longest video essay on youtube

The video essay boom

Hour-long YouTube videos are thriving in the TikTok era. Their popularity reflects our desire for more nuanced content online.

by Terry Nguyen

The video essay’s reintroduction into my adult life was, like many things, a side effect of the pandemic. On days when I couldn’t bring myself to read recreationally, I tried to unwind after work by watching hours and hours of YouTube.

My pseudo-intellectual superego, however, soon became dissatisfied with the brain-numbing monotony of “day in the life” vlogs, old Bon Appétit test kitchen videos, and makeup tutorials. I wanted content that was entertaining, but simultaneously informational, thoughtful, and analytical. In short, I wanted something that gave the impression that I, the passive viewer, was smart. Enter: the video essay.

Video essays have been around for about a decade, if not more, on YouTube. There is some debate over how the form preceded the platform; some film scholars believe the video essay was born out of and remains heavily influenced by essay films , a type of nonfiction filmmaking. Regardless, YouTube has become the undisputed home of the contemporary video essay. Since 2012, when the platform began to prioritize watch-time over views , the genre flourished. These videos became a significant part of the 2010s YouTube landscape, and were popularized by creators across film, politics, and academic subcultures. 

Today, there are video essays devoted to virtually any topic you can think of, ranging anywhere from about 10 minutes to upward of an hour. The video essay has been a means to entertain fan theories , explore the lore of a video game or a historical deep dive , explain or critique a social media trend , or like most written essays, expound upon an argument, hypothesis , or curiosity proposed by the creator.

Some of the best-known video essay creators — Lindsay Ellis, Natalie Wynn of ContraPoints, and Abigail Thorn of PhilosophyTube — are often associated with BreadTube , an umbrella term for a group of left-leaning, long-form YouTubers who provide intellectualized commentary on political and cultural topics. 

It’s not an exaggeration to claim that I — and many of my fellow Gen Zers — were raised on video essays, academically and intellectually. They were helpful resources for late-night cramming sessions (thanks Crash Course), and responsible for introducing a generation to first-person commentary on all sorts of cultural and political phenomena. Now, the kids who grew up on this content are producing their own. 

“Video essays are a form that has lent itself particularly well to pop culture because of its analytical nature,” Madeline Buxton, the culture and trends manager at YouTube, told me. “We are starting to see more creators using video essays to comment on growing trends across social media. They’re serving as sort of real-time internet historians by helping viewers understand not just what is a trend, but the larger cultural context of something.”

A lot has been said about the video essay and its ever-shifting parameters . What does seem newly relevant is how the video essay is becoming repackaged, as long-form video creators find a home on platforms besides YouTube. This has played out concurrently with the pandemic-era shift toward short-form video, with Instagram, Snapchat, and YouTube respectively launching Reels, Spotlight, and Shorts to compete against TikTok.

TikTok’s sudden, unwavering rise has proven the viability of bite-size content, and the app’s addictive nature has spawned fears about young people’s dwindling attention spans. Yet, the prevailing popularity of video essays, from new and old creators alike, suggests otherwise. Audiences have not been deterred from watching lengthy videos, nor has the short-form pivot significantly affected creators and their output. Emerging video essayists aren’t shying away from length or nuance, even while using TikTok or Reels as a supplement to grow their online following.

One can even argue that we are witnessing the video essay’s golden era . Run times are longer than ever, while more and more creators are producing long-form videos. The growth of “creator economy” crowdfunding tools, especially during the pandemic, has allowed video essayists to take longer breaks between uploads while retaining their production quality.

“I do feel some pressure to make my videos longer because my audience continues to ask for it,” said Tiffany Ferguson, a YouTube creator specializing in media criticism and pop culture commentary. “I’ve seen comments, both on my own videos and those I watch, where fans are like, ‘Yes, you’re feeding us,’ when it comes to longer videos, especially the hour to two-hour ones. In a way, the mentality seems to be: The longer the better.”

In a Medium post last April, the blogger A. Khaled remarked that viewers were “willing to indulge user-generated content that is as long as a multi-million dollar cinematic production by a major Hollywood studio” — a notion that seemed improbable just a few years ago, even to the most popular video essayists. To creators, this hunger for well-edited, long-form video is unprecedented and uniquely suitable for pandemic times. 

The internet might’ve changed what we pay attention to, but it hasn’t entirely shortened our attention span, argued Jessica Maddox, an assistant professor of digital media technology at the University of Alabama. “It has made us more selective about the things we want to devote our attention to,” she told me. “People are willing to devote time to content they find interesting.” 

“People are willing to devote time to content they find interesting”

Every viewer is different, of course. I find that my attention starts to wane around the 20-minute mark if I’m actively watching and doing nothing else — although I will admit to once spending a non-consecutive four hours on an epic Twin Peaks explainer . Last month, the channel Folding Ideas published a two-hour video essay on “the problem with NFTs,” which has garnered more than 6 million views so far. 

Hour-plus-long videos can be hits, depending on the creator, the subject matter, the production quality, and the audience base that the content attracts. There will always be an early drop-off point with some viewers, according to Ferguson, who make it about two to five minutes into a video essay. Those numbers don’t often concern her; she trusts that her devoted subscribers will be interested enough to stick around.

