Video essay

A video essay is a piece of video content that, much like a written essay, advances an argument. Video essays take advantage of the structure and language of film to advance their arguments.[1]

Popularity

While the medium has its roots in academia, it has grown dramatically in popularity with the advent of the internet and video sharing platforms like YouTube and Vimeo.[2] While most of such videos are intended for entertainment, some argue that they can have an academic purpose as well.[3] In the classroom, video essays have many educational applications including conversation openers, active viewing opportunities, copyright lessons, and assessment opportunities.[3]

Notable video essayists

Frequently cited[4][5][6][7][8] examples of video essayists and series include Every Frame a Painting (a series on the grammar of film editing by Tony Zhou and Taylor Ramos) and Lindsay Ellis (an American media critic, film critic, YouTuber, and author formerly known as The Nostalgia Chick). Websites like StudioBinder, MUBI, and Fandor also have contributing writers providing their own video essays. One such contributor, Kevin B. Lee, helped assert video essays' status as a legitimate form of film criticism as Chief Video Essayist for Fandor from 2011-2016.[9] Other video essayists include Korean-American filmmaker Kogonada, British film scholar Catherine Grant, and French media researcher Chloé Galibert-Laîné.[10]

In 2020, curator Cydnii Wilde Harris, along with Will DiGravio and Kevin B. Lee, collaboratively curated The Black Lives Matter Video Essay Playlist, highlighting the medium's activist potential.[11] Because the video essay format is digestible yet often emotionally impactful and can be created without requiring expensive equipment, it has served as a crucial tool for filmmakers and community organizers who have been marginalized from mainstream film criticism and media production.[12]

Criticism

Some[13] have argued that essays from YouTube personalities, while well-produced, can be gussied up opinion pieces and the analysis of said videos can be taken as fact by the viewer due to their convincing academic deliveries.[14][15]

Studies

In 2014, MediaCommons and Cinema Journal, the official publication of the Society for Cinema Studies, joined to create [in]Transition, the first journal devoted exclusively to peer reviewed publication of videographic scholarly work. This journal is designed not only as a means to present selected videographic work, but to create a context for understanding it – and validating it – as a new mode of scholarly writing for the discipline of cinema and media studies and related fields. Since 2015 under a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, and under the auspices of Middlebury’s Digital Liberal Arts Summer Institute, Professors Jason Mittell, Christian Keathley and Catherine Grant have organized a two-week workshop with the aim to explore a range of approaches by using moving images as a critical language and to expand the expressive possibilities available to innovative humanist scholars. Every year the workshop is attended by 15 scholars working in film & media studies or a related field, whose objects of study involve audio-visual media, especially film, television, and other new digital media forms.[16] In 2018, Tecmerin: Revista de Ensayos Audiovisuales began publication as another peer-reviewed academic publication exclusively dedicated to videographic criticism. The same year Will DiGravio launched the Video Essay Podcast, featuring interviews with prominent video essayists.[10]

References
  1. Bernstein, Paula (3 May 2016). "What is a Video Essay? Creators Grapple with a Definition". Filmmaker Magazine. Retrieved 2017-07-05.
  2. Bresland, John. "On the Origin of the Video Essay". Blackbird: an online journal of literature and the arts. Department of English at Virginia Commonwealth University & New Virginia Review, Inc. ISSN 1540-3068. Retrieved 2017-07-05.
  3. Higgin, Tanner (2018-01-23). "Why and How to Use YouTube Video Essays in Your Classroom". Common Sense Education. Retrieved 2018-03-25.
  4. Kaye, Jeremy (2016-01-17). "5 filmmakers that have mastered the art of the Video Essay". Medium. Retrieved 2017-07-05.
  5. Liptak, Andrew (2016-08-01). "This filmmaker deep-dives into what makes your favorite cartoons tick". The Verge. Retrieved 2017-07-05.
  6. Oller, Jacob (2017-12-14). "The 17 Best Video Essays of 2017". Film School Rejects. Retrieved 2020-12-24.
  7. Shields, Meg (2018-12-13). "The Best Video Essays of 2018". Film School Rejects. Retrieved 2020-12-24.
  8. Lee, Kevin B.; Verdeure, David (10 January 2010). "The best video essays of 2017". British Film Institute. Retrieved 2020-12-24.
  9. "Kevin B. Lee". British Film Institute. Retrieved 2021-02-01.
  10. Avissar, Ariel; DiGravio, Will; Lee, Grace (14 January 2020). "The best video essays of 2019". British Film Institute. Retrieved September 4, 2020.
  11. Harris, Cydnii Wilde (2020-08-13). "Video Essays That Address Race, Inequality, and the Movement for Black Lives". Hyperallergic. Retrieved 2021-02-01.
  12. "Seen and Heard: Selections from the Black Lives Matter Video Essay Playlist". Open City Documentary Festival. Retrieved 2021-02-01.
  13. Neilan, Dan (2018-04-24). "Here's a video essay about why video essays are bad". AV Club. Retrieved 2020-12-24.
  14. no last name, Guy (2019-08-19). "When Video Essays Stop Being Essays and Don't Need to Be Videos". Medium. Retrieved 2020-12-24.
  15. Stewart, Will (30 October 2017). "The swift and plaguing rise of YouTube film critique". The Michigan Daily. Retrieved 2020-12-24.
  16. "What is Videographic Criticism?". The Middlebury site network. Middlebury College. Retrieved 5 August 2020.

See also
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