---
title: 'How To Analyze Movies – Film Studies 101'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=ahHIifcFyqk'
video_id: 'ahHIifcFyqk'
date: 2026-07-01
duration_sec: 5126
---

# How To Analyze Movies – Film Studies 101

> Source: [How To Analyze Movies – Film Studies 101](https://youtube.com/watch?v=ahHIifcFyqk)

## Summary



## Transcript

this video is brought to you by
curiosity stream and
nebula hey folks so this video is a
little bit different than usual it is
not part of the ongoing season it is not
canon within the universe of the show it
was actually originally written almost a
year ago as one of our nebula classes
but I changed my mind and decided to
make a different class instead that one
is about how to make a movie and it's a
ailable now so I figured I would hold on
to this and at some point just make it
as a regular video here on the channel
and that's what I did and that's why in
case you're wondering the video seems a
lot more like an academic class than
most of the videos usually do so anyway
with that explanation out of the way
enjoy my class on how to analyze movies
[Music]
hi I'm Patrick Willams and today I want
to talk to you about movies or if we
want to sound fancy we're going to be
discussing Cinema compared to other art
forms like literature or painting or
music that have been around for hundreds
of years Cinema is relatively young
moving picture cameras weren't invented
until the late 1800s and the first movie
with recorded sound came out less than a
100 years ago so we're still in the
early days of the medium for the past
Century movies have been the most
popular art form in the world we've been
watching them and enjoying them our
whole lives and for a lot of people
movies are just a fun thing to watch to
kill some time and that's fine but maybe
you want to look at them a little more
deeply I mean if weirdos like me can get
a whole college degree in something
called Cinema studies there must be more
going on here and that's what this video
is about because pretty much every movie
ever made has more to it than just the
surface level story like any art form
Cinema is the result of artists making
deliberate choices and those choices
influence how the movie affects us
emotionally and what ideas or meanings
it's expressing we are not here to
decide whether a movie is good or bad
and then move on what we're going to do
here today is talk about how to
interpret these aspects of a movie the
story the shots and editing and how it's
all put together to understand how it
works and what it all means now this
kind of analysis doesn't just apply to
cinema we're really talking about
analyzing works of art and narrative art
like Cinema warrants the same level of
serious analysis as paintings hanging in
the Lou and folks I am not only talking
about fancy art films by Batar or rasuk
hamaguchi we can apply this same level
of analysis to Sonic the Hedgehog 2 or
Megan and once we're done here you can
be that insufferable pretentious person
at a party who tells every everyone what
movies are really about how Lord of the
Rings is actually about addiction how
Top Gun is about struggling to figure
out one's sexuality and how every
Christopher Nolan movie is really about
how he misses his
family I mean that last one I actually
do
[Music]
believe okay look I'm going to be honest
with you you can probably turn this
video off after this one chapter because
this is the only rule that really
matters if you learn this you're pretty
much set to go and start analyzing all
the movies you want so let me start with
a little story back when I was in
college taking a lot of Cinema studies
courses for a while I honestly wasn't
very good at interpreting meaning from
movies I could break down technical
aspects and story structure but for some
reason I was resistant to the idea of
giving every element some deeper
subtextual significance and then what
finally made it click for me was this
art history class I took where the
professor realized that I wasn't fully
getting it so we had a meeting at the
college Art Museum and she finally got
through to me by breaking it down in a
way I understood so in simplest terms
analyzing art really just comes down to
two steps
step one look closely at the piece and
just describe what you're seeing what
the piece is and what's happening in it
and step two ask why treat every part of
that piece as a choice the artist made
and ask why they made that choice what
was their goal what purpose does it
serve how does it make me the viewer
feel so if you're looking at a painting
you're doing this with the overall
composition of the piece the choice of
colors the size of the piece the
perspective and style of brush Strokes
the degree of realism versus abstraction
all of these things should be examined
and questioned and yes I am aware that
frequently in art you get happy
accidents things that end up in the
finished work but were never a
deliberate part of the artist's design
what do we make of those do we ignore
them because of their accidental nature
nope those deserve just the same level
of analysis it could even be worth
analyzing how the technique used led to
an environment in which this kind of
accident could be possible because
analysis does not end at what the artist
intended that's the fun thing about art
the artist gives it meaning but so do we
as viewers we can totally say that the
artist is wrong about their own work
that regardless of what they intended it
means something different because
remember folks and say it with me Al
together now art is
subjective and that said it doesn't mean
that I have to agree with every single
Take You can tell me that I don't know
that like Toy Story is an allegory for
Western imperialism and if you can argue
that I would love to hear it but also I
don't think you're going to find a lot
of evidence to present
[Music]
there okay so now let's actually get
into how we analyze a movie I want to
start in the broadest most General way
how do we look at a movie and identify
its primary themes movies are
complicated and there's 's always a lot
going on but how do we interpret what
it's saying because look regardless of
what the movie is good movies or bad
movies every movie is about something
every movie has some kind of core idea
it's expressing or at least trying to
express for the rest of this video I
want to focus primarily on one movie to
show you how you can take a pretty
ordinary film something that that does
not seem like a deep artart film and
actually extract a ton of meaning from
it so today we are going to be focusing
on the 1990 Chris Columbus film Home
Alone which was written and produced by
John Hughes starring mccauly culin
Katherine O'Hara and Joe pesi I assume
most people watching this are familiar
with home alone and what it's about but
let me ask you this what is it really
about what is the main theme of Home
Alone well to find it the first step is
to just look at the events of the movie
and describe in simplest terms what
happens what is the story how does it
begin and how does it end so here's how
I would describe what happens in Home
Alone a kid and his mom are mad at each
other then they get separated
and they realize that they miss each
other so while she tries to get home to
him he has to protect his home against
Invaders okay okay that was that was
pretty good but let's make it simpler so
how about a kid defends his home while
his mother tries to get home to him okay
that's better but it's still too
complicated let's break it down even
more so like home loone is about the
lengths we will go for our families okay
good good I think we're almost there but
we can go one step further and make it
even
simpler home alone is about the
importance of
[Music]
family that's it we did it we found the
main
theme great job guys but look
movies don't always just have one theme
there are actually multiple themes here
that are all connected so again breaking
this movie down to a very simple
description it's about an immature kid
left on his own and put in a dangerous
situation who learns to fend for himself
get over his fears and defend his
family's home to put that in simplest
terms it's a story about learning to
take responsib ability we can do it
again it's a movie about people who end
up in a terrible situation because
they're mad at each other and then they
realize how much they love each other
and go to Great Lengths to reunite in
simplest terms it's a story about
forgiveness so basically home alone is