“About half of my viewers watch up to the halfway point, and a smaller group finishes the entire video,” Ferguson said. “It’s just how YouTube is. If your video is longer than two minutes, I think you’re going to see that drop-off regardless if it’s for a video that’s 15 or 60 minutes long.”

Some video essayists have experimented with shorter content as a topic testing ground for longer videos or as a discovery tool to reach new audiences, whether it be on the same platform (like Shorts) or an entirely different one (like TikTok).

“Short-form video can expose people to topics or types of content they’re not super familiar with yet,” Maddox said. “Shorts are almost like a sampling of what you can get with long-form content.” The growth of Shorts, according to Buxton of YouTube, has given rise to this class of “hybrid creators,” who alternate between short- and long-form content. They can also be a starting point for new creators, who are not yet comfortable with scripting a 30-minute video. 

Queline Meadows, a student in Ithaca College’s screen cultures program, became interested in how young people were using TikTok to casually talk about film, using editing techniques that borrowed heavily from video essays. She created her own YouTube video essay titled “The Rise of Film TikTok” to analyze the phenomenon, and produces both TikTok micro-essays and lengthy videos.

“I think people have a desire to understand things more deeply,” Meadows told me. “Even with TikTok, I find it hard to unfold an argument or explore multiple angles of a subject. Once people get tired of the hot takes, they want to sit with something that’s more nuanced and in-depth.”

It’s common for TikTokers to tease a multi-part video to gain followers. Many have attempted to direct viewers to their YouTube channel and other platforms for longer content. On the contrary, it’s in TikTok’s best interests to retain creators — and therefore viewers — on the app. In late February, TikTok announced plans to extend its maximum video length from three minutes to 10 minutes , more than tripling a video’s run-time possibility. This decision arrived months after TikTok’s move last July to start offering three-minute videos .

As TikTok inches into YouTube-length territory, Spotify, too, has introduced video on its platform, while YouTube has similarly signaled an interest in podcasting . In October, Spotify began introducing “video podcasts,” which allows listeners (or rather, viewers) to watch episodes. Users have the option to toggle between actively watching a podcast or traditionally listening to one.

What’s interesting about the video podcast is how Spotify is positioning it as an interchangeable, if not more intimate, alternative to a pure audio podcast. The video essay, then, appears to occupy a middle ground between podcast and traditional video by making use of these key elements. For creators, the boundaries are no longer so easy to define.

“Some video essay subcultures are more visual than others, while others are less so,” said Ferguson, who was approached by Spotify to upload her YouTube video essays onto the platform last year. “I was already in the process of trying to upload just the audio of my old videos since that’s more convenient for people to listen to and save on their podcast app. My reasoning has always been to make my content more accessible.”

To Ferguson, podcasts are a natural byproduct of the video essay. Many viewers are already consuming lengthy videos as ambient entertainment, as content to passively listen to while doing other tasks. The video essay is not a static format, and its development is heavily shaped by platforms, which play a crucial role in algorithmically determining how such content is received and promoted. Some of these changes are reflective of cultural shifts, too. 

Maddox, who researches digital culture and media, has a theory that social media discourse is becoming less reactionary. She described it as a “simmering down” of the hot take, which is often associated with cancel culture . These days, more creators are approaching controversy from a removed, secondhand standpoint; they seem less interested in engendering drama for clicks. “People are still providing their opinions, but in conjunction with deep analysis,” Maddox said. “I think it says a lot about the state of the world and what holds people’s attention.”

That’s the power of the video essay. Its basic premise — whether the video is a mini-explainer or explores a 40-minute hypothesis — requires the creator to, at the very least, do their research. This often leads to personal disclaimers and summaries of alternative opinions or perspectives, which is very different from the more self-centered “reaction videos” and “story time” clickbait side of YouTube.

“The things I’m talking about are bigger than me. I recognize the limitations of my own experience,” Ferguson said. “Once I started talking about intersections of race, gender, sexuality — so many experiences that were different from my own — I couldn’t just share my own narrow, straight, white woman perspective. I have to provide context.”

This doesn’t change the solipsistic nature of the internet, but it is a positive gear shift, at least in the realm of social media discourse, that makes being chronically online a little less soul-crushing. The video essay, in a way, encourages us to engage in good faith with ideas that we might not typically entertain or think of ourselves. Video essays can’t solve the many problems of the internet (or the world, for that matter), but they can certainly make learning about them a little more bearable.

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What is a Video Essay? The Art of the Video Analysis Essay

I n the era of the internet and Youtube, the video essay has become an increasingly popular means of expressing ideas and concepts. However, there is a bit of an enigma behind the construction of the video essay largely due to the vagueness of the term.

What defines a video analysis essay? What is a video essay supposed to be about? In this article, we’ll take a look at the foundation of these videos and the various ways writers and editors use them creatively. Let’s dive in.

Watch: Our Best Film Video Essays of the Year

Subscribe for more filmmaking videos like this.

