If you're a film buff, this is not the podcast for you. Soo Zee and Leigh talk about film in the loosest sense of the word. Mostly it's about what it means to b...
In this episode, Leigh talks about the brilliant editing in the movie 'Don't Look Up' and explores why it's so refreshing. Editing may be an invisible art, but it’s one that deserves the spotlight—and this film proves why. Plus, a deep dive into why Meryl Streep makes the ultimate villain, and some thoughts on making better film.
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20:37
The Squid Game phenomenon
In this episode of Film Stuff, Soo Zee talks about Squid Game and why it was successful. Interestingly, Western media and Eastern media reports on the series differently. Leigh only occasionally butts in with rants about copyright and geo-arbitrage. Enjoy!
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18:33
The role of storytelling in sports
In this episode of Film Stuff, Soo Zee and Leigh talk about how storytelling can change the way fans perceive the sports they follow. There's a big difference between more established sports and newly emerging ones, and we talk about the pros and cons of both and how their media landscapes differ. Find out how Soo Zee got into Formula 1, how Leigh looks at professional tag, and what they both think of the NBA fan media experience.
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20:14
Creator burnout and breakdown
Lots of creators—especially young, successful ones—publicly admit to being emotionally, mentally, and physically exhausted by their channels. Why is that? And while we know burnout is a real and serious problem, we have to wonder. How much burnout is true burnout, and how much is because many creators are new this: new to managing professional life, new to making art, and new to the notoriously demanding work of filmmaking. We look at creator burnout from many angles and even suggest ways to avoid it.
Show notes:
• Leigh mentions details about how the YouTube algorithm works "as far as we know." That paper she read that made her think YouTube's recommendations are so great? It's from 2014, from a Google research paper titled "Deep Neural Networks for YouTube Recommendations" https://research.google/pubs/pub45530/
• If you really want to understand the algorithm deeply, we recommend following Matt Glielen and the team at Little Monster's research https://www.littlemonstermediaco.com/our-research
• "That original guy who wrote 'Burnout'" is a psychologist named Herbert Freudenberger, who coined the term in the '70s based on his own personal frustrations. He literally wrote the book on it https://www.amazon.com/dp/0553200488/
• Burnout isn't just a YouTube problem, either. Anne Helen Petersen wrote a great piece on why burnout is rampant among Millennials, not just creators https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/annehelenpetersen/millennials-burnout-generation-debt-work
• In 2018 there seemed to be a YouTube trend of young creators quitting because of burnout, overwork, and stress. The Guardian wrote a piece that covered a lot of the same angles we did in more depth https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/sep/08/youtube-stars-burnout-fun-bleak-stressed
• Soo Zee talks about the emotional difficulty that comes from getting instant feedback on your work. The fancy term for this is "emotional labor," and it has a long history of being an unacknowledged form of work, especially on social media platforms. https://www.theverge.com/platform/amp/2019/2/25/18229714/cognizant-facebook-content-moderator-interviews-trauma-working-conditions-arizona
• In fact, social media's impact on our mental health is well documented https://www.rsph.org.uk/our-work/campaigns/status-of-mind.html See also https://www.openculture.com/2013/08/why-social-media-makes-us-lonely.html
• James Cameron on curiosity, and why he takes time between his films to explore areas of personal interest https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVfd6fg7QsM
• James Cameron did indeed head to the jungles for Avatar's sequels https://www.theguardian.com/film/2011/mar/28/james-cameron-avatar-2-brazil goin' off to the jungles
• When Leigh says she agrees with Adam Grant's definition of burnout, she's really agreeing with what he argues in this episode about burnout on his TED podcast WorkLife https://www.ted.com/talks/worklife_with_adam_grant_burnout_is_everyone_s_problem
Music: https://www.purple-planet.com
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24:56
Finding better video jobs
The film world we were brought up in works on an apprentice system, where you attach yourself to a person or team, and usually work on the projects they land. In the world of modern video making, where creators can be full-time and video is a huge part of marketing, that world is evolving. Now there's tons of openings for filmmaking jobs. They're not all good. Some are gold, some are garbage, and in this episode we talk about how to tell the difference. We get super tactical for anyone job hunting or looking to hire.
• This is the puzzle we've been doing. Not an ad, we just think this puzzle company is really cool! https://cloudyfields.com/products/shadow-puppets
• There are a loooooot of ways in which print design and digital design are different (not to mention video and materials design). This is just the tip of the iceberg https://medium.com/inkbot-design/5-key-differences-in-designing-for-print-vs-digital-media-6e69edcfc414
• Leigh wasn't joking. Final Cut Pro 7 is dead. Officially. https://larryjordan.com/blog/apple-ends-all-support-for-final-cut-pro-7/
• We mentioned that producers are usually responsible for key creative hires on a project. What else does a film producer actually do? Production is not the same thing as producing. This great excerpt from MasterClass explains https://www.masterclass.com/articles/what-does-a-hollywood-producer-do-responsibilities-of-a-film-producer-and-how-to-become-a-producer#quiz-0
• We highly recommend this excellent article called "The Confidence Gap" about the different ways male and female candidates approach a job ad https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/05/the-confidence-gap/359815/
• We also recommend you look at some of the research around gender differences is hiring. Totaljobs has a whole section dedicated to this issue here https://www.totaljobs.com/insidejob/gender-pay-trap/, plus a tool that checks the text of a job listing to find gender-coded wording.
If you're a film buff, this is not the podcast for you. Soo Zee and Leigh talk about film in the loosest sense of the word. Mostly it's about what it means to be creative.
HI! We're Soo Zee and Leigh and we Do Stuff and then make videos about it. Videos are real stories from our lives. It's reality, only with a better narrator. We do stuff mostly in Berlin, Germany, but sometimes other places too.
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