Hello everyone. The channel passed another milestone recently.
Five million subscribers this time around which is just absurd.
By sheer coincidence, it also happened on the day the new video was uploaded.
For those of you who are new to the channel,
I usually do a Q&A around this time to sort of celebrate, I guess, and that's what this is.
I received thousands of questions so without further ado let's try and answer a few of them.
Q: What is your stance on reaction channels reacting to your content
and essentially reuploading it?
A: Okay, so let's start with this one.
For those unaware, there's been this ongoing debate for several years now
regarding what's known as reaction content.
The appeal of which is to watch someone watch and react to other people's videos.
After some of these channels reacted to my latest video and videos made by a few other creators,
the debate started all over again which is what this question is referring to.
I don't mind people reacting to my videos
but I do mind when they play the entirety of my video.
A face cam in the corner or the occasional interruption does nothing to address that issue.
My video is still being played from beginning to end in someone else's stream or video.
It's neither ethical nor necessary to feature the entirety of someone else's work
just to provide commentary on that work.
If movie review channels can function without playing the entire movie then
so, too, can reaction channels.
Indeed, some of them do precisely that.
You know, they'll play a brief clip of what they're watching, followed by their reaction.
Even streamers can do things, like, only show the progress bar,
thereby forcing viewers to seek out the original video
to sync up and watch along with the streamer.
Or, you know, they could do the bare minimum and ask for permission.
Something that none of the major reaction channels have ever done
when they've streamed or reuploaded my videos.
I highly recommend this video by the channel LegalEagle
that goes through this whole thing in more detail with a focus on the legality of it all.
And there are plenty of other videos on this topic as well.
I don't really know what should be done about this
because there's clearly an audience for this type of content.
Banning it outright might work
or, you know, it might just push that audience to a platform that does allow for reaction content.
I think the ideal solution would be for YouTube and other platforms
to implement some sort of reaction feature.
Perhaps when you click on a reaction video, you're taken to the watch page of the video being reacted to
but with elements of the person reacting being layered on top.
Something like that and presumably with some sort of revenue split system as well.
But, I don't know.
It's a complicated topic that's certainly not going to be solved by me right here and now.
But, to answer you question,
no I don't want people to stream or reupload the entirety of my videos.
Q: Why did this video take so long? What struggles did you face while making this video?
Will other videos take as long as well, from here on out?
A: Oh no, this won't become the norm.
I was quite distracted much of last year because I had to move to a new apartment very unexpectedly.
It was incredible stressful for a long time which made it difficult to focus on the video
but, fortunately, it all worked out in the end.
On top of that, this is an incredibly complicated topic to research
due to the sheer volume of information that's out there.
I sometimes see this misconception that because a topic is well-known,
that means it's easier to research.
Oh, how I wish that were true.
The easiest topics to research are the ones that fall somewhere in between obscure and well-known.
Obscure topics suffer from a lack of information.
Well-known from an overabundance.
Literally millions of pages have been written about this case so,
yeah, it took a minute to get through even a fraction of that.
Making all the 3D environments took a few months,
although that was a lot of fun actually so it didn't feel like it took that long.
I worked with voice actors for the first time which took a while to get the hang off.
I started editing in April, was done by June.
The video should've been done by then but I had some issues with rendering so
it got delayed until July instead.
Oh, and I made some music along the way.
It's on my music channel if you wanna take a listen.
Anyway, the next video should be out in, well, less time than it took to make the JFK video.
Q: How do you stay motivated on making huge projects?
A: Well, it always helps to divide the project into less daunting tasks.
I'm not reading a book today, I'm reading 50 pages.
I'm not writing a 10 000 words script, I'm writing a paragraph or two.
I'm not editing an hour long video, I'm making a minute long intro sequence.
By doing things in incremental chunks like that, it's honestly quite easy to stay motivated.
It also helps to enjoy what you're doing of course.
I mean, I don't love every moment of working on a video but I do enjoy most of it.
Another thing that helps is to take breaks.
As someone who used to work nonstop for months on end,
it is absolutely vital that you learn to take breaks.
Otherwise you will burn yourself out. It's only a matter of time.
And it doesn't have to be that long.
Sometimes I do nothing for half an hour and that's all it takes.
Sometimes I need a day or two and then I'm back at it.
Q: I've noticed most of your videos are on topics that have had quite a bit of time
between when they occurred, and now.
Have you ever thought about covering more recent topics?
I could see it being a bit difficult, as you could mix facts with speculation in an ongoing crisis,
and it would be hard to get it out while that event is still happening.
A: You know, that's something I actively try to avoid.
Not only for the reasons that you mentioned there but I'm no journalist.
I don't report on current events.
I prefer to wait at least a few years so that most of what there's to know about a topic
is already out there.
I want to give investigators, journalists, scientists, and other professionals
time to do their job before I do mine.
I think I view my job as aggregating information more than anything else.