What is a video essay?

First, let’s define video essay.

There is narrative film, documentary film, short films, and then there is the video essay. What is its role within the realm of visual media? Let’s begin with the video essay definition. 

VIDEO ESSAY DEFINITION

A video essay is a video that analyzes a specific topic, theme, person or thesis. Because video essays are a rather new form, they can be difficult to define, but recognizable nonetheless. To put it simply, they are essays in video form that aim to persuade, educate, or critique. 

These essays have become increasingly popular within the era of Youtube and with many creatives writing video essays on topics such as politics, music, film, and pop culture. 

What is a video essay used for?

• To persuade an audience of a thesis
• To educate on a specific subject
• To analyze and/or critique 

What is a video essay based on?

Establish a thesis.

Video analysis essays lack distinguished boundaries since there are countless topics a video essayist can tackle. Most essays, however, begin with a thesis. 

How Christopher Nolan Elevates the Movie Montage  •  Video Analysis Essays

Good essays often have a point to make. This point, or thesis, should be at the heart of every video analysis essay and is what binds the video together. 

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interviews in video essay

Utilize interviews.

A key determinant for the structure of an essay is the source of the ideas. A common source for this are interviews from experts in the field. These interviews can be cut and rearranged to support a thesis. 

Roger Deakins on "Learning to Light"  •  Video Analysis Essays

Utilizing first hand interviews is a great way to utilize ethos into the rhetoric of a video. However, it can be limiting since you are given a limited amount to work with. Voice over scripts, however, can give you the room to say anything. 

How to create the best video essays on Youtube

Write voice over scripts.

Voice over (VO) scripts allow video essayists to write out exactly what they want to say. This is one of the most common ways to structure a video analysis essay since it gives more freedom to the writer. It is also a great technique to use when taking on large topics.

In this video, it would have been difficult to explain every type of camera lens by cutting sound bites from interviews of filmmakers. A voice over script, on the other hand, allowed us to communicate information directly when and where we wanted to.

Ultimate Guide to Camera Lenses  •  Video essay examples

Some of the most famous video essayists like Every Frame a Painting and Nerdwriter1 utilize voice over to capitalize on their strength in writing video analysis essays. However, if you’re more of an editor than a writer, the next type of essay will be more up your alley. 

Video analysis essay without a script

Edit a supercut.

Rather than leaning on interview sound bites or voice over, the supercut video depends more on editing. You might be thinking “What is a video essay without writing?” The beauty of the video essay is that the writing can be done throughout the editing. Supercuts create arguments or themes visually through specific sequences. 

Another one of the great video essay channels, Screen Junkies, put together a supercut of the last decade in cinema. The video could be called a portrait of the last decade in cinema.

2010 - 2019: A Decade In Film  •  Best videos on Youtube

This video is rather general as it visually establishes the theme of art during a general time period. Other essays can be much more specific. 

Critical essays

Video essays are a uniquely effective means of creating an argument. This is especially true in critical essays. This type of video critiques the facets of a specific topic. 

In this video, by one of the best video essay channels, Every Frame a Painting, the topic of the film score is analyzed and critiqued — specifically temp film score.

Every Frame a Painting Marvel Symphonic Universe  •  Essay examples

Of course, not all essays critique the work of artists. Persuasion of an opinion is only one way to use the video form. Another popular use is to educate. 

• The Different Types of Camera Lenses →
• Write and Create Professionally Formatted Screenplays →
• How to Create Unforgettable Film Moments with Music →

Video analysis essay

Visual analysis.

One of the biggest advantages that video analysis essays have over traditional, written essays is the use of visuals. The use of visuals has allowed video essayists to display the subject or work that they are analyzing. It has also allowed them to be more specific with what they are analyzing. Writing video essays entails structuring both words and visuals. 

Take this video on There Will Be Blood for example. In a traditional, written essay, the writer would have had to first explain what occurs in the film then make their analysis and repeat.

This can be extremely inefficient and redundant. By analyzing the scene through a video, the points and lessons are much more clear and efficient. 

There Will Be Blood  •   Subscribe on YouTube

Through these video analysis essays, the scene of a film becomes support for a claim rather than the topic of the essay. 

Dissect an artist

Essays that focus on analysis do not always focus on a work of art. Oftentimes, they focus on the artist themself. In this type of essay, a thesis is typically made about an artist’s style or approach. The work of that artist is then used to support this thesis.

Nerdwriter1, one of the best video essays on Youtube, creates this type to analyze filmmakers, actors, photographers or in this case, iconic painters. 

Caravaggio: Master Of Light  •  Best video essays on YouTube

In the world of film, the artist video analysis essay tends to cover auteur filmmakers. Auteur filmmakers tend to have distinct styles and repetitive techniques that many filmmakers learn from and use in their own work. 

Stanley Kubrick is perhaps the most notable example. In this video, we analyze Kubrick’s best films and the techniques he uses that make so many of us drawn to his films. 

Why We're Obsessed with Stanley Kubrick Movies  •  Video essay examples

Critical essays and analytical essays choose to focus on a piece of work or an artist. Essays that aim to educate, however, draw on various sources to teach technique and the purpose behind those techniques. 