about responsibility forgiveness and the
importance of
family boom we did it see that's not so
hard and that's how it works for just
about every movie you step back and look
at the movie on a macro level what are
the main conflicts how are they resolved
how do the characters change and
generally from just answering those
questions you can extract the theme and
figure out what the movie is trying to
[Music]
say Okay so we've talked about the big
picture stuff and how to interpret the
story but the story itself is just a
small part of a movie you can write a
story in a few sentences on a piece of
paper what's really important is how
it's told Cinema is a visual medium if
all you care about is the plot then go
read the synopsis on Wikipedia it's
faster the point of a movie is to tell a
story with images and those images can
do a lot more than just showing actors
delivering dialogue where the camera is
placed how it moves how a shot uses
light and color how the actors are
positioned these all have a
psychological and emotional effect on
the audience changing any one of those
elements can radically affect how we
interpret something these seemingly
small choices can create meaning and
subtexts that you would not just find in
the thought synopsis so it's time to
bust out a fancy French expression
you've probably heard about this one
before it's a big one it is time to talk
about Mison sen essentially what Mison
sen means is what is in the frame it's
the dozens even hundreds of choices from
costumes to locations to lenses to
lighting that result in what we see on
screen what we're trying to do here is
understand the form how the tools of
Cinema are deployed the film
[Music]
language it's often been said that a
movie teaches us how to watch it when
looking at the early scenes in
particular we're being given Clues as to
the tone and language of the movie as in
the visual language if you look at a
movie and try to impose the rules of
other movies onto it you're just not
having a productive experience so for
example back in 2008 when the movie
speedracer came out a lot of people
looked at it and recoiled in horror they
were like this looks weird it's like a
cartoon it doesn't look real this must
be a mistake which means the movie is
bad now the problem with this take is
that it's assuming that the movie is
trying to look realistic and failing
it's ignoring what is actually going on
which is that the aesthetic was a
deliberate choice and part of analyzing
film is treating every aspect of it as a
deliberate choice now this is not to say
that you have to like every choice and
maybe you think a choice doesn't work
and was a mistake but give the
filmmakers some credit assume they chose
to do it that way and then figure out
why so this starts with the overall
style and aesthetic a starting point for
analyzing this is considering where it
falls on the scale of realism versus
formalism now without getting into the
whole long history of film Theory and
where these approaches came from the
short version is this one extreme
approach to cinema is pure realism
basically a reproduction of reality with
with no intrusive elements you know
workers leaving the factory then on the
other end of the spectrum is like a
surreal animated musical something
entirely artificial that doesn't attempt
to imitate reality at all most movies
exist kind of around the middle in an
area called
classicism this uses realist elements
like naturalistic performances and
locations and subtle unobtrusive editing
to create a linear sense of continuity
but it combines them with formalist
elements like a musical score different
camera angles and camera movement and
classicism is pretty much where Home
Alone Falls it has the glossy Hollywood
lighting it's shot on 35mm film it has
the aesthetic and look that we accept as
general movie reality and the sets
costumes locations and performances are
designed to resemble the real world but
there are also several formalist
elements throughout there's the music
the iconic John Williams score and
several Christmas songs and then there
are the various exaggerated angles point
of view shots the slow motion when the
tobogan flies out the door this split
diopter shot and of course the part
where Kevin is remembering the mean
things his family members said to him
and we see their faces floating at the
sides of the frame and the purpose of
all those things that I just listed is
the same it's to show us Kevin's
perspective anytime the film shifts a
little bit toward formalism it's to
communicate to the audience how Kevin is
feeling and perceiving
[Music]
things and this brings us to another
major component of a film's visual
storytelling perspective and more
specifically is it a subjective
perspective or an objective perspective
I know I just threw out a whole bunch of
rhyming words at you but I promise it's
actually pretty simple when a film uses
an objective perspective it is doing so
as if it is an outside Observer with no
emotional involvement in the story
simply seeing the events from an outside
point of view a subjective perspective
is when a film uses its visual language
to convey how a character is feeling and
telling the story from their perspective
and this can change from scene to scene
so let's look at an example from Home
Alone early in the movie when Kevin
wakes up after his family has gone to
the airport without him this is all shot
from an objective perspective it's the
static wide shots that emphasize the
vast emptiness of the house and how
small Kevin looks inside it it because
right now he doesn't realize that he's
home alone we know more than he does and
so we're standing back as an outside
Observer waiting until he notices
something is off and then as he starts
to realize what's happening the film
moves into a subjective perspective I
mean it literally visualizes his mind as
he remembers things his family members
said to him and then the film language
changes to express His Manic excitement
at having the house to himself we are
now firmly in Kevin's perspective for
the rest of the movie but to understand
how this perspective is actually done we
need to get a bit more
[Music]
technical you don't need to know exactly
how to make a movie to be qualified to
analyze them you don't need to know how
to work a camera or read a light meter
but it does help to have a basic
understanding of some of the technical
aspects of film making so that you can
understand the creative choices being
made and what they mean so lenses those
pieces of glass and gears that control
how the camera sees the image we could
do a whole class on how lenses work
since there is so much to talk about but
we don't have all day I want to go home
and eat dinner after this so here's the
simple version every lens has what's
called a focal length which is expressed
in a unit of millimet right now this
camera is shooting me on a 35 mm lens a
lower number focal length means it's a
wider lens and a higher number means
it's a longer lens every lens has its
own qualities and the choice of lens can
radically change what a shot looks like
here's me on a 16 mmm lens
and then here's me in the same position
on a 105 mm lens in general longer
lenses have a narrower field of view and
compress the image so the background
looks closer to the foreground they also
have a shallower depth of field meaning
the part that's in Focus so if a long
lens is focused on a person in the
foreground everything behind them will
be totally blurry and because of this
long l tend to be used for close-ups
because they isolate the subject in
focus and also just make it look more
flattering wide lenses on the other hand
capture a much wider field of view
fitting more of the environment into the
frame the depth of field is much deeper
so the outof focus parts are not as
blurry as they would be with a long lens
and especially with really wide lenses
there's a slight warping to the image
the world looks slightly exaggerated
through a wide lens and so they're often
used for comedy close-ups with a
wideangle lens can look crazy and also
wide lenses emphasize motion so if the
camera is moving forward quickly like if
it's strapped to the front of a moving
car the movement looks way faster and
more intense with a really wide lens
there's no one correct way to use these
lenses like sure the Cohen Brothers like
to shoot common with wide lenses but
then the Revenant was also shot all on
super wide lenses Terren Malik mostly
uses super wide lenses these are just
different choices that affect how the
