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The YouTuber movie is one that's often been considered very specific. Usually, they are comedies that star and/or are made by a YouTube content creator specifically to appease their fanbase. None of these are what you can consider future Oscar contenders, but as long as they succeed in satisfying their target audience, they'll be perfectly fine. Right?

If the history of these movies is anything to go by though, a ton of YouTuber movies aren't particularly successful in winning this niche fanbase, let alone general audiences. In a way, it almost seems like the sheer amount of terrible movies with a YouTuber's name on them has set back one of YouTube's primary appeals in the first place. This is, of course, the platform's unique ability to allow creatives to find a platform for their work, eventually building up to bigger projects.

However, the idea of the successful YouTuber creative...

Directors Joseph and Vanessa Winter made something special with "Deadstream," a thrilling and hilarious Pov horror film about a disgraced YouTuber desperately attempting to win back his audience by pulling the most ridiculous stunt imaginable. Joseph Winter stars as the fictional Shawn Ruddy, an insufferable online personality armed with all of the hot new technological gadgets viewers assume (and often demand) all creators utilize, who breaks into a notorious haunted house called Death Manor to livestream his overnight stay.

As this is a film starring a YouTuber-turned-streamer, Ruddy does just about everything a horror movie has taught us not to do in a haunted house, including destroying sacred items, performing a seance, reading Latin out loud, and talking wicked smack about the ghostly inhabitants as a means to keep his viewers interested. The comparisons to "The Evil Dead" and "Hell House LLC" are easy to make and not inaccurate, but...

Well, I wasn’t planning on writing about Channel Awesome, at least, not right away, but Jesus; that escalated quickly.

So, as of the moment I’m starting to type this, it’s Monday, the 26th of March, 2:00pm Pacific Time Zone, and in the last 48 hours or so, by my count, and I might be off here, but at least six and probably eight producers have resigned from Channel Awesome over the last 48 hours, and that number might be increasing, including but not limited to such names as Linkara, Todd In The Shadows, Diamanda Hagan, Rap Critic, Mike Jeavons, Sf Debris and Suede, some of those names have been apart of the site for almost a decade and I’m personally a fan of a lot of them, as well as several of the numerous past contributors, who, for some reasons got into a Twitter discussions about their...

I came of age right before YouTube became a thing, where the only way to watch original content was Ebaum's world, Newgrounds, or any place that happened to support that shitty Realtime Player. Around that time, BlipTV was a thing, and my friends and I got really into The Nostalgia Critic, and then his subsequent collaborators like The Nostalgia Chick, Obscurus Lupa, Linkara of Atop the Fourth Wall, and The... Read More...

I remember in high school being really into That Guy With the Glasses, a series of critical video essays headed by Doug Walker. He eventually got his own website and channel (before moving to YouTube), and brought on a bunch of other critics into the fold, like The Cinema Snob and Obscurus Lupa. However, one of my favorite critics was The Nostalgia Chick (real name Lindsay Ellis), as she was much more... Read More...

Back in 2007, Doug Walker posted a rant under the name Nostalgia Critic for the first time. Now, a decade later, Walker’s work has endured, and he has taken some time to celebrate his long career on the internet. The Nostalgia Critic is ten years old, and Channel Awesome, which serves as the home for those videos, has celebrated with numerous festivities.

To kick off the Critic’s ten-year bash, Channel Awesome employee Walter Banasiak put together a list of some of Walker’s best work. If you’ve never experienced the Critic’s exasperated rants, witty sketches, and tough-but-fair criticisms of classic TV shows and movies, that rundown is a good place to start.

Once you’re up to speed on Walker’s signature character, it’s time to dive into his latest review: A 28-minute evisceration of the 2016 film Norm of the North. Walker describes the animated flick,...

