General Web Series Thread (YouTubers, LPs, Vloggers Etc)

[Hobo]

I figured, why not? I know a few people on EWB like watching nerds with video cameras get paid to riff on movies and video games so why not have a thread?

 

I'll start by talking about the ones I enjoy the most:

 

Oancitizen - has a show called Brows Held High where he talks about Art House films, his greatest work so far as been a musical review of The Man Who Fell to Earth and a fantastic episode on Angels in America. He's incredibly smart, witty and a damn good singer. Also he swoons over Stephen Fry.

 

Phelous - reviews direct to DVD-horror movies, likes to make fun of the tropes of internet reviewers (which includes a 'storyline' where he got turned into a cat and reviewed Meow-mix, and constantly having himself get 'killed' at the end of reviews, it's all very self aware). Birdemic is probably one of his best episodes.

 

The Cinema Snob - reviews exploitation and 70s porn. The character is based around Roger Eberts disdain for slasher movies. Brad Jones, who plays The Snob's favorite movie is Caligula and most of the time he's just riffing on movies he actually likes because he's a fan of exploitation films.

 

Obscurus Lupa, Nostalgia Chick, Linkara, Todd in The Shadows and a few others as well, I quite like. It's not always true that they bash things they don't like. NChick has a Masters in film and makes some interesting remarks, she's also a pretty strong feminist. Lupa is just goofy, and loves hokey Kung Fu movies and B-action movies and will generally tell you if something is worth watching.

 

I also quite enjoy NChick, Todd in the Shadows, Linkara Film Brain and Mike Jeavons. Not so much The Nostaglia Critic and Spoony though, I tend to get drawn more to the reviewers who don't just have nerd rage and reference jokes as their go-to settings.

 

In news, the TGWTG 4th year anniversary is in post production and the only details out so far on it are that they need animators and there is a different French guy in this one, as SadPanda takes the spot normally occupied by Benzaie!

[SRN]

As mentioned in our secret club for all the awesome people, I follow Yahtzee quite closely. Both his Zero Punctuation stuff and all the other things he does. I also watch a whole bunch of Anthony Fantano but he has such a hefty pace that I can't keep up with all of his videos. Yahtzee I watch because of "lol, gaming sucks" and Anthony Fantano I watch because I am dirty hipster.

[KONGO]

JonTron's Bubsy review was golden. I've watched some Yahtzee and it's entertaining. Other than that, I don't really know anybody.

[Bobfoc]

I'd highly recommend Harry Plinkett's film reviews. There aren't all that many of them and they're rather long, but they strike a great balance between comedy and genuinely insightful analysis. If you've got a couple of hours to kill, I'd recommend taking a look at his Star Wars Prequel reviews.

[ADG]

I'd highly recommend Harry Plinkett's film reviews. There aren't all that many of them and they're rather long, but they strike a great balance between comedy and genuinely insightful analysis. If you've got a couple of hours to kill, I'd recommend taking a look at his Star Wars Prequel reviews.

Good Lord, I got 12 seconds into a review and had to turn it off due to the dude's voice.

[Your Mom]

Only one I have heard of at all is Yahtzee. And I guess Spoony because he was mentioned in the other thread. Yahtzee is funny though

[Hobo]

Obscurus Lupa has had some trouble with Zen Filmmaker Scott Shaw (for Zen filmaker read guy who makes unscripted poorly shot and edited films, excuses his laziness with a theory he calls Zen Film making). She had done a small documentary style video which was made to set up future reviews of his movies. Then she reviewed his movie Max Hell Frog Warrior, which was the third in the Frogtown series (as in the Roddy Piper movie Hell Comes to Frogtown).

She blogged about it:

http://www.scottshaw.com/suckerpunch.html

If you read the above article, you’ll get part of the story, and perhaps that’ll help you get Scott’s perspective on this. I’m going to detail a little bit more here to flesh things out a bit, but let me preface this with the fact that I DO NOT want you to contact Scott Shaw on my behalf, and this is not a cry to get my “army” after him. Just in case Scott, his “webmaster” or his “attorney” should stumble upon this.

A little over a week ago, I was contacted by Scott Shaw on Facebook about my Scott Shaw and Zen Filmmaking video, The Roller Samurai Vampire Slayers, and my Max Hell Frog Warrior review. He said he thought the videos were amusing, if not slanted, and he asked about the use of his music in the Roller Samurai parody. Obviously since it was a parody of his work, that’s why we used his score, but because he continually has brought it up, I apologize for our use of it. I also appreciated that he took the time to plug our videos on his website. He even invited Phelan and I to chat with him sometime if we’re ever in his area. All in all, he went above and beyond to be friendly and prove that he wasn’t such a bad guy after all. And I told him so, that maybe I got a skewed view from his books and he wasn’t the person I painted him to be.