What is a video essay written about?

Historical analysis.

Another popular type of essay is historical analysis. Video analysis essays are a great medium to analyze the history of a specific topic. They are an opportunity for essayists to share their research as well as their opinion on history. 

Our video on aspect ratio , for example, analyzes how aspect ratios began in cinema and how they continue to evolve. We also make and support the claim that the 2:1 aspect ratio is becoming increasingly popular among filmmakers. 

Why More Directors are Switching to 18:9  •  Video analysis essay

Analyzing the work of great artists inherently yields a lesson to be learned. Some essays teach more directly.

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Writing video essays about technique

Teach technique.

Educational essays designed to teach are typically more direct. They tend to be more valuable for those looking to create art rather than solely analyze it.

In this video, we explain every type of camera movement and the storytelling value of each. Educational essays must be based on research, evidence, and facts rather than opinion.

Ultimate Guide to Camera Movement  •  Best video essays on YouTube

As you can see, there are many reasons why the video essay has become an increasingly popular means of communicating information. Its ability to use both sound and picture makes it efficient and effective. It also draws on the language of filmmaking to express ideas through editing. But it also gives writers the creative freedom they love. 

Writing video essays is a new art form that many channels have set high standards for. What is a video essay supposed to be about? That’s up to you. 

Organize Post Production Workflow

The quality of an essay largely depends on the quality of the edit. If editing is not your strong suit, check out our next article. We dive into tips and techniques that will help you organize your Post-Production workflow to edit like a pro. 

Up Next: Post Production →

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The 15 Best Video Essays of 2021

This article is part of our 2021 Rewind .  Follow along as we explore the best and most interesting movies, shows, performances, and more from this very strange year.   In this entry, we explore the best video essays of 2021.

Another bizarre, pandemic-riddled year is in the can. Once again, video essays have provided a welcome distraction with sharp perspectives on all things film, from technical curios to tried-and-true aspects of visual storytelling. Some of 2021’s best video essays shed light on new, under-discussed sides of beloved classics. Others invited us to finally hit play on titles that have been languishing deep in a long-forgotten watchlist. And some attempted to make sense of the stickier corners of filmmaking, untangling knotty subjects with precision and putting intuitions into words.

I have had another wildly fun year of hosting The Queue , a thrice-weekly column dedicated to highlighting short-form video content about films, television, and the craft of storytelling. The following 15 essays are some of my favorites. Choosing just 15 was a difficult task, and I want to sincerely thank all of the video essayists I’ve covered this year for their hard work. Thank you for keeping us edutained for another year. I look forward, as ever, to seeing y’all pop up in my feed in 2022.

But, for now, let’s take a look back on the best video essays of 2021:

Why 4:3 Looks So Good

For a significant period of both film and television history, the boxy 4:3 aspect ratio wasn’t an artistic choice; it was the only way to present footage. While 4:3 fell out of favor with the advent of new technologies, this aspect ratio is making a comeback. And while it’s easy to dismiss the recent revival as a pretentious visual trend, this video essay does a fantastic job of unpacking the ways in which directors deploy it intentionally.

This video on the visual appeal of the 4:3 aspect ratio is by  Karsten Runquist , a Chicago-based video essayist. You can check out Runquist’s back catalog and subscribe to his channel on YouTube  here . You can follow Runquist on Twitter  here .

How Jackie Chan Takes a Hit

A part of what makes Jackie Chan such a compelling action star is his willingness to get hurt. Rather than protecting his ego and presenting himself as a human-sized action figure, he is willing to serve the character, the story, and the stakes of a fight by putting himself on the receiving end of a hard-hitting wallop. Not only that, but as this super entertaining and informative video essay underlines, the actor/director/stuntman repeatedly demonstrates that taking hits is just as much of an art as dolling them out.

This 2021 video essay was created by Accented Cinema , a Canadian-based YouTube series with a focus on foreign cinema. You can subscribe to Accented Cinema for bi-weekly uploads here . You can follow them on Twitter  here .

Return to Oz is an Absolute Nightmare

Not only is  Return to Oz   one of the darkest Disney movies ever made, but it’s also one of the most faithful adaptations of L. Frank Baum’s work. Surprise, surprise, those two facts aren’t totally unrelated. If you’ve only ever heard whispers of this infamous “kids” movie or if you’re looking to confront long-repressed childhood trauma, this video essay is a great way to get familiar with the project’s troubled production and its success as an adaptation.

This video essay is by In Praise of Shadows , a channel run by Zane Whitener  and based in Asheville, North Carolina. They focus on horror, history, and retrospectives. You can subscribe to their YouTube channel here  And you can follow them on Twitter  here .

Paul Thomas Anderson and The Long Goodbye

With Licorice Pizza hitting theaters at the end of 2021, now is as good a time as any to recommend this fantastic video essay on the influence of director Robert Altman on the work of Paul Thomas Anderson . For Anderson fans unfamiliar with Altman’s work, the video is an enticing carrot to dig deeper into one of the biggest names of the 1970s.

