[Weekly Update] Burnout Directors

Currently experiencing the stacked debuff of jet-lags and daylight savings. It's... not fun.

Also, oh my god, the texts on my computer is so big. I'm so used to writing updates on my laptops during my travel, I've completely forgotten how it feels to be working on a desktop.

CHANNEL UPDATE

Let's talk about plans for 2025.

For 2025, I'll be pursuing an additional creative career outside of YouTube. I can't tell you anything about it at this moment. But at least for me, this is an exciting opportunity. Sadly, that means I won't be able to keep up with our usual bi-weekly upload schedule. But I'll make sure to have at least one video per month.

That also means we'll have the chance to experiment with longer form videos. Nothing crazy, I'm not doing 2 hours long videos. But 20 minutes seem like a good change of pace, while still keeping everything concise, just the way you and I like it.

Should my pursue prove fruitful, it'll eventually free me from the need for sponsorships, and have no worry about videos being copyright claimed. We can cover a much wider range of topics, too. In the meantime, thank you for sticking with our Patreon. Your direct financial support is the reason I can do any form of career transition.

If that sounds like I'm slowly quitting YouTube, I assure you I'm not. It is so much fun to be doing videos and talking to you all, there is no way I'll just give it up. I look forward to another year of video making. Hopefully, we can continue to be entertaining to you!

MEDIA TALK

Oh look, media talk is back.

During my flight back to Canada, I was too exhausted to be adventurous with my film choices. Instead of going for niche films or intellectual works of art, I made the admittedly very stupid decision of watching Aquaman 2. And My god, I can't believe it was directed by the same person.

Throughout the entire film, I find myself keep thinking the director must've abandoned all restrain. It's one of those movies that looks a lot of fun on set, but came out absolutely terribly.

For example, there's a surprising amount of real sets for a superhero movies. The Stone steps and ruins resemble sets from the 2000s. They are cheesy but charming. If I'm the director, I would be having a blast making a movie in this environment. But the result is a set and visual that clashes hard with its CGI filled fantasy.

Similarly, actors are rarely in character, and are so often acting as themselves. They are having fun roleplaying like a DnD party, but it doesn't make for a good movie to spectate.

What I mean is, it seems like director James Wan wasn't looking to make a good movie, but simply have a good time while earning his pay on set. He's, perhaps, trying to rediscover the joy of filmmaking, by experimenting and trying out things that he likes. It's understandable, since working in for Hollywood studio is known to be soul crushing.

We've seen other directors do the same. Notably Lana Wachowski with Matrix 4, Todd Phillips with Joker 2, and to a slightly less extend, Peter Jackson with the Hobbit. These directors, facing burnout, either intentionally sabotage their assignment, or intentionally minimized their workload. Either way, their goal wasn't to make a good movie, but to answer the studio that hired them.

Of course, all of this is just my speculation, but I'm rather unreasonably confident about this guess. Maybe I just know too many filmmakers in a similar state, or maybe deep down, we all know how rusted and tired the Hollywood machine has become. Either way, grinding the artists for art turns out to be unsustainable, and we are likely at the end of this wave of output.

What will happen next? Honestly I'm not sure. The US is in such an unpredictable place right now politically and socially, any prediction just seems equally likely.

Anyway, that's the update for this week. It's good to be back, and I should have a new video for you shortly. See you soon!