Long Form YouTube Videos: Documentaries and Video Essays
Media Recommendations #41
The History of Wii Sports Resort Golf World Records (Summoning Salt)
Disney Channel's Theme - A History Mystory (Defunctland)
The Line Goes Up (Folding Ideas)
Treasure Planet - Disney's Biggest Mistake (Breadsword)
YouTube is one of, if not the most popular ways to engage in video media in the modern age. I am in my mid-20s now, and I do not watch broadcast television at all. Subscription services like Netflix and Disney+ have meant that users can now curate their watching experiences, watching what they want, when they want, instead of having to watch for a certain time of day for a show to air.
Netflix is a giant in today's media consumption
Unlike these other subscription services, YouTube is a user driven site and thrives off the very low bar of entry for creators. All you need is a camera, and/or microphone, and a computer. This means that videos can be and are about anything. Videos of people playing videogames, rating their personal preferences of foods, tourist commentary, chemical demonstrations, original animation and music, or just educating other on your favourite things.
Some of my favourite Youtube Media. Clockwise from the top left: NileRed, SoloTravelBlog, LunaiMooney, TerminalMontage
Getting paid for your creations on YouTube is a tricky topic I do not want to get into deep today, but to get to today's topic, there is a sweetspot of length. A very short video does not pay well, and a very long video does not either. And it is tragic that longer videos do not get the recognition, reward, and engagement they deserve, because I have recently become very aware of how good the long form video catalogue is on YouTube these days.
Now it can be quite easy to make a long video, but what I'm talking about today is beyond just stream archives and let's play compilations. I'm talking about feature length discussions of topics that the creators are passionate about and have put their passion into. In the early phase of planning this article, I came across two terms to describe my taste: Video Essays, and Documentaries. And there is a difference.
Now, Documentaries exist as a broad appealing form of media outside of YouTube. But the difference between a David Attenborough narrated exploration of nature and an explanation of the history of speedrunning a Wii game is resources and interest. The BBC would not greenlight funding for a History of Speedrunning, because it is a niche topic that will not have the broad appeal necessary to return on the cost to make that documentary at a BBC level budget. But just because it does not have mass appeal, does not mean it doesn't have appeal. The reason why I'm writing this article is because these are topics that will engage a niche audience, and these videos would not exist without the passion of the creators.
GenoSamuel's documentary of ChrisChan is a very unique case of something that can only exist on the internet.
The point of a documentary is to document. It is a presentation of collected facts, with little room for interpretation other than the presentation itself. BBC's Blue Planet is not a narrative any more than the the History of Wii Sports Resort Golf Speedrunning is. They are a curated presentation of knowledge on the topic that is enjoyable because it is easier to enjoy in one complete package rather than the interested party having to seek out and consume the scattered information themselves.
A Video Essay on the other hand is exactly what the name suggests, it is an essay in video form. It is the creator making an analysis or argument on a topic, often by dividing their video into sections, presenting information supporting their point of view. Video Essays are often more emotion driven, targeting the viewer's empathy to support the creator's opinion, either by making them happy, sad, or angry with the information presented. Video Essays do not exist as a popular form of media outside of YouTube, since their scholarly/professional equivalent are written essays. The idea of the Video Essay is not unique to YouTube but it is the best platform for independent long-form media. On the internet, there's an audience for everything, and a someone willing to present their opinion on it.
Contrapoints is a trans video essayist that discusses societal values, politics, ethics, and trans rights.
It might be my personal taste evolving, but even if YouTube doesn't financially support the models of Documentaries and Video Essays, the rise of crowd funding e.g. Patreon, has meant that the model becomes more feasible, and as a result, the general quality and variety of good long form videos has increased on the platform. So I'm take a bit of more of your time to recommend some of my favourite creator's of such media, and my favourite videos they've made.