This 2021 video essay is by Philip Brubaker , a nonfiction filmmaker based in Gainesville, Florida. He has made a heck of a lot of video essays for Fandor, Vague Visages, and MUBI, in addition to short documentaries. You can browse Brubaker’s video content on his Vimeo page and follow him on Twitter .

Disney’s Robin Hood and the Death of Color

I’m a huge sucker for big-scoped retrospectives, so when this video essay on the cinematic trajectory of Robin Hood hit my subscription queue, I couldn’t hit play fast enough. The essay devotes a good deal of time to Disney’s  Robin Hood and why it’s great, focussing in the back half with the ways that gritty reboots neutralize the power of the mirth-filled myth.

This video on Disney’s Robin Hood is by Jace, a.k.a   BREADSWORD,  an LA-based video essayist who specializes in long-form nostalgia-heavy love letters. Impeccably edited and smoother than butter, BREADSWORD essays boast an unparalleled relaxed fit and an expressive narrative tone. Long essays like this take a lot of time to put together, and somehow BREADSWORD makes it all look effortless. You can subscribe to them on YouTube  here . And you can follow them on Twitter  here .

Related Topics: 2021 Rewind , The Queue

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We’re in a Golden Era of Video Essays and That Is Awesome

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READ MORE: The video essay boom (Vox)

Video essays are thriving in the TikTok era, even while platforms like YouTube are pivoting to promote short-form content. According to Vox , their popularity reflects our desire for more nuanced content online.

Video essays have been around for a decade or more on YouTube. Since 2012, when the platform began to prioritize watch-time over views , the genre has flourished.

READ MORE: YouTube search, now optimized for time watched (YouTube)

Today, there are video essays devoted to virtually any topic you can think of, ranging anywhere from about 10 minutes to upward of an hour.

“Video essays are a form that has lent itself particularly well to pop culture because of its analytical nature,” Madeline Buxton, the culture and trends manager at YouTube, tells Vox . “We’re starting to see more creators using video essays to comment on growing trends across social media. They’re serving as sort of real-time internet historians by helping viewers understand not just what is a trend, but the larger cultural context of something.”

To Vox writer Terry Nguyen , what seems especially relevant is how the video essay is becoming repackaged, as long-form video creators find a home on platforms besides YouTube. This has played out concurrently with the pandemic-era shift toward short-form video, with Instagram, Snapchat, and YouTube respectively launching Reels, Spotlight, and Shorts to compete against TikTok.

Yet audiences have not been deterred from watching lengthy videos on TikTok either. Emerging video essayists aren’t shying away from length or nuance, even while using TikTok or Reels as a supplement to grow their online following, Nguyen finds.

She points to the growth of “creator economy” crowdfunding tools , especially during the pandemic, that have allowed video essayists to take longer breaks between uploads while retaining their production quality.

READ MORE: Virtual tips are helping content creators actually make money (Vox)

CRUSHING IT IN THE CREATOR ECONOMY:

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YouTube creator Tiffany Ferguson admits to feeling some pressure from audiences to make her videos longer.

“I’ve seen comments, both on my own videos and those I watch, where fans are like, ‘Yes, you’re feeding us,’ when it comes to longer videos, especially the hour to two-hour ones. In a way, the mentality seems to be: The longer the better.”

In a Medium post, “ We Live in the Golden Age of Video Essays ,” blogger A. Khaled remarked that viewers were “willing to indulge user-generated content that is as long as a multi-million dollar cinematic production by a major Hollywood studio” — a notion that seemed improbable just a few years ago, even to the most popular video essayists. To creators, this hunger for well-edited, long-form video is unprecedented and uniquely suited to pandemic times.

READ MORE: We Live in the Golden Age of Video Essays (Medium)

Last month, the YouTube channel Folding Ideas published a two-hour video essay on “ the problem with NFTs ,” which has garnered more than 6.4 million views to date.

Hour-plus-long videos can be hits, depending on the creator, the subject matter, the production quality, and the audience base that the content attracts. There will always be an early drop-off point with some viewers, who make it roughly two to five minutes into a video essay.

“About half of my viewers watch up to the halfway point, and a smaller group finishes the entire video,” Ferguson said. “It’s just how YouTube is. If your video is longer than two minutes, I think you’re going to see that drop-off regardless if it’s for a video that’s 15 or 60 minutes long.”

Some video essayists have experimented with shorter content as a topic testing ground for longer videos or as a discovery tool to reach new audiences, whether it be on the same platform (like Shorts) or an entirely different one (like TikTok).

“The video essay is not a static format, and its development is heavily shaped by platforms, which play a crucial role in algorithmically determining how such content is received and promoted. Some of these changes are reflective of cultural shifts, too.”

The growth of shorts, according to Buxton, has given rise to this class of “hybrid creators,” who alternate between short- and long-form content. They can also be a starting point for new creators, who are not yet comfortable with scripting a 30-minute video.

