Parrot is telling a minecraft story. Evbo_ is telling a story that is grounded and told through minecraft. Whitepine is telling a story that happens to be expressed through minecraft.
It's not fair to compare Parkour Civilization with Whitepine, it's like you're comparing a theatrical performance with a movie. Whitepine utilizes elements of cinema (post-processing, lighting, camera control) while PC is a theatrical performance set within the game, treating the game just like theater treats the real world. There's nothing inherently artistically worse or "insincere" about fully accepting the confines of the game and performing within them-I see a profound beauty in how much people can tell in a relatively confined environment. Stories told wholly through the game as it is can be closer to us, because playing Minecraft is an experience we all share. Would you compare a solo piano piece with a fully produced electronic music track, arguing that the second one is better because it isn't restrained by its instruments? Why are you surprised or disappointed that stories told through Minecraft primarily use symbols, devices and established concepts from Minecraft to drive the story? Whitepine uses aforementioned cinematic elements to tell its story, but obviously most scripted content isn't going to do that, because (good) lighting, camera work or post-processing aren't devices that the game offers you. There's no reason creators should constrain themselves to established real-life vehicles of storytelling. Limitations breed creativity. I will say though, "content"ization of art is a plague, and I wish we'd get a Parkour Civilization that's art, not content, while also accepting the challenge of staying within the game's confines to tell its story.
my favourite scripted minecraft scene is "Minecraft, But It's Just A Burning Memory" Its 4 minutes, it doesnt have any words, but it follows a script of events. Please watch it, THAT is the minecraft scripted content i want
The amount of mods that have been made that enable Minecraft as a storytelling medium is like we've never seen before. Camera utility mods, building mods, create, and so much more are just a few that have taken the game of Minecraft to the next level, and I hope we start to see that in the media that is made about Minecraft. Amazing video, great topic, keep up the good work man!
Totally agree! From what little time I've spent playing with it, Flashback is leagues ahead of other comparable mods in terms of its cinematic utility, and like I said in the video, the art of building is in the best place it's ever been too. We're only just beginning to scratch the surface of what's possible, and I hope to see more artists push against those boundaries. Glad you enjoyed the video, and thanks so much for the comment!
I think the issue you mentioned where everyone in an SMP wants to be the main character is alleviated in [REDACTED] SMP. No one feels like the main character but they all feel like protagonists of their own story that is taking place at the same time as everyone else's. I personally would really recommend it. It's in my opinion the best scripted smp. Also if you like Minecraft art I recommend Zeemyth his stuff goes beyond traditional Minecraft content and elevates it to a form of art in a way that most others don't.
I really liked the analysis in this video. And so I'm also gonna tell ya about one of my favorite series which is a semi-scripted minecraft Let's Play series made by "MrLololoshka" and his team, it's a Russian channel with over 10 million subscribers, and they basically have been making a series of Let's Plays with over 500+ episodes for about 3-4 years now, it's a 1 global story that is basically made by a bunch of people for 1 person (the youtuber himself) to play and enjoy (and well, record and upload videos of it to the channel lol). MrLololoshka himself doesnt know the script so he's basically like us, the viewers but instead of watching he's the one to play and interact with the characters and environment in the story. It has english subtitles so i recommend checking it out, i have never seen anybody else make something simillar to his (their) content, so it is pretty special i would say, hah. To the people that read this comment, have a good day/night!
Thank you so much for the kind words! I'm very happy to hear that someone enjoyed this video enough to share it, and that you managed to get something out of it too!
i think the idea of clownpierce as pure evil, the final boss, could be done well. lord english from homestuck, death from puss in boots, heavy from emesis blue. the essence of death and brute force behind a shell of humanity. it works if the portrayal is evocative. regardless, i think clown's role in parkour civilization undermined the depth of his character, his straightforward villainous persona undermines the fact that he and evbo are the first two characters to share a love of parkour (some read this as a metaphor for a love of art), but his love is for parkour races, a form of parkour (or art) that is done with the purpose of killing. a good comparison is the boy and the heron, but it's different because the boy and the heron does not have a neutral artist as a foil.
Brilliant video! My favorite is and will probably always be the early Dream SMP, but that is largely due to nostalgia. Good job at making an almost hour long Minecraft video while always having something important to say. Like you said, those are rare to come by.
HAHAHAHAHAHA thank you! I'm glad you thought my analysis here was somewhat salient, if nothing else, and that you picked up on the self-deprecating tone of that aside!
This comment is gonna be a long one but I'd like to talk about two hugely successful Scripted Minecraft series from the past and how they nearly changed how stories were told in Minecraft. First is SamGladiator and the Yandere High School series, honestly some of the jokes in this series nowadays were definitely not for kids and at least the first season is rarely scripted. You talked about some of Unstable Universe being filler and I'd say Yandere High School has a lot of it which makes it difficult to rewatch. The enjoyment of Yandere High School largely comes from the natural funny interactions between Sam, Taurtis, Grian, and the rest of the characters. The eventual dissolution of those relationships eventually led to the series dying in later seasons though. The few story beats that did exist were actually pretty solid and made me feel emotion, at least as a kid. The biggest minecraft roleplay youtuber of all time to this day is Aphmau, I largely saw MyStreet season 1 as the footage showcase here but the way it and by extension the highschool MyStreet series evolved over time was very impressive as a viewer back then. The story took itself seriously, had character arcs, used animation, had amazing and changing settings (especially Season 2 and 4) and had long term arcs. It's not exactly my kind of genre nowadays but it feels like the highest minecraft roleplay was ever taken to its limits, at least before whitepine according to what you're saying about it. (I haven't seen it yet) Aphmau also started several other series but the issue from what I know is that they simply weren't as profitable, the stuff Aphmau was doing especially towards the end of MyStreet definitely required over a dozen people to work on things simultaneously, eventually Aphmau found success with far easier content and that's what's propelled her to her position today. I get why the change happened but as a viewer it felt like a void was left for storytelling in minecraft, which of course only intensified between 2017-2018. Because of this when Minecraft was revived the new standard for storytelling as you said was pretty much defined by the DreamSMP. I'm sure a few youtubers back then evolving in certain ways could've eventually lead to a far more thriving storytelling scene but that's in the past, at least now in the future there's a chance that Minecraft Storytelling can reach the peaks it once did, It's been nice to see people taking some aspects of Evbos Parkour Civilization serious at least. (also I'll just mention Slimecicles 100 days Zombie Apocalypse has pretty great storytelling as well) I had a ton of thoughts on this and now felt like the perfect time to get them out. Its great to see you return, some of your documentaries inspired me years ago and I'm glad they're back, I agree with this videos message and good luck to anyone who wants to make their own Minecraft stories. :)
In my opinion, Parrot’s unstable series was really enjoyable to watch and I don’t see a problem with it. In fact, I don’t see a problem with scripted content in general. The problem for me only comes when the videos are not clear about it being scripted and fake elements of it. But overall, scripted content is really entertaining for me.
A brilliant video, one thing holding this new wave of videos back, there are a lot more like Whitepine (Faces in the sky, 00 - The Fool, Ancient Debris, *self-plug alert*), is it being shelved as "Minecraft Roleplays" or worse Machinimas. We need a new name for this new wave of videos for it to grow on its own. My contendor for the name is "Minema" (Minecraft + Cinema). Its a very well-made video. Unlike other video essays on Minecraft content this video is such a fresh take. It gives a feeling of hope. That maybe Minecraft isnt dying at all, that maybe the golden age of Minecraft is yet to arrive.
Someone made a skyblock civilization movie, and I LOVE the fact that kids can grow up watching these incredible story videos. However, that skyblock video had some plotholes and infuriating moments which I won't get into... But as I watched and yelled at the screen, I realized, holy crap, I'm actually invested in this. They tricked me into enjoying scripted minecraft content!!!! But I guarantee there'll be more vids like that and I'm SO excited for them. I love how the future of mc yt content looks right now.
