patrickhwillems

November Favorites

Here are our favorite things from November! Gotta get back to work! Three more videos to edit`!

How to Ruin an Action Scene (Blue Flame Special Ep 2)

This is the video I was going to make a month ago. Before I decided to do a whole series on action scenes, the plan was to do a video just on geography. I was concerned it wasn't an exciting enough topic, which was probably true, but I think it works nicely reconfigured as the second episode of this series.

This is basically an episode where I bash Quantum of Solace a lot. Because the action in that movie is garbage.

Creating a Monster Protagonist

This is actually last week's video! But due to delayed approval from the sponsor (blame them) it got delayed until now. This one is allllll about monsters. Some Godzilla. A lot of King Kong. And some Shape of Water talk, since I'm very excited about the new GDT joint.

A bunch of cool stuff coming up...

Working on episode 2 of Blue Flame Special!

The next production vlog for "Apartment Hunting!"

And this week while I'm in Saratoga...

Announcing Our New Project

Most of the info is contained in the video, but here's the gist of it:

We're making a big new short film, the latest in the series of "When Your Friends Get Engaged" and "The High School Reunion," and we'll be documenting the whole process in a series of production vlogs leading up to the release of the short itself. This is the first one.

The Origin of Baby Driver & Drive

I've wanted to see Walter Hill's film The Driver for years, but it's a difficult movie to track down. Finally, over the summer Edgar Wright curated a series of heist movies at BAM in Brooklyn, and this one kicked it off. So not only did I finally get to see it, I got to see it on the big screen.

Immediately I was struck by just how close it was to both Baby Driver and Drive, how it was essentially creating a new subg...

T-shirt Design Poll!

Hey everyone, unfortunately there's no video this week. I've been frantically trying to keep on schedule over the past month (which has led to a lot of not sleeping, catching a cold, and being very stressed out), and decided it was best to take this week to catch up and get ahead on upcoming stuff.

But I do have a big question for you guys. As I've been saying for a few months, we're going to be selling merch soon. We've got most of the designs done (I even hired an artist to draw one!), which...

Patrick Explains BLADE II (And Why It's Great)

My parents are back for a new entry in what has (to my surprise) become a lot of people's favorite series on this channel.

This one is pretty self-explanatory. BLADE II rules, so I explained why. It seemed appropriate given that Guillermo del Toro has a new movie coming out soon.

I've got the next video in the series planned out, but I'm also wondering if we should do a Christmas one in December. Probably. Let me know what you think.

Anatomy of a Perfect Action Scene (AND THE START OF A NEW SERIES)

I didn't actually have a topic for this week's video until five days ago. I had several different ideas, but couldn't nail one down, and then, sitting in the San Francisco airport as my redeye back to New York got delayed for another hour, I had an idea: make them all into a series.

So here we are, with the first episode of Blue Flame Special (the title taken from an expression I'm pretty sure was made up for Point Break), a series all about how and w...

September Favorites

This is a couple weeks late, due to the post production process for last week's video being absolutely insane (PLEASE WATCH IT IF YOU HAVEN'T ALREADY) and me having to travel to California for a wedding.

These will continue, but starting next month they'll be in a new, shorter format.

Basically, the freewheeling discussion style kept pushing these into really long runtimes (the uncut versions were usually...

The Best "Getting the Team Together" Montage Ever

This is a big one. It's been in the works since May, we shot it for all of August and some of September, and post production has taken weeks. But it's done.

As I mention in the video, it was inspired by this article from earlier this year, which ranked the best "getting the team together" montages in film history.

Since the article featured a rubric...

Rewards Are Coming!

Hey everyone, just wanted to give you a quick update in case you're one of the many people who have pledged $10 or more monthly in the past, like, year, and are wondering what our deal is and when you're getting those sweet rewards.

Well, the packages are assembled and addressed and are going in the mail this week. Really.