“It’s common for TikTokers to tease a multi-part video to gain followers,” Nguyen reports. “Many have attempted to direct viewers to their YouTube channel and other platforms for longer content. On the contrary, it’s in TikTok’s best interests to retain creators — and therefore viewers — on the app.”

In late February, TikTok announced plans to extend its maximum video length from three minutes to 10 minutes, more than tripling a video’s run-time possibility.

READ MORE: TikTok expands maximum video length to 10 minutes (The Verge)

Last October, Spotify introduced “ video podcasts ,” which allows users the option of toggling between actively watching a podcast or traditionally listening to one.

READ MORE: Introducing Video Podcasts on Spotify (Spotify)

What’s interesting about the video podcast, Nguyen suggests, is how Spotify is positioning itself as an interchangeable, if not more intimate, alternative to a pure audio podcast: “The video essay, then, appears to occupy a middle ground between podcast and traditional video by making use of these key elements. For creators, the boundaries are no longer so easy to define,” she writes.

The video essay is not a static format, and its development is heavily shaped by platforms, which play a crucial role in algorithmically determining how such content is received and promoted. Some of these changes are reflective of cultural shifts, too.

That’s because the basic premise of the video essay — whether the video is a mini-explainer or explores a 40-minute hypothesis — requires the creator to, at the very least, do their research. This often leads to personal disclaimers and summaries of alternative opinions or perspectives, which is very different from the more self-centered “reaction videos” and “story time” clickbait side of YouTube.

“The things I’m talking about are bigger than me. I recognize the limitations of my own experience,” Ferguson reports. “Once I started talking about intersections of race, gender, sexuality — so many experiences that were different from my own — I couldn’t just share my own narrow, straight, white woman perspective. I have to provide context.”

This is a positive shift, Nguyen concludes. “A video essay, in a way, encourages us to engage in good faith with ideas that we might not typically entertain or think of ourselves.”

Are you interested in contributing ideas, suggestions or opinions? We’d love to hear from you. Email us here .

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The Berkeley Beacon

The rise of the video essay: a study in loneliness

Courtesy Creative Commons

By Kaitlyn Fehr , Chief Copyeditor April 6, 2022

I think we’ve ALL seen the eight-hour-long Victorious video essay on our YouTube recommended page. If you haven’t at least heard of this two-part series , you must be living under a rock.

Admittedly, YouTube recommended this video to me because I would die for a good, obscenely long video essay. The longer and more obscure the topic, the better in my eyes. 

Clearly, I’m not the only one, seeing as “The End of Victorious” currently has over three million views. This infamous video essay united Tumblr, and Victorious trended on the—somehow not yet dead—site for days. 

If you asked me this time last year, I would have told you that consuming 30-second videos on TikTok had destroyed everyone’s ability to sit through anything longer than a minute, let alone an eight-hour-long video. 

On average, YouTube videos tend to be around 10 minutes in length—the ideal length to keep viewers’ attention, while simultaneously hitting the minimum time to monetize a video. The years 2021 and 2022 truly marked the rise of video essays, despite the odds set against them from dwindling attention spans to the expected length of videos on the platform. 

My love affair with video essays began with YouTuber Jenny Nicholson, and her video titled, “I did it. I found the worst book.” As a book lover, and someone who loves to consume shitty media, I was drawn in by the clickbait-y title. The 23-minute run time is certainly not the longest of her video essays, but it was the perfect length to hook me. 

For a long time, I had grown bored with YouTube content. Every video seemed the same. Once-humble stars turned vloggers hanging out with their rich, famous friends and constantly causing scandals became the norm. 

Nicholson’s content was wildly refreshing to me, even as a YouTube veteran. The entire video broke down and trashed what might genuinely be the worst book ever— Troll , a novel following the story of a woman and her online stalker—instead of vapidly praising an author who paid for promotion or doing Patrón shots with millionaires. To put it simply, her video felt like something new on a platform that had grown old and stale.

I didn’t watch Nicholson’s video when it originally came out. Instead, I found myself falling into the rabbit hole of her content as the pandemic rapidly changed the world around me. I was locked in my room at home in Pennsylvania, separated from my friends, and feeling melancholy over my abrupt departure from Kasteel Well. Nicholson’s video let me escape this isolation and dive into a video where I wouldn’t be comparing my life to that of an influencer. 

I quickly pillaged my way through her content, listening to it like a familiar friend talking in the back of my head, as I played Animal Crossing New Horizons on my Nintendo Switch or colored at my childhood desk. Her video essays were there for the quiet moments where I would otherwise be alone. 

Eventually, I had to find new content to keep me company when the world was too quiet to bear. I turned to people like Sarah Z, with even more niche videos about internet lore like “The ‘Author’ of My Immortal Emailed Me, And Then It Got Worse.”  

I had always been a weird kid obsessed with internet lore and drama, and suddenly there was an untapped trove of hours of content created by people who had the same love for internet weirdness and were talking about it passionately. 

Obviously, I was not the only one finding solace and comfort in these long videos, as the rise of the video essay began during the pandemic. Many of these long-form video essays have views in the millions. 

I think there is something so uniquely human and inspiring about watching another human be consumed by something they love. 