audience interprets the image and so how
are lenses used in Home Alone in general
there aren't any really extreme choices
no 11 mm lenses and no 1,000 mm lenses
and definitely no fisheye lenses mostly
the lenses stay around 21 to 35 mm
relatively wide so that we can see the
environment as well as the characters
because obviously the house is very
important what's notable though is the
way that Chris Columbus and
cinematographer Julio MCAT use wider
lenses they are almost exclusively used
when shooting scenes subjectively from
Kevin's perspective so every time he's
looking looking up at an adult those
adults are shot with a wide angle lens
which exaggerates the distance making
them look like these huge imposing
people towering over Kevin in the scene
in the church when Kevin finally meets
old man Marley who he's been terrified
of for the whole movie wideangle lenses
make Marley seem huge and scary and they
make Kevin look tiny and weak but then
when Marley sits down and reveals
himself to actually be a nice person the
exaggerated wide lenses are replaced
with longer lenses making the characters
appear more natural more like humans and
less like cartoons the only times that
much longer lenses are used are the
scenes when Kevin walks Home Alone from
the grocery store these lenses isolate
him against the background so he is
sharply in Focus while the background is
totally blurred out the shots emphasize
his isolation the frame is pretty much
empty except for him and the first time
we see this the camera is higher up
looking slightly down at Kevin so he
appears small the second time which
comes later in the story at this point
he's feeling better taking on some
responsibility and so now the camera is
placed lower down looking up at him a
little bit so he appears more confident
[Music]
color it's a vital part of Cinema
filling every frame of every movie you
see except all the black and white ones
obviously color is something that just
exists in reality so the camera is going
to capture it automatically but it's
also an incredibly powerful storytelling
tool the color of light of sets and
costumes color manipulation and post-
production all of these things done
deliberately can affect the audience
emotionally and create meaning and
subtext within a film now to be clear
there is not only one single meaning for
each color depending on the film colors
can mean pretty much anything in Star
Wars red is associated with evil but in
other movies it represents passion and
love in The Matrix green is associated
with an oppressive system of control but
in other movies it represents hope and
fertility and nature colors can be
anything the filmmakers just need to
know how and why they're using them so
now let's talk about the colors in home
alone right from the opening scene the
mallister house is portrayed in warm
colors it's lit with glowing amber light
it's decorated with lots of Reds red
patterned wallpaper red bed spreads red
napkins red leather chairs and so we
associate these colors with home and
family in general warm colors tend to be
appealing and comforting we associate
them with sunsets Autumn Leaves and
fireplaces human skin is made of warm
colors even for really pale people like
me most comedies and uplifting movies
tend to have warmer color palettes
because this makes us feel good it puts
us at ease and gets us ready to laugh
now obviously there are exceptions like
Mad Max Fury Road cranks up its warm
colors so much that they feel hot and
oppressive but these are generalizations
not science so if the home in Home Alone
has a warm color palette what happens
when we go away from the home well in
the whole storyline with Kevin's mom she
is stuck far away trying to get back
home and every location she and the rest
of the family are in has this cold color
palette when she gets on the airplane
before she realizes Kevin isn't there in
each scene blue becomes more and more
dominant the airports are all blue the
apartment in France is furnished with
teal Furniture even the Christmas tree
there is white with blue lights and yet
Katherine O'Hara playing Kevin's mom is
always in the warm color palette of
their home she has red hair she's
wearing a camel coat and cream colored
sweater she clashes with the colors of
these environments this is the movie
telling us with color symbolism that she
doesn't belong here she's meant to be at
home and this same color coding
continues throughout the movie The Wet
Bandits van is blue in the opening scene
Harry is disguised as a police officer
in a blue uniform and then when John
Candy shows up to help Kevin's mom get
home he's in a yellow jacket the warm
colors return to help bring her home
this is honestly a pretty well-made
[Music]
movie up to now we've been talking about
misison sen what's in the frame but now
it's time to talk about the frame itself
if we're going to analyze the visual
choices of a film that doesn't just mean
the smaller stuff like lights and lenses
this goes all the way to the top and by
the top I mean the shape of the movie
itself and by the shape I mean the
aspect ratio the aspect ratio is simply
put the ratio of the frames width to its
height in the early days of Cinema all
movies were shot and projected pretty
pretty much as a square and then as
technology evolved wider aspect ratios
became available and these days pretty
much anything is possible depending on
what the filmmakers want so you could
have something like the Grand Budapest
Hotel which uses three different aspect
ratios this might seem like a small
decision but it changes the whole way
that shots are framed since the shape of
the image is fundamentally different I
know that 2.39 to one also known as
cinemascope has become this shorthand
for cinematic like by throwing black
bars on the top and bottom of the movie
and editing it suddenly looks important
but generally when movies are shot in
that aspect ratio it's a delate decision
made to utilize The Wider frame home
alone is shot in the common 1.85:1
aspect ratio which is taller than
cinemascope and is closer to filling a
standard 16 by9 TV now this aspect ratio
is used for all sorts of movies ET and
The Godfather used it but one of the
most common uses for it is for comedies
comedy movies are often shot with wide
lenses that slight Distortion I
mentioned earlier can add a comedic
undertone to the shots and since this
aspect ratio reveals more of the frame
like we can see more of the characters
with the environment around them it
works well for capturing physical
[Music]
comedy I would theorize that while the
comedic potential of this aspect racio
is part of why director Chris Columbus
chose it I think the other reason is the
same reason it was used for Jurassic
Park see this aspect ratio is taller
there's more image at the top and bottom
so it was used for Jurassic Park because
the dinosaurs are so tall that this
allowed the film to capture them better
and have them fill more of the frame and
in Home Alone this extra height to the
frame emphasizes how small Kevin is we
see how big the environment is around
him and how huge all the adults seem
obviously there's not as much to analyze
here compared to like color since it's
just one single choice but I wanted to
bring it up to demonstrate that
literally every creative choice is worth
thinking about
[Music]
after the camera maybe the most powerful
tool a cinematographer has is lighting
honestly the only things you really need
to make a movie are a camera and some
source of light lighting helps create
the reality of the film it gives it mood
and atmosphere it directs our eye and
tells us where to look most of the time
we're not supposed to notice the
lighting it's meant to establish a
cohesive reality that doesn't distract
us from the story but even if we're not
noticing the lighting it's still having
an effect on us most of Home Alone is
lit with what's known as highkey
lighting this essentially means it's
very well lit like I am now there's a
key light a backl probably fill lights
too there are minimal shadows and
contrast it's designed to resemble
reality but like a better looking more
appealing reality where everyone's face
is always nicely lit this is a fun
family comedy with a happy ending and
the highkey lighting immediately creates
this nice comforting tone but on the
flip side some scenes use what's called
lowkey lighting which is pretty much the
opposite it often uses only a single
light source and has heavy shadows and
contrast it feels more dramatic and
