Why This Choice Can Define Your Entire Film

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Thomas calling himself disorganised and messy while showing more of his office as evidence just shows how organised he actually is.

I inadvertently learned this with my first vlog I did waaaaay back in high school. We lived on a farm and I saw beauty there every day. So that first vlog was little snippets that I found interesting and worth giving time to see.

I showed my parents and their reaction was, "oh my gosh, you make that messy backyard, chicken coop and garden actually look like something."


I was puzzled until I realized their perspective on the backyard (that it was always a mess and full of junk) prohibited them from seeing what I saw.

It's something I've taken forward in the last 25 years and thought about with every video project I work on.

Thank you for adding the caveat that "Objectivity" in a shot is still fiction, and still perspectivized. "objectivity" can be a useful heuristic, but its phenomenally dumb to think its possible to make or do anything from a purely objective perspective. the spectrum is key.

I’m surprised that you didn’t bring up Aftersun as an example. That film explores a really interesting perspective on how some scenes play on something that seem subjective, but they are actually possible rationalizations from inside Callum’s daughters head on the kind of person he was.

I love the interesting comparison between Lynch and Nolan. This shows how much two auteurs' visions could differ.

You can't fool me, Thomas Flight, I know you love watching things blow up!

My biggest complaint for Killers of the Flower moon was the chosen perspective. I found myself wanting to see more of the Osage women than the lead actor’s. I even took to instagram to complain about it. Thank you for taking the time to make this video. I use perspective in a different way, (drawing comics) it’s an invisible art that brings more believability to the pieces I create. Can be hard to master, but learning different perspectives always helps!

it's crazy that for a short time the scene, where Barbie has that emotional breakthrough and sees everything for what it is, was briefly considered being cut from the final edit.
There's audio of Greta talking about this and how it HAD to be in the movie as it is the threshold for Barbie and paints how she sees everything for the rest of the film. Not painted pink but every color, and it's beautiful.

'Sound of metal' really uses subjectivity in a beautiful way

Take a shot every time Thomas says perspective

Watched this on Nebula, but wanted to hop over and comment that this was such an exceptional essay. Thank you for your work!🎉

there isn't a better 'art' communicator on the internet. I usually struggle to keep up with film video essays but you manage to articulate your points and explain concepts in a way that's so easy to grasp and I appreciate it so much because it only adds onto already great works of art

Super interesting that Killers of The Flower Moon originally had more FBI focus, I think the FBI joined perfectly late in the story and had just the impact they should have had. Without the slow, awful, impending doom of the Osage people at the focus I don't think it could have justified the 3,5h runtime

there’s something about how Thomas talks where as I listen while drawing I think “Hm. Yes, very true. I would agree.” even though i have no experience in film whatsoever

Love your essays and this one very much too. Wasn't expecting to feel so seen from you sharing your perspective of being coloblind and seeing "film grain" at times. Thank you for that.

I got to watch "the Zone of Interest" on a film festival (Camerimage, with a Q&A afterwards).
I think that's an incredibly interesting and relevant movie. The cinematographer and producer spoke about the movie being shot from an objective perspective, it's quite literally shot like reality TV. But one of the most interesting parts about it is the things it decides not to show.
The camera only seems to enter the concentration camp once, and then you get the one close-up of a person in the whole film, avoiding the actual terror.
It's a kind of objectivity which makes the visual language aggressively apathetic.

Hey man, I've been watching your channelk for a while now, I don't comment much, but thanks for this video, your dedication to media literacy not only teaches me a ot, but it explains many of my theories and hitches I have for the reality we are living in and why people behave the way they do. More and more the factual obejctive of reality is becoming dissipated by peoples innability to want to watch it from another perspective that is not their biased one. Thanks man, have a good day. KEEP TEACHING THEM!

“You can put a hundred people in a room, and 99 of them don’t believe in you, but just one does, and that was him”

I think I spend more time watching these videos than watching movies. And I'm ok with that. Excellent stuff Thomas.