/r/videoessay
A hub for video essays, super cuts, and other videos critically observing media texts.
Video Essay Discord
What is a Video Essay?
1: A focused essay read aloud over relevant video accompaniment which seeks to argue a defensible position.
2: A focused essay read aloud over relevant video accompaniment which seeks to explain and interpret a topic.
3: A supercut that serves to analyze a particular aspect of a work or body of works. For instance, a mash-up or Top 10 list are not supercuts.
What is NOT a Video Essay?
• A review
• A response video
• A political or philosophical treatise
• A video featuring the creator on-camera and talking to the audience
• Any submission where the video is irrelevant to the topic being discussed.
• Any submission under five minutes or over an hour. (Supercuts can be under five minutes.)
• Any other video removed under mod's discretion
Browse Categories
Film Visual Art Television Pop Culture Music Miscellaneous Video Games No Filter
User Flair
If you are a video essay creator and wish to have channel flair next to your username, follow these steps
Ensure that you include a reference to your reddit name (even if it's the same as your channel name) in the About section of your channel. You can remove the reference after your flair has been assigned.
Send a message to the moderators requesting the flair.
Include a link to your channel
Indicate what you want your flair to say. Either your channel name or the series name of your video essays (if different)
Specify if you want YouTube flair, Vimeo flair, or both. Currently those are the only options, but if you host your video essays elsewhere then let us know and we'll see about adding it.
Rules
Content: All submissions must adhere to the sub's definition of a video essay.
Conduct: This is a community who shares an appreciation for pop culture, music, art, and analysis. Disagreements are sure to occur, but treat each other with respect.
Self-Promotion: Essayists may post their own content. Currently there is no restriction on time between posts, but don’t go crazy.
Creators are expected to engage with the community, pose questions to the community, leave comments on other creators’ posts, and so on. Esssayists who have a habit of simply “hit and run” posting will likely be considered spam and will be removed.
Titles: All submissions must follow the title convention: [Found/OC] Title [MM:SS]
Do not put comments in the submission title. Leave those for the comment section.
Criticism: Thoughtful and respectful discussions only. Low effort complaints such as "This is bad" or "This isn't a video essay" will be removed. If you believe there is a problem submit a report or message the mods.
Reposts: To keep a link from being posted too soon or too often, a submission will be removed if it has already been submitted in the last three months or twice in the last year. This applies to posts that you, as the submitter, have removed and reposted later. Many times this is due to a need to reupload the video essay for editing, copyright, or other reasons. This is fine, but we ask that you comment on your post stating the reason for resubmission. Otherwise, we will consider this a repost.
/r/videoessay
34,292 Subscribers
[OC] Donald Trump's Impact on Animation [15:35]
22:19 UTC
What footage do you use for "abstract" essays?
Hi, As per title, I'm struggling to answer that question. I have a videogame/menal health channel, and I have a video script ready that touches the process of overcoming the barriers we have regarding starting a project. No videogame related, explicitly. So... what kind of footage would you use? Stock? "random" gameplay? I'm so lost and blocked so I had to ask for a bit of help D:
18:53 UTC
[OC] A Toymaker Rides the Train - Five Years in the Life of Gunpei Yokoi [23:40]
18:22 UTC
Can someone better explain copyright to me?
I want to start making video essays and I try to look into copyright to see what I can and cant do, and I see there is a lot of boundaries on movies and pictures online, but then I see other people making video essays with over 100k views and they are using the same pictures and movies that I would like to use despite hearing that I cannot. It feels very contradictory and I dont know how far the fair use rule of “Transformative content” will allow me to go with that sort of content, so if anybody can tell me if normal pictures on google are safe to use or if I have to reverse movie footage or if I am able to show a book by an author or any of those things in the genre of editing that would be great, I am very new to editing and video essaying as a whole.
17:14 UTC
[OC] The Headless Horseman & The Legend of Sleepy Hollow [08:46]
00:00 UTC
[OC] How's the book: Tragedy in American Psycho [15:09]
16:17 UTC
[OC] Over the Garden Wall - 10 Years Later 🎃🍂 | Video Essay by Shain Slepian aka TimeCapsule [23:08]
14:44 UTC
[OC] 🎃 Happy Halloween! 🎃 Why Do Witches Fly on Brooms? The Spooky Truth! 🌙🧹 [10:54]
12:47 UTC
Microphone suggestions? (as a gift for a beginner)
My friend has just uploaded their first video essay to YouTube. It's really good and I want to encourage them to do more!
I think they could benefit from a nice little mic though. I think they recorded completely on their phone (both image and audio), then edited on PC after.
I think something simple that plugs straight into the phone would be the best starting point for them. Nothing too overwhelming that would require synchronising the audio to the edit or anything (I've never made a video so apologies if my terminology is off).
As a bonus, if there's a way to simultaneously use the mic AND charge the phone at the same time, that would be good (just in case their battery life is a problem).
Thanks in advance for any suggestions!
09:55 UTC
[OC] Destroying the Planet is Awesome. [08:16]
05:17 UTC
[OC] Joker 2 Never Stood a Chance [23:30]
01:01 UTC
[OC] The Most Bizarre Horror-Comedy You’ve Never Seen [14:57]
20:29 UTC
[OC] Sonic X Shadow Is Actually An Exemplary Remaster For The Industry [6:29]
18:03 UTC
[OC] Constitutional Monarchy : An Anarchist Perspective [5:35]
15:23 UTC
[Found] The Art Still Trolling The Right 100 Years Later [23:05]
15:22 UTC
[OC] Wolfenstein, Charlottesville, and Donald Trump - 2017 Marketing Controversy (Video Game Essay) [20:18]
13:59 UTC
[OC] The truth about divorce court [6:28]
01:41 UTC
[OC] Mr.Beast Is Not A Youtuber Anymore. [10:22]
23:56 UTC
[OC] The American Dream Pursued by the American Nightmare | Night of the Hunter Film Essay [25:49]
20:15 UTC
[OC]The Bizarre World of Religion in Games [24:01]
17:27 UTC
[OC] How Season of the Witch Almost Changed Everything | Halloween 3 Video Essay [10:46]
16:50 UTC
[OC] In defense of Megalopolis [6:11]
16:47 UTC
[OC] Ronald Captain America McDonald DUNKS ON Hillary Cringeton [16:48]
16:36 UTC
[OC] “Ahead By a Century”: How the Tragically Hip Made a Canadian Anthem [13:19]
15:27 UTC
[OC] What Actually IS the Arctic? [13:50]
11:10 UTC
[OC] Battle of the 伝s [71:55]
If you're a Suikoden fan like me, you were probably excited for Eiyuden Chronicle! I dig through the early Suikoden games to pinpoint what made them strong narrative experiences, all the while wondering aloud: “Why wasn’t Eiyuden Chronicle interested in doing this?”
08:43 UTC
[FOUND] i miss my mom, especially when she’s next to me [13:17]
05:35 UTC
[OC] Why We SHOULDN'T Be Afraid Of Climate Change (non-political) [17:25]
01:34 UTC
[OC] Where The Wild Things Are: PTSD For Kids [11:19]
01:01 UTC
[OC] Elon Musk has a Free Speech Problem | A Timeline of Free Speech on Twitter/X [21:31]
17:40 UTC
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