Except for a couple of you who are also getting t-shirts, because we're currently finalizing the designs for the merch we'll be selling very soon. You'll have to wait ...

THIRTY

Today is my 30th birthday. That's kind of a big deal, or at least it is to me, so I knew I had to make a video about it.

The last time I did this was three years ago when I turned 27: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2kn1X4aJ-Is

That was a pretty bleak video, so judging by the new one, I'm not feeling quite so bad this time about being another year older.

Honestly, though, that's mostly because the p...

Why is the Hand So Boring?

I've watched most of the Marvel Netflix stuff, and The Defenders finally kind of broke me. It wasn't terrible (but also not especially good), but it was the culmination of a big problem that's been running through several shows: the Hand as a really dull main antagonist.

So of course I made a video about it.

Ghostbusters: A Movie About Nothing

This one was a lot of fun. I dug deep into a topic I've been thinking about for the past 7 years or so: whether or not Ghostbusters is about anything. Like, if it has ANY theme or subtext.

For the past month I've been asking everyone I know what they think Ghostbusters is really about, and the responses have been highly entertaining (no one has been able to give a real answer), so I'm excited to see what kind of discussion this one generates....

August Favorites

This thing is back! And we listened to the suggestions for how to improve it.

This time around we sat behind a table so Matt's foot isn't so prominent in the foreground, cut back our list of topics, and rotated through our recommendations.

And remember, this is bonus, supplementary stuff. This is not this week's video. The purpose of these videos is just to share and recommend the media we've recently enjoyed, since so much of this channel is already about sharing opinions on media.

What To Do With the X-Men Movies

Back in June I was on a 3-hour bus ride when the news broke about the next X-Men movie, X-Men: Dark Phoenix, apparently being released in the next couple years.

As someone who's not a huge fan of the X-Men movie series (although I like parts of it), I was annoyed about this, and tweeted a lot about it because what else is there to do on a 3-hour bus ride.

So people suggested I make a video how to fix the X-Men franchise.

And now, 2 months later, here it is...

Patrick Explains CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON (And Why It's Great)

This series is back! And since this is the third one I guess it's officially a series now. And yes, my parents are back, too.

I actually had no immediate plans for more of these videos. I was going to visit my parents this past weekend, and a week before that my mom texted me and asked if we would be shooting another video while I was there (she really gets a kick out of these).

So immediately I started trying to think of ideas, and now, three days after we shot it, here it is.

And...

A Tribute to Punching in Movies (video essay)

It's a new video essay! All about punching! Which I realize might seem like a weird topic.

A few months back I watched Rian Johnson's Brick for the first time in over a decade (spoilers: it's great) and was struck by the way punches were visualized in the movie. Each one was shot in a different way and they all felt like they had real impact.

So this planted a seed in my brain that, after several months of thinking about punching in movies a lot, grew i...

July Favorites (new feature)

Here's the first in what will probably be a monthly thing. You know how beauty vloggers (and a lot of female vloggers in general) do monthly favorites videos where they share (usually) their favorite makeup or cosmetic products from the past month? Well this is kinda like that, but focused on the media (movies/comics/books/shows) we really liked.

This is a trial run, and we'll adjust aspects of the format and presentation next time. I've already got a list of modifications I want to do.

...

Death Bidet (trailer)

So this one time Matt, Jake, and I got a hotel room for a night so we could shoot a fake trailer for a horror movie called DEATH BIDET.

There's also a behind the scenes video so you can see what it was like on set: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PxdiISPlEY

I don't think there's a whole lot of insight we can give into this one. It started as a joke, then we tried to make a legit trailer for that ridiculo...

Comic-Con Was Pretty Crazy

Last week was Comic-Con, and as always it was complete madness. So I covered the whole thing in a video. Features appearances by Big Boi from Outkast plus the actual Josie and the Pussycats from Riverdale.

