New video patron preview draft

I don't usually comment, but I'm still rolling this video around in my mind over a month later. Also, I've completed multiple small tasks to improve my living space that (once initiated with intent) were fairly quick and simple, but took over a year to initiate. I don't know if that is related to this video - maybe it's a convenient narrative for my own life. But I think about this video when I do them.

Owl

Dan Olson made a video about a youtuber I never thought much about and I can't stop watching it.

1st Recon Lylith

From my lay pov it seeks like you're using careful film techniques to illustrate each point you make. A subtle reinforcement that also flexes your muscles as a film-maker/video-maker. As with many of the topics you cover, you prod at something profound buried within the mundane. But, like, without seeming as pretentious as this comment

Picul

The visuals - a beutiful montage of filmmaking, the audio - a long form critique of a peer's career. They are both extremely interesting and play off of each other well, but wow, so different. Also, your visuals are some amazing storytelling and fun technical vignettes.

Ronald W Buie

Sure, and that's what I was thinking of. I mean, sure, this video certainly can accurately be characterized as "self-reflection and puzzlement." But those aren't really the reasons I watch Folding Ideas.

dirtside

I think this video is not necessarily "going after" AVGN ^---^ I think it is more of a self-reflection and puzzlement video. Like take the Wall video to compare. THAT video is going after someone.

delightedMatt

I... didn't get much out of this video. Probably, mostly, because I've never seen any AVGN videos and was barely aware of his/their existence before now. I prefer when you go after actively harmful people, like crypto scammers, giant corporations, and theocrats.

dirtside

Still emotionally processing this one. I think the choice to wear the Lake Minnewanka hoodie while showing this level of vulnerability & insecurity is the biggest gut punch for me. In Search of a Flat Earth has genuinely gotten me through hard times. I go back to it again and again for empathy, understanding, and rope out of depressive lows. And the footage of the shore disappearing under the curve?? Gives me goosebumps every time. So hearing you tell yourself "You're not a filmmaker, either" while wearing *that* hoodie? It *hurts.* It says "You'll *never* live up to your own dreams," and that resonates with me in a way that I still haven't fully processed.

Keelia Silvis

This is a masterpiece Dan - I find myself enthralled by a subject that I had no previous emotional attachment to but after the line "It is a wrong thing" 1:37 into the essay I am glued to the rest of it and I have now rewatched it several times in the past week. I still don't care that much about the subject matter (James Rolfe) but I am enthralled by the craft and the storytelling that went into this production.

David Hagberg

Hey, subbed because of this one. When James' Wavelength video came out I was struck by how much of his viewing experience he retained some 20 years later to the point where he could recount his emotional response in detail - I know he says it's bad and boring and whatever but it caused a memorable, extreme response in a way a commercial movie never could, and that's why it works as art. Also thanks for holding up a terrifying mirror to my own cluttered and disorganized work area

Ted Koutz

you are brilliant dude.

Loveletters

Dan I have a genuine question: was it a specific decision, in the Flashback sequence at the end, to not have the on screen narrator avatar be Foldy?

Alex Hambrock

I really, really enjoyed this video. Excellent work.

Jordan Stillman

I don't know, but: Dangalf the Grey

With Quiet Eyes

The ending kinda got to me. Just wanted to say in the off chance you see it, your work is still good and valuable Dan and, if its still something you want to do, you can still make films too.

Pandacidal maniac

Is Dan the Grey the current Dan or is the clean cut Dan from the VHS part the current Dan?

Echoes from Elsewhere

Right? Really never imagined that I would ever know this much about the AVGN, but here we are.

Izzy Killeen

I need to watch this a few more times to make sure I'm not just looking for myself in it. This is a beautiful piece of work.

Tom

Thank you Erik, this was very much on my mind as well — there may be no obligation to seek comment and certainly one could make the choice to leverage a critical mode which declines personal engagement with the subject, opportunity for the subject to comment, or a heads up. That’s what the textbooks say. Sure. But none of us are chained to strict genre definitions for film criticism; certainly I think field traditions and academic conventions are much weaker than generosity or showing an impulse to caution about the subject’s feelings — or giving that person the opportunity to prepare emotionally & practically for a critical video essay which will be viewed by millions.

Olive_Garden_Sommelier

In some ways I'm surprised Dan sees himself in James given Dan does not have James' (or Doug's) calcified, egotistical disinterestedness in the world. At the same time I do get it as something about having grown up engaging with 'nerd' hobbies like WoW and DnD- there's a sort of hair trigger defensiveness that people in these communities get from feeling out of step with the """"normies"""". I feel like you can either grow from that or have those insecurities become your entire personality (which is the vibe that James and Doug's videos give off). I feel obviously Dan is the former but I get how James can exist from that as a sort of foil, both not-you but also you.

Max Casey

Isn't the knitted doll a representation of the nerd rather than a Dan doll? That's how I understood it because of its outfit.

Charlotte KL

I missed the preview version of this but caught the final release, and it's really great. That self-reflection through the other gets us all eventually, doesn't it? It's like you've got an Always Sunny conspiracy board full of AVGN photos, but over the top of it is actually written "WHO IS DAN OLSON?" which I think is an instinct that many people feel, often (do the things I like say things about me? am I criticizing things that I fear are actually true about myself?) but try to bury. on a less serious note, I do enjoy the running theme in a few of your vids of "so then I did what any normal person would do and (went to a lake/got on discord to let myself get nft shilled/built a set replica of the nerd set)."