Documentary Recommendations
The History of Wii Sports Resort Golf World Records
Summoning Salt is a historian of videogame speedrunning. To the outside observer, speedrunning may not seem like a topic that needs or lends itself well to documentation, but in reality it works very well. Since Speedrunning works around reporting your records via footage, there is lots of footage to demonstrate the topic. And if you fear getting lost in the jargon of techniques, Summoning Salt is very good at explaining the runs in laymen's terms. His sound design, narration, and how the video is formatted makes it easy to follow a topic, and the Documentaries go at fast enough pace that you never feel bored down by unnecessary detail.
The video that introduced me to Summoning Salt and the true depths of speedrunning was their video on Wii Sports Resort Golf. It was a tale of competitive spirit, flukes of ingenuity, and tenacity. What was one person's whim became a series of trials for many. How far can you stretch the technical ability and exploits of a Wii Motion Control Game? Very far it turns out. At 36 minutes, it is a shorter doco, a great introduction to Summoning Salt and his genre. It is a gripping tale that I implore you to experience for yourself.
Disney Channel's Theme - A History Mystery
Defunctland is a historian on theme parks, children's media projects, movies, and shows. Their origin was in extinct theme parks, but the breadth of topics discussed has expanded. While theme parks documentaries are not an uncommon subject area on YouTube, nobody does their research quite as thoroughly or directly as Defunctland. Much of the information presented in their works are things the creator had found out themselves via interviews with involved parties, or trudging through deep internet archives, all to put together complete packages.
The first video I watched of theirs is the latest (at time for writing) and is a story of how Defunctland found out who wrote the theme song for the Disney Channel. Given it is only a four note melody, it seems like it would not be difficult to find, but there are several layers of intricacies about channel tones, Disney's marketing teams, and composers that make this a very long journey. It is an emotional tale that does great tribute to those artists involved. Do watch!
Video Essay Recommendations
Folding Ideas is a documentarian who discusses ideas that often affect society at large. Some topics are meta discussions of how to make media online and analysis of certain media products, others are societal level analysis of phenomena such as Flat Earthers. Folding Ideas has a sort of university lecture style presentation unique to Video Essays, where a large part of the video actually features the speaker in frame, while images and videos are used secondarily to better demonstrate his points. Folding Ideas videos are very long, but easy to follow; any concept brought up during explanations is quickly explained in layman's terms, so the entire essay can be followed.
The video that introduced me to Folding Ideas was their 2 hour explanation of NFTs, which also explored market capitalism, cryptocurrency and Web3. It is a Video that can be enjoyed in the background of other tasks, but I advised that for a first watch, you may want to set aside a couple hours near bedtime to sit down and absorb the explanation. Like many other Folding Ideas videos, it is overall neutral on the topic itself, but he is not afraid to make clear his stance on what he thinks of cryptocurrency and NFTs. If the NFT craze passed you by and you had no idea what any of it meant, this is THE source to educate yourself on what it all means, and why it is so bad.
Treasure Planet - Disney's Biggest Mistake
Breadsword is not your typical video essayist, I would describe them more as a story teller. Breadsword's target content is nostalgia bait for people who enjoy feel good media, be that older anime, disney and dream works movies from the 90s and early 00s, or even videogames. The videos of Breadsword are a love letter and analysis of childhood memories, stories from their internal development, deeper meanings, and why we should (or do) enjoy these pieces.
The first video I watched of Breadsword was their exploration of Treasure Planet, one of the last 2D Disney feature-length films. The video is both an exploration of all the technical and narrative techniques that made this movie great and how Disney tried to sabotage its success. Breadsword makes the argument that since movies like Treasure Planet are so technically demanding, and 3D animation was on the rise, Disney wanted the film to fail, so they had the excuse to change medium. It is an emotional story and a heartbreaking one, and Breadsword tells it very well.
The irony of my article about Long YouTube Videos being very long was not lost on me, and I understand that this length will be intimidating to readers. I will not expect a lot, if any, to read the while post, but if you did, and you're reading this, thank you so much.
Like many YouTube creators, my input on this blog is for the benefit of my creativity first, and if it turns out others enjoy it, then that's fantastic. If you want to see what my other recommendations are, I have a list of them in pinned post on this blog.
