Little known fact: there is a big difference in filming a one-minute sketch on your phone and making a two-hour long feature film.
There are few things I miss more than the early days of YouTube. It was such a strange and bizarre landscape when everything was kinda crappy and charming! People were truly expressing themselves, filming little skits and stuff like that. It was fun to explore that odd little website to see what people could make with a camera and some free time.
But as time went on, that charm slowly died away. People figured out what worked and what didn’t. Drama became more popular than content. Creators started to crank out the same kind of content over and over to game the system and make money. The wild west had become settled and stabilized.
Then some dumbass YouTubers who had never once been to film school thought “Hey, I’ve been doing this for years! I can make an actual movie!”
The list of YouTuber movies is shockingly long. Tons of these dudes have tried their hand at it! Some of them multiple times! These include but are not limited to:
- F the Prom by the Fine Bros. (are they still around?)
- Not Cool by Shane Dawson
- THREE Fred movies (remember Fred?)
- Smosh: The Movie
- Airplane Mode by Logan Paul (the single biggest sleight against Airplane, one of the greatest comedies of all time)
- Space Cop by RedLetterMedia (this one hurts the most, given that these guys actually know how movies work)
And even more shockingly? Every single one of them suffers from the exact same issues! Seriously, they’re all basically the same damn movie!
The most noticeable issue is in the writing. These are almost always comedies that don’t understand what makes comedy actually funny. So, they do the only thing an amatuer comedian knows how to: never stop talking and hope to god that something in there will make the audience laugh! Obnoxious? No, couldn’t be! Why would people constantly shouting nonsense and profanities become annoying?!
The more subtle issues lay in the cinematography and the editing. They always seem so… flat. Lifeless. Like they were shot and edited by a computer program! Every single shot is so static, with no sense of style or theming to make the movies actually interesting to… you know… watch. Not to mention that the lighting is often times just as flat and the color schemes are about as interesting as watching paint dry.
But worst of all is the complete lack of awareness put behind all of them. Each one thinks that they have some deep or meaningful themes at the core of their stories. In reality, they’re about as deep as a puddle. One that is only as deep as my heel and somehow still makes my sock wet.
Look, I won’t fault them for trying. I wouldn’t be surprised if these guys were all genuinely passionate about the movie they were making. Who knows? Maybe if they showed a little restraint and further studied how film production works, they could make something good!
You can get away with a lot in a short YouTube video where you can do whatever you want. But in a movie? There are rules about how these are done. The skillset you develop making YouTube videos will not at all equip you for making a movie. Making a movie is something that requires some understanding.
Now, the question is: who’s gonna try next? And what nightmare will they unleash upon the world?
Jonah's Daily Rants 