suspenseful so look at this scene where
Harry and Marv are trying to break into
the house they're lit with this single
hard light outside their faces are
partly in Shadow there's lots of
darkness and inside Kevin is lit only by
the dim blue glow of the TV suddenly it
feels like there's real danger and
Stakes now imagine if this scene was lit
like this it would have a totally
different feeling and it really wouldn't
feel so dangerous at
[Music]
all we've already talked about the shape
and framing of shots but the thing is
composition of images isn't really
unique to film these same principles
apply to photography and painting and
even comic books but the component that
makes Cinema unique is movement in
particular the movement of the camera
and the movement of actors within the
frame which is known as blocking now
there are movies with no camera movement
at all composed entirely of static shots
like the work of Roy Anderson but the
majority of movies you'll see will have
some degree of camera movement so now
this might seem basic but I want to run
through the different types of camera
movement just so we have a vocabulary we
can use panic
is when the camera turns on the x axis
going right or left tilting is when the
camera turns on the Y AIS going up or
down a zoom is done within the lens
where the camera is fixed to one point
but the focal length is increasing or
decreasing a tracking shot is where the
camera moves through space either on a
steady cam or G gimbal or a dolly a
crane shot is when the camera moves
through space vertically and an
extension of this is a helicopter or
drone shot and handheld obviously is
when a person is holding the camera
which can add a looser degree of
movement to what might otherwise be a
static shot now this is not a test to be
able to identify exactly how any shot
was done but when you're analyzing a
movie it's helpful to have the
vocabulary to be able to discuss the
storytelling choices being made and what
they're doing sometimes this can be as
simple as a pan from one thing to
another like look at this shot we're in
a wide shot looking at Kevin from an
objective perspective as he is walking
home feeling defeated and then the
camera pans to show Harry and Marv in a
van driving right toward him this one
shot is telling a story our main
character is unknowingly about to run
into and maybe get run over by the
villains it's saying Kevin is at a low
point but uh-oh things are about to get
worse and by doing this within one shot
it's telling us where they are in
relation to one another within the
physical space obviously ly a lot of the
time camera movement is happening to
follow the action moving with characters
as they move through the space but
that's still a choice that's being made
look at the way the camera moves through
the airport as Kevin's family rushes to
catch their flight now this could have
been shot objectively in a static wide
shot like from an anonymous person's
perspective in the airport watching this
crazy family but by having the camera
move with them at the same speed it's
making it subjective capturing how
they're feeling the opening sequence of
the movie is filled with constant
movement the house is full of people
rushing around packing for the trip and
the camera is constantly in motion
usually following characters from one
room to the next on a steady cam now
this serves a few purposes it's bringing
us inside to make us feel like a member
of the family it's creating this frantic
energy to contrast the Stillness and
quiet that will come when Kevin is left
home alone and by using so many wide
long tracking shots it's teaching the
viewer the geography of the house which
will become extremely important as the
story goes on but let's look at a
specific example to show how some simple
movement of actors and the camera can
give a scene meaning and emotion at one
point in the movie while Kevin is hiding
under his parents' bed he realizes that
since he's the only one there he needs
to toughen up stop being afraid and face
his problems so he marches outside to
declare to the world that he's not
afraid anymore now look at this shot
Kevin starts in the distance very small
in the frame but as he walks toward us
the camera tracks in at a low angle
generally when the camera pushes in like
this on a subject it's telling us that
thing is important as if the camera is
interested and is actively getting
closer and so Kevin and the camera move
toward each other until we arrive here
in what is known as the cowboy shot a
medium shot framing a character from the
hips up usually to make them seem heroic
you can see this in basically any
Western or more recently this scene in
Wonder Woman so this shot is visualizing
Kevin's Newfound bravery he's feeling
like a pretty big guy and then a shadow
starts to pass over him and the camera
begins moving up not tilting up but
actually craning up vertically we cut to
a shot from Kevin's point of view
starting down with with old man Marley's
scary Boots then tilting up the blade of
the shovel which he thinks is a murder
weapon and then it cuts back to Kevin as
the camera keeps Rising with Marley
Shadow now totally covering him
immediately all that bravery is gone and
he is a scared little boy even though
this Cuts back and forth a couple of
times it's really only two shots they're
cutting between so you can see how that
movement of the camera pushing in and
then craning up is telling an entire
story without any
[Music]
words in general we're not supposed to
notice the editing when watching a movie
it's meant to be invisible to tell the
story clearly with good pacing so we get
swept up in it and aren't thinking about
the technical aspects are the cuts
between the shots usually when we notice
editing it's for disorienting
distracting editing in an action scene
like this
thing what you'll generally encounter in
most movies is what's called continuity
editing editing that establishes a clear
sense of spatial geography as well as
time so when you're cutting between
people talking they seem to be looking
at each other the person on the left is
looking right the person on the right is
looking left and each shot
chronologically follows the one before
it it feels natural so we don't even
think about it the basic idea of editing
is that when a film cuts from one shot
to another we subconsciously understand
the connection between them so when Home
Alone cuts from a TV to Kevin covering
his eyes with his fingers even though
they're in separate shots we understand
that he is watching the TV and reacting
to it especially because at the
beginning of the scene we saw a wide
shot that established Kevin and the TV
in the same room like I said before
movies teach us how to watch them this
same idea applies to situations that
don't necessarily have that wide shot to
establish the direct connection so one
scene in the film Jaws cuts from a kid
calling for his dog on the beach to a
closeup of a stick floating in the water
from the context as in this is a movie
about a shark attacking this location we
can infer that the shark ate the dog
we'll miss you pippet rip to a real one
and sometimes within a scene the film
will suddenly get more abstract and cut
to a totally different place like in
Gladiator when the film cuts from a
closeup of Maximus to this shot of the
camera moving toward these big doors but
we understand that this is not literally
happening this is inside maximus's head
it's what he's seeing as he's dying
spoilers for the last scene of gladiator
when this sort of thing is done it's
usually to represent a character's
thoughts their memories or their
imaginations when a movie shifts its
editing style once again we just need to
observe what it's doing and ask why the
shower scene in Psycho is so legendary
yes because it's a shocking violent
scene but it's also this very sudden
shift in the movie's visual language the
whole movie up until this point has been
told in mostly wide shots and medium
shots that are held for a while and now
here we suddenly have this frantic rapid
cutting with lots of extreme close-ups
it's jarring and chaotic which is
exactly the point of the scene look
whole books have been written about
editing like here are a few and with
most movies you see the editing is clear
and effective and mostly invisible it
delivers spatial and temporal continuity
like it intends to and it doesn't really
need much analysis Like Home Alone the
editing by future Scooby-Doo director
Roga Gosnell is really effective
throughout it tells the story clearly