Funny that I now look back at the Yogscast's Shadow of Israphel & adjacent series and recognise so clearly the dreamlike haze in which I understood what it actually was (or rather, didn't) at such a young age, and yet I can still sit here and be shocked to learn that Technoblade didn't exist carving out his own space on the periphery of the larger narrative but as an author. Because of course he was. I always felt like I was watching someone mess about while the larger thing went on but of course it was always central. Something incredibly moving about seeing that last example with its framing and consideration - I was involved as a writer for something momentarily intended to be staged in Minecraft once upon a time, and I never imagined it could look as clear or purposeful as it does there. I suppose my favourite would be another one from youth, the Jaffa Factory series, where maybe I was aware of its nature a little more but so interested in the technical side (and represented by the fact that almost all of them knew nothing either) that it didn't much matter.
Thanks so much for commenting, dude! Glad to hear that on a personal level my analysis was able to somewhat encapsulate your thoughts on the form- like I said, the tools to enable the utilization of Minecraft as a storytelling medium have become so much more sophisticated in the last few years alone, and yet the potential of the form has still remained largely untapped.
@@FrostbyteFreeman after having now gone to check out WhitePine 1, I can only now properly understand the need for a video highlighting exactly this. I spent the whole time unable to shift my eyes - how the feeling and atmosphere of any single moment has been achieved is remarkable. Great video & I'm really enjoying your return!
Dreamlike Haze is the most perfect definition I'd use to describe watching that series as a child, and in a way most of their map or lab gameplays. This is a truly fascinating outlook, honestly. God bless ya and Jesus loves ya, man, thank you for your comment
I do think there's something to working within constraints. As long as it bends to the irony plague you're probably right about gameplay-based stories, but that's true for anything. Who wants a story its own author doesn't even believe in? To be honest I assumed there were lots of stories like Whitepine and I just didn't know about them because I wasn't looking. If Whitepine is really a new and rare concept it's depressing it took 15 years to get this far.
Oh, absolutely. I think you’re definitely right- don’t know if I articulated this well enough or not, but a big part of the charm of stories like Parkour Civilization is that it takes those constraints and hard-bakes them into the world in such a way that they no longer function like hard and fast restrictions. The irony plague is definitely a problem in storytelling and culture in general, though, not just Minecraft UA-cam stuff. And as for Whitepine, there’s definitely a lot more projects with a similar philosophy nowadays, and even back in the day I’m sure there were plenty of roleplay-driven stories that approached a similar level of quality. My main goal there, though, was to underscore how Ivory is pushing Minecraft to the brink as a filmmaking medium by using a lot of newly developed tools and mods that have really democratized the space and made it that much easier for stuff like Whitepine to be made in the first place. I personally think you’re right that the space hasn’t really come all that far yet in the grand scheme of things, but hey, long ways to go yet, yeah? Thanks for commenting.
You mentioning that everyone in an SMP wants to be the main character made me think again about Techno's place in the DreamSMP. Because while he was like, a major character, you wouldn't call him the main character. That was always Tommy. But neither Techno nor his viewers wanted him to be a protagonist, we enjoyed him as an antagonist, a villain. Which isn't a role that most people would want (hell, Dream sure as heck didn't want it in the end), but Techno placed himself as always being at odds with anyone wanting to be a main character in that SMP, he was the destroyer of governments. The only "special" thing about him was that he was the single best player on the SMP, but did not have the ambition to use that fact to make himself the most important one. Anyway I guess I should watch Whitepine sometime, I just haven't really gotten round to it.
This feels like it used to be better. Back in the day, proper filmmaking in video games was called machinimas. I feel like people are just looking in the wrong direction. As a child I used to watch a lot of machinima channels that did full on tv series (which I'd rather not mention here because uh... I definitely do not want to promote russian channels lol). Whitepine is by every single vibe and definition specifically a machinima.
There's kind of an interesting point with content SMP. After I started watching multiple creators perspectives I realised just how different a story could seem depending on perspective. At least some of that is definitely because of the constraints of content making and needing to act like you're the main character so you're video works well, but I think it's also (perhaps unintentionally) a pretty interesting example of how perspective shapes how we see events, which I think is well exemplified by the sentiment "in content SMP there are no heroes" which I often see in the community.
I stopped my entire channel for a lot of the reasons you touched in this video. I felt like the videos I actually wanted to make would perform so poorly they were pointless so I would unlist them - yet idk, I guess this video inspired me a lot. Nobody should stop being creative simply because of the performance.
Gosh darn it, as an artist myself (not a UA-camr nor a content creator), this video reasoned with me a lot more than what I thought, even though I don't make Minecraft videos or anything like (although I do enjoy them a lot). Something I adore about these Minecraft content creators is their creativity when making stories, and the ways they use the medium of Minecraft to make it possible. It's just that a lot of time their potential is wasted or unexplored (Parkour Civilization 😔), perhaps because sometimes they haven't acquired the experience needed to make it, but I feel like that most of the time is just like what you said during the video, they are scared pushing further it's story because they don't want to be deemed as cringe by others due to the medium the use. Minecraft is a very powerful tool for storytelling with thousands of mods at its disposal and community people passionate about it, but I feel like the problem comes with how other people outside the community view it. Most of the time these people's only see these scripted or roleplay videos as something childish/cringe or something that only kids can enjoy it (exploiting it for that same reason and only viewing it as a tool for making money), therefore disregarding it's potential for art and filmmaking, and making the people who wants to use it that way be embarrassed for trying to make something serious out of it. But no matter how cringe a story is, as long as they put effort and passion towards it, I will alway enjoy it and support them, because as any other artistic person, we can always learn and improve our crafts. And to be honest I am very glad that there are other people who think like that as well, because Minecraft (as I stated previously) is an amazing tool for making up stories, and I'm so glad that there are people who aren't afraid to show their creations to the world through it! (Lmao sorry if something reads weird, english is not my first language and I didn't know how to explain my thoughts in a coherent way without making it sound weird xD)
IMO my biggest issue is this play between script and roleplay. people can feel when stuff are pre-scripted, and it makes it just awkward. the creators need to either go past the theatre line, fully script it, make it FEEL like a story, or go full DND mode, have one person who architect the story instead of playing in it, and a small cast of players who go on the adventure, act a pre chosen role, but given full freedom to act as they think fit the character, then when the story is done, maybe re-shoot some parts for the story's sake, but keep everything really natural, make it FEEL like you're watching a real DND adventure.
Only thing I can see wrong with what you said about Whitepine is the difference between it being a Minecraft film, and a film WITHIN minecraft. Saying Whitepine is related to Minecraft is like saying that The Two Towers is an Arriflex 435 movie. It devalues the idea of it being just...a movie, by intrinsically tying it TO Minecraft, when its SO MUCH MORE than just that. I know that's kind of what you are saying, but the title reflects something ENTIRELY different. Whitepine is art made WITH Minecraft. Not in it. It uses the natural strengths and limitations to create genuine art.
What a well crafted analysis video! I started watching, fearing that this was going to be one of those lackluster videos that didn’t offer any actual analysis, but BOY HOWDY I AM SO GLAD I'M WRONG! If I had to recommend a Minecraft scripted roleplay to get into, especially after the breath of fresh air that is Whitepine, I would highly recommend Azora by The Invisible Davis studios, in conjunction with Queen Kat Productions! It's a cinematic, original fantasy roleplay with high stakes, mysteries, and some mature themes all wrapped in its 8 episode run. Its on hiatus now, but Davis and Kat are revamping the series and may have more info on what it looks like soon!
a German Minecraft UA-camr I've watched since I was a kid often made cinematic creations in Minecraft. Some were Minecraft stories he was telling, others were wholey original His name is HerrBergmann
i think unstable universe has improved SO MUCH over the time that it's been made, when i watched the first video of his on unstable, i enjoyed it, though didn't enjoy it as much as his older videos before he went to scripted content, and the views the video had reflects that most people probably thought the same. his 2nd video, though not perfect, i think was a great improvement. I loved watching it, though i would still only watch it at 30-60 minutes at a time, and looking back at it, it did lack a huge part that made it a story, and not just interesting and entertaining things only trying to be a scripted minecraft video. I think his most recent video changed that. it was definitely one of the best minecraft videos i have seen, and a HUGE improvement from the rest. it's crazy to me how much they've already improved in a few months. it's definitely not the quality of some big movie, but i think it's proof that there's been a consistent improvement in the videos over time. I think one of the things i love about unstable is that they stay to the base survival-mode of the game, it's interesting to me seeing them have creative concepts, while still sticking to the boundaries of what's possible in the actual game. I also don't quite understand the criticism for it sticking to that, because you could say the same for most things. if it's a negative to stick to Minecraft survival and be creative and tell stories in that, why isn't it a negative to stick to Minecraft as a whole?
Sure! Here's a corrected version of your text: When I heard that Efbo was now making a PvP Civilization, I started joking about how we should make a parody called Speedrun Civilization. But then, as I actually started writing it, I realized I wanted to take it seriously. I wanted to create a story worth telling, a story worth hearing. I hope I’ll be able to make this with my friends and that it doesn’t end up becoming just another unfinished project, because I genuinely want to make something good.
Actually, this is a really good question. I wrote it off on first glance, but Hermitcraft is in a really interesting spot. There's a few things that were obviously scripted, some that might be, and the majority that almost certainly isn't. I think the best instance of Hermitcraft scripting might be: "Is the moon big?" They all knew the event was happening, but everyone had their own authorial spin on things. Doc and Ren had a completely different ending to those who leapt into the Boatem Hole. Hermitcraft is, after all, a group of people making videos to entertain the masses and earn a living, but it's also somehow a group of friends just hanging out and playing Minecraft. Forgve me if I"m wrong, as I have little experience with any other forms of scripted Minecraft content and/or SMPs, but that feels like something special. To summarize: Huh, good question. I'm curious about Frostbyte's thoughts on HC too.
@@roguewolven there is a TON of scripted minecraft in HermitCraft. Take this season, BDubs is a Civil Court Judge that encourages server members to sue each other. They may make the decisions kind of on the fly on who is suing who, but they're scripting the story. The bad acting, thorough setups, active RP from a huge portion of the community and BDubs own way of editing the footage does transcend the game into actual entertainment/art. This season is especially good, but they've been doing this content since the LogFellows and NHO. It's the best blend of scripted and LP Minecraft on UA-cam. But it's also just some people playing Minecraft on an SMP that do huge, ridiculous builds with awesome redstone and game breaking bugs. They've even broken the 4th wall about this, specifically in the civil war arc (which includes RAP BATTLES, Jesus it's so stupid and amazing) where they explained to viewers about what role play is and how it's cool among friends.
That's a very interesting question! Definitely one that I have a lot of thoughts on, and a subject too demanding to occupy much space in this already monstrously long video, so you'll have to forgive the omission on my part. The mutually agreed-upon narrative conceits of Season 8 and the beginning of Season 9 occur at a really fascinating space in the history of the genre for me- so close in proximity to the heyday of some other popular bastions of scripted Minecraft content that it's impossible to ignore that kind of coincidence. This was a server in its eighth season, after all, and as the numbers kept climbing higher, it was only natural that the Hermits would want to experiment and explore to see what Hermitcraft could be. For me, though, I find the Hermitcraft scripted stuff most interesting not within the broader context of scripted Minecraft storytelling, but rather within the context of Hermitcraft itself. Even after the Hermits started to tone down the unified, shared lore stuff, there was a greater emphasis on experimental storytelling through base building, and this season, with everyone so close together on the map, there's been a real concerted effort at keeping their theming cohesive and remaining a close-knit community. Definitely something I'd want to talk about at length to actually capture my thoughts appropriately, though, so apologies if it doesn't all come across here in this little blurb. Excellent question, and again, thanks so much for commenting!
You're absolutely right! I think Hermitcraft's approach is very special, and I totally agree that the stylistic choice to give everyone the authorial autonomy to write their own ending to the same series of events produced some very fascinating results. There's a really excellent animation- by chrisrin, I believe, off the top of my head- that really encapsulates what I find so compelling about the Season 8 conclusion (just search up Hermitcraft Let's See How Far We've Come or something to that effect if you haven't seen it already). Thanks so much for the comment and insight, I really do appreciate it!
@@OrionsVantage Honestly, yeah, great points. Most of the big events on the server seem scripted to some extent. Cub's takeover as higher management for the permit office, to pluck another example from this season. I love Hermitcraft, I really do. It's so cool. You can tell it's a group of friends hanging out and telling stories. Extra bonus points that we get all the wonderful videos of them just playing Minecraft and randomly engaging one another. The proximity voice chat was especially huge for that. Ah, but I'm rambling.
Because it's an hour long and I only uploaded it like three hours ago. Thank you so much for the comment, though, I'm sincerely happy to hear you enjoyed it!
I found your channel through your this is honestly the best minecraft video essay i have ever seen i found your channel through your 'bdubs is the goat video' and your videos are actually amazing and there is more room fore content like yours. Hope you keep making videos man, you deserve to go places. Also, can't wait to see your video on white pine you truly inspired me with this video
Thank you so much! That's seriously so kind of you to say- glad you found me from this most recent run, and that you've sincerely been enjoying my stuff! Praise this weighty means the world to me :)
One of my favorites, and a slightly less-known project, is the Herobrine Origins universe from Elite Productions (now rebranded as EP Films). Admittedly, the first couple episodes don't have the best production, and there is definitely a strong "homage" element in part 1, but in my opinion, the series peaks with "Herobrine Origins: The Movie" which is a more polished version of the first 3 episodes. I also really like the prequels and spinoffs such as "BRINE," "entity_303," and "Lick." Their last episode, Herobrine Origins Part IV, does lean a bit too much into the spectacle and homage qualities in my opinion, but it's still a solid ending to the story and universe. Definitely worth a watch for anyone who hasn't seen it. I'd suggest starting with Herobrine Origins: The Movie and then branching out into the prequels and spinoff films.
I really hate scripted minecraft content especially when its not instantly clear it is scripted very happy that atleast unstable universe puts it in the description some of the things that happen in smps seem kinda unbelivable to me its very unclear if a lot of the popular smps are secretly partially scripted
Interestingly the Hungarian minecraft youtube community made a few, hour long movies using the game around 6-8 years ago. They even had a brief theatrical run in some smaller cinemas in the country. (they're still up on youtube on a channel titled MineCinema)
19:47 this point is actually incredibly relevant to me right now, my friends and i recently watched the green mile together and it quickly became one of my all time favorite movies, but whenever i mention that my friends go “yea but its SOO LOOONG”, but i don’t think that counts as a “critique” because it effectively uses every second of that run time, a piece of media being long isn’t inherently a bad thing, it just has to justify that length
I absolutely loved the video! Scripted minecraft stories were and still are my bread and butter. It's crazy because, as you said in the video, when I tell people that I was a Minecraft Diaries, Dream Smp, Qsmp, and civilizations fan, well... I'm basically a huge cringe nerd in their eyes. But thats never stopped me because I am fascinated by stories being told through different mediums. I feel the same way about animation and amateur animation on UA-cam. The fact that someone can hone a craft to use it as a storytelling device is incredible to me. I would be remiss to say, though, that I just watch the video to go down memory lane. You always have an insight that's fascinating and well articulated. Frankly, I want to pick your brain on thousands of topics because I know I'll be captivated the whole time. With that being said, there is one point I disagree on in the video. I think that there is charm still in minecraft role-playing hinges on the mechanics of the game to create parameters of the story. For example, gravity in the game doesn't apply to a handful of things. If someone were to come up with an explanation for that, the world building (pun intended) would be inriched for it. But I understand that when you spoke on being limited to minecraft centric role-playing, the story suffers. I don't want to see manhunt content, but I do want to see people creating myths about the end or the nether. I want respawn mechanics to hurt the player and have in world consequences for the character and the story. I hope I make sense. I'm not the most well-spoken, especially when I'm sleepy. Great video! I'm glad you're here on the platform❤
Zeemyth is to me another amazing contender for scripted Minecraft content. Whilst he does lean into an ARG style in his videos, nonetheless, even without needing to analyse and decode any ciphers, riddles, or links, you can always still see An amazing story and amazing execution, all in Minecraft.