Stormbourne

Like hbomberguy did with building his set ( a delight to watch on his patreon)

ames

I think you need to have at least watched a little of AVGN to fully get the vibe, especially when he does the reenactment-review at the end. Otherwise, I think a lot of what you point out were deliberate choices made, but that's just my interpretation as well. I do agree that the regular Dan sections are probably a bit too long and therefore mess with the intended theme of the personal story-part, but cutting it probably would have made it feel incomplete as a video essay on a subject matter. Really a tough balancing act there.

Semilocon

I hope this isn't an annoying or ignorant question but I'm really curious if there was a conscious decision to use a knitted doll dan instead of Foldy... Or alternatively long running character Hat Dan - the Dan with a hat.

Nick

I loved this, a new favourite of mine from you. My only feedback is that late in the video, you characterize footage of James as a “humiliating panic attack”, but it’s just a guy being kinda frazzled cause he’s late for an important deadline… not exactly graceful, but far from a panic attack or humiliation imo. Makes that part come off a bit weird. Maybe it’s just me.

Ian Campbell

I can tell that this is a deeply personal project for you (so much so that I feel silly even saying that), and as a result I'm more reluctant than usual to voice criticism; that said, I do have some notes erring on the more technical side of things. As ever, my number one hope is that this is useful feedback. First of all, I can definitely tell that the audio is lacking. The narration feels very flat and uniform throughout the video and there's very little music, but I assume you have plans for that. More specifically, the tone of much of the narration feels mismatched with the visuals. The intro narration sounds like normal narrator Dan (clean, technical, professional) while the visuals scream disarray and clutter. There are many shots of screens, whether it's Dan playing on a cell phone screen or on a grainy CRT TV playing VHS tape, but the audio for all these scenes is the same clean, clear dubbed-over narration, so the visual and audio components feel disconnected. I really liked the stylistic choice of having part of the narration play over the tape recorder diegetically [00:09:35], it created a clear delineation between the Dan reading off facts about James Rolfe, and the Dan reflecting his own feelings about James Rolfe. I think applying the same technique elsewhere could be very effective at lending the video a much richer aural texture. My second major note concerns the structure of the video. It feels like the narrative of the video is meant to be about a man (Dan) driven by obsession and spiraling into madness, culminating in the final scene where puppet Dan tells human Dan to get over his insecurities. In terms of structure, it makes sense well enough; a feeling of kinship with Rolfe leads to watching his BTS stuff and reading his book, leads to building his camera setup, leads to the scale recreation of his basement, leads to the final scene with the doll. On paper these parts all connect reasonably well, but the way they're presented in the video makes each feel a bit jarring. Once again, I think the audio is really important here--some background music would go a long way towards establishing the emotional character of the scenes as they progress, as opposed to the straightforward narration which really doesn't change much in tone from the beginning of the video to the end. Furthermore, it feels like many of the scenes are out of order. My reading of the narrative of the video was that it started out in much the same manner as the nostalgia critic/the wall video, but then devolved into obsession as Dan identified with and latched onto James Rolfe. However, counterintuitively we get much more footage of regular Dan towards the end of the video, while the beginning is almost all scraggly-beard Dan. This seems to implicitly contradict the narrative of spiraling into obsession. The section [00:48:30]-[01:04:00] really feels like it should come at the beginning--setting up the expectation of a more "traditional" Folding Ideas video before subverting it. Just to reiterate, that this is all predicated on my reading of the narrative, which could easily be wrong. On a somewhat less important note, I get the sense that there's a lot of context I'm missing, but I can't tell how much. If I've never seen any AVGN, am I just missing some little in-jokes/references here and there, or are am I actually going to have a harder time understanding the themes/messages of the video? Lastly, the final shot of Dan running from the darkness is really strong, and nails the vibe that I thought was missing from the rest of the video. It's a fantastic visual and a perfect thematic conclusion, I just don't think the rest of the video does enough to get us there. That's all worthwhile commentary I can think to write at the moment. I apologize for this very long comment, and I hope that some small part of this constitutes useful feedback. Overall, I think this is shaping up to be an all-timer Folding Ideas production, and I look forward to the finished product.

Burt Hagman

dang, well said, all of it.

Rebecca Richards

I can only imagine what it would feel like for James Rolfe to watch this video until the end. "Well, that was pretty brutal, but at least he was kind enough not to explicitly call me a delusional weirdo. He's even doing a little parody of one of my films!" You're not a filmmaker *either* "Oh..."

Cosmic Gems

Between this, Lady Emily's video, Big Joels Conservative comedy video, Hbomb's plagiarism video and the "Worst AVGN Episode" Patreon video I have now spent nearly four hours watching videos about, learning about and thinking about a man whose video series I've never watched a single episode of.

Chase

This is an experimental film in the way that skinamarink is an experimental film. Like that one was the aesthetics and methods of experimental film layered over the structure of a horror move and this is the same thing but for a Youtube video. It's very rare that I watch a video essay where I feel like I can't and shouldn't look away from the screen. Usually, even if I'm enjoying them, there will be sections where I feel like I can let my focus on the imagery drop. Not for this one. I stopped and put down everything and lay down and watched it like TV. These are all compliments.