and engagingly the pacing is good the
comedy lands but on its own it usually
isn't providing much additional meaning
it's more that it's clearly delivering
the meaning created by the visuals and
script but there are a few examples that
I think are worth highlighting first
there's the Montage we take montage for
granted since we've seen a million of
them but consider this the sequence of
Kevin setting up traps around the house
and the reality of the film that
probably took an hour or so but for us
watching the movie it lasts 1 minute and
10 seconds we understand that these
shots are compressing time at the
beginning of the sequence we see Kevin's
overall plan and then each successive
shot is a small portion of the that plan
coming together the bigger piece of
editing that I want to highlight is
crosscutting this is when a film Cuts
back and forth between two or more
scenes which we understand to be
happening
simultaneously this is the thing that
Christopher Nolan does in all his action
scenes where there are usually a few
different storylines happening and the
film keeps cutting between them all in
Home Alone the film crosscuts between
Kevin's family on the plane from Chicago
to Paris and then Kevin waking up alone
back home in Chicago the static wide
shots of Kevin at home linger holding
even after Kevin has walked out of the
shot before then cutting to the plane in
motion these Cuts feel jarring and serve
to emphasize the massive geographical
distance between Kevin and his family
that is getting larger by the second
each time it cuts the gulf feels greater
and one other thing we must discuss is
the cross fade you know the transition
where one shot Blends into the next some
filmmakers and editors hate them and yes
they can be lazily used sometimes but
it's still a choice and we should
consider what it means they're most
commonly used to show that time is
passing or to create a dreamlike feeling
and here with home alone since we were
just talking about the hard abrupt Cuts
between the scenes of Kevin and his mom
that underline the distance between them
I want to look at another transition
from about 15 minutes later in the movie
at this point Kevin's mom has realized
what happened and is actively trying to
get home and now this shot of her in the
airport crossfades to this shot of the
house and if you pause it in the middle
of the transition
we're seeing both of them together on
screen at the same time it's creating a
visual link bringing them closer
together even if they're not there quite
[Music]
yet as much as Cinema originally existed
only as moving pictures with no audio
sound has come to be an essential part
of the medium it can be just as
important to the experience as the
visuals now we tend to take audio for
granted unless there's some really
catchy music or at something like tenet
where you can't hear the dialogue most
people don't tend to give the sound of a
movie much thought because usually it
just feels like the sound that would
naturally correspond to the visuals
we're seeing dialogue and sound effects
but it's also a thing that they give out
multiple Oscars for every year so
clearly there's a lot there to dig into
look I am not saying that when you're
analyzing a movie you are required to
have a 30 minute discussion focusing
only on the audio a lot of the time
audio is like editing it does its job
invisibly and you don't pay attention to
it but it's worth being able to
understand the choices being made and
how they affect us when it comes to
sound in movies there are very big
obvious examp examples that you can't
help but notice like how atonement
Blends the diagetic sound effect of the
typewriter into the musical score are uh
everything David Lynch does but most of
the time it's simpler and more subtle
than that like in home alone so here I
want to Spotlight a few interesting
instances of audio choices let's go back
to the scene we were discussing in the
last chapter where the film is cross
cutting between Kevin waking up alone at
home and his family on the plane now pay
attention to the
sound I mean it's kind of hard to miss
but think about what it's doing the
Parts with Kevin have barely any sound
at all just the ambient quiet of an
empty house each individual sound like
the Click of a door being opened stands
out clearly against the nothingness and
then when the film cuts to the plane
Mom it's this massive Roar of a jet
engine there's no cross fade between the
scenes it is abrupt and it's jarring and
it creates a distance between the
characters just through audio every time
we hear the airplane it's telling us
that Kevin's family is getting further
away by the second they now each exist
in totally different Sonic Landscapes
it's emphasizing Kevin's isolation then
there is what is known as Foley which is
when sound effects are created in post-
production to match what is happening on
screen things like footsteps leaves
rustling water pouring stuff like that
because the fact is that in real life
the sounds a lot of things make aren't
very exciting they need that extra layer
of movie sound to give it the impact the
filmmakers want and one of the major
uses of Foley sounds in Home Alone are
to once again help create this thing we
keep coming back to Kevin's perspective
especially when he's scared of things
we've already discussed how the camera
work with wide- angle lenses shot from
exaggerated angles help create the
feeling that we're experiencing this as
Kevin is but the sound is also a major
part of that listen to the sound of
Marley's boots when he steps into the
store with the squeezing of leather and
the rattle of the metal buckles or the
scrape of him dragging the trash can
full of salt on the pavement or the
Monstrous Roar of the Furnace listen to
this moment without the visuals
shut
up see it's still telling the story just
through sound the Foley work is also a
key part of the comedic violence in the
movie again when Joe pesi and Daniel
Stern are slipping on ice and getting
shot with BB guns we're not usually
thinking about the sound but look
closely at the very important needle
that it's threading here's the part
where Marv gets shot in the head with
the BB gun now that is absolutely not
the sound it would make in real life the
real sound would be more like a pop from
the gun and then we'd probably barely
hear him get hit and so the moment would
be less impactful because it wouldn't
sound like all that much was really
happening the thing about this and
pretty much all the sounds throughout
this sequence is that they never go full
cartoon and break the reality of the
film like we're not getting a slide
whistle sound effect the BB gun doesn't
make a goofy Ricochet sound when it hits
Marv but the sounds are also still
exaggerated the slips on the ice the hit
of the iron they feel real but not too
real for comparison look at this video
that Corridor made called R-rated Home
Alone where they re-edited scenes from
the movie and used visual effects to
make it well R-rated listen to their new
sound design for the iron hitting
Marv even without seeing it you can tell
that's way more brutal so the sound
design is doing a lot of heavy lifting
in creating the comedic tone and keeping
it within a believable reality if it
strayed too far in One Direction
cartoony or realistic it would break the
whole sequence and then there's the
matter of the music this movie has a
score by John Williams the most famous
film composer of the last 50 years so
there's a lot to discuss here the music
in a movie can do a lot it can create
subtext underline the mood of a scene
Express a character's feelings comment
ironically on the story look film music
is its own entire field of study home
alone has a big sweeping classic John
Williams score it's exciting it's
sentimental and it feels like what we
think a Hollywood movie is supposed to
sound like but the score is making some
interesting choices too this movie is
generally thought of as a fun family
Christmas comedy and the first 8 Seconds
of the score have this warm magical
feeling that sound like an early preview
of the theme Williams would later right
for Harry Potter but then the music
immediately shifts into this ear
ominous tone it starts sounding almost
like a creepy music box and then these
dark strings and what I think are obos
come in and it sounds kind of scary then
sleigh bells come in signaling the
Christmas setting and the score
simultaneously sounds playful but with
these odd atonal string sounds looking
