Millennial film nerds rejoice! No one appreciates the magic of cinema like you do. Perhaps you’ve found yourself talking to your non-film student friend about movies. You’re busy discussing mise en scene, lighting, lack of character development, cool camera angles, plot holes, etc. Meanwhile your friend could care less, or has no idea what you’re talking about.
If you’ve ever had this happen to you, it’ll never happen again if you subscribe to this amazing list of YouTube channels! You and your friends can laugh about your favorite films and television shows together, as you watch hilarious videos. It doesn’t matter if you like animation, live action, sci-fi, horror, comedy, drama, or whatever, you’ll find your funny bone tickled and learn a bit about filmmaking at the same time.
1. Screen Junkies
The YouTube channel, ‘Screen Junkies’, is known for their parodies of movie trailers, which they have appropriately named, “Honest Trailers”. The trailers showcase the flaws of the films such as: repetitiveness, characters that don’t contribute to the plot, predictability, useless time filler, things that are obviously out of context, and more. But they’re not bashing the films. They’re just making fun of them. By the end of the trailer, the narrator usually ends up renaming the film so that it fits the trailer. For example, the “Honest Trailer” for “The Hunger Games: The Mocking Jay Part One” was renamed, “Where’s Peta: Part One”. This was fitting, since the narrator pointed out that all Katniss was concerned about was Peta, even though there were clearly more important things going on.
The narrator, also known as, Epic Voice Guy, is perhaps the best part of the trailers. His voice is serious yet comical. Although the narrator and tone of voice change depending on the film they’re critiquing, you’ll still love their commentary. One of Screen Junkies’ most popular trailer was the one they made for “Frozen”. Fans found it quite laughable when the narrator pointed out that Anna teamed up with a hot guy, Christof, and a snowman, Olaf, to defeat villains like, a hot guy, Hans, and a snowman, Marshmallow.
2. Cinema Sins
Cinema Sins, is another YouTube channel that blends comedy with a love for film. This channel’s most famous videos are their “Everything Wrong With” series.The narrator for these videos also makes them more hysterical. His tone is professional, yet he swears multiple times throughout the narration.The videos take the viewers through most, if not the entirety of a movie, and point out moments where our suspension of disbelief is broken, production mistakes are obvious,and there are extremely convenient coincidences. But the thing you'll love the most is the mountain of clichés. You'll be surprised by the amount in just one film alone!
Every time the narrator finds a sin, viewers here the ring of a bell and the sin counter in the upper right hand corner of the screen adds on a sin or two, depending on how bad the movie screwed up. This YouTube channel claims that no film is without sin, but they occasionally remove sins if something about a movie is pleasing to them. So the sin counter could have a negative count at the beginning of a video, but it’s not long before it goes back up.
3. How It Should Have Ended
So, often times, movies don’t end the way we want them to. “How It Should Have Ended” or HISHE is an animated web series that rewrites the endings of popular movies. The videos are alternate endings that make more sense or are less long and drawn out as the original. When HISHE makes a videos about a superhero related movie, like a Marvel or DC film, the end of the video takes viewers to the Super Café. This a small scene at the end of the videos where Superman and Batman have coffee and discuss or further critique the films. Because they are seen as enemies, the pair of heroes usually get a little sassy with Marvel characters.
Film students, if you have some downtime between production, you should defiantly check out these channels. Keep working hard and studying film. Who knows, if you work hard enough, maybe “Screen Junkies,” “Cinema Sins,” or “How It Should Have Ended,” will make fun of one of our movies one day!