Leah Miller

On a rewatch, hello CreepyPasta-Dan at 49:24

Robert

I've worked in a creative field (I make comic books, Lindsay Ellis once interviewed me for PBS!) for about 15 years and this spoke to my mid-career soul. Wonderful work.

Faith Hicks

Is this the reveal video for pre-production for your first feature length film? I'd honestly look forward to a movie by you more than anything by Guy Maddin. You should call Peter Kuplowsky.

R

This goes so much harder than what I was expecting. The progression from "look at this absolutely bizarre video and strange dude that I can't help but ask questions about" to "I can't look away because I'm afraid I'm him" was really expertly handled. When you commented on your gear video that you were working on an AVGN video I wasn't expecting this, but I like this more. The video is so well shot, paced, written, and with such strong aesthetic choices that if it wasn't what it is, if it wasn't, in part, about the underlying anxiety that Dan (either as 'character presenter' or as actual creative person) feels having so much in common with the AVGN - it would feel like a dis track. In contrast to the Nostalgia Critic video, which feels like a pointed "sit down and learn now" video directly targeted at Doug Walker, this video feels like a more introspective take on Dan's place in life, place in his career, place in the youtube community through the lens of an angry little video game nerd. It could have just been a 20 minute "lets laugh at this guy" video and that would have been fun, but what this is is so much more. What makes this video so interesting is it demonstrates such a yearning and ability for growth compared to its subject. I've been watching Folding Ideas for a long time now, since it was just a puppet on camera, and seeing what its grown into is genuinely inspiring. This video is doing so much interesting shit aesthetically, in its form, and in its content that I feel like you've stumbled (knowingly or unknowingly) on a resolution to the dialectic inherent to the video. On one side, an aspiring filmmaker makes videos on youtube, gets popular, gets fans, millions of people watch his videos - on the other side it's not "real" cinema, its self-published, and the aspiring filmmaker stays on youtube much longer than they thought they would. A fun project has become a career that might counter intuitively trap them in a system that keeps them from becoming a "real" filmmaker. I think the synthesis inherently present in this video is that the platform isn't what makes the art or the film - the filmmaker makes the art and the film. This video might be self-published, it might be on youtube, but it is made with an aesthetic and artistic vision that can't make it anything but art. This is film making. ... this post kind of got away from me. I really think this video is good. And I especially dig the Dan monologue on acting with AVGN projected over him (a little Blade Runner 2049 inspiration I think).

Wild Loose Comma

magnificent

Gabriel Munnoch

The lighting is incredible. The scenes at the desk mic are reminiscent of the "bisexual lighting" by Contrapoints, but instead of red+blue=purple it's warm+cold=confused.

Cullen.love

AVGN is one of those things before my time- when i was in college I was watching your live streams while I ate dinner/did home work. it's really interesting to see more about the pre-cursers to the current era of... I don't even really know what to call it. 'review as framework' kinda content. In the same way you describe AVGN as being a sketch show framed as reviews, I feel like a lot of video essays are like, philosophy and political commentary framed as review. In that sense theirs a very direct through line from AVGN to Channel Awesome to the work you and folks like hbomb/Lindsey/Contra/etc. but also the weird soup of right wing stuff like the Daily Wire and a lot of culture war commentators. It's not all the same, obviously, but they're homoousian in a macro sense. In some ways we have all always just been talking about what's in front of us to talk about what's around and behind us.

Morgan Ashwin

Agree with Chase, to my ears the idiom doesn't reflect its etymology. It conveyed accurate meaning for me before I was aware of its origins.

EricB

Wow, this didn't go anywhere I expected it to and got strangely personal in a very uncomfortable way. That last shot is something else. I suspect I'll watch this a lot honestly, I watch Lady Emily's AVGN video as comfort viewing of a time gone by. I think suddenly a lot of people are self-reflective on the early YouTube stars because yea, suddenly, YOUTUBE IS OLD ENOUGH TO BE NOSTALGIA. There are people born the day James uploaded his first video who are old enough to VOTE.

Rebecca Richards

After the patreon video where you detailed your equipment over the years, your description of your Foldy setup with a dangling microphone keeps popping into my head. Maybe it's because I keep thinking there must have been a better setup for that, even though obviously it worked well enough at the time with the tools you had available. But anyway, I was kind of surprised we didn't get a meta-shot of you sitting under a table with a dangling rockband microphone reading a part through Foldy, clacking noise and all, though i'm not sure exactly where that would fit in the script or if it would fit the overall narrative anyway. I agree with a couple of other points that were brought up by a few other commentors ( would be cool to have a wider shot at the "surrounded by aluminium" part, and i'm not completely sure what the glitchy editing on the repeated part of the script meant) but overall this is a really REALLY good introspective video and it's been playing on repeat in my mind. The anger-segment with the projector was extremely good, and I think this was the part where the theme of the video really clicked in place for me, even though I saw parts of it in scenes before. I also liked the emphasis on the "convenience" of filming certain things. It's an interesting subject, and though you frame it through James's videos it still feels like a self-critique, and I think what makes that really work for me is how the framing of every shot makes the whole essay have a feeling of stark solitude, even though the credits say otherwise. Even the home depot trip feels devoid of human life, though i've never been to a home depot so maybe that's just the vibe there. Also as a last thought, as someone who watches video essays either on my phone or in the background while doing crafts, i love all the phone and tablet shots. They make my brain go hey it me!! :) and i will try to not think too deeply about that because i do not have the time for an existential crisis right now. Anyway, yeah i really liked it a lot!

