity problem, but when he's done his research he can be extremely insightful:

And I'll echo Johnny's comments about Kogonada's Columbus - it's brilliant if you're an Ozu fan.

branie2

silverharp wrote: »

I havnt watched him in a while but I found Rob Ager interesting

https://www.youtube.com/user/robag88/videos?disable_polymer=1

I've watched a lot of his videos; he's very good

Slydice

No Small Parts:
https://www.youtube.com/user/NoSmallPartsShow/videos

Looks at the careers of some cast members.. not necessarily people who play main roles

He does long and short looks. The short ones seem to be mainly part of work or a partnership or something with IMDB:
Example short:

Example long:

Optimalprimerib

Good bad flicks. He looks at movies that may have flopped at the box office or were critically panned and disects them going into stories regarding their development along with breaking down the plot of the movie. He also does a top ten each year which is well worth watching as he can dig up some gems.

Snake Plisken

If you love 80’s sci-fi horror classic action movies then I highly recommend Oliver Harper’s retrospective channel he covers everything from the movie, soundtrack video game tie-ins really love his work some examples below

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BeWBdbiz04

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcsAV8U87tw

Found him as I was looking for videos on Somewhere in time and he holds the same love as I do for this movie.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egsrQ_ZkqRg

Well worth subscribing to Oliver’s channel.

pixelburp

Just bumping the thread, as came across another half-decent critique channel; "Lessons from the Screenplay". The author's a little on the fanboy side, but he does present his videos with a good grounding in academic narrative structure.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYMhaILOs-I

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYN2Lp9oHMk

SimonTemplar

This is a podcast not a YouTube channel but I really recommend Art of the Score if you are interested in film scores. It is by 3 musicians in Australia (at least one of them is a conductor) and they basically analyse a score including its themes, influences, etc.

They have a piano in the studio and it is always nice to hear their thoughts on the score played out musically on the piano as they are talking, so for example, if they think one theme sounds like another theme, you'll hear him kinda morph the two together on the piano.

I found sometimes that music podcasts like this absolutely drown in complex musical theory but this strikes a good balance. It is just basically three guys talking about the music so it is much more conversational rather than a lecture or documentary.

Very recommended if you like that kind of subject. They have just started a three part series on the James Bond music which was the basis of my post here in After Hours "I bet you didnt know that" - https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=107423429&postcount=6326

http://www.artofthescore.com.au/

pixelburp

"Just Write" is another good channel I've recently found, which focuses more specifically on the art of (script)writing itself, its structures and formulae etc. Any blogger that champions the cinematic perfection of Paddington 2 gets my attention

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ot02hMJ6Hkk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtWowXdkjk0