Sometimes I like to imagine a mini Joel hologram appearing at my desk doing somersaults in the air and delightfully saying “Anyone can make a movie” like Chef Gusteau from Ratatouille

I miss David Lynch's weather report on UKposts.

I’m a 15-year-old filmmaker and roughly three years ago I was sitting on my ass with a whole heap of film scripts and after knock back after knock back I was struck with the feeling that maybe I’d never be able to accomplish my dreams and do the thing I love most in the world. Then I stumbled upon you Joel, and I realised I already could accomplish my dreams, right now! It seemed so simple after the fact but it had just never occurred to me. This year I started shooting my first feature length film project and I’m releasing it on UKposts closer to the end of the year. I want to thank you so much Joel because I may have never been able to do any of this if you hadn’t of opened the door to the future of filmmaking ❤ Thank you so much

3:12 I think it's great you didn't cave to the animation pressure, that you just kept doing live action shorts, features & music like you wanted. 🎉

For all of its faults, UKposts still feels like a miracle sometimes. This giant website, where people are able to make a living putting out art without anybody telling them what they are or aren't "supposed" to do, you can throw ideas against ideas on the wall, distribute videos in whatever quality you want to for an audience a millions or an audience of none. It and Wikipedia are still the internet's two great accomplishments, I think, the only real "democratization of access" that we've gotten from the internet's great project.

Completely agree about the worth of film festivals. Those costs can add up quick, and a lot of people treat them as the end-all be-all. And even with all the problems UKposts has, it's ridiculously accessible. Still one of my favorite places to share stuff and check out other people's films. Only wish it was a little easier to discover some of the indie stuff!

"Reddit would ban me for trying to share it" feels so UNHEALTHY, but exactly what I would expect from Reddit nowadays. :( Great video Joel, thanks again for sharing your thoughts and supporting creatives being creative :)

Pretend That You Love Me was one of the first things I saw on your channel. To this day it's one of my all time favorites.

I literally just made a video essay on this exact topic - the way UKposts corporatism and the algorithm stifles creativity and ingenuity among creators. You’re one of the good ones, Joel. You’ve always been an advocate for UKposts creators and artists and you’ve always encouraged your supporters to take creative risks, and for that, I hold an enormous amount of respect for you.

I found the channel through the animations, and stayed for them. But as I got exposed to the other/main content I liked them too. Now the animations could stop and I wouldn't mind.

Sage wisdom, natural lighting, lax tone and a Bob Dylan poster. this is a short film in itself.

As a small creator it's nice to hear you speak about youtube. It's always hard when you put so much time into a video, especially animations which take extra long, and it doesn't get the views that you hope for. But making it big on youtube is long process. I'm grateful at this point in my journey to have a small loyal fanbase. It's always nice seeing the same people commenting on our animations. You gotta love making the art tho and not worry too much about getting thousands of views.

I'm still waiting for the True Self Film Festival to give me a rejection letter/email, lol. I'm only partially kidding. My more hate than love relationship with UKposts is something I'm coming to terms with. I like being a smaller channel, and UKposts might hate that. I could switch to Vimeo for that reason, except for the Oscars movies. I think too much I suppose. Thanks for being here Joel. ❤

I work so hard to make intricate 15 minute or so short films, and then they get tiny, miniscule views. It's like building an intricately detailed model and throwing it into a chasm :P That being said, the alternative is just not publishing the films at all, so I'd rather get a couple hundred views than no views.

Lovely video. I'm currently working on my first feature documentary with an actual halfway-decent budget, and planning to release on UKposts when it's done. Sometimes it feels really scary to pour so much effort (and money) into something that depends on an algorithm to get viewership; I'm still really committed to showing it in person to people. But this video was a great encouragement toward the value of putting this stuff out there even if it get discovered years from now, and remembering that 1,000 views online is the equivalent of 1,000 people in a room watching your movie. That's pretty crazy. Also, I loved the meditative cutaways at 10:05 and 11:12. Thanks for making these, Joel.

I really like how you view art and creativity. I’m currently halfway through my animation degree and a lot of the news surrounding AI and whatnot sometimes makes me feel like I’ve spent all this time on a degree that might be obsolete before I graduate. I don’t fully think that’s true but I guess it also doesn’t really matter. If I want to make art, I should make art. Makes me think of that scene from Little Miss Sunshine with Paul Dano and Steve Carrell on the dock. :) live laugh love movies

Pretend that You Love Me is one of my all time favorite movies. I've watched it a lot of times, and showed it to my friends and family too. With that said, I never would have watched it if it wasn't on youtube because I'm so much more open to watching experimental or indie things on a platform like youtube vs something like netflix. Posting your movies on youtube may be a mixed bag from a monetary or logistical perspective, but I'm personally really glad you've posted your movies here. You sharing other small or experimental creators through your platform is also highly appreciated!

Nice fish bowl placement

Hey Joel, Before I found your channel, the idea of making a feature film was completely unapproachable to me. After participating in your Oscar challenges and watching so many of your filmmaking rant videos, I decided to put in my 100% effort and make the best 0 budget movie I could. I spent the past 6 months shooting a movie on a GoPro. The cast consists of friends, family, and even strangers we met while filming. I cannot explain how big of an inspiration you were in this whole process - especially your films “Pretend That You Love Me”, “Island”, and all the videos with your character Caleb. You also encouraged me to post the film on UKposts instead of submitting to film festivals, and I’m so happy with the response it’s been getting. Being able to read the comments on a movie I worked so hard on is truly special, it feels a lot more rewarding than anything a festival could offer. I just wanted to thank you so much for encouraging your viewers to create. You’re really making a difference for the next generation of filmmakers. Sorry for the giant comment! -Cree

like usual, joel comes out with a talk at the exact time i need it. the toughest battle doing creative stuff when not springboarded into the "club" is remembering we do it because we love it. more and more i've been trying to focus on the endeavor of creating to be the purpose and not the pursuit of attention. naturally, having the attention makes creating feel safe because if we have money, we have means to create. but that thought also neglects the tightrope of walking with whatever audience you've built instead of just ultimately doing it for the form. it's always a tough battle to balance, but it makes having creators like joel feel refreshing and encouraging

it's strange when i listen to you talk about creating stuff. i really get this urge to do something as i got all the time in the world. but i feel like i am at a crossroads with a billion different paths and i have no idea where to even take my first step.

I think UKposts is a good way to get noticed but creators need to figure out other ways to make putting features online more viable. Either way keep doing your thing Joel, eff the studios you're great.

I'm not a film maker, but I've always found your insights thoughtful and really honest to listen to. Thank you for all of the varied work I've enjoyed over the years!

Joel's choice of aspect ratio causes me to question whether he has a single 16:9 monitor

How come every video Joel is sitting in a new house? In one video he’s in a college dorm, then some grandma’s house, then he’s in a dentist office waiting room.

Joel's been watching Ozu again.

nice plant

What is your inspiration when making a film? Do you have ideas in your head waiting in line to be made, or do you have to sit down and figure out a story?

I remember my high school had a film production class that culminated at the end of the year with a film festival. I think there's a lot of value in that grassroots, communal space. For anyone looking for a venue to share their work, look into making your own festival. Talk to a local Cafe, library, house of pizza about providing space. Print out and hang flyers around town. Given the rise of youtube and tiktok, I'm sure you're already surrounded by many other creators who are also looking for a place to share their work. Throwing your own event could be a great way to meet them, find your community, find others to collaborate with. When none of the mainstream platforms appear to fit what you're going for, making your own platform might just be the perfect way to push forward

I've been thinking a lot about this too. This platform really discourages eclectic content on a single channel.

Dude, Pretend That You Love Me is genuinely in my top five films. Being as such, not in any particular order because I like them all for different reasons! 1. Mad Max: Fury Road 2. The Lego Movie 3. Joker 4. Pretend That You Love Me 5. Rango (The 2011 animated movie) These are all wonderful for totally different reasons. I should do a movie day with em all sometime actually

You are one of my biggest influences on the platform, so I really appreciate your advice of not allowing the UKposts system pigeonhole my content. My channel has been a bit all over the place, and certain content on my channel does much better than the rest of it. But I make such wildly different videos because I'm still enjoying every type of video that I make.

Personally, I have your main channel on notifications, and watch every one of them. They've all been great, and I'm likely to rewatch them a few times. I watch most YT videos on 2x speed, but I try to watch yours at normal speed. I think the playback speed people chose to watch videos at also effects the numbers? 🤷‍♂ You make great stuff, and I also look forward to a notification.

YT is a frustrating only choice that's still better than those scammy festivals and that shitty industry. Definitely feels frustrating though too. It would be nice if it was better right? This one felt too real at times. Keep the great stuff coming.

I'm so glad you don't do the side angle shot that shows you talking to a different camera.

i want to start sending you pictures of cats in creative ways. keep up the joelin'

this video speaks so much to me and is an emotional rollercoaster. First, depression: my channel is basically 2-3 min video skits...so I'm screwed on UKposts, essentially. lol. I've experienced the pain of trying to market my videos on reddit just as Joel talks about. But then hope and inspiration begin to rise and wash away the depression... hope to explore and try new things (my channel is already kind of experimental to a degree): I want to try some animation (a hand drawn cartoon kinda thing, which I'll suck at first most likely but I do have a skit idea for it) and even music (trying to learn the ukulele right now actually, and have a skit idea for it as well)... i do have a movie idea too that I need to formulate more. yet will it always be a fight against the UKposts algo? probably. but this video, overall, is so inspiring, wonderful, and motivating! thank you Joel!

I really love the couch. Edit : yeah, I didn't have much to say, it took me a minute to start noticing the couch though, so I didn't just go for the first comment without even watching the video at all. But I agree, UKposts is still pretty big. I know of a few smaller festivals such as Gerardmer (fantasy) that have launched carrers but it's still the odd chance. One thing that hit my brain is that I'd like to have these feature films on disk. I'm a sucker for stuff in plastic boxes. Has it been done already ?

I feel very stuck, I’m slowly learning to make my movies in the mindset for me and not for UKposts. Thanks Joel .

Even if I don't agree with Joel on every one of his viewpoints (I think festivals can be very valuable for creators in certain instances), I am absolutely in agreement with the statement that YT is the future of filmmaking, or at least should be viewed as the future of filmmaking. Ever since I began making things, I knew that there would have to be someone on the platform to help really turn the tides and make people realize this is the greatest resource for art creation and filmmaking amongst the masses that we have, and I'm so glad that Joel has taken that role of forwarding this to others. I would love to see a future where a prestige director at the same level as someone like Ari Aster or Christopher Nolan could return to making something with no money purely because they have an idea they need to shoot out into the world. You see it all the time in music with people like Damon Albarn, Bon Iver and Charli XCX making music in big studios with high production values that then return to just making something almost exclusively by themselves. Steven Soderbergh is someone that I feel like really has a handle on the concept of making extremely low budget work and can then go back into making super high production value work, and you feel like there's a consistent creative through line. Anyone can make art that feels distinct to them at any level, it's just how you go about it. Basically, I would just love the tides to shift to where festivals, filmmakers, and artists begin to realize budgets and money do not equate to quality in pretty much any way. It can help someone realize a super ambitious idea, but it's not necessary to create. And I think we should encourage all areas of the spectrum of creativity as much as possible, that we can make people realize there isn't one way to create art, and that we live in an age of endless options.

Waiting after so many festivals for a year, I really needed to hear that.

I feel like pushing yourself to explore new things is super crucial for self-development as an artist. Whether I'm making games, drawings or films, I find it difficult to motivate myself to do this because it's almost second nature for me to stick to what I'm most comfortable doing. But every time I have tried branching out into something new, I haven't regretted it because it has either taught me a lot, or led me to find something new that I thoroughly enjoy making.

Joel, I hear you about the frustrations of trying to share your work on Reddit as well. While I no longer upload content to UKposts there was a brief time I was actively trying to make content and one of the ways I attempted to put myself out there was to post it on Reddit. I was shadowbanned from R/Videos for just posting my content and couldn't find much success in sharing it with other communities. It's incredibly difficult to find an audience starting out but for those who do continue wanting to make content I wish you all the best. Keep trying and keep making stuff. Thanks for talking about this, Joel. Your content is incredibly creative and I am so glad you have found success with it.

I did not see the twist at the end coming but the chair really holds frame

If you think about it, this is pretty much what filmmakers have to do at the end of the day anyway. I know so many filmmakers that have been trying to get funding for their first films but they never get it because they're a "first time filmaker" so if you can't make a first film because you have no funding, and you can't get funding because you haven't got a first film, you're only option is to try and do something with the few resources you have.

Was working on some attributes for my film while listening to this. I'm happy someone agrees with that the festival space too is also a tight place and not a heaven alone. Can't wait to put mine online.

i really enjoy the content you create joel, & hearing u say that this place will always be a breeding ground for creativity makes me realize i want to do content, whether it be film or youtube or whatever, full time - bc seeing what you create & that you will continue to create has made me n a lot of your fans very inspired :]

As a viewer, the algorithms are oppressively stifling... they always pigeonhole me, it doesn't matter if it's UKposts, Netflix, whatever. Oh, you watched this one creator play an entire game from start to finish? Enjoy every creator's playthrough of the same game for the next month, obviously you just like that one game, over and over, forever, don't you?? Oh, you liked that one video about playing the kazoo, because it was a genuine and down-to-earth video with 600 views on a channel with 200 subscribers, and it clearly mattered a lot to the creator? Here, have dozens of "Is this the WORST kazoo EVER??" videos with red circles in the thumbnail, because obviously it was the freakin' kazoo you cared about, not someone being genuinely passionate about something they thought was beautiful. Oh, you like to bounce from topic to topic and don't care what it is as long as it's not too much like stuff you've already watched, the title/thumbnail aren't clickbaity, and it's well-produced? There's literally no part of the algorithm for that. I just watch whatever my subs have posted, and then leave the site, because there's just no point in trying; the algorithm does not care about what I want. Discovery is not the point of the algorithm; it's to put you in an opium stupor so you sit through more ads instead of being so engaged with what you're watching that you're awake enough to decide when to _stop_ watching. Even on Twitch, there's literally no way to say, "Show me a game I've never seen before. Some channel that is clearly good enough to have more viewers than one would expect, but make sure it's some out-there game that's not what everyone is streaming all the time." There's literally no feature like that, and there probably never will be. UKposts is great for providing free video hosting, which is freakin' _expensive,_ but as a content consumer it's just miserably awful for finding what I want, and the sad thing is, it used to be great 10-15 years ago. Check out EmpLemon's Downward Spiral videos if you want someone ranting even longer about it. Anyway sorry for the long rant, but the point is, it's just as hard _noticing_ people on UKposts as it is to _get noticed._ It's a tough problem on both ends because the only customer is the advertisers. (Veritasium had a good video a couple years ago comparing UKposts to old-time Yellow Jourrnalism in the absence of paid subscriptions.) They need to cater to their customer, and that's neither the creator nor the viewer, so the algorithm is not optimized for us. It's just a frustrating time all around for everyone.

I remember trying to get one of my first shorts in a few festivals. Wasted a bunch of money.. wont even bother with my first feature. UKposts is a wonderland for me. Even better as a musician. I feel like youtube has a special charm because it connects me to all these reallly neish artists whos style only really can exist in this space. Btw pretend that you love me is one of my all time fav films. Hood i mean good work joel. This channel also dope. (From a huge fan in Australia)

Thanks Joel, I have a small original music channel currently with 36 subscribers. But I keep reaching people, and I keep bringing out original songs and videos. And it is so much fun and so much freedom, to just release stuff. Even if it's not backed by a label, even if it's not radio friendly autotune Pop. I love doing it and I will keep sharing songs with you and the world. Just wanted to say thank you for being an inspiration! ❤❤❤

Thanks!

Thanks for posting this and sharing your thoughts. I appreciate it and it's what I needed to hear.

pretend that you love me resonated with such strong, deep emotion. I'm so happy you're making stuff that I get to see, and I love how encouraging you are to other artists around the world

It's nice to hear someone talking about this. I sometimes wonder what I would do if UKposts went belly-up... I've gotten so much joy out of sharing stuff on here. And although the creative process is often deeply personal, like you're the only person on the planet, it feels complete when someone else sees your work. The audience is as much a part of the work as the creator, and they make it so much more meaningful by connecting with it. Or maybe equally meaningful, in a different body, with different memories and thoughts. Anyway I'm certain that I would find another way to make and share art, even if this one had to go. But I always hope for more interconnection between people, more making and sharing art, more community, and less of that mindless consumption that leaves you feeling a little bit more empty than before. Maybe in the long evolutionary history of the internet, the next UKposts will bring us closer together... For now I will make the most of what we have!

Writing this feels a little out of place, and I hope this doesn’t come across as parasocial or anything like that (I just don’t have any friends who are interested in filmmaking and that process). But I’m a Forestry major heading into my second year of college and in some cruel twist of fate I somehow managed to get into a THREE hour lecture on screenwriting and it has been ENAMORING. And writing this after having attended one of the lectures I think what’s more shocking is the fact that my professor hit a lot of the same notes you did. It’s been so interesting peering behind the curtain for this kind of stuff for something that I’ve always had a slight interest in but never really felt the push to really dive into it, filmmaking and just storytelling in general has always seemed so interesting to me but it has always felt like such a pipedream. But just hearing how attainable it is from both you and (I hope this doesn’t come across as offensive it just puts it all into perspective for me) someone who has had and continues to have success with filmmaking is super motivating! I really appreciate these videos that just catalogue your thoughts! I’ll have to share with my professor next lecture because I feel like the two of you have very similar views on filmmaking! Anyways sorry for the long comment and hopefully it wasn’t too ramble-y

joel thank you so much for making these videos, I'm a music producer guy who wants to get into making films n these talks always inspire me to go out into the world n hit record on the camera to see what happens, much love

Joel, you constantly ignite my passion to do my work. I know not everyone would view computer software as a creative discipline. I do, and I love doing it to express what I think is important. Someday I want to be more traditionally creative in video or music and your videos; the clear passion and joy you have for making raw films as well as goofy ones; always help me remember that both things can be dear to me. Thank you for sharing.

Wow, not even one mention of Vimeo? Smh my head.

Hey Joel, I love your videos, both your creations and the ones where you talk about making videos. Your integrity when it comes to making art and the way you help share your perspectives is both admirable and inspirational, so thank you. On the topic of this video, I've been working on an art platform for about a year now and while it's still very much under construction I'd love to get your feedback, even a first impressions. Right now there's a limit on video length because I'm not sure how to scale that without going broke but we do support videos up to 10 minutes long currently. I realize that even if you read this comment you have a million things to do and you probably don't have time to check it out, just figured I'd throw it out there. Thanks for doing what you do and take care.

Thanks Joel, I'm sure you already know what your encouragement means to some of us, and that's exactly why you make these kinds of videos. Even when it's something as silly as Dinglemire telling us it's okay to lie on a rock and scream sometimes, a lot of your silliest videos still have pearls of positivite encouragement in them. I have a project I've been "working on" for like 24 years now, it's something that was always too much for me to handle alone. Thanks to advances in AI though, I should finally be able to make it happen. It's still taking a colossal amount of work though, and it'll still take mountains more work for me to make a single episode compared to the average UKposts raking in millions with low-effort reaction videos. So a lot of what you said here was stuff I need to keep in mind going forward.

