The previous 'marna had a brilliant thread on movie recaps. I consider movie recaps to a constrained form of video essay; so to build back better I'd like to discuss video essays in general.
The Rules of Content
I apologize if this all sounds nonsensical or disjointed. It's a collection of many disparate observations that I haven't bothered to tightly reconcile with each other.
The Rules of Content
- Content is (usually) meta-media. Making original work is hard. Commenting on work that already exists is much easier, and allows you to piggyback off of said work's existing audience.
- Content is "chill". Strong emotions, passionate speech, daring conclusions: a good recipe for a meaningful life, not so much for engaging content. The optimal character for a "content creator" to play is that of a sage calmly imparting their wisdom.
- Content is detached. You don't want the viewer to be personally affected by, or invested in, the content. That will impair their ability to detach from $CURRENT_CONTENT and re-attach to the next content in the autoplay queue. If your audience is primarily Zoomers, you don't have to put much thought into this; Zoomers are already very good at viewing things from a "detached" perspective, because they tend to think of themselves and their immediate social group as a small enclave in hostile space.
I apologize if this all sounds nonsensical or disjointed. It's a collection of many disparate observations that I haven't bothered to tightly reconcile with each other.