How The Nerdwriter Writes A Video Essay

[@WhyItsGreat]

What's your favorite Nerdwriter video essay?

[@camdelahuerta700]

Hard to pick one, but my faves are Jackie Chan - How to do Action Comedy. Edgar Wright - How to do visual comedy. Westworld - What Makes Anthony Hopkins Great.

[@WhyItsGreat]

@@camdelahuerta700 Those are all fantastic. Especially the Anthony Hopkins one. Such insight into minute facial expressions.

[@ousssika5359]

The one on there will be blood ,it showed how mush effort he s doing to.make a video

[@CineStructure]

I adore "Melancholia: Depression on Film" and "Harry Potter: What Magic Sounds Like." But it's really hard to pick...they're all SO good!

[@shantodas8184]

i loved his earlier works on social phenomena & painting analysis. his movie dissection one's are top notch as well

[@ousssika5359]

man i love your nerdwriter essay on nerdwriter essay

[@WhyItsGreat]

Thank you! We did one on Patrick (H) Willems too.

[@Ohara-the-Fox]

Going full Meta. Nice.

[@robinhude5394]

I saw this postet on reddit and you did a realy good job. Very cool how you made a video about the nerdwriter in the nerdwriter style which is exactly what he is doing in his Essays, which is adopting the style of the subject at hand (as you statet yourself). Its like a nerwriterception.

[@WhyItsGreat]

Nerdwriterception 🤣 love that. Exactly what I was going for. Thank you.

[@kanebo4095]

My teacher played your video in class for learning your way of speaking. I was really into the details you're mentioning about the differences between individuals as their unique advantages which is can never be copied.

[@camhouser7029]

This video is criminally underviewed

[@WhyItsGreat]

Best kept secret on KZbin 🤫

[@prithuhalder4777]

I just wonder, how much effort has gone into making this video. Terribly underrated video on internet. Loved your analysis, man!

[@loserscorner6746]

That guy is a genius. I may not even give a shit about what he's talking about but he makes me.

[@WhyItsGreat]

Exactly my experience as well.

[@itsdavidmora]

"It allows the viewer to experience the insight he's communicating, even before a single word about it is expressed." Great point! You feel it, then you feel smart about it. Who wouldn't love that? 😊

[@KindofBradAtThis]

Phenomal video from the writing, insights and pacing! Keep going!

[@MaiaCVideos]

Great analysis - I can't believe this video isn't more popular!

[@WhyItsGreat]

Thank you! I really appreciate that.

[@SergioValdez]

Loved the way you approach the subject, as someone who wants to start doing video essays I thank you for doing this video, has helped me a lot! 🔥

[@WhyItsGreat]

You’re welcome! And thank you. Let me know if I can help you with anything else. Good luck on your video essays.

[@kanebo4095]

Exactly right dude, I do belive this video is helpful for me to develop my own video essay peoject.

[@filhanislamictv8712]

I thank the closer look for introing me to the Nerdwriter. :)

[@AdeteDahiya]

Beautiful analysis. Super insightful and very well edited. Loved it

[@CaitKuentzel]

Whatttt such great story telling!!!! 🙌🏼

[@WhyItsGreat]

Thank you Cait. I enjoyed your content as well. :)

[@Itsfalcon9]

the way you broke thsis down was great

[@omarnomad]

Nerd Writing Nerdwriter. Love it!

[@kaustubhdhawan7385]

Hey man, as a boy working on his first video essay you really simplified things and essence of a writing style to me. Thanks.

[@WhyItsGreat]

You're welcome. Glad to help. Good luck with your essay. What's it on?

[@kaustubhdhawan7385]

Jagten, The 2012 Danish Film. Infusing core of the story i.e false accusations and mass hysteria with Indian Socio-political affairs and presenting it as a carping commentary.

[@WhyItsGreat]

Let me know when it’s up. I’d love to watch it.

[@kaustubhdhawan7385]

@ashy Technical difficulties have shelved it indefinitely. Though I've a finalised script of intended output.

[@kaustubhdhawan7385]

@ashy Sure, Drop your email id or something.

[@finetun3d]

this was very well done

[@jacobhelie5779]

Wow, great video ! Thanks to No film school who recommended you.

[@WhyItsGreat]

Thanks so much! I didn’t realize they had. That’s awesome.

[@Ghost-lt4sf]

Very inspiring stuff! This was beautifully done and actually incredible helpful. I just searched for "how to make video essays" and this was a very meta and awesome resource.

[@WhyItsGreat]

You're welcome! Let me know if I can answer any other questions you have about making video essays. Happy to help. :) Thanks for watching.

[@neethy1836]

incredible video!!

[@neurojitsu]

Many thanks, new sub! I have studied the introductions of my favourite KZbinrs including Nerdwriter, and had missed out on some of the finer points you noticed: you certainly Nerdwritered this video, which is quite a feat! Looking forward to more insight from you.

[@WhyItsGreat]

You’re welcome. And Thanks! I appreciate that very much. :)

[@seeker2seeker]

That’s some fantastic analysis...

[@WhyItsGreat]

Thank you! I appreciate it.

[@kristofferfrancis7198]

Fantastic analysis.

[@FabianEllis]

Fascinating, great video!

[@RudyTheMaster]

Fantastic vid! Quite helpful ^-^

[@akshayde]

All that is fine and he definitely has all the tools and the skills. but I believe his true gift.. And this rare and just all luck.. is his voice. That voice could talk for hours and keep your attention on it

[@WhyItsGreat]

You’re onto something with this. For sure. And I agree. Thanks for sharing.

