Hi everyone! This video has been discovered by the BDG fan community. If you're new, welcome, I'm so glad you're here! A couple things I should mention: If you have the resources to help fund a tiny creator, consider supporting my patreon: www.patreon.com/whatsbehindthesky Also, I'd love it if you subscribed. I'm working on a video about my thoughts on how journalists should cover the police, which I have a lot of thoughts about since journalism is kind of my day job. It'll be out in the next couple weeks.

In my opinion, an even greater example of this close reading and writing for the video is "Earn 20k a month by being your own boss". People have pointed out insanely small details, wrote what everything symbolizes, and gone into far more detail than I thought was possible.

I think the galaxy brain meme format should be used in academic arguments more often. Lots of potential!

"and you're definitely watching this in bed right now" rude, but true.

Ah yes the seminal Hurdy Gurdy, laptop, cinema audience critical close reading Lol love it

incredible analysis. subscribed

I want, above all else, for BDG to make a less than thirty second response video where he either says "I probably should have put that much thought into it" or he's just furiously scribbling notes down.

Callback to the short horror film BDG released that got everyone creating a timeline of every video he ever made and how the true villain would reveal itself soon Yeah I'm guilty as charged

As someone who often rewatches all of BDG's entire channels, the comments are one of the things I'm most excited about. They both make me see easter eggs that were unnoticed by me at first watching or expand the content of the video. This essay encapsulated the experience perfectly: watching BDG is also reading a lot of nerds over-analysing it and making it something much bigger than itself.

To the question, "Are there specific types of KZfaq videos that lend themselves to extra creative comment sections?", I'd like to bring up the existence of Alternate-Reality Games and Unfiction content here on KZfaq. Much of the content and stories created in those circles often have those "easter eggs" and "missing details" that you mentioned, which are specifically created so that the people watching can figure narrative puzzles out, making the mystery a part of the experience. Notable mentions of works like these are series like "hiimmarymary", which has elements of mystery and puzzles scattered throughout the series, while not entirely hinging the whole story on solving each one. On the other side of the spectrum, you've got works like that of "Marble Hornets" and "EverymanHYBRID", wherein the puzzles and fan-interaction were key to keeping the story alive and going.

Intrigued by this, as someone also guilty of making an incredibly niche BDG-based video essay. I think you're right about there being something of a two-way conversation when it comes to film and its audience, especially for KZfaq videos. I'm also interested in the ways we all must balance the act of transformative creation in the responses with the original intentions of the creator. A big example is "Teaching Jake about the Camcorder, Jan '97" - The worldbuilding and analysis of this horror short film in the comments discusses the potential meaning of "Bitmus Park", the way the viewpoint gradually zooms in and out during the course of the film, and the various theories about exactly what the shadowy figure is... But there is another conclusion that can be drawn, using synthesis between "Teaching Jake" and the After Work with Tucker Iverson short "Stop Worrying...with Laura Gilbert", created of course by Brian's sister and sometimes-collaborator Laura, which paints a much more simple and bleak interpretation of the film's meaning... But truthfully, I do not personally think that knowing about the film's possible biographical inspirations is necessary towards enjoying it or analysing it. In fact, in this case having that background knowledge can sometimes overshadow the potential nuances that can be read and can even be invasive. It's is why I'm being deliberately vague about it - I am incredibly glad that it is not common knowledge, so that it is not dissected to that extent. So yes! You made a good video, and I appreciate you turning your eye to the way people respond to media, not just the media itself.

"Teaching Jake About the Camcorder '97", which is likely to be found in the recommended videos section near this video (it was for me, but I had already seen it twice), is another excellent example of BDG fan comments adding to the content of the video itself.

I’m so glad by some blessing of the algorithm I was recommended this because it was really fascinating especially as a BDG fan. (Especially even though we don’t know if he’s LGBTQ+, he’s a bit of a multispec and nonbinary icon as so many of us pack-bond really hard with him.)

Do Griffin Mcelroy's stream series next! 'Peacecraft' and 'Pokémon Nuzlocke'. They're both so intriguing in meta-narrative, found narrative, and collaborative storytelling with the audience. In Peacecraft, in-game fans saw Griffin's videos of him trying to make it through Wow without killing and formed an in-universe guild to protect and support him in that mission. The interactions he had with the people in that guild made for such an interesting piece of media. And that guild is still around 4 years later. Blizzard also made an in-game npc as tribute Griffins character from that series.