Some if it's really difficult to find. Some of it's difficult to understand.
But, ultimately, my job is to assemble and summarize everything
into a hopefully informative and entertaining package.
That's what documentary means, right? You're documenting the past.
Now, that also means many of the topics I cover have been done before.
D. B. Cooper, Jack the Ripper, the Kennedy Assassination,
these are all well-known and well-trodden cases.
But there's always a new angle.
A different take. A different way to visualize what happened or
present the information that's never been done before.
For instance, many Jack the Ripper documentaries
dedicate much of their runtime to promoting one specific suspect.
So, instead, I tried to offer a more general overview of the case
while weighing the arguments for and against multiple suspects.
Sometimes, all it takes is a slightly different approach
to make an already famous topic feel fresh again.
Q: What made you want to tackle the JFK assassination
and what lead to you limiting the scope to the Book Depository specifically?
A: It just seemed like a fascinating case to make a video about.
I mean, that's how I chose all my topics, really.
Does this seem interesting? Yes?
I initially intended to cover everything from beginning to end but
quickly realized that that wasn't going to happen.
There just isn't enough time to compress everything into a single video.
I mean, I got about 50 000 words into that initial draft
and I hadn't even reached the shooting yet.
So, the video would either be, like, half a day long and thus never get made
or so absurdly summarized I might as well say nothing at all.
Now, the script that ended up becoming the video was not initially about the Book Depository.
It sort of evolved and became about that over time
because the question I was trying to answer was, "What happened?"
Not, "Who did it?" or, "Was it a conspiracy?" but, "What happened?"
What did people see? What was found? What do we know, what do we not know?
Things like that.
I did not want to make yet another video solely focused on
promoting or debunking conspiracy theories.
There are hundreds of videos like that on YouTube already and
plenty of documentaries as well.
But not a single one specifically about what happened inside this very crucial location.
It's like I mentioned before, there's always a new angle, a different take.
I have to say though, while I was never convinced by the many conspiracy books I read,
they're very engaging.
There are so many twists and turns and intrigue round every corner.
You never know who's lying, who's telling the truth. Who's in on it, who's not.
It's like reading a spy novel.
Even if you think it's all nonsense, it's difficult to look away because it's so mysterious and exciting.
Meanwhile, the debunking books or, you know, the ones arguing against conspiracy
were kind of a slog to get through, at least, by comparison.
It was like being told the ending of a novel before reading it.
It just felt anticlimactic in a way.
I think it's just very very difficult for a story about one guy acting alone
to compete with the thrill of a sweeping government conspiracy.
Q: Are you planning to cover other areas of the JFK assassination as well?
A: I might. I don't have any plans to do so right now but
if there's enough demand for a sequel of some kind, I wouldn't be against it.
As I mentioned in the video, there's certainly a lot more you could talk about and
I do have some ideas but I can't promise anything.
Q: How much did the CIA pay you to make the JFK video?
A: Well, I would also hate for you to miss tomorrow's sunrise Mr. Noodles
so let's just say, I can neither confirm nor deny.
Q: How was the transition from your old Top 10 content
to your current essay/documentary style videos?
A: Well, I've changed the direction of my channel twice now.
I started by making these awful rage comic animations.
After a year of that, I transitioned into list videos.
Then after a few years of that I transitioned into the long-form content I'm making today.
Who knows, maybe I'll try something else in the future? We'll see.
But it was kinda scary to make those changes because, you know, you risk alienating your audience.
I had no idea if anyone was going to watch that first list video I made but,
fortunately, many of you did.
The transition from list to long-form videos was a bit easier because there was
more of an overlap between those two formats so it felt more like a
natural evolution of the channel, I think.
Some people were understandably disappointed, as is true of any change, but the majority seemed to like it.
I think what really ended up helping is that I didn't abandon the old formats over night.
For instance, the first long-form video I made was in early 2016.
The last Top 10 Facts video I made was in early 2018.
So, during those two years, people had time to adjust.
Q: When people you know ask "what do you do?"
Do you say you make documentaries or do you say you're a YouTuber?
A: I presume you mean people I don't know because
people who know me already know what I do of course.
But I usually just tell people I make documentaries on YouTube for a living
and then if they want to know more I'll explain further.
Terms like YouTuber, content creator, and influencer
are extremely broad and mean different things to different people.
I've learned from experience that most people associate the term YouTuber
with someone who either vlogs or record themselves playing video games.
That seems to be what the average person thinks a YouTuber does.
Not that there's anything wrong with that but,
apart from existing on the same platform,
there isn't much of an overlap between that content and mine.
YouTuber is also an incredibly strange term.
It would be like if actors starring in the latest Netflix show were known as Netflixers.
Imagine if everyone in the film industry were collectively and exclusively known as movie people.
Famous director? Nope. Movie person.
VFX artist? Movie person.
Boom mic operator? Movie person. Right?