at just this opening piece we have some
warm sentimentality some creepy
dangerous stuff Christmas what sounds to
me like a nod to chaikovsky The
Nutcracker and a light playful feeling
which is a pretty solid encapsulation of
what this movie is and as soon as we
transition out of the titles as the
first shot Fades Up the Music becomes
lighter and more upbeat but it has
already signaled to us that some danger
lies ahead the music is a major part of
the storytelling here there's one more
thing about the musical score that I
would like to mention Harry and Marv's
theme sounds like a deliberate nod to
Sergey prv's Peter and the Wolf like
here's Peter and the
Wolf and here's home
alone go around back down the basement
come on follow
me and this isn't just because it sounds
good prv's original work is telling the
story of a young boy on his own who must
defend himself against a dangerous
attacker so assuming Williams did this
intentionally and as we've already said
assume everything is intentional he's
drawing a connection to a classic
children's story and reframing the film
as a continuation of that tradition look
I know we say this a lot but John
Williams is very good at this
[Music]
okay so now that we have covered how to
interpret the visual language the
editing the sound and music of a movie
let's put all of these ideas together
and look at an actual scene and see what
we can interpret from it let's start
right at the beginning the very first
shot of Home Alone is an exterior shot
of the mallister house at night what
does this shot tell us well first off It
intro uces us to the primary setting of
the film since most of the story takes
place in that house and secondly it
establishes that it's Christmas also
consider the perspective of the shot
it's being filmed straight on at ey
level from across the street as if from
the perspective of an outside Observer
it is an objective perspective then the
very next shot brings us inside but it's
shot right from the doorway as if we've
stepped through the front door in the
foreground we see this police officer
who based on the uniform clearly doesn't
live there so we're now seeing things
from his perspective an outsider who has
entered this home and is observing
what's happening within and then each
successive shot takes us deeper into the
house with the family that lives there
dominating more of the frame essentially
the film is welcoming us inside as we go
from an outsider looking in to being
immersed in the home and the family now
in this next part we are introduced to
Kevin mallister the main character of
the movie it's always good to pay close
attention to how a movie introduces its
characters this scene starts by focusing
on his mother Kate as the camera follows
her dollying from a medium shot to a
wide and then pause it here Kevin and is
in the background he looks tiny in the
frame and is at the very edge of the
shot his mom doesn't even react as he
enters so let's analyze this shot what
is the Mison sen telling us well he is
quite literally in the background he's
being overlooked and ignored by his
family if we generally assume that the
most important thing is in the center of
the frame he is clearly less important
he's a nuisance
but then he enters the scene hops on the
bed and moves from the background into a
closeup in the foreground and here is
where the movie shifts now the
perspective changes we are no longer
seeing the story as an impartial
Observer we are now seeing it from
Kevin's perspective so look at the
placement of the camera over the next
few scenes it always stays at Kevin's
eye level so we see the world he does
when characters talk to him they are
filmed from a low angle so they're
towering over the camera looking down at
us the most obvious instance comes in
this scene in the kitchen when Kevin
causes a big old mess and everyone gets
mad at him and here the film switches
over completely to a point of view shot
the camera is now Kevin's eyes and so
now suddenly everyone is looking
directly into the camera
this is something that movies generally
avoid when an actor looks at the camera
it's breaking the fourth wall that
exists between the reality of the movie
and our reality looking in which can
sometimes be used deliberately like when
Eddie Murphy does it in this scene in
trading places bacon which you might
find in a bacon and lettuce and tomato
sandwich there's something jarring and
usually sort of uncomfortable about it
suddenly the characters aren't looking
at each other they're looking at us we
feel sort of exposed like the safety of
being an invisible Observer is gone this
is something that Jonathan Demi used
deliberately for years like in the
Silence of the Lambs where he has all
these conversation shot in close-ups
with the actors looking right down the
barrel of the camera it's uncomfortable
and it's supposed to be and that's what
home alone is doing here suddenly
everyone is staring right at us we feel
like Kevin feels like we're the center
of attention and not for a good reason
and we haven't noticed it up to this
point but through this whole sequence
there is just this General ambient noise
happening of just all the chaos and
people running around and talking within
the house and right here all of that
background Ambient sound cuts out there
is silence and that helps emphasize how
uncomfortable this moment is now that
we've spent the past like hour talking
about how to actually interpret meaning
from a film what do we do with that well
this is the fun part this is where we
choose what lens we want to use to
discuss the movie and I'm not talking
about camera lenses here this basically
means what context we want to look at
the film in within the fields of film
Theory and literary Theory there are a
lot of different lenses and theories you
can apply but for now I just want to
bring up a
[Music]
few okay we need to talk about a
controversial topic here called Ur
Theory or otter Theory or however you
want to pronounce it otor theory is an
aspect of film studies that began with
writers like franois truo and Andre an
writing for laaya in the 1950s and then
in the 60s American Film writer Andrew
saris actually gave it a name in his
essay notes on the otur theory some
people will be like screw Ure Theory
it's just a pretentious way of deifying
a bunch of old white guy directors and
justifying egomaniacal behavior and yeah
I understand what you mean but like it
or not oture theory has become so baked
into people talk about film that you
can't ignore it and while I think there
are bad readings of oture theory I don't
think it's inherently bad so what
exactly is it in simplest terms Ure
theory is about assigning a primary
author to a film generally the director
and looking at the film in the context
of their body of work the idea is that
an aour injects their own personal ity
worldview and style into their work give
the same script to like Alfred Hitchcock
or Stanley Donan and you'll get very
different films but here's the thing the
otor does not necessarily have to be the
director in fact you can even apply otor
Theory to multiple people within a given
film it could be an actor like I would
argue the primary aour of the mission of
possible franchise is Tom Cruz by
selecting the directors and having a
huge amount of input on all the stories
and major creative decisions his is the
primary Vision shaping the series The
aour of much of the Marvel Cinematic
Universe is Marvel itself in other words
Kevin feige and like in that case
sometimes the producer is the otor like
David O selnik and Gone with the Wind I
don't think the point of UR theory is to
treat the director like a God and
attribute every single creative decision
made during the production to them the
point is really just to provide a
context through which to examine the
film it is looking at the film within
their larger body of work to find
recurring themes and ideas and stylistic
elements that show an artist with a
distinct perspective and I do think it
can be a really useful and also fun lens
through which to discuss movies and this
requires keeping a couple things in mind
number one the studio like it or not
film is a commercial art and sometimes
the studio that's funding the movie will
override the director in regards to
certain choices and two film is a
collaborative medium even if the
director is the boss and their vision
for the film is what everyone is trying
to realize you've still got a huge cast
and crew with everyone making choices
and bringing their own perspectives to