Honestly I'm relieved this is done since Comic-Con kind of derailed the video schedule, and now I'm excited to get back to work on the cool stuff we have in the works for August.

STAY TUNED

Sam Raimi - How Does Horror Comedy Work?

Sorry this is so late. I've been in the middle of non-stop Comic-Con madness since Wednesday morning and it totally slipped my mind to write this post.

(Comic-Con is over and went well, btw. You'll hear more about it soon)

Also you probably all saw the video already since if you pledge to this Patreon I assume you're subscribed to this channel.

Anyway, the video is on Sam Raimi, who I love, and horror comedy, which I love.

The biggest news about this video is that it's our fi...

No Video This Week (Well...Kind of)

Since November 3rd of last year, we've released a video every single week. That's 36 weekly videos. Plus some bonus ones thrown in occasionally.

So it was time for a bit of a break.

(Honestly, I co-wrote a whole feature-length screenplay last weekend and am working on a video essay for next week so this really wasn't a break at all)

But even though there isn't a cool full-sized video this week, I have some business to discuss, about Comic Con, merch, Star Wars props and...

.....

A WEEK OF WRITING

This is not the most exciting video, but it was a necessary one.

As much as the YouTube videos are great and I love making them and they pay my rent and lead to fun opportunities, I know that if I want to have the opportunities to direct bigger things, I need some sort of "calling card," like a well produced short film. And I haven't made one of those in a while.

I've been meaning to make one for over a year, but after writing one draft last fall it got derailed by the weekly YouTube vid...

Kraven's Big Day: A Spider-Man Story

If you started watching this channel in the past six months, you might watch this and think, "What IS this garbage?" If you've been watching since before last November, you're probably thinking, "Hey, it's a video like the old days!"

Before the end of last year, this channel was almost entirely wacky narrative shorts, frequently about movies or comic books. There's been a big shift toward non-fiction content lately, but I'm working on striking a balance between the two.

THIS video is one...

How Wonder Woman Uses Color

This is not the official video for this week. This one is kind of a mini video essay. Like most of us, I really liked Wonder Woman (there's finally a good DC movie!), and I really appreciated the smart, deliberate way it uses color as a storytelling device. So I made a video about it.

We shot most of this week's video last night, a classic narrative short that is very, very silly, and basically the opposite of this video. We're finishing the shoot tomorrow afternoon, ...

TONIGHT'S LIVE STREAM ACTUALLY AT 7:30

Slight mistake on my end on the last post.

Tonight.

7:30 EST

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DbwDCAKshwU

See you there!

How Edgar Wright Saved My Filmmaking Career

This is a story about a lot of things: how I launched the YouTube channel, how I almost went to grad school, and (as you can see from the title) how Edgar Wright saved my filmmaking career.

I've been thinking of doing a video on this for a while, but waited until now because Edgar Wright's new movie opens next week and I'm making a conscious effort these days to schedule videos for when they'll be most relevant.

I've done some vlog-style videos before (I can probably just call them vlogs...

AN ACTUAL LIVE STREAM ON THURSDAY

So for all you $4+ patrons, we're FINALLY doing a live stream this week.

THURSDAY

7:30 PM (EST)

UNTIL...8:30? (we'll see)

We're going to be doing these semi-regularly, and they might take different forms. Some will be public, but this is going to be a small, intimate affair just for $4 and up patrons (since it is one of the reward tiers, after all).

We'll be streaming on YouTube at this link: 2017-06-21 00:39:58 +0000 UTC View Post

Realism: How Much Does It Really Matter?

This one's a new video essay.

If you follow me on Twitter you might have seen me complain about a repeated line of commenting on the Marvel color grading video essay: that the flat coloring is more "realistic," and therefore better.

I've been thinking about this for months, and decided to do a deep dive on cinematic realism PLUS a discussion of the Wachowskis' Speed Racer (which you knew was coming).

This one gets heavy into cinema studies stuff, so BUCKLE...