The potential of Documentary

Let's take a step back. 

If you have a moment I would like to share some personal thoughts with you. Some of you may have wondered why I chose to make this long up to 4 hours long series about Turkey. And if I might consider doing this kind of video series on other nations or historic events in the near future. And the answer is yes, I do. 

I would love to make a series telling the entire history of China, which would probably be the biggest project and could end up being up to 10 hours long. I would like to make videos like the series on Turkey about Argentina, Colombia, Switzerland, Ireland, the Congo, South Africa, Austria, Germany, the United States, Canada, Texas, Iran, Egypt, and Vietnam. I also would really love to make a documentary series about the history of Slavery, which I believe is largely distorted due to the heavy focus on slavery in the U.S, which clouds out the histories and legacies of slavery in West Africa, East Africa, Brazil, Portugal, France, Britain, North Africa, Latin America, Arabia, and the Caribbean. As well as a long-form video on the history of communism, as I believe there is a lot of revisionism regarding communist crimes and tyranny spread through popular culture. The thought of this has been floating around my head for years. And Turkey just happened to be first in line, because a Turkish subscriber suggested I make a short video on his country. I wanted to do this in length due to many misconceptions and lack of history. There are dozens of videos about Turkish history and politics out there. But all of them are either about the Ottomans besieging Vienna or about Erdogan. Almost like the Turks somehow magically didn't exist in the times in-between. Adding to that there are a ton of misconceptions (I have literally talked to Americans who thought Turkey is like Saudi Arabia, and that Turks wear Burkas and ride camels). But far more important to me. I really really really wanted to at some point do a long documentary. Not just a "youtube video" but something that could actually be called a documentary, or at least would be considered worthy of being called such by those who watch it. That is something I had wanted to do for years. And it is also something that was intimidating. Because it seemed obvious that it would be an almost impossible mountain of work to climb. Many YouTubers who make such long projects often talk about the enormous production costs and all the money that goes into it. That it is almost impossible to do without a team of dedicated editors, film crew, researchers, and animators. 

But.... it also raised my suspicions. Some of you may know who I talk about when I mention a certain someone who raised tens of thousands of dollars for a "documentary" and then posted images on Instagram of champaign bottles. 

Either way. When the Turkey topic was suggested, and the Patreons voted for it. I decided that it was time to take on this challenge. I wanted to see how much work and effort it would take. And my oh my am I surprised. In total the last two parts have cost me 500$ in investment. Not thousands. Nope. Just some money for basic equipment, books, and a lot of patience. LOTS of patience. I probably made some mistakes due to my arrogant "I MUST DO THIS ON MY OWN" attitude that I went into this with. But now that it is coming to a close I am overjoyed and extremely happy. Absolutely euphoric in fact. I believed that if I ever wanted to do such long projects, I would have to get a corporate sponsor, or do a fundraiser, or wait until my Patreon income was at least 5 times what it is now. But no. I proved to myself and to you that it is possible to make a long documentary-style video, without a massive budget, fundraiser, or corporate sponsor, through reading, writing, drawing, work, and patience. And of course, I am not going to discount the 5 volunteer artists who jumped in last week because they wanted to finally see this video done.

Something that I really just wanted to share with you all is. We now know, and have it proven, that these long documentary-style videos are possible. That I can actually get them done. That this is something that you can expect from me. Now... I will be returning to shorter videos after Turkey. I want to make videos that are between 15-30 minutes long after this for a few months at least. But sooner or later I will be returning to making a long video. Especially now that I know it is possible. I might hire some artists to get it done faster, and some fact-checkers to check for possible mistakes, but overall the system I used for Turkey will remain in place. And I am overjoyed about this. I love to think of what could come int he future now that this hurdle is overcome. I have to be careful not to promise too much here. But yeah, I am excited. Very excited. I believe making such long documentaries will be very much worth it. And thank you for sticking around on this journey.