Marit

AVGN’s “films” remind me a bit of your Colin Trevorrow and his Book of Henry movie/script. In that Trevorrow claimed to be working on the script for 20ish years but it does not seem emotionally mature/intelligent at all, like its plot was written by a person 20-30 yrs younger than Trevorrow…and AVGN openly wants to keep remaking his literal childhood home movies but kind of pretends that’s not the case?

Olivia

Yes and I'm glad it does, cause I reaaally didn't like Inside's content but loved the style.

NiceHat

I wasn't entirely sold until the 15-ish minute mark where I felt like it really gained traction. I think there are parts before the introduction of the book that could be condensed or reworked, or maybe I would place them later on. The first 5 minutes feel like they could go after the introduction montage rather than before. I think it could start with 7:19-10:00 segment instead. After that Intro song, then the first 5 minutes, then back to 10:00. Reviewing at the 48 minute mark and I'm completely hooked. Great job!

NiceHat

I'm already on my second watch of this and already left comments on the video itself but it's still living in my head and I just really love it.

Julia Krystosek

May you not be stuck playing 2nd Edition.

orestes

When there's such a clear line between an idiom and its origin, and the kind of damage done by that origin is still very present today, it's hard for me to agree that this is a tortured read. Again I don't think it's racist, I just think it's worth thinking critically about whether it's really a term you want to use.

Kyle Owsen

Hah, same! All my AVGN exposure comes from Hbomberguy, Lady Emily and now Folding Ideas.

Charlotte KL

Absolutely loved it. Funny and insightful. I was one of the many who watched AVGN back in the hay day and enjoyed it for what it was. Great video :)

Matthew C

I had never watched the AVGN, and only first heard about him from Hbomberguy’s video. This is definitely going to be another rewatch for me.

RebeccaC

That's a tortured read. Grandfathered is now a general term that describes things like coal plants that don't need to conform to new environmental regulations due to its age, or any other situation where the rules change but certain persons or objects are exempt from the new rules. Also, do not use the phrase "people of color" when you mean black people. It is erasure.

taijitu

I wouldn't consider it racist, but there's something that feels wrong about it being used as a neutral term when its origins are so rooted in racism. Like if it doesn't feel right to say "much like how legislation had exceptions to allow grandfathers in the American south to vote while disenfranchising people of color, this other thing does X," I personally think it's best to avoid the term.

Kyle Owsen

I don't know. It's origin is born from racist legislature but I don't think I would consider it a racist term.

Chase

so how do you progress once you get to the second level after you've confronted your insecurities?

sbet

Might want to reconsider the use of the phrase "grandfathered in" on account of its racist origins?

Iris Artin

I'll leave it to others to point out the technical flaws. But, the larger context of talking about James Rolfe, you've deliberately framed yourself in comparison to the AVGN. At certain times literally physically so. You in your exploration on the divide between content and work, your care and dedication to developing skill at a craft many in the same space you create in don't bother learning, it's wonderful to watch. You've made something deeply personal here, resonating on a deeply human wavelength. You've really put a lot of yourself into this one, I could not help but feel like i got pulled into your head a little bit here. I hope it does well enough that you want to do something this personal again. There were a number of times where the images you've woven were absolutely gorgeous to look at, independant of the subject matter. Whatever changes you make before final release, I hope you leave the more personal and indulgent moments in.

John Christopher

Love it. I also love how this is the second(?) time you have made a video on a topic that seemingly contradicts something hbomberguy said. Specifically thinking about his plagiarism video @3:44:50 where he says... "Sure, in retrospect, a bunch of people wanting to be exactly like the AVGN sounds silly but he knew who he was. He was the angriest gamer you've ever heard." (Love hbomb too. On his patreon also. Just found it funny. :) )

DiscoDame

My interpretation of this video is that it is FAR more about the narrative of Dan's engagement/ relationship with James Rolfe's content rather than the person that is James Rolfe. So much so that any thing James Rolfe could say is borderline irrelevant. To quote The Portrait of Dorian Gray, "every portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist, not of the sitter". This video isn't really about Dan solving X question that he has about AVGN, like this isn't investigative journalism. In the same way that Dan says that the act of engaging with difficult media is inherently revealing about what it says about the viewer, I think that that VERY clearly applies to this video as well. This isn't "a video about James", this is "a video about Dan's relationship with James's content".

