| I'm a huge fan of video-essays, and always wanted to make one. Earlier this year, I tried very hard to write two scripts: I was never able to finish the first, and while I was able to finish the second, I wasn't happy with the final result. So recently I was thinking about salvaging what I could from that second script (It was about "The story of Mahou Shoujo as the 'female super-hero'" and it's parallels to the idol industry) into a new script, and so far I feel I want to write about how anime was successful in making female-protagonist stories in genres or formulas typically thought as masculine, focusing on things such as:
There are a couple problems here, though:
So, yeah, to anyone that has some sort of experience on that: What should I study in order to be able to make what I want? |
What's nescessary to make an anime video-essay? Video editing software :P |
No, this isn't my signature. |
| I can't help with video essays, but I can with just an essay of written version, mainly academic types as I haven't been writing anything unrelated to college stuff. First of all you should introduce the main topic through brief and short introduction containing the topic, your thesis, list or brief showcase of your arguments. Than it should be continued with the main part in which you'd colaborate with topic of showing your full thesis with expanded and full explanation by using the previously mentioned arguments. In the end you should make a short summary. You should use an acucarate language but as it is a video it also shouldn't be too complex/difficult, you should avoid slangs and sayings, the only example I can think of right now is "Sabaton" [That's the slang name for medieval plate protection of feets], so you should always say by correct names and properly call everything. Don't forget to do some good flow between the paragraphs, maybe little break [off-topic short anegdote]. The more profesional the more respect you show to the viewer, aswell as if one of your essays is against something or against a certain view/theory you should also respect the existance of the opposite side. Now to other stuff: To make as good essay as you can, you need to do research on each subject, even if you forget about a tiny part information. There might be always someone who'll comment about the forgotten stuff and it will make you prepared for the question. You should also write firstly whole essay on paper, try to read it once out loud to check how long it would take you to say it [use timers for it too] add or delete few minutes to even several from the timer depending on how you react to stress, in my case I speak/read faster when I am stressed so it takes me less time in the actual deal. You should use a software which you know or either feels comfortable for you, I've been using only two softwares so if you don't have one you can check these two : Camtasia Studio 8 and Davinci Resolve [Davinci is Free, old time ago I had a torrent of Camtasia] |
| The two biggest ingredients in a good video essay are vigorous research and a clear narrative. So, do the research on your topic until a clear story starts to present itself, keeping clear, detailed notes the entire time (And by god, bookmark your sources so you can look back later). It's also important to go beyond your sources by doing your own analysis of the situation while giving justifications for the analysis. Once you have that all down, it's a matter of vocal presentation and editing, which are both artforms unto themselves. |
 Dreams are worth fighting for |
| Just try to sound as pretentious as possible. You seem to be on the right track with that. |
| My feelings purely as a viewer: 1. I keep seeing advice that it's far more important to put something out there instead of aiming to make a big splash with your first project. So even if you're not confident about your knowledge level, as long as you feel that you've done the legwork, I think you should just pull the trigger and upload. If you have content creators you like or even want to emulate, you might want to do some research into their process and their philosophies. Interviews, podcast appearances, discords, Patreon posts and what not. For example, if you happen to like Super Eyepatch Wolf, you could check out his Trash Taste appearance. I don't know how useful this specific video would be to you, but might come across some solid tips if you dig along those lines. 2. I feel like it's the wrong approach to start with several small ideas and then figure out a way to make into a big one. Why not settle on one idea first and plug in smaller ideas that fit into that? If there's something you really want to talk about but doesn't really fit, then you should be ruthless and cut it out. There'll be another chance to talk about it. I don't know how long you want your videos to be, but you could make one video essay per topic, too. I do sometimes watch 4-hour long video essays, but I really don't think they need to be a certain length. Every Frame a Painting makes YouTube video essays that are almost always around 8 minutes, some less than 3 minutes. I feel they still make great points and really get people thinking. |
thewiru said: I don't feel that I know enough about some of those subjects. I don't think there's any easy way around this. You'll have to watch the shows you wish to talk about. |
| その目だれの目？ |
| You’ll need a good microphone and headphones for clear audio. I suggest you get those that are priced like only Kanye west can afford them.. Practice reading your script to sound like Eminem. Use video editing software like Adobe ultra Premiere Pro, Final Cut Pro, never use free options like DaVinci Resolve. If you use free options people will say you're not a true anime fan.. Then Combine your voiceover with clips from the anime, images, and text to illustrate your points. Be mindful of copyright issues, these days copyright infringement is considered more serious than murder.. . Background music can enhance the mood, but make sure it's rap.. People only like videos with rap,but the music shouldn’t overpower your voice. Recheck your video for any errors or areas that could be improved like adding less drake and more Kendrick Lamar. Get feedback from real life friends or online anime fans, and you'll be able to tell when anime community come up with a new rating system thesis on how to rate your videos |
RainyEveningsSep 14, 2024 8:36 PM
Reply to Lucifrost
thewiru said:
I don't feel that I know enough about some of those subjects.