I adore BDG's videos, whether they be songs, skits or "other". There's just something about the combination of the surrealist concepts, the production value or specific lack thereof, and his own charisma that always hits the right buttons. ( We Like Watching Birds is the one that gets stuck in my head a LOT, lol.) Wonderful video, you more than earned my sub!

This video feels way more professional than a 200 sub channel would indicate, in other words YOU DESERVE WAY MORE SUBS

Honestly this is such an accurate take for how I consume media. Im almost strictly on KZfaq instead of other platforms because I am able to read the comments; and I read them while watching a video sometimes to get a grander understanding of content meaning since I love reading theories and using them to reevaluate my own take on the video

Two things: 1. I notice you have some spam comments on this video already. Lately I've been thinking about how getting spam comments on my videos and seeing them in the comments changes how I want to engage with the video itself. 2. I think this might be the exact kind of video that needs a video response?

KZfaq recommending me a video with less than 1000 views?! A miracle to be sure. Your thesis on the community and conversation around cinema is certainly fascinating, The conversation around a movie definitely effects the experience just as much as the movie itself. With things going more digital, I believe the comment section is replacing the old talking with friends on the way back home from the cinema, where people discuss and mold their opinions based on what their peers tell them and think. Great stuff, keep at it.

damn this is a really thoughtful and interesting addition to the bdg extended universe

Coming up with a well thought out rebuttal only perpetuates the idea that comments have equal footing in the conversation. Damn, you win.

To hopefully turn this video into a bit of the cinema of conversation: I like how you're wearing bold and brash in some of the video (edit: wait under the sweater too?), and then use memes as a genuine tool to build an argument. It's something pretty unique. I took grad-level academic classes in my undergrad, and much of that class really matched up with the kind of analysis you are describing here, except for the fact that no one used memes as a form of communication, except for myself in class and never in a paper. Using them to create analogy, and to develop an argument over time should be another argument which employs pathos.

I'm so glad you covered BDG. He's an absolute genius on the platform and I am constantly trying to get my friends to realise how amazing his works are.

Thank god you mentioned fan studies, because fanfiction-writing fandom has been doing this kind of meaning-making F O R E V E R. Sometimes a fan interpretation (fanon) get so widely adopted we take them so for granted we forget they're not canon

Huh, I was surprised to look down and see how few views this video had - I feel very lucky to have had it recommended to me. One thing about the not-so-great Hurdy Gurdy is I feel Brian actively uses it's unique character, and maybe the video wouldn't sound quite so striking with what would strictly be considered a better hurdy gurdy. Also I hadn't even noticed the missing 10th verse till this video, though I'd seen the whole thing around the pawning the idea of a laptop alongside the actual laptop.

This video is so insightful and well made! Thank you for putting the effort into it and making something really thoughtful and wonderful!

as a student of art history and avid close reader, i LOVE thinking about ontology. thank you for unpacking ontology in semi-layman’s terms, especially via a bdg work. my art history prof constantly emphasizes the following: the life of an artwork continues long after it leaves the artist’s realm of control. in fact, most of its life happens after that point. you [in making this video] and we ourselves [in watching your video and adding it to our understanding of the original piece] enrich the life of the art. my adhd brain just made the connection to quantum theory - in observing the art, we may change the nature of the art itself.

I LOVED ALL OF THIS. Also I watched this at a desk, that sweater is really nice, and not a day goes by that I don't think about the laptop song. As someone endlessly fascinated by the ways different mediums tell different stories, adding this "cinema of conversations" to the mix will keep me thinking for a long time. Another dimension to storytelling, outside of the storyteller's control! There is a close parallel to this in video games, like Nintendo Land! You could leave comments and doodles after each round, which would randomly pop up on other people's screens. This service (Miiverse) was so much fun on the Wii U, until it shut down, and now those comments no longer appear. But, at least this design still leaves the core game experience intact, unlike online multiplayer games which become unplayable once the audience or servers are gone.