Thomas Yee

Respectfully: I think this is a wrongheaded approach to criticism, even between, as you say, peers. To lay out a harsh but nuanced critique of his creative output and self-presentation is to give him the respect of considering him a creative peer whose works could bear such analysis. I fundamentally disagree that this is "treating him like a zoo exhibit". If you were to reach out to James for comment and make this a dialogue, you create a situation where you must either be this harsh to his face (as opposed to in the public forum, which is not the same, no matter how much people who resent criticism claim it is) or soften the critique to avoid being hurtful. One is hurtful, the other undercuts the whole point of the essay. And even if reaching out to James for comment didn't have those downsides, I don't think knowing how James would explain his set or camera rig would really bring that much insight. That's not actually the point. I don't want to turn this into another rehash of 'death of the author', but good media criticism is generally not about getting concrete answers to what a creator was thinking when they made a particular thing, but examining the effect and implications, even if those weren't conscious or intentional.

Esther Mackenzie

I really love the framing choices in this one. It's anxious and conspicuous and exposes his process, which serves the broader point that the criticisms he levels at rolfe come from the same place as his insecurities towards his own work.

Ewin

It looks like Lady Emily has a special thanks in the credits

Esther Mackenzie

I really enjoyed the video and thought the structure of using James more as an object of study than a person worked well for what it accomplished. That being said, I think the lack of direct engagement with James himself that Erik suggested seems like a missed opportunity. I agree that there’s no professional obligation per se, I just think it could have been really interesting and worked really well to further develop the story being told, especially with the themes of self reflection.

Saj

Just finished this and I loved it! I’ve never consumed any AVGN content in my life, so I did feel lost at times, but I still had a good time

PerfectlyAdequate

Well explained. Exactly the same points I wanted to suggest.

morbuscope

Delightfully metatextual, both in its production and writing. Really enjoyed this. Thank you Dan! Three small things production-y things I noticed: 17:07 - 17:57 — iPad falls out of focus (but perhaps intentional to set up the mirror shot reveal?) 46:32 — tighten cut to avoid blink in footage 48:49 — audio seems a teeny tiny bit delayed compared to the video (like a matter of milliseconds)

Luis

There's a line from Lady Emily's Cinemassacre video that I think about a lot. She's discussing the positive comments on Rex Viper and how they basically amount to "I'm glad everyone's having fun!" She says: "James is a professional; he should be used to putting his work out there and honestly deserves to have that work treated with respect, and respect is very different from bland support and encouragement." I know just from the comments here that not everyone will see it this way, but speaking for myself - I think this is by far the most respectful engagement with James, his craft, and his output that he will ever have. The words "auteur" and "auteur theory" never come up, but it's clear from his autobiography's title alone that James wants to be regarded as one. So engaging with him on that level, as an auteur with an oeuvre that encourages you to reflect on yourself as a viewer and a filmmaker a la Wavelength - that *is* treating James with respect, even in your harshest moments of critique. I hope this goes down as one of your best videos to date.

daeranilen

This is great, and I wouldn't have minded if it was longer (if any segments were left on the cutting room floor)

Funny_hat

Now, hours later and fully awake, I think I actually noticed a mistake! In the video game sequence at the end starting around 1:12:05, you first say "All you know is your name is Conrad" but a couple of seconds later you say "Every time you push a button on the controller, Connor takes a giant step forward" and shortly after "waiting a short eternity for Connor's life-like cinematic animations", but then in the next scene it's "Just like in cinema, Conrad doesn't have a life metre on screen". Shortly later we are back to "Connor jumps into the pit and enters level 2".

Kathy Clysm

Marstead

I know it's probably cringy or whatever to say something sincere on the internet, but I really think this video is something special. It's so well done. I'm glad we're in an era where things are being made with this much care put into them.

Zhed

I’m really not sure. Maybe there isn’t a better justification? Maybe something clearer on what the value is in doing a deep dive on the relationship between his personal limitations and his work? Maybe Dan will come up with something? I’m not trying to say I know better than Dan how this video should be made, just how it made me feel to watch it.

Michael

thats how you know he's canadian

Hendawg

"I feel a certain amount of kinship with James Rolfe." What could Dan possibly mean by this?

Gazpacho Soup

Respectfully, documentary essays are not journalism. The professional obligation to seek comment doesn’t exist. And, like you said, his body of work provides enough material to build a story around.

Luis

I feel like (and I say “feel” here because if you ask me to link to examples I will flounder, so the only meaningful thing I can point to is the feeling that has developed, and I fully acknowledge that it’s only meaningful to me) the people who create the media I most appreciate are all questioning their value because the platform the operate on is not universally respected. It’s disheartening, as a properly failed creative. I think I see what you’re doing, making this video very much a short film full of carefully considered decisions. The result is beautiful. I hope that you proved to yourself what you needed to. You proved it to those of us who live vicariously. :)

IAmAnAnne

Haven't gone through the whole thing yet, but there is some *choice* camerawork, just in the first 25 minutes.