I always appreciate and enjoy hearing your view and opinions on things. Love you too buddy and have a good day.

joel when can we get a list of plants you have

I'm starting to learn how UKposts rewards showing shorter entertaining content (more watch time) vs long format slow burners. It sucks for true artistic expression as it forces us to create for the algorithm and people's ADHD vs creating and expressing solely from the Self. UKposts is killing art for profit. There needs to be an "Indie Netflix" that hosts the films and UKposts can still be used to promote trailers connect with community. 🍄📽

I wrote a screenplay, directed it, and acted in it, but I am not sure the best place to post the link for it. I am not sure of the protocol for that

I’m not a pidgeon hole Joel

You probably won't see this but what was the thought behind the shot of the green chair at 11:10? Or am I just over analyzing? lmao

This is just comfy content.

I can’t wait when all these people during the writer/actor/animator strike leave their jobs and come work for people like you (if you want to) and or other UKpostsrs

Quick question: how are you uploading in that aspect ratio? When I upload something on 4:3 where the file actually is in that aspect ratio, youtube adds black bars to make it 16:9. So annoying

In the year 2050, which award will be more prestigious, the Joely or the Trenty?

Hey, Joel, do you think you'll ever try your hand at a horror film or do you feel like its not really your style?

What do you think of celluloid

This just reminded me of, years ago, finding the video Son on r/nottimanderic

Great Video! Iv made some short but my dream is always feature films! Your absolutely right about UKposts pushing longer easyer to make videos from my understanding of the site! However my Philosophy is I don’t care how many people! Wether it’s 50 or 10M views aslong as people enjoy my work! Random Question: I notice you never uses the term “Folk Filmmaker, Despite being one of the biggest face of the idea! Do you not like the term or is it something else?

You and your community could make a new video platform with high effort/high heart movies being the focus. There are already so many platforms for "content" we could really use one intended for art.

Was it ever?

😆😆😆 yes!

For one i feel like the YT algorithm is so bad lately. It's showing me recommended videos NOTHING compared to what my watch history/liked videos are. Also: It drives me nuts that UKposts doesn't support quality creators who cover difficult topics. It seems like they expect people to make content for kids only. It's so stupid. Yet u can find fully supported "G-string camping videos" I fully support G-string camping videos, the thing is that why do those get supported but this guy makes a well edited video about a informative difficult topic & that's not supported? Or creators who make quality true crime content don't get any support, the list goes on. YT even overly abuses their control over what videos get monetized or flagged for copyright even tho the creator is fully covered by "fair use" yet YT still slaps these people with nonsense all the time even tho they put in so much effort into their video and they fully should be allowed to cover these topics but they hit them with limited adds, etc. That's what really frustrates me about UKposts because they are making it so hard for quality creators who bring so much traffic to their own platform yet they seem to not realize that they have a huge % of viewers who are adults and not everything has to be for kids... Idk i hope UKposts improves because they really are a great platform but they got to get their shit together and support these creators who bring so much to their platform.

Whilst I appreciate your viewpoint, I do have to disagree. I think your view is quite biased because youtube has worked so well for you. The bread and butter of your channel as you were growing wasn’t your features, even in this video you say how people sharing your animation stuff was the thing that kickstarted your growth. UKposts is a great place to share your films if you have something else to bring people to your channel, just sharing films isn’t going to grow your channel unless you’re really lucky and the algorithm randomly picks you. This is why so many people on youtube, people you know and promote even, get barely any views on their features. Your point about getting more views on your films by posting on youtube than would see it in a festival is true, except that misses the actual point of festivals. You don’t submit to a film festival so a lot of people see it, you submit to a film festival so the right people see it, distributors, people in the industry, who will hopefully get it to a wider audience. Festivals are still a great route and the best route to have your films seen, your points against the festivals is that you don’t like the rejection, but fear of rejection isn’t a reason to not try. In my opinion the festival route is still best, and youtube is a great alternative if you don’t get into the festivals, youtube is a viable route but it’s not right to write off any other route and not even try.