As a psych/soc major every day I regret more and more that things like comments or posts or videos essays aren't considered "academic" sources basically because they're made by the average person, regardless of the actual content of the posts, and not someone actively within the scientific community (yes i understand the need for content to be peer-reviewed but when it comes to studying things like human behavior and culture sometimes people make some really interesting and fascinating points just by being within the culture itself, also something something academia elitism) This video essay was incredible! keep up the amazing work and best of luck in grad school

this is an amazing video i cant belive it only has 22 likes its combination of diferent mediums of digital dialouge is truly unique. its like a CJ the X video but slower and shorter.

I wasn't watching from bed, but I was watching while trying not to do work, so I feel it's in the same spirit.

Nice. Yeah, bdg’s comment section often made me to consider stuff or to look at his work in a different light entirely. Some notable examples are “teaching jack about camera” there i went “ah, _that’s_ what happened!” and thanking sweedes video there i learned for the first time that robot is f-ing sentient and begs for release.

What you said about the comments being part of the viewer experience, and being viewed on the same screen as the video, made me think of a video I saw recently by jan Misali about Caramelldansen, and how it was posted to a Japanese video sharing website called Nico Nico Douga, which has an even more extreme version of this where the comments are literally overlayed on top of the video, scrolling across it in a very in your face way. And he talks about how this crafted the experience of Caramelldansen in a way that, I think, has a stronger influence on the way it's perceived than anything of the sort we've seen. It allowed Japanese fans to comment the silly ways they misheard the Swedish lyrics, which made other people also hear it the same way and comment it again, until pretty much everyone agreed that the first line of the song is about balsamic vinegar. It literally crafted how Japanese people hear the meme itself

this is a very interesting thought and very well presented. i think from a literature perspective, there can be a reading taken from foucault's 'what is an author?' and the idea of the author function. in 'what is an author?' (a fucking excellent essay), foucault talks about how the author is a construction by the reader in a sense (or a function wherein the author is this mythical rational entity). the notion of audience as co-author that you suggest serves to textually dislocate BDG in position of author of the 'text' of 'have you seen my laptop' wherein is shifts to be more of a vacuous folk work in which BDG is a prominent voice. foucault also mentions in his work the idea of texts produced by an author for which they are writer, rather than an author, i.e. shopping lists. it would be interesting to explore the role of author vs writer in the format of youtube/internet culture in that with the greater intertextuality of works produced, BDG's original video and works in response to that video still form a basis for the content of the video. continuing down this rabbit hole of thought leads me up to the thought that consumption is creation - which is wild as fuck. this argument grows very interesting when exploring subjects like critical role or other live play shows wherein it grows increasingly more difficult to locate the mythical figure of the author. idk have some incoherent thoughts

Absolutely blindsided by the slapping BDG violin cover. The harmonies, my guy. Spectacular.

Loved this video! I think another great example of communities forming meaning and adding to the meaning of cinema happens all the time. Makes me think of dont hug me I'm scared. I remember talking to my friends about youtube comments and related videos to that series. It felt like a huge part of that specific piece of media. I think your point of comments literally being on the same screen as the video has a lot of validity too. I think the recommended videos also can form the meaning of a video as well

You had me at Manovich. Animator and meme-enthusiast here! love hearing discourse like this

I think talking about fandoms in this is especially interesting, especially in the sense of adding to the story. Some of the biggest fandoms on the internet are excellent examples of this, such as fnaf and how the fans encouraged the creator to build an entire universe by simply asking questions. Or how in undertale the fans created their own universes, (far too many frankly) and their own theories to fill in gaps that im sure weren't even meant to have explanations. Though I think one of the best examples of this is the current ensemble piece that is the dreamsmp, unlike most podcast/roleplay based story, the fans are actively encouraged and able to interact with the story being produced here. Characters within the narrative respond to the fans warnings and advice, and the creators actively take fan ideas and interpretations and incorporate them into the story (especially with character designs. Hell dreams skin had nothing to do with masks until fans drew him with one and that became so canon that he wrote a song about it). Hell, one could go as far as to say that without animators producing fan works, there wouldn't even be a story. just a long hamilton bit. It's frankly quite mind boggling to think about

KZfaq and similar platforms have really made a unique form of media. Sure, you're still posting music or videos like before, but it is not in a relative vacuum anymore. The lowered barrier for content creation and audience participation really "changes the playing field" as it were. Communities now have the ability to interpret and discuss content far more freely than at the monthly book club, or well... in academia.