It's just impractical to try and squeeze everyone underneath the same umbrella
when there's such an enormous variety of content, channels, and people on this platform.
So while "I make documentaries on YouTube" is a bit clunky,
it's the least confusing way to convey what I do.
Q: Have you incorporated any AI software into your video production process?
If not, would you consider doing so?
A: Well, I haven't found a way to incorporate tools like ChatGPT and whatnot,
but I did use as a program called Topaz Video AI
to increase the resolution and framerate of the latest video.
It was edited and rendered in 1080p@30fps
and then upscaled and upsampled to 2160p@60fps.
The reason being that it's very slow to animate and render in native 4K,
even with a really powerful machine.
Now, the video still took a long time to render.
Rendering everything in the video, including all the 3D environments and
multiple rerenders to fix mistakes, account for changes, and so on,
took nearly two weeks in total.
And that doesn't account for all the time spent tweaking and correcting things in between.
But it only took 26 hours to then increase that final 1080p@30fps render to 2160p@60fps.
While it did save a lot of time, it wasn't a perfect solution.
It generated quite a few artifacts and glitches which I had to manually and
rather painstakingly go back and fix.
But overall, a lot faster.
Q: If you could travel back to find out the truth
behind one of the mysterious stories you covered in the past,
which one would you choose?
A: Well, I would like to know what the whole Nimitz UFO encounter was all about.
How much of what the pilots claim to have seen actually happened
and how much of it has been amplified and distorted by imperfect recollections?
Did the UFO really travel at supersonic speeds or was it just really fast?
Was it really as large as it appeared to be or was it much closer,
creating the illusion of something large and distant performing impossible maneuvers?
You know, things like that. Mistakes that anyone could make.
On the other hand, perhaps they really did see exactly what they claim to have seen and
their memories of those events are 100% accurate.
I wouldn't put too much stock in that possibility considering we're talking about, you know,
human perception and memory.
But, hey, maybe this is one of rare instances when reality and recall is in perfect sync.
Regardless, I would still like to know.
Q: How many instruments do you play?
A: None.
Q: Are there any video games you've been playing a lot lately?
A: I don't play a ton of games these days but I recently got hooked on Cyberpunk 2077.
I tried it last year for the first time and already have like two hundred hours or something.
I would actually love to make some sort of gaming-related video in the future.
I've covered a lot of games in the past and I kinda miss that.
I've been playing around with a few ideas but
if you have any gaming-related topics you'd like to see covered in a future video,
don't hesitate to leave a comment down below.
I also have a suggestions thread on my subreddit that I look over every once in a while.
That being said, my escapism of choice will always be movies and TV shows.
Speaking of which.
Q: What are your favorite movies?
A: Well, I could just list a bunch of popular high-rated movies
but to make things a bit more interesting
I'll mention some of my favorite not-quite-so-popular movies instead.
A film that came out in 2007 that I still think about from time to time is The Man From Earth.
Most of the film takes place in one room with a bunch of characters
listening to another character telling them his life's story.
It is technically a fantasy or science fiction film due to the fantastical story being told but
there are no action scenes, no flashbacks, nor much of anything really.
It's just a bunch of characters talking in a room and it's great.
If you think that sounds interesting, don't watch any trailers or look up anything about this film.
Just go in blind and you'll have a good time.
Another film I still think about is Victoria.
It's a German movie from 2015 filmed in one continuous take.
So no cuts, the entire thing is captured as it happened.
There have been other movies like it but there is so much going on in this one.
They're moving in and out of buildings multiple times.
It starts in the dead of night and ends just after sunrise.
There are car chases, shootouts, and so much more.
All without a single cut.
It's genuinely insane what they managed to capture in one single take.
But, it's not just technically impressive, the story is also quite good.
It's about this woman named Victoria who's recently moved to Germany
and gets drawn into a bank robbery and a bunch of other chaos.
Can't recommend it enough.
Another one I really enjoyed was I Am Mother, a low-budget sci-fi film about artificial intelligence.
Another one was Safety Not Guaranteed, a comedy about time travel.
I also quite enjoyed Another Round,
a Danish film about a group of teachers that get increasingly drunk.
At least, that's what the plot synopsis said.
I still have no idea if the people on screen were supposed to be drunk or Danish.
But, you know, fun all the same.
Q: When will the Denmark jokes return?
A: Oh, I didn't know they went away.
I could've sworn I put something in the latest video.
Although, the video's been out for a several weeks now and
yet no one's said anything so perhaps I just forgot then, I guess?
Yeah, that must be it.
Millions of people couldn't possibly miss something like that, right?
I mean, could you imagine?
No, that's obviously not possible.
Must've slipped my mind.
Thank you all for watching for so many years and especially my patrons for supporting me.
I couldn't do this without you.
I hope to see you all in, maybe, a few months time. I hope. We'll see. Okay bye.