Film Analysis Recommendations

[Achtung Englander]

The great thing about YouTube are the number of really excellent fan produced videos that do a deep dive into film genre. Here are the ones I recommend if you are into that sort of thing

HaphazardStuff - Recon Remake. I really like this guy's output. His website is a weekly visit for me. Got in touch with the guy and he came across as a good guy.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... 5vdSwxjoaN

Just Write
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCx0L2Z ... sAXb8IXpQg

RedLetterMedia
https://www.youtube.com/user/RedLetterM ... d=1&view=0

George Rockall Schmidt
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCG5h8y ... d=2&view=0

Entertain The Elk
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-gjzn ... s6dz89qLbg

Cinema Tyler
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7GV-3 ... rren0QMKMg

[Wrathbone]

Nerdwriter

More than just films, and his insights are brief, well-presented and interesting. Highly recommended.

https://www.youtube.com/user/Nerdwriter1/videos


The other critical analysis person I followed for about two years was recently revealed to be a wife-abuser, fraud and general scumbag, and promptly retreated from the internet when his ex-wife presented a tonne of evidence against him. As such, I'm in the market for something similar sans the scumbag.

[Raid]

Lessons from the Screenplay is one we watch.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCErSSa ... xmFpdjG9Jw

[Strudel]

Nerdwriter1 is very good, though I feel the quality of his videos have declined over the last year or so. Certainly his older stuff is really fantastic though. Also favourites of mine are:

Now you see it - This channel is generally about broader themes in film making rather than individual films, but there are some great videos in there that give you a real appreciation of the craft.

Lessons from the Screenplay - These are often an interesting insight into what the script writer was trying to achieve and how directors and actors used that information in their performance and where they changed things and how that influences the final product.

Every frame a painting - An absolutely fantastic look at how scenes and movies are filmed and how that influences your perception of what's going on. Particular favourites include "In praise of chairs" which goes into how the types of chairs that characters sit in tell you about the story, and "Silence of the Lambs - who wins the scene" which is a really great breakdown of Lecter and Starling's first meeting.

[Strudel]

Damn it, beaten to Lessons from the Screenplay. Curse my slow typing!

[Achtung Englander]

great recommendations - thanks

[Strudel]

Just Write, Red Letter Media, and Cinema Tyler are all on my subscriptions too but I've not got round to watching more than a couple of videos from each so it's good to see they look like the quality remains high. Looking forward to trying out some of the others as well.

[Achtung Englander]

Remake Recon is genius. Its a real shame a lot of this content is not aired on telly as it is far better than the "film analysis" we get from Mark Kermode who never really delves into anything remotely interesting and talks about films that are either very popular or so obscure even a PhD in film studies will probably not have seen them.....or the Exorcist.

[Strudel]

I can't believe I missed Sideways, which is more about music, but music within film. I'm not sure why, but one of his best videos isn't listed any more but this should work:



As much as I may have disliked Rogue One as a film, there are many great technical achievements in it and this is one of them.

[Jez]

That was a great watch not only because it showed the amazing film Rogue One but because it was fascinating to learn how score directors think when they make a score.

Well posted Sir.

[Strudel]

Yeah, it's really fascinating to learn how they approach a project and how they work with the director etc. to build their part of the story. To be fair, the same can be said for most people involved in a film, but the soundtracks are particularly interesting for me (most of my music collection is film/TV/game soundtracks and classical).

The best experience I've ever had of a behind-the-scenes look at a film though was watching Interstellar live at the Royal Albert Hall. The friend who had booked the tickets got an email about a week before the performance saying that although the film started at 7:30pm, there would be a talk beforehand from 6pm for any ticket holders who could get there earlier and "you won't be disappointed". There was talk that Chris Nolan and Hans Zimmer were going to be chatting about the score so we got there for the talk of course. It ended up being about a 75 minute discussion about what it was like making the film with Chris Nolan, Hans Zimmer, Michael Caine, Brian Cox, Stephen Hawking, and Kip Thorne (the astrophysicist who did the wormhole physics calculations). Being a physics professor, Thorne of course gave a powerpoint presentation at one point.

To watch and listen to that, and then see the film with that epic soundtrack played live was just amazing. And all for £32.

[Jez]

That would have been a great talk for sure.