I am so happy I randomly stumbled onto your channel. How do you only have 183 subscribers? How does this have less than a thousand views? This is a really fresh angle and take on the "Video Essay" genre, it has been a long time since I found one that does not feel like I have already seen it before.

I absolutely loved this video. I think about stuff like this all the time, that you have to accept all aspects of how you view something when it comes to your interpretation of it. Also, if you take this into mind, and use that to your advantage you can make some really interesting art. The idea I had was that some people watch those "example song but you're in a bathroom at a party" videos, so you could have an interactive art piece that was a band playing music that you can only ever hear live because the way you experience the music, such as how far away you are from the source, what the music is playing on or if it's live, if there is other people there, etc. is all part of it.

I agree that comments are a part of the video, I look at the comment section almost every time I watch a video now because it adds to the experience

Thanks for explaining why it never feels like I’ve watched a film in theater unless I can rip into them with someone else on the way to the car.

An exceptional video, professionally crafted with a feeling of valid academia. I've subscribed and look forward to seeing what else you create.

BDG cinema really is a class of its own this analysis was super interesting, and I love your cinema of conversations theory. Also, big kudos to you for making academic analysis actually interesting (and for the wonderful violin folk music)

this was really interesting! especially since i'm definitely someone who happens to scroll through comments a lot, lmao. also a good reminder that getting all grumbly about some piece of media/media arts theory i'm taught is A Good Thing, Actually

This analysis reminded me of Late Night with Seth Myers, specifically the show's online exclusive "Corrections". It started at the beginning of quarantine as a response to a growing number of people watching the show online via the show's KZfaq channel, and those people's comments and corrections to the show in the comment section. Even though the show still aired on television, because it was stripped away to such bare bones, being filmed in Myers' own house with bad video and audio quality, the online audience felt more able to engaged with it much like they would any other KZfaq video. Even after the show went back into the studio without audiences, the vibe in the KZfaq comment community stayed the same. The creators of the show evidently noticed this shift and decided to engage with it, creating the aforementioned segment, in which Myers reads out paraphrased comments for the KZfaq comment section that correct incorrect statements and mistake made in the show. Through out these weekly online segments the back-and-forth between the show and its comment section was encouraged and grown, to the point that some jokes made in the regular show are there exclusively for people actively engaged in the online exclusive, and which do no get a reaction from the recently returned live audience. I've been over analyzing this for a while now, and I find it really fascinating how much its changed the show and its fandom. Glad to see I'm not he only one thinking about media like this. Jackal out!

ARGs really support this, because the comments and replies on ARG videos and posts are as much a part of the story and ARG as the videos and posts themselves. It's hard for the ARGs to exist without the audience playing along, solving clues, and speculating about what's going on. Especially if they use the format of using comments in-universe to solve puzzles.

Holy crap I came across your old channel by chance and followed it here and found quality content!

I would like to note that it's not just YT- nico nico (a japanese video website, now much less important, but it was previously a big site in the 2000s) by default literally puts the comments on the screen as the video plays- jan misali in their fantastic video essay about Caramelldansen mentions it in his analysis of how the song got big in Japan due to people mishearing the Swedish lyrics as similar-sounding japanese lyrics. If I had to conjecture about what sort of videos work best, the sort of complicated, layered, fictional world videos made by BDG like Have You Seen My Laptop are a pretty obvious candidate, but I would argue that any video where one of the main attracting features is small little "oh this is really good" moments that lend themselves to analysis - this is perhaps comparable to in music, a really good snare or little production detail that is pretty much just noticeable if you pay attention. This opens the doors to other genres, such as Jan Misali's video essays with little jokes that are just aaaaaaaaa so good, although in those cases they are to some extent more obvious, due to the limitations of his medium (mostly narration over white text on a black background). Most video essays (and other genres of youtube) lack this sort of thing. It might be interesting to set up a discord server or something to ease discussion on these topics