Dave Ruff

So, a thought was bugging me throughout watching this last night. In a video entitled "I Don't Know James Rolfe" that exhaustively uses his autobiography and filmography to dissect his professional career and occasionally brush up against his personal life, I kept asking myself: "Why hasn't he talked to James?" Like you said at the beginning, the two of you have quite a bit in common. I'm actually a bit surprised he's not at least an acquaintance given your similar careers as YouTube reviewers, and I'm almost certain that you know someone who knows him through your mutual past associations with Channel Awesome. Your channel size is within an order of magnitude of his and you've gone viral in your own right several times already. He's not some AAA film producer sitting in an ivory tower who'd never deign to a conversation with someone of your station; he's a peer. And since I've seen you have no compunctions about publicly engaging with peers in the near past (see: James Somerton), I'm puzzled as to why you would treat him like a zoo exhibit. Seriously, so much of your speculation on his choices and processes could have been cleared up with even an informal conversation. I'm going to assume you at least notified him as a courtesy that this is coming, but there was no mention in the video itself that you made any attempt to open a dialogue. His perspective would have been enormously valuable to a video like this. Why spend a week drilling holes in boards to replicate his backyard tripod when you could have simply asked him why he didn't use the bolt solution? It could have been a funny, disarming, humanizing moment of someone realizing that they overthought a problem. Or maybe there was some specific reason he had to use that setup that could have been interesting. Instead, we get a patronizing and humiliating scene of you incredulously questioning his amateurish work, like a professor holding up a student's piece in class to show "what not to do". Yes, his body of work provides a lot of what you need, but the fact that you would rather speculate and opine on the open questions it raises rather than query the source puzzles me. That's fine to do in a private setting, but putting it all out into a public YouTube video to your nearly one million subscribers feels a bit slimy to me. You make a special point of calling out the professional AVGN haters several times, but it's hard for me to see this video as doing much more than giving them fresh dung to fling in a slightly more erudite package.

Erik Larsen

Personally I think Dan does a very good job of delineating anything personal from the discussion of him as a filmmaker. Very little of it is an indictment as much as they're observations, and I think the weird homemade rig is a really good through line. Like this guy *went to film school*, which would he make this? I think it's a pretty effective framing device to show how this would just...embed itself in your brain.

Alex Goldberg

Love going back to a more film type review. I’ve loved your new stuff but it’s nice seeing a subject matter like this again. Can’t wait to see the final product

Grant

I'm realizing that the comment I'm about to offer is cumulative over quite a few of your "texts," although it certainly applies in this case: It's a testament to your craft that I'll spend over an hour (each) watching your work (ostensibly) about a topic toward which I have practically zero feeling at the outset.

Michael Grubb

The duality of the saying "It's a poor craftsman that blames their tools"

Cameron Sours

Thoughtful and fun to watch as always, especially enjoyed the use of projector lighting. Side note, while I’ve always appreciated you and your team’s approach to filming and creating these videos, even more so I’ve appreciated the work you do as journalists, historians, and analysts. Think the quality of the work shows in both the style and substance.

David Fronk

Is James Rolf your Wavelength? I have to assume that’s what you’re getting at. A static unchanging thing that has no meaning itself but what the viewer reflects on it. But 20 years of watching not 45 min. I’ve never seen AVN, it’s never appealed to me but how people react to media is fascinating. It seems you are trying to make meaning out of something that was a blank wall of childhood joy sustained though the ability of the internet to destroy temporal context. I’m going to fixate on this for a while… PS BEAUTIFUL lighting shots through out all of this. I loved the use of the tools of film making in this one. …Something you James doesn’t do? I’m going to go spiral now.

Sarah Solbrig

Genuinely curious: what would you consider a sufficient justification for the video?

daeranilen

1. Was the beard length contrast planned from the beginning, or just a happy coincidence of unrelated life choices? 2. Regarding "the only way to progress is to confront your insecurities..." skit at the end: I see a few long form YouTube creators poke fun at themselves in the same vein. Kevin Perjurer, who used to work on independent documentaries, has a whole running series of "Youtuber calls video 'Documentary'" gags in his own stuff. Just a pattern I think is interesting.

Benjamin Yu

This might benefit from a slightly more explicit definition of the film Wavelength outside of how Rolfe defines it, mostly because it seems important that the intentional constraints of structuralist filmmaking have a specificity to them that sharply contrasts with the performative constraints of middle-class North Americans posing as "backyard filmmakers". That constraint, while exactly as precise and ideological as anything in Snow's filmography, is always coded as innocence and therefore is pure and virtuous and must be preserved, hence Rolfe always attempting to literally remake his own childhood, and when he can't, to applaud his own efforts to do so. What seems like is going on in his Dragon Dream video is that responsible adult Rolfe is mourning the loss of his ability to use the procedural constraint of naiveté as both identity and narrative strategy. His conception of filmmaking is one grounded in magic rather than in labor, which is why he's angry at film school: he doesn't want to make movies, he wants to make movies happen to him. That's outside the purview of this specific video but the fact I'm even thinking about it with barely any prior knowledge of Rolfe is a testament to the strength of the video essay as it currently is. (Also the blurry sequence about 15 minutes in lasts long enough that it stops being meaningful and just becomes annoying, which is maybe the point?)

Nicholas Grider

There must be such a plethora of inside jokes about movie making with camera tricks and whatnot in this episode that I'm sad I'm not understanding.

SibirianBlue

I’m a bit torn about this one. On the one hand, I found all of the stuff about his limitations as an artist fascinating, and as someone who has tried their hand at creating stuff I really related to the experience of not having the ability to realise your ambitions. On the other hand, if a video like this was made about me I’d be mortified, and given that a few high-profile YouTubers have done videos about/tangentially related to Rolfe, there is a risk of it starting to seem like a pile-on. I’m not sure the framing of your fascination does enough to justify your decision to make a video about him, particularly when the content of the video is so personal. You can be fascinated by things and not make videos about them. That’s not to say that the video shouldn’t be made, but maybe a clearer stated intention for the video would negate my slightly queasy feeling.

