Vanity Fair has a whole series of these videos so I will definitely be posting more of these. I saw this one a while back shortly after it was posted on February 25, 2020.

In this video director Rian Johnson not only breaks down a scene from Knives Out, he also gives you a few behind the scenes nuggets. If you are a fan of the movie I highly recommend this video. If you have not seen the movie go and do that today.

Patrick Willems’ YouTube channel has undergone a bit of a tone change during this time of pandemic but he is still creating insightful film commentary that is worth watching.

One of his latest video essays is on Greta Gerwig’s adaptation of Little Women. She has done something with this adaptation that I think should be taught as a masterclass case study on how to find the true spirit of a piece of work and adapting it in a way that plays to the strength of the new medium, in this case, film.

The ponysmasher YouTube channel is owned by David F. Sandberg, director of Shazam!, Lights Out, and Annabelle Creation.

I found his YouTube channel because of a video he made titled, “The Problem Solving of Filmmaking” which explains problems that he encountered while making Shazam!. What I did not realize at the time was that he was also into making simple short films with his wife and posting them to YouTube.

Before you watch this making-of video, please watch the full short film. Trust me you will be amazed and inspired.

This is a great video to help demonstrate how hard and rewarding it can be to make a movie. A lot of times things that you may not like about a movie are not intentional and the director may not like it either. Other times obstacles can create happy accidents that improve a film in ways unforseen.

David F. Sandberg created this great 5 min video breaking down one scene in Shazam! and the problems presented to him during the shoot. I first saw this awhile back but I am just now getting around to posting about it.

IGN’s Watch From Home (WFH) series did a watch along with the writers of Rouge One, Gary Whitta and Chris Weitz.

These watch along’s are really becoming fun and I hope IGN and others continue to record these. It’s bringing back one of the best things about DVD’s (commentary tracks) to an audience that is moving exclusively to streaming where these features are usually not available.

Now I just need Plex to enable this to work in Plex for me. Hint, hint. Also, if you are not following Gary Whitta on Twitter he’s worth following.

So technically it’s not a video essay but its close enough and this is so freaking cool!

Zach Snyder went into his home theater and live streamed a directors commentary for BvS. I am not a huge fan of BvS but with more distance I have come to appreciate what Zach was trying to do. So while the whole DCEU approach did not work for me I can respect the love, care and craft.

It took me a second to sync up with Zach but it worked. I still need to go back and finish it but hey it is 3 hours long!!

I watched this before but after watching the debacle that is Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker I need to make sure I post this video essay by my guy Patrick. I have friends that disagree with me on this (dUG!) but I love this movie and as I get further away from it that love grows. My disappointment with Rise of Skywalker is directly related to the missed opportunity by not expanding on The Last Jedi but instead taking (what feels like) a shit all over.

OMG! Patrick nailed it. I was a huge fan of The Matrix and wanted to love the sequels just as much but I didn’t. I did not dislike them by any means. It just felt like the movie I wanted was hidden somewhere in those sequels. Patrick has perfectly contextualize what I was feeling and what I was hoping for in the Matrix sequels. Can someone use amazing editing skills and make this happen??? Please internet respond like I know you can.

I was talking with my son about understanding how to breakdown a movie right around the same time that I found this amazing video essay on subplots. I am a huge fan of Lessons from the Screenplay. If you want a good understanding on how to break a movie into its individual parts this is the channel to watch.

In this case my son and are were trying to get a good handle on how to break a movie into a three act structure. Understanding subplots is the next level and this video does an amazing job explaining it.

This is probably my favorite video essay ever. It’s so on the nose that it will change how you view music biopics forever. So this is a warning. If you love music biopics such as Bohemian Rhapsody, Ray, Walk the Line, and others and do not want to know the truth then do not watch this (but really you should).