The original, slapstick-heavy Looney Tunes series of cartoons ran from the early 1930s to the late 1960s, generating over a thousand short films, each one about six or seven minutes in length. It was not until 1979, however, until Warner Bros. actually released a feature-length motion picture based on the series. That film, Chuck Jones’ The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Movie, relied heavily on clips from the classic cartoons and was enough of a financial success to inspire four more piecemeal Looney features between 1981 and 1988. And that’s all before Space Jam was a thing. Doug Walker, star of the long-running webseries Nostalgia Critic, revisits the entire franchise in a video handily titled “All The Looney Tunes Movies.” Here, he limits himself to feature-length productions that were released theatrically and contained at least some new material. There’s still plenty to talk about, though, including the fact that ...

Over the past few months, YouTube’s Content ID platform has generated a lot of controversy. The digital rights management service, which lets rights holders identify, claim, and monetize unlicensed use of their intellectual property, has drawn criticism from creators who believe it puts too much power in the hands of claimants

Now, YouTube is responding. The video site has announced a change that will allow uploaders whose videos receive Content ID claims to accrue ad revenue on those videos as they contest the claims against them.

That’s not the easiest sentence to understand, but within the Content ID process, the change is a logical one. Every day, thousands of YouTube channels re-upload videos or use trademarked content without receiving permission from the original rights holder. In most of those cases, the rights holder files a Content ID claim, the claim is accepted, and the rights holder can choose...

YouTube’s video claiming policy has always had its flaws, but thanks to recent videos from prominent creators like The Nostalgia Critic and GradeAUnderA, the video site’s community is hungry for change. Those creators, along with several others who rely on the legal doctrine of fair use in order to protect their videos, believe YouTube’s current video policing system puts too much power in the hands of claimants and does not sufficiently punish those who file fraudulent takedown requests.

If a tweet YouTube’s CEO sent out on February 26th is any indication, however, the video site’s controversial policy might be about to change. On her Twitter feed, Susan Wojcicki thanked creators for their feedback and linked to a post in YouTube’s Help Forum, where an employee named Spencer hinted at several changes the site plans to make within its policy division.

Thank you @YouTube community for all the feedback.

A string of controversial video takedown notices has brought one of the online video community’s favorite hobby horses back into the spotlight. Since the start of 2016, prominent content creators like I Hate Everything and Doug “The Nostalgia Critic” Walker have posted videos documenting their respective struggles with rights holders who issue claims against their respective videos. In particular, one of Walker’s recent videos has been viewed more than 1.1 million times and has left viewers asking “where’s the fair use?”

The relationship between fair use, Content ID, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (Dmca), and other forces that govern copyright law on YouTube has for years been a contentious subject. In 2013, a change in YouTube’s policy set off a wave of claims against creators both big and small. Some of the claims were valid requests that hoped to crack down on videos that infringed upon existing copyrights; others,...

Blip is dead. Long live Blip. The online video platform, which for more than a decade was a showcase of high-quality original content, has been shut down by its owner, Maker Studios.

Blip launched in 2005, just three months after YouTube opened its doors. From the start, it feature a creator-focused approach, and it managed to attract thousands of video producers and hundreds of millions of views. Its best-known users included The Nostalgia Critic, who used it to host videos from his Channel Awesome network, and Michael Moore, who partnered with the platform to distribute his film Slacker Uprising. Blip pushed its creator-friendly model even further with the launch of Blip Studios in 2012.

At the same time, Blip struggled to turn a profit in a competitive industry, and it was ultimately acquired by Maker Studios in 2013. While Maker has made use of Blip’s technology and partnerships, it marked the actual...

James Rolfe created the Angry Video Game Nerd character and webseries after putting together a few short videos complaining about old Nintendo games, such as Ljn releases. Soon, as popularity grew, Angry Nintendo Nerd had to be changed to Angry Video Game Nerd so his character could delve into a larger oeuvre of terrible video games from the past. A lover of film and a director of shorts himself, Rolfe and his team often develop creative references to classic films throughout the videos, though still keeping the tone juvenile. Now, Avgn videos are just one of several series and columns on Rolfe’s website cinemassacre.com

His feature length-movie, about hunting down the long-rumoured stockpile of E.T. Atari cartridges buried in New Mexico, had its international premiere at Fantasia 2014, with co-director and longtime friend Kevin Finn in attendance with the Nerd himself. Rolfe took a few moments out of his...