Michael

A blast from the past, wow. I really loved the creative shots throughout, particularly the screen-within-a-screen ones and the projection of James on your face during your impression of an AVGN tirade. And you really nailed his cadence during the ending commentary segment. It wraps it up very nicely.

Lea Chinelo

Haven't watched it through yet, but I really dig the poduction and cinematography! The intro is such a vibe... brilliant!

user no. g_{64}

Fascinating piece of work. As a creator/writer, I find character studies of writers interesting. There's something intoxicating about identifying the flaws of another's creations or approach. Subconsciously, I recognise that I get a thrill from seeing "someone doing it worse than me" and feel reassured. But it's also hard not to feel empathy, and feel the niggling question in the back of my mind: am I just like them? At least this magnetism between criticising and empathising with artists is what I took away from the video.

MadMat

robertson square bit featured!!!

sleepyflurghebla

At 1:04:13 the 15KHz coil whine of the TV is audible to those who still hear frequencies that high, and it's a little loud. The video also made me start to wonder if I *actually* like the old AVGN videos and it's making me really question my memory, but I assume that was intended.

John Lorentzson

There might be a few moments where a flashing or flickering lights warning would be helpful. I know I'm very light sensitive and I felt an affect at certain points.

JJ

I would like to request a separate video where you narrate making the board thing like the New Yankee Workshop.

Mike

I’m sad now.

Janie M

good video

Saacool

Here, on the other side of the world, I’m watching this at 8:00 am. The conflict between the art you see in your head and the art you are actually capable of creating with your own hands was a lot to process for my still-tired brain pre-coffee. From what I can see from the comments, a lot of people have already made some great points about the narrative and feel of the video, so here's some things that I noted down while watching that you may or may not find useful feedback: *) I feel that you might get a lot of comments on your pronunciation of “ex nihilo” at 9:37-ish. I am not sure what the correct (or rather, most common) pronunciation is, but maybe double-check to avoid hundreds of pointless comments. *) I don't assume it's possible, but if you are thinking of doing some re-shoots, I'd add a zoom-out for the "forest of aluminum and steel" to show more of said forest with more aluminum and steel in it, really drive home the madness. *) The close-ups during the title sequence are stunning but maybe move a little too much/fast. I can see some people getting motion sickness. Specifically I’m thinking the left-to-right movement to the phone at 6:44 and the construction footage with the saw, glue and needle. *) The zoom-out explanation of Wavelength was really cool, but towards the 17:10 mark on, it gets very blurry. I'm assuming that is on purpose, but I sincerely thought something was buffering or broken with my internet, checked everything and only then realised it was the video footage itself. The blur is just enough to actually really hurt as my eyes are trying to sharpen the image. *) The switch to black at around 1:04:17 might look even more evocative of old VHS imagery if you add the effect old TVs used to do, this white line flashing across the middle of the screen for a brief second when turning the device off. In general, the story is — as always — very insightful due to the honest introspection and beautifully told. I love the creative liberty and playful approach you took to filming this video. It seems all your need to assemble and re-assemble rigs paid off. There were a lot of interesting visual ideas I'm gonna be thinking about for a good while, specifically the shot around 23:39 about anger acting. Probably my favourite segment in the video from a film-making standpoint, along with the cassette tape title sequence.

Kathy Clysm

I haven't seen anyone else mention this, so... I'm only 20 minutes in, but does this remind anybody else of Bo Burnham's inside? No shade to Dan, I love Bo Burnham and I'm loving this so far.

Rodrigo Deodoro

Damn the ending hits hard...

Nicolas Symeou

I quite like the amount of interesting and creative shots throughout the video. While the video is generally quite critical of Jame's work I like that you took the time to take down the "Truthers". I don't know if was intentional, but I liked the possible Board James reference with the alternate you dressed as the nerd in the end skit. (I haven't seen Board James in probably like half a decade at least, but I'm fairly certain that was a plot-point in it.) Overall the video left me thinking about the problems inherit in judging creators through their works, along the lines of The Beginner's Guide. The only real suggestion for improvement I have would be to second Theresa's suggestion above to directly name the reviewer rather than PCGamer.

Lump Beefbroth

I'm still a bit baffled by the whole existence of AVGN. I'd never heard of him until I watched the Lady Emily video, so it feels a bit like people just made up a guy and inserted him into the past. (In fairness, I had a fairly lengthy phase of "ew, video games? Those are for boys!" and that's probably why.) Also, when you popped back up after the Flashback game sequence, I reflexively said "Hi!" out loud.

With Quiet Eyes

Thanks. Turns out today I learned I’ve never heard a non-Brit say the word machismo before!

Jimmy Gzus

The Cambridge dictionary lists the UK pronunciation as "ma-kiz-mo" and the US pronunciation as "ma-chiz-mo". fwiw, the Merriam-Webster dictionary's pronunciation guide matches the Cambridge dictionary's US pronunciation. It's not hard to imagine there would be some regional discrepancies between the two.