I asked Scott to clarify on the facts I got wrong in my Zen Video, so if I was spreading misinformation I could correct it. I really do want to make sure that I’m telling people the correct information. For those who want to know, he brought up the fact that Pocket Ninjas is not a Zen film and he was not a part of it save for a small clip from a previous movie, I got the location wrong for Frogtown News, and Donald G Jackson did hire a bodyguard during Rock N. Roll Cops, but it was not to protect him from Shaw (I misunderstood what I had read in the book). From this, I continued to talk at length with Scott, and though we both disagreed on some of the things the other did (I disagree with some of his methods, he thinks my reviews were slanted and didn’t like how much footage was used), we were on pretty friendly terms. So I thought, anyway. I thought it was really cool that he was talking to me, he even asked for copies of the films Phelan and I made for his archives. I really dug that he took the time to say anything.

That being said, a lot of his comments were a bit passive aggressive, and at times condescending. I’m not sure how he was intending some of the things he said, but I appreciated how he was handling it for the most part, he seemed to have a sense of humor about everything. However, there were still comments about how I was a pretty girl on the internet and had to “know what I was doing” and that geek boys would come to “defend my honor” because of the videos, hence why he was getting hate mail. I don’t know at what point I ever said in the videos that my honor needed defending, or made anything personally about me. He also made mention, like he says in the article, of an attorney he talked to who was mad about the videos. But he claimed to have talked him down, but to be careful of how I did things on the net, particularly with how I used footage in the videos. He also claimed that I brought the sales of Max Hell down to 0% and I personally killed the sales of the film. How did he get this data and how would he have it after less than a month of the review being online? I don’t know, but I suspect he thinks that I’m just a stupid, pretty girl on the internet. He likes to mention I’m a young girl on the internet a lot, I guess.

The reviews are critiques, parody, and transformative works, and there’s nothing illegal about doing them. Shaw seems to have this mentality that only positive reviews are okay, otherwise you “don’t get it,” are “jealous,” or “hurting the sales of the film.” And apparently you can’t critique a film unless you’ve made one. I’ve stated my thoughts about this before, so I won’t elaborate. He also seemed to have no problem with a gentleman quoting his books on youtube without permission, or someone posting his photos online. But those were positive videos.

Scott also offered to send me any of his or Donald G Jackson’s movies for free. I told him it was a generous offer, but I would prefer to purchase them since I wouldn’t feel right about getting them for free and then reviewing them. Scott proceeded to say I was putting him in the status of a “whore” and “paying to fuck him.” But jokingly, of course. We were friends, after all.

So, a little bit ago, the plugs to our videos disappeared from his website (though his news changes all the time, it’s temporary), and a new article appeared about copyright and stealing other people’s works. I found the timing on this conspicuous, and also his mention of reviews on the internet where people take his work and intermingle themselves with the footage to profit from it seemed oddly specific. There was also a new copyright warning at the bottom of the page. Naturally I assumed this was about me, and I tweeted about it. Several people took it upon themselves to e-mail him, and Shaw took this as me telling them to attack him because of what I tweeted. Suddenly there was link at the bottom of the article that wasn’t there before, crediting it to his book Scribbles on the Restroom wall. The article also had a new sentence added to it and the copyright warning was gone. Maybe he edits his articles after reposting them, I don’t know.

He contacted me on facebook again, to ask why I was attacking him and also why I hadn’t sent the films yet (not that there would be time for them to get to him yet, but I’m not particularly inclined to send them now). He claimed I should stop my “fan attack” and that he didn’t read the e-mails anyway, he was forwarded them by his webmaster, who put up the article about stealing and took down the links. He’s too busy, he told me, to read them all, and worry about this kind of thing. I messaged him back saying I thought the article was oddly specific, but maybe the way he came off was differently than he intended. I said I did not tell anyone to attack him, I hoped I was wrong, and told him how passive aggressive he came off sometimes. I said best of luck, and that was it.

So, the Sucker Punch article was the last thing I’ve heard from him. And, I suppose, that’s my story. Make of it what you will, and please, please don’t try to “defend my honor.” I just want both sides of the story out. Hopefully it’s not too slanted or one-sided.

And if you’re reading this, Scott, best of luck. I know you’re a busy guy. That’s why you’re focusing on a girl on the internet.

This is life.

This is Zen.

This is Obscurus Lupa signing out…

Apparently since then she's been forced to take down the three videos she made about Shaw (her documentary, a parody of Zen Films she did with Phelous and the Max Hell video). It is rather similar to the time she and The Nostalgia Critic both had to take down their respective episodes on The Room because Tommy Wiseau threatened to sue. The episodes were later reposted.