[@neurojitsu]

I agree too, just as Tony's voice on Every Frame a Painting was just SO good to listen to... I would not be surprised if they have done some study and practice of acting performance skills. For example, I learned about the simple concept of "rehearsal" a few years ago, when I did a public speaking course called Heroic Public Speaking (HPS) in Florida (I live in UK and traveled to do the course, I loved his book that much - the book is called "Steal the Show" and there's a podcast of the same title by Michael Port). A simple but profound insight I learned was about the process of writing. I had always thought that to write a script, you just write it... and keep re-writing until you felt it was "done." But at HPS, I learned this was missing a trick. Why? Because the spoken word often sounds and feels different to the written word - particularly when adopting a (tight, intelligent - his writing is brilliant!) conversational tone as Nerdwriter does. So at HPS we were taught how to rehearse properly. Rehearsal is not repetition, which is an implicit 'wrong' assumption that I think many untrained people hold unconsciously (or at least I did anyway). HPS teach you to do a "table reading" AS PART OF YOUR WRITING PROCESS. I had been writing away, doing countless drafts... but once you start performing a script, you soon start noticing everything that doesn't work as you'd intended. The HPS faculty of instructors are all from the acting or A-list public speaking world. In acting, rehearsal is about improvisation and experimentation: trying things out, to see what works. You change a feeling you hold inside you, as you say the words. You move an inflection point, elongate a key word... and some of these changes can transform the "performance" because acting, they taught us, is all about making an emotional connection with your audience. I feel fairly certain that Nerdwriter knows this, and possibly uses this sort of process in his writing.

[@artistaccount]

@@neurojitsu he really does use the letting a pause between words and saying words slower or longer than others. In his nirvana's darkest song video he does it throughout the video it really adds to the conversational element of his essays. I also noticed he writes close to how I learned in English class how to write essays my teacher called it the formula.

[@neurojitsu]

@@artistaccount Yes I agree his "peformance" is equally good as his "scripting" of the essays. In case of interest, the Ezra Klein podcast recently interviewed the American Poet Laureate - Ada Limón - and I think it provides a lot of insight into things like rhythm and pacing... Ada Limón reads some of her poems, and yes she has this lovely musical voice but she also explains how a poem is constructed to make it "breathe" and how it "compresses" ideas to essences and images... I think someone like Nerdwriter uses a kind of "poetic" language. If you are not familiar with the Russian literary theorist Viktor Shklovsky then I recommend his 1926 book available in English since 1990 called "Theory of Prose" translated by Benjamin Sher and published by Dalkery Archive. It sounds heavy, but it's really not - it's just brilliant as deconstructing what poets do, what literary prose writers do, and the "artistic devices" they use. It's still regarded today as one of the most important books on literary theory - which is not at all academic, it's just practical insight into the "art" of writing.

[@CharacterDatabase]

wow man! nice content! keep it up

[@dkmmarie]

This video was absolutely awesome. Such a good example of deconstructing something to understand it better. Thank you for the excellent example! I'm wanting to start making video essays, and I've been struggling to find a good place to talk to other people who make video essays other than the comments every once in a while. Do you (or anyone really) have any thoughts on a good place to find a video ready community of sorts? To talk about the process, tools and more? I'm on the hunt right now.

[@WhyItsGreat]

Thank you! I appreciate the kind words. There are some video essayist Facebook groups I’m part of, but it’s mostly just people sharing their links. There’s also a couple good subreddits. If you search for them you’ll find them. But my advice would be to join more general KZbin creator groups on Reddit. Small KZbin creators subreddit is good. Some of them have discord’s where you can do more connecting and talking. I’d also recommend reaching out to small to mid size creators directly and creating your own network. Go in thinking about what value you can offer them, and you’ll probably have success making a connection and being able to learn from each other. I’d also add - just start and make one. Assume no one is going to help you. (Someone probably will, but it’s no guarantee in life). The best way to learn is by doing. Don’t wait to have all the answers figured out. Be ok with your first videos being bad. You don’t even have to post them. Make one, and see what needs to be better. Then make another one incorporating what you’ve learned. Make each video better than the last and over time you’ll see real progress. But if you never start, you’ll never have a chance. And I’ve discovered that the joy of KZbin is found in the act of creating itself. Not in any amount of views or subscribers or Adsense money. The art is it’s own reward. Good luck! Let me know when you’ve made your first one.

[@Nkanyiso_K]

Woah, great video: quick question 😏 *How do the other 49% start?*

[@calmtfdownyagna]

Where is that Evan pushack sitting inthe chair video taken from?

[@nickllanes8030]

Show the viewer the thesis before you state it. Got it.

[@WhyItsGreat]

👍🏻👊🏻

[@guilhermeadan2329]

wow

[@neethy1836]

this is so meta

[@lampeyre]

⚠️⚠️ FLASH/EPILEPSY WARNING!! ⚠️⚠️

[@kurtjeremy8557]

haha this is so meta.

[@eddymurky4149]

Gwak gwak.. jk man great vid

[@FloydTaylor]

"An Essay"

[@biegebythesea6775]

I have no idea what you're talking about. I wish I did. I should probably watch a Nerdwriter video first...

[@mihird9]

Lmao, this is so meta

[@moonlightfitz]

💀

[@GerblerM]

This is too meta. Sorry, I just found myself experiencing existential disgust half way through when I realized I was watching a KZbin analysis of a KZbin analysis. Can't finish on principle.

[@oogrooq]

Nerdwriter is SO PRETENTOUS. And so are you.

[@WhyItsGreat]

🤷‍♂️ Sorry, oogrooq. I'll try and be better

[@samikhalil8283]

I love how pretentious is the new buzz word for anyone that does anything well

[@linkenski]

How Nerdwriter1 writes a video essay is by wasting your time taking an excerpt and explaining to you in painstaking detail what you just saw.