the work ignoring that and the impact
made by each person is just cutting off
fascinating aspects worth exploring like
yeah George Lucas was the oour of Star
Wars and made the decision to hire John
Williams but are we really going to
credit Lucas for all of williams' music
Williams is no for in his own way who
radically impacted just about every film
he worked on which brings us finally
back to Home Alone which features a
score by John Williams home alone is
actually a fascinating example because
here the otur theory can be applied to
multiple people and the biggest one is
not actually the director so I'm sorry
Chris Columbus but we're talking about
John Hughes here the writer and producer
home alone came at the end of an
incredibly busy decade for Hughes in
which he wrote more than 10 hit movies
and there are a lot of recurring
elements across those films home alone
like almost every Hughes production is
set in the suburbs of Chicago it
involves a large dysfunctional family
like in the vacation movies one family
member feeling neglected like in 16
candles and people desperately trying to
get home for a holiday like in Planes
Trains and Automobiles and it also
represents a shift in his interests
after Home Alone he would write several
movies featuring villainous criminals
such as career opportunities baby day
out and Dennis the Menace and most
notably after Home Alone Hughes would
spend the rest of his career primarily
writing PG rated family films instead of
the movies for adults and teenagers he
had focused on for the previous decade
that said we can do the same thing with
director Chris Columbus before this he
had written the screenplays for Gremlins
about young people having to deal with a
dangerous situation at Christmas time
and The Goonies about kids facing off
against a gang of criminals and you can
draw a straight line between home alone
and the first Harry Potter film which
Columbus again largely shoots from a
child's perspective Ive who is
overwhelmed by this huge world around
him so remember aour Theory isn't
actually so bad if you do it the right
[Music]
way every movie ever made is in some way
a small part of film history these
movies don't exist in a void they exist
in conversation with other movies movies
before it movies contemporaneous with it
and movies that came after look every
movie no matter how original is
influenced by other movies and when
analyzing a movie it's helpful to be
aware of this this isn't a matter of
treating the movies like Easter egg
hunts the way some people do for Quenton
Tarantino movies trying to find the
original source for every shot this is
about trying to better understand the
thought process of the filmmakers what
they're influences were and how they
used them it's helpful to look at where
certain elements came from and how they
might have changed in Home Alone there
are a handful of Fairly overt deliberate
film references the old gangster movie
Kevin watches angels with filthy souls
is a reference to the 1938 crime movie
angels with dirty faces this shot of
Harry and Marv's Shadows looks like an
homage to the shot in no Fatu of the
vampire Shadow moving up up the stairs
Harry getting his hand burned plunging
it in the snow and getting his palm
branded is modeled on a similar moment
in Raiders of the Lost Arc the M on his
hand is also a Nodge to the movie poster
for Fritz Long's classic film M but then
there are the deeper film connections
like the similarities it has to Sam
Pena's
1971 violent psychological Thriller
Straw Dogs which also features a clima
IC sequence in which the protagonist
rigs a house with traps to fight off
Intruders this is something that would
appear again in the 2012 James Bond
movie Skyfall or there's the premise in
which a physically outmatched hero is
trapped alone in a building and must
fight off a Band of Thieves in order to
reunite with his family at Christmas is
pretty much the same as Die Hard which
was released 2 years earlier the point
of this is not to accuse movies of
ripping off off one another it's that
these films are in conversation with
each other sometimes deliberately like
according to home alone's production
designer on the set of the movie they
were well aware of the straw dog
similarities but even if not
deliberately it's worth exploring and
comparing how different movies explore
similar ideas another angle you could
explore is home alone's physical comedy
and its roots in silent film you could
write a whole essay on the evolution of
slapstick Pratt fall Falls from Charlie
Chaplain and Buster Keaton all the way
up through home alone this is why one of
the most important aspects of analyzing
movies is to just watch a lot of movies
because the deeper your knowledge gets
the more patterns and Trends and
influences become apparent you can
understand something better when you
know where it came from which brings us
to genre
[Music]
on one level genre doesn't matter all
that much it's essentially a system for
categorizing movies based on a
collection of elements and tropes mostly
to make it easier for people browsing
Netflix or in the good old days the
video rental store like the label of the
genre drama is applied to basically
anything that doesn't fit into another
genre if it's not comedy or horror or
sci-fi or fantasy and it features like
adults having conversations then it must
be a drama whatever that means genre is
mostly about audience expectations the
genre is extremely important when
marketing a movie because by selling it
as a specific genre it's telling the
audience what to expect since Decades of
watching movies has conditioned us to
expect certain things from certain
genres so sometimes you have a case like
Darren aronowski 2017 film mother which
was marketed as a horror movie so people
went to see it expecting a horror movie
and then it turned out to be sort of an
allegorical art film that's like a
Darkly funny surreal Thriller and so
when opening weekend audiences were
surveyed by the polling company Cinema
score they gave it an f and it's not
that the movie is bad it's that it
wasn't what audiences expected it to be
they were led to believe belonged to a
genre and were disappointed when it
didn't meet the expectations of that
genre genre is another filmmaking tool
because we've seen a lot of movies
during our lives we immediately
associate genres with specific images or
sounds or locations within a film
filmmakers can use the language of
different genres to quickly communicate
certain feelings
so how does this apply to home alone
well above all else this movie is a
comedy you can tell right from the first
scene the film is shot with bright warm
lighting it's flattering to the actors
the scene looks inviting it puts us at
ease making us happy which is conducive
to laughing if the movie was shot like a
David Fincher film with a desaturated
bluish color palette and heavy Shadows
but still had the same performances and
dialogue
we'd be confused the different aspects
of the film would be working against
each other now even though I just said
that wouldn't work something similar is
actually done pretty effectively in the
movie game night which is a comedy shot
like a thriller so as to make the
genuine danger and Stakes of the movie
feel more real but also this visual
style is part of the comedic design of
the movie since for a long time the
characters in it don't realize their
actually in a thriller anyway back to
home alone so even though most of the
movie looks like how we expect a comedy
to look it occasionally borrows from
another genre horror throughout the film
some scenes will borrow visual language
and sound design from horror movies old
man Marley looks scary the sound of his
shovel scraping the ice on the sidewalk
is creepy the furnace in the basement
looks and sounds like a monster
so again let's follow the usual strategy
now that we've observed what is
happening in the film we have to ask why
why is Chris Columbus choosing to play
these scenes like a horror movie inside
his wacky family comedy because as I've
said repeatedly throughout this video
the film wants to put us in Kevin's
perspective and communicate how he's
feeling he's 8 years old he's young and
immature and scared of a lot of things
we as adults know that these things
aren't really dangerous that's just an
old man that's just a furnace but this
is Kevin's story and the most effective
way to make us empathize with him and
show what he's scared of is to portray
these things with the filmmaking
