ah the video essay a form of video content made ever so popular by YouTube channels such as nerd rider and every frame a painting 2017 has seen an explosion of these so-called video essays on YouTube now that the term is here to stay let's consider what a video essay is and could be if you are familiar with the concept you probably associate to video essay when audiovisual voiceover commentary about movies and TV shows comes from the bad sleep well and it focuses on two things squares and triangles that's because channels such as nerdwriter and every frame a painting gave tremendous popularity thanks to their insightful and entertaining video essays about cinema this is why many so-called video essays on YouTube in an attempt to mimic the success of these channels primarily deal with subjects related to film in fact while sifting through the academic research which I will link below there was no consensus that the video essay genre is limited to TV and film actually the nerdwriter channel has produced video essays on every team you can think of from politics to art tech fidget spinners and so on so this begs the question if any topic qualifies what are the criteria for a good video essay the video essay finds its roots in the essay film genre in his groundbreaking article Philip potty attempts to define the essay film as he knew it in the early 1990s in his field the essay film is at its core an essay namely a written piece of work that is a search to find what one takes about something the essay film therefore is a visual representation of the retina see and must comply with the following criteria the essay film must have words either spoken subtitles or intertitles this cancels out other popular video genres on YouTube such as remixes and Supercuts it must also be eloquent and well-written third of all it must offer a single perspective and lopat is view a mere compilation contrasting ideas does not constitute an essay while I personally see no harm in collaboration like the famous duo Tony and Taylor from every frame of painting I understand that the argument in the video essay should represent a single point of view for the argument should be well reasoned and thought out so this would cancel out all rants on YouTube rights the fifth and last criterion is a strong personal point of view this is an interesting one because the personal view implies that objective discourse about the subject does not qualify as a video essay as such in other words pure explain our selves idios like the ones produced by Fox and Aesop science do not qualify as a video essay even though they sometimes share the same visual elements and aesthetics although the video essay arose from the essay film the former puts more emphasis on critical thinking in the words of the well known video essays Gavin believed the more thinking on the subjects thing can be discerned in a video the more it can qualify as a video essay the video essay in my opinion is such a powerful genre because it uses audio visual elements like news articles pictures movie clips interviews music to present an idea or argument in a way that a written essay never could by combining words with visuals new insights emotions and meanings to an argument can emerge this explains why video essays worked so well in the context of film criticism sits down again we get a very simple triangle two sets of eyes in the back with the stolen money as it makes sense to actually show the cinematic lips when constructing your arguments the same logic applies to video essays about game design like the game theorists for example ultimately video essays are a fascinating form of entertainment because they convey a personal opinion in today's day and age there is an abundance of information available so there's definitely a need for critical concise and entertaining analyses this defines a good video essay in my opinion it conveys personal thoughts and ideas on a certain topic by drawing from a myriad of information resources now there's just one question left ask would you qualify this video as a video essay leave a comment below thank you so much for watching and I'll see you in the next one bye by the way a list of my favorite video essays is coming up so consider subscribing if you don't want to miss it 5 [Music] you [Music]