Call me cringe, but I couldn’t help but think of this in relation to MCYT or specifically the Dream SMP. While it’s easy to write this off as cringe stans, this type of close reading is EVERYWHERE and it’s 100% a community built by its fans. For those who are unaware, the Dream SMP is a minecraft role playing server of a collection of large youtubers and streamers. People stream themselves playing on the server, and it’s half just friends goofing off, and half deep lore that follows a rough script, with each streamer playing a character that is a similar, but dramatized and distinct version of themselves. The Dream SMP has a very large following, which is especially characterized by its artists. I think fanart of the SMP is distinct from a lot of fanart of other media because of how simple the original graphics are. (This of course isn’t unique to the SMP and is found in many simply designed games or comics, but it is very important.) Artists have a level of creative freedom in character design not found in lots of other fan spaces because the original designs are so ambiguous. What I think is especially fascinating about this is that the fandom actually creates a sort of collective canon about character design, from the feedback loop of artists being inspired by other artists. Who decided that Tubbo had horns or kept his burn scars after respawning, or even that Dream’s skin was representative of a mask? (Dream’s artist interpretation was around before the SMP but it was never co-opted by him until after it gained popularity, it was entirely a community driven decision.) Additionally there are “leaders” in the community who can set a precedent that everyone follows for character design simply because of the respect and reach they have. Who decided Techno had a long braid? Well that was SAD-ist. And of course, as an artist I focused on the art side of things, but everything I’ve said about character design also works for characterization. The community creates a fan-accepted interpretation of the characters and often does deep analysis on their characters and motivations. How does Tommy being continuously let down by his father figures affect him? Does his constant feeling of betrayal lead him to value physical belongings (the disks) more than his friends? That’s interesting to look into, and this type of analysis happened everywhere. Another especially interesting thing about this is that since the story is written by internet creators, fan spaces have a near direct access to the creators, and the creators would often go and shout out fanart and fan works. Every streamer does a reaction video every time SAD-ist uploads. And that leads to a feedback loop where the fanon actually influences the canon. In an even more direct way, the fans once voted in a presidential election on the server, which hugely changed the outcome of the story. The main script writer of season one, Wilbur Soot actually gave a brief description about what might have happened if the election went the other way. In this way, fans have an unprecedented amount of influence over the story and themes of the media they are consuming. I don’t want to touch on it too much, but this high amount of access to creators and input to the story did backfire in some ways. For one, a lot of the audience did run somewhat young, and as any giant online community has, especially when filled with many young teens, there was a lot of toxicity. There were many people who couldn’t seem to differentiate between the streamer and the character they played who shared the same name. It wasn’t uncommon for someone’s twitch chat to be filled with verbal abuse about something the character did that was wrong or hurt the other characters. The large impact on the direction of the story could also turn into entitlement, where people felt personally slighted if the story did not go how they wanted and had no qualms telling the creators that. However, despite the faults it had, I think the Dream SMP is a fascinating project. I haven’t been a part of the community for a while and I think it’s mostly died down by now, but in its hay day in season 1 and 2, it was a massive movement. It had an intertwining of fan interpretation and canon that is hard to find anywhere else. I’m sure at some point something new will come to fill it’s place. I wonder if this is the future of media, or at least a future form of media that we may see become common soon?

This video was blessed by the algorithm, and I was blessed by watching it! amazing work.

I fucking love that one shot with the sunny window.

This is very interesting because I constantly want to comment on or leave annotations of parts of Netflix videos and being able to share them with my friends.

My 'watch next' video is one of BDG's; I appreciate someone doing an in depth analysis on my favorite creator, thank you

This was the fastest 20-minute video I ever watched. I was just consistently interested from beginning to end! Well done! Definitely gained a subscriber from me.

I like how KZfaq and the internet in general have made “academic” discussion more accessible (or at least feel that way). You don’t have to be a scholar to have very interesting conversations about media, and it’s unrestricted by classism or by unnecessary scholar jargon. People can just engage with media because it’s what people do!

The thesis of this essay was a self fulfilling prophecy within further breakdowns of other or Brian’s works in the comments of THIS video

What matters about a work of art regardless of medium is that it mattered to someone else.