On the last Saturday of every month, something strange happens at the Laemmle theatre in Los Angeles, CA. A screening is arranged, viewers flock to it and sell it out in almost record time. Diehard fans bring with them what seems to be a selection of provisions for a picnic of a trip to the beach, including plastic spoons and footballs. They are here to watch an eleven year old film which has enjoyed cinema events across the globe, and has made a star of its director/writer/producer/star. Other regular screenings can be found in Copenhagen, Cleveland, Edmonton, Glasgow and London. These too sell out. The Prince Charles Theatre in London proclaims itself the British home of said movie. Its celebrity fans include Alec Baldwin, Paul Rudd, David Cross and Patton Oswald. Her affection for the piece led Kristen Bell to insert various references into her hit show Veronica Mars.

With 921,000 subscribers and more than 34 million views, Canal Nostalgia is one of Brazil's most popular YouTube channels. Unfortunately, a run in with a couple of massive media companies is threatening to shutter Canal Nostalgia for good. The channel is currently fighting against ContentID claims from both Fox and Turner, and it is in danger of falling victim to YouTube's 'three strikes' rule. Canal Nostalgia offers witty looks at the cartoons and other pop culture phenomena that people who grew up in the 90s remember fondly. It has a lot in common with The Nostalgia Critic (who has also endured his fair share of legal battles), but is obviously aimed at the Lusophone audience. Here's one of the channel's most popular installments, centered around Disney movies (English subtitles are included): Fox and Turner have now placed the channel in jeopardy by claiming videos that use footage from shows like The Simpsons and Johnny Bravo.

Review Pete Dillon-Trenchard 27 Sep 2013 - 22:00

The It Crowd leaves us with a superb final outing. Here's Pete's review of The Internet Is Coming...

This review contains spoilers, read our spoiler-free review, here.

It’s always hard saying goodbye, and for the longest time it seemed like we’d had the opportunity taken away from us with The It Crowd; when the fourth series ended in 2010, there was already talk of a fifth. But talk then turned to maybe doing a special instead - or even a movie. And the months turned into years, and we watched as Richard Ayoade and Chris O’Dowd went off and became the sort of actors whose faces end up on the sides of buses to promote their latest Hollywood smash. It seemed as if The It Crowd was consigned to the basement forever.

All of which makes it so much more surprising...

A report recently surfaced linking top multi-channel network Maker Studios to Blip, thus confirming the speculation that Maker would begin to engineer a platform of its own. Its all-but-official acquisition begs the question: What are the network's plans? How will it use its new toy? With both Maker and Blip declining to comment on the impending transaction, here are three developments we believe will arise from the high-profile move: Maker is going to make a ton of sites for its creators. In keeping with the most important YouTuber trend of the past year, Maker will surely assist its creators as they attempt to lessen dependence YouTube and find alternative revenue streams across the web. The network has recently helped build sites for partners like Epic Rap Battles of History and The Yogscast, and Blip has experience powering pages for its own partners as well (e.g. The Pet Collective). In...

Alongside my film passions, expressed on WhatCulture! and on my own blog, my other big creative passion is radio. I’ve been involved in radio in one form or another since 2007, and currently broadcast three times a fortnight on Exeter’s Phonic FM.

But rather than sit here blowing my own trumpet, I’d like to take a few minutes of your time to promote the passion project of one of my favourite online reviewers – anime critic Hope Chapman, a.k.a. JesuOtaku (Jo for short). If you’re into anime you probably watch her reviews on That Guy With The Glasses, but what you may not know about is her on-going magnum opus – the Fruits Basket Radio Drama.

Fruits Basket Radio Drama is an adaptation of the manga series Fruits Basket, written and illustrated by Natsuki Takaya. It tells the story of young orphan Tohru Honda, who moves in...