I can’t deny the fact that a lot of people, and myself one of them, likely clicked on Quinton Reviews’ eight-hour-long Victorious video out of pure curiosity about how there is even eight hours worth of content to discuss surrounding this early 2010s Nickelodeon show. I watched Victorious as a kid, but never thought I would sit through a 13-hour total, two-part video series about the show. 

I clicked on the video expecting to mildly chuckle and turn it off, and instead found myself consumed by the content, turning it on every time I needed background noise or something to watch while I ate. Yes, I started watching video essays because I was lonely and bored during quarantine, but along the way, I fell in love with the genre. 

Watching Quinton Reviews talk at-length about every single episode of Victorious in existence is hypnotizing, mostly because of how passionate he is about this (subpar) Nickelodeon show.

Because of the passion shown by these creators, certain video essays transcend the need to watch the original content entirely. I’ve sat through an entire six-hour three-part video series on Pretty Little Liars , despite the fact that I have never so much as seen a single episode of the show. 

Pre-pandemic, YouTube, and the internet as a whole, was in a weird place. It felt like all the creativity had been sucked away, leaving an empty shell of what once was. The loneliness and the free time of the pandemic gave it that spark back.

Seeing content creators make content that they genuinely love, and are passionate about, is something that will never get old. It’s something YouTube lost for a while. 

At first glance, hours-long videos about niche content seem kind of dumb. But, when you sit and break it down, it gives you a glance into how passionate humans can be, and how we can shield each other from loneliness even when we are physically alone. 

Kaitlyn Fehr (she/her) graduated in 2022 with a journalism degree, with minors in publishing and environmental studies. She grew up in the small town of Reading, Pennsylvania, and always hungered to hear stories from other places. Fehr served as the chief copyeditor for the Beacon, writing columns as well. She can’t wait to bring more internet drama and emo content to the paper!

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TikTok is testing hour-long videos

The platform has slowly been increasing the maximum length of videos..

By Mia Sato , platforms and communities reporter with five years of experience covering the companies that shape technology and the people who use their tools.

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TikTok is experimenting with 60-minute video uploads, the company confirmed to TechCrunch . The feature is available only to certain users, with no immediate plans to expand widely.

The company has gradually bumped up the length of videos: in January, it gave some creators access to 30-minute clips , and as of now, users can upload content as long as 10 minutes long. Content creators who sell subscriptions also have access to 20-minute-long uploads .

TikTok’s arrival kicked off an era of shortform vertical video content, but these days, the platform has been leaning into longer, more YouTube-like material. Earlier this year, some TikTok creators got notifications that their content would get a “boost” if they shared horizontal clips instead of vertical. The platform’s monetization program now requires that creators share videos longer than a minute in order to qualify.

The explosive popularity of TikTok caused countless other companies — from Meta and YouTube to even LinkedIn — to add shortform video feeds to their platforms. But as everyone else tries to recreate the appeal of the For You page, TikTok is doubling down on longform content and livestreaming, formats more strongly associated with YouTube or Twitch. TikTok regularly hosts livestreamed events, including a music competition last year , as it pushes beyond bite-sized content.

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This 38-hour-long video isn’t just any ol’ April Fools Day prank

The story of Quinton Reviews’ longest video yet is actually about dads

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There’s an art to making an ultra-long YouTube video. For one, you have to make sure it’s broken up into digestible, complete chunks so that people can take natural-feeling breaks. Second, you have to use the length to your advantage. These are all things that Quinton Hoover thinks of when he publishes a video for Quinton Reviews, a pop culture video essay channel that’s recently been devoted to recapping a series episode by episode or breaking down years of history for a show.

Hoover has been a content creator for a decade, with around 881,000 subscribers at the time of publication. For the first several years, he would make skits or 30-minute breakdowns about popular TV shows and Garfield, but he’s become known lately for a slate of videos about 2000s-era Nickelodeon shows — specifically because these videos take longer than a standard eight-hour workday to sit through. For example, his three-part series on Sam & Cat (part of an even longer saga about the iCarly / Victorious universe ) will take over 21 hours to watch. So the fact that he has uploaded another long video about a TV show isn’t novel. This time, though, was different.

On April Fools’ Day 2024, Hoover began uploading his longest video yet , which chronicles the history of The Beverly Hillbillies and Petticoat Junction , two long-running sitcoms from the 1960s, written and narrated by his dad, Russ Hoover, who would be familiar to fans of the channel. But then viewers looked at the length: 38 hours, 27 minutes, 48 seconds. To put that into perspective, many segments of the video are longer than two-hour movies; the full video will take over a day and a half to watch. It’s not the longest YouTube video ever — that honor belongs to “The Longest Video on YouTube: 596.5 Hours” — but it’s pretty close, especially when you consider it doesn’t contain any loops or many hours of a blank screen.