This video is the most pure essence of “thanks, I hate it”, a fact I live for

I think you can really easily apply your theory with ARGs and how much more popular they've grown with KZfaq specifically instead of the host sites the genre was initially started on- especially with really small and tightly told story series like Daisy Brown.

A very similar thing happened with the comedy-horror baseball simulator Blaseball. I doubt The Game Band ever expected their silly little baseball sim to attract a fanbase that wrote dense and intricate lore for each player and composed music about the game.

I think another good example of what you're talking about, is Internet Comment Ettiquette with Erik. His work incorporates audience participation directly in to the video.

I would also like to make a nice comparison to comments with movies. Have you ever gone to a movie and walked out and then "decompressed" the weight of the movie by talking with your friends about what occurred in the movie? That's almost exactly the same thing that happens in the KZfaq comments, just on a grander scale with many more people. Going into the comments and leaving my thoughts on a video (hello!) feels incredibly similar and produces a similar emotional response that I had when I walked out of The Force Awakens with my friend and was excitedly talking about how Kylo Ren stopped the blaster bolt at the beginning because nothing similar had really happened in any previous movies, etc. I absolutely agree with the galaxy brain argument in a huge way though. I have several headcanons of cinema that I picked up from AO3 or discords or comment sections that I find so convincing about the show as to define my conception of the world profoundly. I think that cinema of conversation is definitely a unique and powerful analytical mode that you've developed. I would be interesting in applying a similar thought to music theory, especially as they relate to memes. Like how The Lick has become so incredibly prevalent in the jazz space to the point where people avoid playing it in solos because it's become so prevalent in post-solo conversation, and similarly, people will do theme and variations on the lick in their solos. In other words, Jazz solos are being profoundly influenced by the way we talk about music outside of it. Which follows very closely with your hypothesis that art is written, to some degree, by the fans.

16:10 I do want to note that even in those less creative comment sections of “unproductive buttholes”, the comments still impact the meaning of the video. Everything from an intentionally creative work, to a right wing car rant, to an unedited video game playthrough, has the same opportunity to be changed and redefined through the comments as anything. A comment on one of my videos calling me out for stupidly missing some important item in Hollow Knight can impact a viewer’s experience of my video, even if it’s not to the same extent of the comments on BDG’s videos. Which begs the question, is every video on KZfaq cinema?

JelloApocalypse has made at least two videos in which he and his voice acting team reads selected comments from his previous videos. They use funny and/or highly stereotypical voices, so in the process of doing this, they are creating personalities and emotions that may or may not have been present when the comment was made, thus adding an extra layer to the content creation cycle. Something cool to think about!

Also, I think this theory applied even more on tiktok. Tiktok comments are the bread and butter of that app, without it there would be so fewer and less funny jokes!

One tangential thing I’ve noticed in the last few years is the attention paid to the edits and the editors in the comments of KZfaq videos, especially for things like stream highlights where viewers have access to the raw footage. People notice and comment on zooms, cuts, music, etc in a way that you don’t really see in typical (consumer-focused) film and television reviews. Even the standard “props to your editor” comments are engagement with the video as an art, where people are looking at the FORM of the piece and not just the content. This may be a bit because KZfaqrs are more open about hiring editors than they were in the past (and they’re more likely to know that they CAN hire an editor), but the editors also have become part of the content itself - they’ll add notes, throw in callbacks and references to themselves, and generally make their hand in the video visible to the viewers. (Examples: Jacksfilms talks about the back-and-forth with his editors, and even makes fan-edits of his raw footage into videos; Philip DeFranco talks about his decision to hire editors, and they often highlight their presence in his intros; the PointCrow Clips channel comments are more likely to be directed to the editor, Lauren, than they are to the content creator, Eric - to the point that it might be fair to call Lauren the creator and Eric the subject; Smosh frequently has one of their editors, Spencer, participate in their unscripted content, and there is a back-and-forth between Spencer-as-talent and Spencer-as-editor when he’s performing both roles.) Audiences of online content aren’t just participating in close-readings of the MEANING of videos, and they aren’t just collaborating on the CONTENT of a video. They’re also becoming aware of the creation of the video itself and the form that creation takes.