I don't feel that I know enough about some of those subjects.
I don't think there's any easy way around this. You'll have to watch the shows you wish to talk about.
| @Lucifrost The issue isn't really the shows, I feel that I know enough about them. The issue is more the "main theme", I don't actually know that much about feminism, nor sociology, nor media history outside of anime and vidya. |
| very strong yapping capabilities. |
 The end of an era. Thank you Wit, Mappa and Isayama. Feeling half happy, half sad. Kawaii waifus and precious best girls <3333 |
| >What's nescessary to make an anime video-essay? All you need is the desire to be heard by the world (AKA an overblown ego, which you already have). |
| I don't think you can make that video with the points you want to talk about. metroid isn't even anime. you have to properly go down the rabbit hole. magical girls aren't about feminism. it's about selling cuteness. cuteness as a weapon, you surely heard some otaku yell cute=justice. you know what idols and magical girls have in common? selling a pure image, frilly clothes, moe personalities. what you're truly looking at are toy commercial cartoons for girls, swarmed by lonely otaku who are sick of reality. magical girl shows were replaced by idol shows. idol anime was replaced by vtubers. I don't think the hero aspect was dominant until precure popularized it, but I could be wrong. |
| 馬鹿げた倫理 全部ガラクタで |
| Having a nice sounding voice helps a lot. |
| Don't make one. Just post a blog about anime. |
| Here is my Pixiv account of my hentai drawings..... https://www.pixiv.net/en/users/104739065 Here is my blog.... https://theendofindustrialcivilization.blogspot.com/?m=1 |
Reply to nyugvo6
I don't think you can make that video with the points you want to talk about.
metroid isn't even anime. you have to properly go down the rabbit hole.
magical girls aren't about feminism. it's about selling cuteness.
cuteness as a weapon, you surely heard some otaku yell cute=justice.
you know what idols and magical girls have in common?
selling a pure image, frilly clothes, moe personalities.
what you're truly looking at are toy commercial cartoons for girls, swarmed by lonely otaku who are sick of reality.
magical girl shows were replaced by idol shows. idol anime was replaced by vtubers.
I don't think the hero aspect was dominant until precure popularized it, but I could be wrong.
metroid isn't even anime. you have to properly go down the rabbit hole.
magical girls aren't about feminism. it's about selling cuteness.
cuteness as a weapon, you surely heard some otaku yell cute=justice.
you know what idols and magical girls have in common?
selling a pure image, frilly clothes, moe personalities.
what you're truly looking at are toy commercial cartoons for girls, swarmed by lonely otaku who are sick of reality.
magical girl shows were replaced by idol shows. idol anime was replaced by vtubers.
I don't think the hero aspect was dominant until precure popularized it, but I could be wrong.
nyugvo6 said: I don't think the hero aspect was dominant until precure popularized it, but I could be wrong. Sailor Moon popularized the hero and spawned a ton of knockoffs throughout the 90s. What Precure did was kill off every magical girl not named Precure. |
| その目だれの目？ |
Reply to Lucifrost
nyugvo6 said:
I don't think the hero aspect was dominant until precure popularized it, but I could be wrong.
I don't think the hero aspect was dominant until precure popularized it, but I could be wrong.
Sailor Moon popularized the hero and spawned a ton of knockoffs throughout the 90s. What Precure did was kill off every magical girl not named Precure.
| @Lucifrost so precure is the gundam of magical girls. it makes sense, but how did they do it? |
| 馬鹿げた倫理 全部ガラクタで |
Reply to nyugvo6
@Lucifrost so precure is the gundam of magical girls. it makes sense, but how did they do it?
| @nyugvo6 I suspect that as with mecha, audiences had begun to tire of magical girls. Pretty Cure got lucky and happened to be the most popular magical girl airing at that time. Also, Toei doesn't have to pay royalties to mangaka since it's anime-original. It is not surprising that the single remaining magical girl franchise belongs to Toei, as they invented the genre in the 60s. Although they didn't make as many as other studios in the 80s, Sailor Moon's success in the 90s allowed Toei to dominate the genre at the hight of its popularity. Basically the same advantage Sunrise has with mecha. |
LucifrostSep 15, 2024 9:30 AM
| その目だれの目？ |
Reply to GinIonSui
Why don't you watch Okada Toshio's videos?