Roger Ebert has passed away after a prolonged battle with cancer, and the Internet has wasted no time eulogizing its favorite film critic. Several channels, such as Current and The Young Turks, have noted Ebert's unabashed display of his politics, which both allowed him to build trust with his audience and bring light to issues (such as the underappreciated nature of Black cinema) that may have been otherwise ignored. For online film critics, however, Ebert has a special significance. After all, this is the man who, more than anyone else, made film criticism into a commercial art. He brought personality to his reviews, a personality that many online critics have attempted to emulate in some capacity. While several YouTube film reviewers have offered their views, the most important and on-point remembrance has come from Doug Walker, better known as the Nostalgia Critic. Walker is arguably the most well-known film critic on the Internet,...

For seven seasons and over 100 episodes, James Rolfe has taken viewers on a profanity-laced journey through the minefield of terrible video games in his Angry Video Game Nerd series. Recently, Rolfe has decided to take his signature character to the next level by creating an Angry Video Game Nerd movie. The full trailer for the film has been released, and it appears to have an impressively professional quality not present in the lo-fi video game reviews for which Rolfe is famous. The film will star Rolfe as the Nerd character, who is urged by his fans to dig up an old cartridge of the infamous E.T. game for a review. When the government mistakenly believes the Nerd is searching for extraterrestrial life, a wild goose chase through the New Mexico desert ensues. Most of the talent in the film consists of little-known actors, but there are a few rumored...

Over the summer, Blip announced that it was entering the realm of original content with a new studio helmed by executive Steve Woolf. Now, Blip is increasing its efforts to bring viewers a daily stream of pop-culture related content with a new channel, the League of Super Critics, on YouTube. The channel will feature updates from five of Blip's most popular personalities, with each one taking over his or her own day. Mondays belong to The Nostalgia Chick, Lindsay Ellis, who has brought a more feminine appeal to old-school pop culture since she was hired by her male Critic counterpart. On Tuesdays, gothic girl The Maven releases Vampire Reviews, where she looks at various works of bloodsucking fiction. Doug Walker will bring his huge fanbase to the channel on Wednesday with a new episode of The Nostalgia Critic, which will undoubtedly run for 20 minutes and feature several references to Chuck Norris and M.

Blip, a startup that distributes and monetizes online video, has decided to expand into production, announcing the launch of Blip Studios on Thursday. Steve Woolf, previously vice president of content, will run the studio and has been promoted to the Svp level. Blip will build a network of shows, signing partnerships with existing talent and creating its own original series across genres like comedy, sci-fi and sports. Its first three partnerships are with "Nostalgia Critic," a series starring Doug Walker that appraises all things nostalgic, "Nostalgia Chick," which critiques nostalgic TV and...

No filmmaker is better versed in the art of piquing fan interest in an unreleased, non-brand title than J.J. Abrams, as best evidenced by the viral marketing campaign for his and Matt Reeves’ “found footage” monster pic, Cloverfield. That Abrams has built up a similar aura of mystery around his next directorial effort, Super 8, is all the more expected by (and infuriating for) his fans.

A full-fledged preview for Abrams’ new project aired as part of the 2011 Super Bowl Movie Trailers, and now the man with the glasses himself (not Doug Walker, for those who get the reference) has spilled a few tidbits about just what Super 8 is and why it’s a film that’s close to his nerdy, sci-fi-loving heart.

Super 8 takes place in small-town Ohio (is there another kind?) circa 1979 ...

Click to continue reading J.J. Abrams Reveals Some ‘Super 8′ Secrets...

Doug Walker’s The Nostalgia Critic, which if you’re a webhead, you’ve probably seen and if you’re a nerd webhead you probably own the t-shirt (if there is one) has heaps of clever pop-cultural dissection. Walker’s catchphrase, “Hello, I’m the Nostalgia Critic. I remember it so you don’t have to!” is good branding for his concept: he (mostly) reviews past movies to let us know if they still hold up. Most of the ones he reviews, however, do not…and that’s by design. Full up with clips, which apparently, if they are used for satirical purposes can be displayed willie-nillie – just watch his latest review of The Last Action Hero, where you get A Lot of the movie in his too-long review – the reviews are of the snarky variety and Walker is quite talented with his snark. Wearing a black blazer, black hat,...