As a Cinema and Media Studies student, this is my favorite video I have come across on KZfaq in a long time. Wonderfully done! Now I just have to find an opportunity to start using the term “cinema of conversations” in my future analyses.

this is actually the way forward in media studies

very good video :D it's obvious u worked very hard on it and the passion for brian david gilbert is unmatched

*Coming down to the comments to flesh out my video viewing experience and create a fuller understanding of the media*

This is a wonderful video! Thank you so much for making it :)

this is so incredibly thorough for something based on a 3 minute video, and i love it. funnily enough, i vividly remember trying to read the phrase brian was googling in the beginning, figuring out through trial & error of google searches myself that it was probably “what’s the difference between pigeons and seagulls”, and leaving a comment about it; the details in that video really do inspire a lot of analysis!

Reminds me also of Nick Lutzko universe. Fans theorize and over analyze his videos all the time, he leaves many gaps that I think are intentional. The comments really hold the videos together.

I don't know about the Exploding Brain thesis. It needs to be possible to separate the author's work from the audience's reaction (unless the work is explicitly collaborative), or else it becomes impossible to do a close reading of almost every piece of cinema in history, because the reaction wasn't documented. Back when the only place to watch movies was a theatre, you couldn't help but be exposed to the audiences, and the moments when they screamed or laughed or cheered could be as central to the experience of "the cinema" as what was onscreen. But academics don't study screenings, because that information isn't available. KZfaq is different to film in that the comments are more permanent than an audience's intial reaction or water-cooler discussions, but the relationship between the work and the audience is no different for KZfaq or film. If it is, it implies that film can't be interpreted the way KZfaq is, because the audience's reaction to film is "lost media".

This is fantastic! So happy the algorithm pointed me to this video. It made me think "the medium is the message" a lot. Also, it occurred to me that even the way genre is constructed on KZfaq is also fan-made - "Breadtube" is a fan-made term, for instance. The very phrase "Hurdy-Gurdy KZfaq" makes sense because creating content is so accessible now that niche interests are whole genres now.

I love love love deep analytical think pieces on youtube and new media. thanks for this amazing video!

holy crap this channel is amazing. also i see the stack of mr rogers books and expect a video soon enough

This is interesting because it sort of Matroyshkas itself. When you have a Maggie Mae Fish or a Dan Olson doing a KZfaq video that is itself a close reading of a piece that then has comments that then generate answer videos and on and on, it can become a matter of "everything is the same cinema, just at different points".

This video was fascinating. I'd never considered that cinema is not necessarily defined by the film makers, but by the audience as well. I'll have to give it more thought before I draw my own conclusions! It was a nice surprise to see this in my recommened :)

Something to add to your take about KZfaq comments not being able to be removed from the video because they're on the same page. If you're on your phone have the video playing and scroll through the comments while still being able to see the video which you can't do on the computer as far as I'm aware. So on the phone which is a pretty big way a lot of people interact with KZfaq these days they're even harder to remove because you can still be paying attention to basically both

HI I HAVE THOUGHTS HELLO! So right, background. I got a degree in digital design and I have a history in, well art history. Something important about art history is there's a section of it which directly correlates with your argument of presentation space! Something that art historians consider when analyzing artworks is the space they exist in, galleries being the most common example. Space is very important because it dictates our direct perspective of the piece but also sets a tone. One of my favorite examples being Monet's lily pond series. They're displayed alongside each other patronymically in a space with naturally toned light. This presentation of the paintings transports you to the physical space of the ponds, the garden. This becomes EVEN MORE important with sculptures, things you need to walk around to see the full 3D surface of, or even REAL Gardens! Gardens are full pieces of art and being in their physical space is a important way of interacting with them. So, wait a second this feels off left field??? Physical space? How is that relevant??? Well! Art isn't just a physical experience its always been emotional and spiritual. So of course the emotional and spiritual presentation of art is just as important, physical space is just a easier thing to demonstrate... But now I can move to emotional examples. Say you are in a art gallery, what audience do you want around you? This is a complicated question, because it depends on the piece. However I think there is one audience that people unanimously dislike: A School trip. BUT WAIT- You shouldn't! Interactive works are so much more beautiful when children get at them because they have no shame or fear interacting with them. And that's whats this entire conversation is coming to: Emotional value. We're now moving into a digital world, and youtube comments sections are the new art galleries of the world. You are hitting a nail on the head here and I love this conversation. I ADORE Talking about our digital selves which is a whole other but very relevant thing here. Anyway you got another fuckin nerd in your comments, thank you so much for talking about this I am going to go crazy and stupid. P.S. I got so excited by this I forgot to move my minecraft character somewhere safe while typing it and it destroyed my storage. You captured my rapt whole attention good fellow