I was asked to edit about 30 minutes of this video for Quinton! I wonder how long the finished video ended up... OH MY LORD https://t.co/BMn1Zz108w — Devnul (@therealdevnul) April 3, 2024

“So I think that the thing people are going to be most surprised to learn is that this video wasn’t necessarily something that I had planned, it was something that happened to me,” Hoover told Polygon. Hoover’s father had started rewatching those two shows chronologically and decided he wanted to try his hand at a video about them. “[My dad] just walks up to me one day, and he says, ‘Hey, I had an idea. [...] What if, for April Fools’ one day, I talked about the shows that I’m watching?’ And I didn’t think about it. I said, ‘We’re doing that.’”

Hoover worked to help his dad with the project, but he ran into a problem quickly: Russ had a lot to say.

“He sends me the script. And then — I was in shock when I saw it. Because I said, ‘Dad, this Google Doc is like, 400 pages,’” he recounted. “And I was like, ‘Dad, it takes me two and a half minutes to read every page I write. [...] You know how this is gonna be like 40 hours of stuff?’ And I was really, really upset. He thought it was funny.”

Another reason why the video took years to make was because Russ first had to learn how to make one. Hoover helped his father edit and condense his scripts, and also taught him what to explain to the audience. For example, Russ wanted to talk about The Beverly Hillbillies star Buddy Ebsen and, according to Hoover, he initially did not actually explain to the viewers who that was.

“I remember the first month he was recording. I’d sit in the living room while he recorded in his bedroom. I just listened to him record, and then I’d come and knock on the door, and I would go, ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about,’” he said. “‘You need to explain what this thing is. Because you don’t explain these things, you know?’ So it was just a funny process.”

Unfortunately, in 2022, Russ got into a bad car accident, which Hoover described as a “near-death experience,” that required his father to get multiple leg surgeries. The long recovery process meant that Russ suddenly had a lot of downtime. “That was the reason that we got so much of the video done at the end of the day. [...] He just had these awful months and months and months where he just couldn’t get out of bed.

“It was very therapeutic for us to work on this together, to kind of make this art project and have something to do while he got better,” Hoover went on. “And so it was very much about me trying to just share kind of the love I have for my father with some of my viewers.”

There were many other complications in the process, though. There were a lot of technological constraints, which makes sense for a 38-hour video. For one, Adobe Premiere Pro doesn’t allow users to make a video longer than 24 hours, so the video had to be edited in chunks. Then there’s the matter of YouTube video limits. Being verified or in the partner program means you can upload longer videos, but it’s still unclear what the upper limit actually is. As someone who’s repeatedly tested the bounds of what YouTube will allow in terms of video size and length, Hoover says he’s had inconsistent success. For the Beverly Hillbillies video, he uploaded four videos: Two failed, one was stuck in processing, and one eventually succeeded.

The video also just took a lot of effort. According to Hoover, the full video featured the work of around 22 people, took multiple years to make, was written almost entirely by Russ (with transitions by Hoover), and was around 133 GB (and that’s after a ton of compression to make it as small as possible). And, unfortunately for the team, it took over a day to upload and process; it finally went live on April 3, a little too late for a true April Fools’ joke.

Still, the video essay is doing well, all things considered. At the time of writing, it has around 660,000 views (Hoover is aiming for over 1 million). Many of the comments on the video talk about how informative it is, or how it makes sense that Russ would publish longer videos than even his son does (like father, like son). Then there are the jokes about how it’s long enough to basically be a college course.

Hoover generally gets a lot of angry messages and comments when he uploads one of his longer videos, but he says this project has still been a positive experience, at least for his father. Russ isn’t as much of a public figure online and therefore “doesn’t have to experience [the negative comments], which I’m grateful for,” says Hoover.

“There’s a lot of hostility to the stuff that I do that really burns me out,” Hoover said. “I always knew there’d be a certain amount of anger, because that always happens to me now. I can’t release anything anymore. So I’ve definitely gotten that specifically on, like, Twitter, from people that don’t watch my stuff.”

Hoover in general is burned out on his particular video essay format, and told Polygon that he might take a break after this to spend more time with his parents (his dad is doing well, he adds), build some models, go on walks, and decompress. “Doing stuff like that is one of the only ways you can really disconnect from that kind of hyper-consistent negativity. And I think if I just give myself a few months of that, I’ll come back healthier in mind and body.”

Update (April 18, 2024): Quinton Hoover has taken down the Beverly Hillbillies video after receiving multiple copyright strikes and a letter from Paramount (CBS’ parent company). While some of the DMCA takedown notices were for episodes in the public domain, Paramount said the video was a direct violation of its copyright, according to Hoover in a post on YouT u be , and that it would need to be taken down by April 15.

“While no threats were made, the path before me was obvious. Either they’d continue to strike the video every week, one episode at a time, or I’d have to go to court. I knew we wouldn’t win this battle, and going up against Paramount would ruin my life. So I agreed to take down the video,” Hoover wrote.

He also added that he takes “full responsibility” for the situation, saying that he knew some of the clips Russ used might be a problem. “I kind of knew he was using a lot of clips, which was absolutely problematic. But the project moved along so fast that I never stopped him to suggest he adjust. That is why this is my fault alone.”

Hoover is working on getting the video revised for a possible reupload with just screenshots, and is posting the usable footage to his Patreon.

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