MediocreClient

Thanks. In the UK it’s more like ma-kiz-mo. For some reason I connect it to Machiavelli too so could be where the hard ‘ch’ comes in.

Jimmy Gzus

Ma-keez-mo? No, I've always heard it with the same consonants as 'macho', so dialect, yeah.

FoldableHuman

Is machismo pronounced that way in Canada? I’ve only ever heard it with a hard ‘ch’ like in choir rather than a ‘ch’ in church. Just checking as could be dialect driven and my lack of familiarity with an accent rather than someone pronouncing a word they’ve read a lot but not heard spoken a lot!

Jimmy Gzus

Brilliant, thoroughly enjoyed and anticipate continuing to do so on rewatching. Thank you Dan.

EricB

I just hope this thumbnail will also be the one for the final release

SkaveRat

Having watched to the end, I am a little surprised that Foldy didn't show up.

5099 5618

this was excellent!

Colorbomb

My husband was laughing as we watched this because I kept talking about wanting to trim Dan's beard, then watching me finally be able to take a deep breath when it went away halfway through, then flipped out when the beard came back.

Mina

Ever since I heard him say about the Nostalgia Critic, “he wants to be an artist, but he can’t be,” I have been fascinated by DO’s return, again and again, to the tension between grandiosity, and ambition, and the mediocrity of those who are obsessed with having made — having made millions, having made art, having made films — but no interest, even disgust at making — making an effort, making a budget work, making anything real out of pure fantasy. It’s there in his NFT/Decentraland (the MLM for men!) and GME Apes work. It’s especially there in pointing out how clear it was to anyone who has been near actual filmmaking that James Sommerton was never going to make anything — just continue to posture as if he had already made. I’m fascinated by this theme, and the layers revealed in what feels to me like the latest installment.

EA Hanks

Was initially expecting this video to go similarly to "The Nostalgia Critic and The Wall", but I was immensely surprised. I didn't expect it to be a phenomenally structured character study on James Rolfe that contextualizes him not as a Fallen Titan, but as a disheartening case of a monolithically stagnating creator, and an urge to his audiences to find healthy ways to grow as and develop as people, rather than hating the media they ritualistically consume for not making them feel like comfortably growth-stunted adolescents.

EldLynch

This felt like watching darren aronofsky’s “the wrestler” but about youtubers. I think artistic impotence is one of the most depressing things to see discussed. I cant wait until they remake “bojack horseman” in a couple of decades but about youtubers and tiktok stars.

lostsheep

the blue and orange lighting in the beginning probably means something profound, but all i can think about is what my bitch wife wants to watch

Kaelyn Morrison

The anger acting segment was really something powerful, dang. Great video. A topic I had few preconceptions about explored insightfully and beautifully.

illves

the script is incredible "A forever war James Rolfe is engaged in against the twin belligerents of entropy, and James Rolfe."

Anthony

That is a formidable beard. Also, it's very interesting that Dan's eyeline is 45 degrees off-camera. I find myself resisting the urge to glance over my shoulder as he's talking...

5099 5618

This is really good, and is inspiring me to put some more experimental things in a talk I’m currently working on. Thank you.

Marcin Wichary

The segment where the AVN's face is projected on yours is amazing. The times when the eyes and glasses are aligned are chilling.

Dreamcrusher

44:20 is the funniest thing I've seen all month 😂

Theresa

This was a wild one to watch for me. At first, I thought it was some really weird internet hit piece, like what In Praise of Shadows did recently. Then, with the stuff about James being a “failed filmmaker,” along with all the stuff about the movie failing, it gave me “Meet the Grahams” vibes. It was like I was gonna learn something really horrible about a famous figure. But by the end, it really came together in a rad way. For what it’s worth, this video made me do some self reflection. Something I haven’t had with a YouTube video in years. I can’t wait to see how it turns out! Cheers!

redgreenandblue

that "no! just...just, no" made me laugh really really hard. also thank you for once again using myriad as an adjective

mycophobia

Dan looks like a Benedictine monk now.

Evan Pitkin

This was fantastic.

Someguy

The entire bit of 16:25-18:58 is wonderful, and I love specifically at 18:17 that realizing it's a mirror lines up with your line of holding a mirror up to the audience.

Theresa

Loving this so far! One small thing I'd like to see is that around 13:00, at the end of reading a review, credit is just given to PCGamer when Colin Williamson is shown to be the author. Blame last year's flurry of videos about crediting authors, but this stood out to me that a nice change would be something like "Colin Williamson, 6%, PC Gamer, May 2000" Also your beard has become absolutely majestic

Theresa

Genuinely fabulous.

Aurora H.

The moment of apotheosis at around the 23:30 mark was 👌*chefs kiss*

Robert

Dan it’s 11 o’clock at night here on the east coast and I have Father’s Day commitments tomorrow morning. You can’t just drop this like that…

PerfectlyAdequate

Ohohoho perfect timing! Was just scrolling through here searching for something I haven't watched in a while (vaguely lamenting the lack of new FolDan media, when I get the notif for this! Time to watch, and will report back in 1.25 hours lol. Enjoy your DnD.

carapace

My first preview since hopping on your Patreon! 🤗

ames

May you have the lowest thac0

Brain