language of the horror
[Music]
genre but that said part of the fun of
analyzing art is that there are an
infinite number of ways you can
interpret it remember back at the start
when we talked about how the main themes
of Home Alone are responsibility
forgiveness and the importance of family
now these are the most obvious commonly
accepted themes they're probably what
Chris Columbus and John Hughes would
tell you the movie is about but let's
dig a little deeper and get a little
weirder and see what else we can find
okay so what if we want to look at home
alone through through a lens of gender
studies and queer Theory again we start
by just looking at what's there but this
time we're focusing on certain aspects
of the story if we do this we can see
that at the beginning Kevin is confused
about whether he wants to get married or
live alone when he grows up for much of
the movie he is intimidated by women who
are more powerful than him especially
his mother and in the end he eventually
is able to to find Salvation by
connecting with an older man who
eventually saves his life so you could
theoretically argue that this is a story
about a young person's struggle to
figure out their sexuality okay look I
really don't think that's it but for
instance you could apply that same lens
to Harry and Marv's relationship I'm
pretty sure there's a valid queer
reading of that but here's another
reading the kind older man that Kevin
befriends this happens in a church and
that man with his long white beard
matches the popular Christian depiction
of God and earlier in the film Kevin
escapes danger by hiding among the
figures in a nativity scene by becoming
a witness to the birth of Christ and of
course the whole movie is set at
Christmas so one way to interpret it is
that home alone is a movie about finding
salvation in God and Christianity but
wait there are more it could also be
about class Warfare in America with
Kevin McAllister a privileged upper
class kid threatened by two poor
workingclass men who travel around in a
symbol of blue collar America a van for
a plumbing and heating company okay look
do I really think that all of these are
really what the movie is about no but
any of them could potentially be valid
interpretations if if you can provide
enough evidence within the film to argue
it persuasively and all of this comes
down to Simply observing what you see
and what happens in the film breaking it
down in simplest terms then asking why
what does this
[Music]
mean the thing about analyzing movies
and this really goes for analyzing art
in general en is that even though we
have all these fancy pre-existing lenses
that various Scholars came up with over
the years we are all going to interpret
things slightly differently because
every time we watch a movie we are
bringing with us not just our existing
taste in movies and the knowledge of all
the movies we've ever seen but also our
own personal experiences our cultural
background and inner emotional life and
all of those things affect how we feel
about a movie The only wrong way to
analyze a movie is to insist that your
way is the only way remember this is all
just a matter of observing what you're
experiencing even if that means
observing your own reaction and asking
why after all art can be a great way to
learn more about yourself look home
alone is not an especially deep movie
this is not a piece of art house Cinema
it's an extremely mainstream family
movie best known for Joe peshy getting
shot in the nuts with a BB gun but the
whole point of this video is to show
that any movie is worth studying and
analyzing and finding meaning in not
just serious art films and you don't
have to do this with everything you
watch that would get exhausting if you
want to just watch a movie for fun
without thinking too deeply about it go
for it I do it all the time too but the
meaning is always there if you want to
look for it even if the people who made
the movie didn't intend all that meaning
to be there it's still there you just
have to find it and so now go forth
re-examine all your favorite movies and
impress people at parties by telling
them how home alone is really about
class Warfare and finding salvation in
God and stuff like that it's a great way
to make new friends trust
me oh okay welcome back and thank you
for sticking with me through this whole
thing that was a bit more like fully
academic than the regular videos usually
are so I mentioned at the start that
this video was originally written as a
class for nebula before I changed my
plan and made a different class instead
well if you enjoyed this class I have a
whole other one on nebula right now it
is 80 minutes long an entire
featurelength class on how to make a
movie like sure you can join master
class and watch Ron Howard's class on
film making it's pretty good I've seen
it but his class also assumes that you
have a budget and a crew and so it isn't
entirely relatable for people doing no
budget film making but you know whose
class is all about making a movie with
little to no budget and how to actually
get it finished finished Min is oh and
if you would actually like to watch the
micro budget feature film I released
last year night of the coconut it is
also available exclusively on nebula and
so are all the bonus features that we
recently released like three different
commentary tracks featuring the cast and
crew and an extended scene featuring
even more surprise cameos than in the
actual movie see nebula is a platform
built by a bunch of creators like me to
give us a place to experiment and make
different more ambitious projects than
we do on YouTube it's a place where I
can make a featurelength narrative film
where you can watch jet lag episodes
early it's the only place Lindsay Ellis
is releasing new videos it's the place
with dozens of classes taught by your
favorite creators and yes I am finally
working on my next narrative short film
which will Premiere exclusively on
nebula nebula is the best place to watch
my videos there are no ads there is so
much great new exclusive stuff coming
out all the time and if you join you are
supporting this community of independent
creators and helping make it possible
for us to keep growing and expanding the
scope of what we do I'm sorry but I am
legitimately passionate about this so if
you sign up for nebula at the link below
down there in the description you can
get it for just over $3 a month which
honestly is a pretty great deal for
something that's pretty great okay that
is all for now good night all right I
guess it's still daytime but uh
bye hello it's me one more time I feel
like this is turning into a Russian
nesting doll of segments where I talk to
the camera but I'm here because I want
to let you know something very important
which is that the vinyl night of the
coconut soundtracks produced by Mondo
are in stock and shipping now if you
want one because um if I'm being honest
I think these are pretty much the
coolest thing that has ever come from
these videos and this channel uh I mean
we have this incredible gorgeous artwork
by Colin Murdoch uh the obviously
amazing music by Brian molus featuring
on vocals Khloe Holgate and Matt torpy
and um I just think it's so cool that
these exist and uh and I love them so
much much uh the the special editions
are available from the nebula merch
store those have the yellow vinyl and
all of them are signed by Brian and
myself uh and then the regular editions
uh featuring brown coconut vinyl um are
available from the Mondo store so you
can get whichever one you want or both
but that seems like Overkill um anyway I
just want to let you know because I love
these so much I'm so thrilled that this
happened and uh and that's all so you
know whether you're an avid vinyl
collector or maybe you don't even have a
record player but you just want this on
display as a cool piece of art in your
home um you know it works for everybody
great gift as well okay I'm Shilling too
much now um the other thing that I want
to mention is that for those of you who
are following along with the topic
Tournament of 2023 the big tournament to
decide which fans submitted video topic
would get turned into a real video um
Muppet Cinema one and so by the end of
the year I will make and release a video
about Muppets and movies I think it's
going to be great so that's all there's
a lot to get excited about um I got to
go work on the next video the the stuff
we have coming up I think is going to be
really fun anyway that's that's enough
of me talking goodbye