watching this has made me realize i just didn't get the joke the first time i watched have you seen my laptop. newfound appreciation now lol

that ending reminded me of youtube video responses (a separate kind of video/comment amalgamation that was a thing until like 2012) and, as a side effect, made me feel like old old bones 👵🏻💀

Fantastic video! I’m so glad it was recommended, I love finding underrated creators like you with insightful, creative concepts to explore. :)

This, I love this, I knew somebody had to feel too that the comments are also content, fan made, but content relating to the media. Found this when looking at PilotRedSun's videos, Grinch's Ultimatum wouldn't be HALF as mystic as it is without people reading into it so deeply, trying to come up with their own interpretation and, as such, bringing a different life to it. The author makes a canvas, one with weird splatters and crevasses, but the audience paints on top of it. It is wildly fascinating.

Accurately telling me I was watching this in bed set me up and bringing out the academic galaxy brain meme knocked me down

this video has so much effort put into it! amazing

I remember that first reaction video! I had it pop i to my feed after the og and was like "yeah this seems interesting lets go"

This feels like a soft introduction to fan studies, also known as fandom studies. Its a bit different from media studies in that it is purely the study of the communities that form around media. It's a pretty new field, and definitely seems like something you'd like to look into one day, if this video is any indication!

This was just like, really good and well thought out.

One of my core beliefs is that anything can be analyzed, and this is just a wonderful expansion of that. If someone finds meaning in something, weather that thing be Twilight, or Shakespeare, or Pewdiepie, it can be analyzed and deserves the same amount of respect. This also means that over-hyped works like Shakespeare and Lovecraft and Hitchcock and Tarintino deserve to be looked at as simple entertainment as well as meaningful. Anyways, loved the vid, came over from BDG and now I suppose I will be following you. Thanks. :)

I just started a grad program in Cinema Studies a few months ago, and I've spent the whole time arguing about the importance of studying audiences (for me I really like studying a film's changing audiences over time to see if/how those new viewers effects the film's meaning). Can't believe I found a video just on that, thanks for the great analysis!

Animated shorts also have very creative comment sections!

I very much enjoyed the video. It's a really interesting take on what is currently happening especially in fan studies, but I think what you're missing in terms of this exploration is that it isn't necessarily specific videos that are the cause of this, it is actually the personalities of the creators. There are creators like brian david gilbert and bts that indirectly as their audience to engage in their creative work and clearly communicate they enjoy the fan interpretations, but also treat their fans with a certain respect not given to the audience of a regular cinematic experience. Being invited by the creator to do this interpretive story telling of their work is what is fueling this, as there has never been a time before now where an artist has asked their audience to critically think about their work in a public platform that lends itself to equal standing of the art that was created. In other words, it is more as if the audience is being asked to come onstage with the performer instead of being asked to merely admire what has been put before them. So, engaging with the question of what are specific creators are doing to lend themselves to cultivating this sort of audience, I think is more so what needs to be engaged with as a topic.

16:35 Epic orchestral music videos. Specifically the ones that sound a bit sadder, or like it would make good battle music. I swear every single person in the comments is a writer, everyone shares their different scenes they had in their heads while listening, and there are *so* many of them

I think it is interesting to consider how important it is to us that we watch movies and shows with friends and family as part of the experience. Even non-verbally, their presence gives additional context and meanings to the enjoyment. Especially since restrictions (not sure how globally applicable this is) makes going to a movie together a rare occurrence these days. Thanks for the food for thought

as a film major who is obsessed with BDG content - the algorithm gods actually came through with this recommendation 🙏

im halfway through the video and holy hell, this is strengthening my resolve to take my grad studies. also, for some reason, english undergrad, media/cultural studies, and queerness(bdg weirdness subsection) feel very targeted for me. thanks so much for making this video! i feel very seen