| @GinIonSui Because I don't speak Japanese. |
| Judging from a very few anime essays I ever watched, and that had been recommended for me, you simply need to: sound pretentious; use as much word salad in your essay as it's possible; include random implications that akshually the very basic show you are talking about is full of symbolism and philosophy that would put to shame top tier philosophers; thrashing from time to time a different series, preferably a popular one, to gain more attention. |
| Most video essays are kind of bad, so just go for it. |
| You need a good research in detail about what you want to make a videoessay of, you know, I hate when I see an essay and it gives me the impression of that person not knowing anything or only knowing the bare minimum about the topic they talk about. Also remember to have a good structure, make a good introduction where you put the disjointed ideas and see how they fit together, then in each part or set you develop each idea individually, but don't forget to make it seem like part of a bigger general topic. The ideas you have for your essays are interesting at least for me by the way. |
 MOKUSHI KUSHIMO SHIMOKU KUMOSHI MOSHIKU SHIKUMO. |
| I would suggest NOT going down convoluted concepts and theories like that. When you sit down to watch anitubers what is it you want; and the most common answer to this question is a summary of the latest anime, a reaction, and a recommendation or not- keeping in mind to balance out recommended vs unrecommended But viewers are very picky, so: -If you have too many recommended (or unrecommended) i.e, seems like you just 'love' everything or seems like you don't like anything- lacking balance- people will bail -If you trash popular titles no matter how much you dislike them, most people will bail -If you aren't entertaining in how you speak AND don't make fun and simple jokes that most people will understand, they will bail- -If you don't balance out face-time with cuts from the show or shots of the manga or anything else related- people will bail Only after tackling some seasonal anime and rating videos would I say to dive into themes like this- and still I would keep it simple. The YouTube crowd is fickle. |
Reply to removed-user
Try Watching KaiserBreams video, he is making it on old anime maybe you got inspiration,
| @Kirika_Madeleine I have their video on Metropolis on "Watch Later" for quite some time. Just checked their channel and there are quite some videos that seem interesting, will watch them later. |
| As someone who is sort of in the same position (I have been sitting on a script for a video for about 6 months now) here is my advice. As others have said, honestly the most important thing is to put something out there, you can't expect perfection on the first try. That doesn't mean you shouldn't even try to make it good, but temper your expectations and cut yourself some slack. The next thing to consider is who is the audience for your video. You said that you don't feel like you are particularly knowledgable about the subject matter but the real question is, does it matter for the target audience? To give an example, I once gave a presentation about fusion physics, my bachelors thesis is in fusion physics so I have some background in the matter but in the grand scheme of things I know very little. However, the audience for that presentation was a non-expert audience, that means that in effect I may even have been overqualified to give that presentation. The audience does not care about technical details of the reactors or some esoteric argument that is happening in the field, they care about tangible things and simple to understand yet interesting things. You have to pick the material for the talk accordingly, to fulfill the expectations of the audience. To bring this back to anime, since your essay is broadly speaking about authorship and story analysis those are the things that you should be worrying about, if you want to draw parallels between something like X and carpentry, you don't need to be an expert at carpentry because it is at most incidental to the thesis of the essay, you may even consider cutting that analogy because it does not add anything to the thesis of the video and look for things that do. I do think research is important, but its also important to not get carried away and have the ability to hone in on what you are trying to convey. With regards to your point "I don't know how to make it flow, I only have these disjointed ideas", I think this is actually quite important to get right. I don't know if there is "1 simple trick" to fix this but obviously the first step is recognizing your essay must have structure. I think one way you can think about it is the essay itself is a story, so perhaps one tool in the toolbox to compose an essay that flows is to organize the information you want to get accross in a way as to create "setups" and "payoffs". A rather common pattern I see is "brief intro explaining the subject and what will happen" -> "relevant background information that is tangetially related" -> "relevant contextual information that is directly related" -. "chronological account of thing" -> "discussion and conclusions". Its a simple and effective way to construct a narrative, you start from the least relevant, building to the most relevant things, ultimately putting it all together in a discussion encompassing the whole thing. So I think one thing you can ask yourself is "what is the parent point of this section? Can I create a throughline between my ideas that leads to this point? What points is each idea related to?". I think an idea is only really "disjointed" if it does not address any of the points that you want to make, and in that case, you may consider not including it in your essay. Since you are planning to publish this as a video essay, I also have to point out, you need to think about what the visuals of that video are going to be. Even if you literally only have vaguely related still images with pans and stuff, it is gonna take a long time to edit and its not going to look particularly good (plus I am not sure what happens these days if you just use random images from google search in a video without owning the rights, I want to say it'll probably be fine but you have to consider the possibility of your 40 minute video that you shed blood sweat and tears to make being taken down because you used some random picture). Either way, even 10 minutes is a long time to fill with visuals, and you shouldn't ignore this hurdle until the last second. Another thing I would say is practice speaking to a microphone. If you've never done it before its surprisingly tricky, whether it be keeping the volume steady, sounding natural, speaking clearly, intonating properly etc. its not a skill you can learn in a day. and finally, I think it never hurts to look at what other people are doing. Watch a super eyepatch wolf (or some other video essay creator) video and take notes of how he structured the video contents, take notes on how you could do the same. good luck :) |
| try to have your statements open to interpretations instead of cold hard facts. truth hurts for most people. mostly focus on the fun highlights cause most viewers wants to chill unless you already have your dedicated fanbase ready for tough subject. try not to sound monotone, or try to imitate anyone with above 100k subscribers as they usually speak in a somewhat engaging manner. break it down into sections. hardest part is probably audio or visual content, same picture for a minute would already be a turn off for many as yt is a very competitive environment. try not to get copyright claim |
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