And just because I didn't do it in the opening post, I will link to some of the others I mentioned above:

Oancitizen's Brows Held High, Linkara's Atop the Fourth Wall and The Cinema Snob

Lupa has uploaded her documentary on Scott Shaw again, it's interesting. Plus I think Joe Estevez is mentioned!

Scott Shaw and Zen Filmmaking

[SRN]

Oh yeah, I also catch the odd episode of "Breakfast at Sulimay's". It is a YouTube thing were three pensioneers review modern indie, rock, metal, hip hop, whatever music, just one track from a new album or something. It is funny to watch (also because the lady person apparently loves Limp Bizkit).

[Hobo]

Linkara has posted a new History of The Power Rangers on his blog. Even though I am not familiar with any Power Rangers after Zeo and a bit of Turbo. I do enjoy those videos!

[Hobo]

The Nostalgia Critic's recent episode on A Simple Wish is kinda worth watching for the ending. It has a beautiful cameo!

[Thrilla]

I have never considered watching someone review something on YouTube whether it be wrestling, tv or film. Is it actually worth it? I imagine them all to be incredibly cringe-worthy.

[KONGO]

Straight reviews are generally pretty bad as they're from amateurs with no camera presence. Yahtzee and JonTron, at least, are focused more on using the review as a comedy medium. That style can be pretty good.

[Hobo]

For the good ones, who actually put time and effort into scripting, researching and editing videos? It's worth it, if you're a fan of riffing, because at it's heart that is what most internet reviewing is. Because the best of the comedy reviewers are the ones who just riff on movies for 10-5mins.

Some go as far as 20 minutes and that can be a bit much, if they're going for a just jokes(a main fault of Nostalgia Critic), but if they have some well reasoned, researched material to balance out the jokes I think 20mins is fine (see Oancitizen or The Nostalgia Chick) because you actually come away having learned something.

[DAv]

For the good ones, who actually put time and effort into scripting, researching and editing videos? It's worth it, if you're a fan of riffing, because at it's heart that is what most internet reviewing is. Because the best of the comedy reviewers are the ones who just riff on movies for 10-5mins.

Some go as far as 20 minutes and that can be a bit much, if they're going for a just jokes(a main fault of Nostalgia Critic), but if they have some well reasoned, researched material to balance out the jokes I think 20mins is fine (see Oancitizen or The Nostalgia Chick) because you actually come away having learned something.

A good one for this would be Spoony's overview of the Ultima series. He grew up with them and tends to be far more praiseworthy than normal, albeit still pointing out the flaws along the way. Most of the videos in that series clock up to around about ten-fifteen minutes except for his look into Ultima VIII which goes on for about half an hour and is the most negative so far. For general riffing on games though, Spoony also did a LP of Phantasmagoria 2 which came out hilarious. About five hours of gameplay and starts slow but really funny as it goes along.

[Hobo]

His let's play of Ripper was wonderful too, now that I remember it.

[GA!]

Not a fan of his anymore, but I did enjoy Spoony's SWAT and Phantasmagoria videos at the time.

[apsham]

I used to think that the AVGN was the cream of the crop and no one could get any better but I started watching Peanut Butter Gamer... which I quite liked, and then I started to watch JonTron off that and I was pretty entertained. Then I found Continue and it instantly reminded me of my favorite show of all time, Broken Pixels that sadly had to end because of 1UP being sold off ages ago, etc etc. The more I watch the reviewers that just like to shoot the shit and make fun of silly things in the game, I kind of want to watch the AVGN less and less.

[TKz]

For straight up reviews and looks at new games, I always go with TotalBiscuit. Great stuff. I love watching Yogscast but they're not really reviewers at all, more just two fools playing games they're not very good at which results in general hilarity. Really enjoy JonTron, The Completionist, OMFGCata (which is more in the vein of Yogscast because Jesse is hilarious. The TotalBiscuit/Jesse Cox Terraria play through is hilarious). Recently started checking out Angry Joe Show, not sure how keen I am on that.

Oh and BelatedMedia is pretty good, his best was the "Let's make Star Wars: Phantom Menace not suck." video.

[apsham]

Yeah Angry Joe is.. ugh. I can't stand that guy.

[TKz]

Yeah Angry Joe is.. ugh. I can't stand that guy.

He was really good in the latest Game Station Podcast with TB, Jesse and Dodger. Not so sure he's great on his own.

I like Dodger during the podcasts too, thinking about it. But I've never gotten around to checking out her solo stuff.