I love this video. This was where I really understood other people's perspective on their opinion about these tales. Out of all these parts, what stood out for me the most is your insight for parrot. As a person who hates cliff hangers, it felt like Parrot's stories were like something for me to watch before going to sleep. It's long in a way that it keeps me watching. I never knew if they were ever really connected; but once I realized it wasn't, there was nothing for me to hold on yet the CONTENT itself. I enjoyed the one where they were trying to find spoke, and the other one where they were stuck in proton, since it had the endings I didn't expect of. There was also another hour long story that was made by Planetlord and him. It was short yet entertaining like it should be. Parrot's stories were like "tales of the untold" from the dream smp, yet longer and dragged out. Parkour civilization really had progression, and went pretty well. As from what I know, Evbo has a new series called pvp civilization which is somehow similar to parkour civilization. Whitepine is a series of mystery, which was a new concept for me; looking at Ivory's film making and the music she composed already meant that she had what it took to be what she wanted to portray. Overall, this was a video that I truly agreed with. All of these works are amazing, having the passion to make these with a mind full of vivid ideas, and portraying these out of a blocky game.
I got into your channel with the *AMAZING* Bdubs video and damn, you really don't keep disappointing with these excellent and complicated hour-long video essays! Sad that I didn't know of you before that. Also, about the video itself... Comparing scripted Minecraft roleplay videos to playwrighting instead of cinematography is... Strangely genius, I really haven't thought of that before, that's really true! There's barely any editing in most of them if you look at it, just different setpieces the characters act in. That's the main charm of them I'd say, and the lower tail end of editing is in my opinion definitely superior to that of the hyperactive brain-frazzing attentiongrab editing of most modern MC content, but either way it's certainly an excellent comparison that I've failed to draw.
Really interesting analysis. I’m wondering what your thoughts were on quackity‘s last couple of dsmp lore streams because those felt really much closer to movies than the rest of the dsmp. Being fully pre recorded and with cinematic angles and stuff. Also the plot about Q teaching Slime how to be human in a way which revealed c!quackity’s warped world view and slimes apparently innocent questions gently poking holes in q‘s way of thinking. That shit was so good. They seem to be much closer to what the video says makes good scripted Minecraft content. Though maybe you haven’t watched them?? Which probably makes sense since by the time they came out the dsmp was definitely declining.
I think a MASSIVE part of the future of minecraft storytelling is the mod flashback, you can genuine make some INSANELY good cinema stuff by using it. It's like replay mod but designed for making cinematic stuff
I have a big dream of creating my own story through minecraft someday. Since i was a kid i would play the game and create narratives to my gameplays in head. Im commited to it but i dont really know where to start, plus i have some other issues, for example that english isnt my first language, and while actively talking i make mistakes. Im trying to figure that out, and i hope that one day ill manage to tell a story through this beloved game of mine! Besides, that was a really great video! I recently watched whitepine, and i was so so so much impressed by it so ill definitely come back for the video about it.
I'm currently writing a story and this video shows me that I'm possibly going in the right direction with what I have in mind, thanks for finally showing me that it can be more than just another project in the pile.
I feel like Parrot’s videos are like Hallmark movies for Minecraft players Like I appreciate the time and effort put into them, especially the builds, but they all feel tailor made to appease the algorithm and get as much views and watch time as possible I do hope to see them improve in their storytelling and whatnot though I’d love to watch more of Parrots videos once they become more than glorified background noise ^v^ (I swear that wasn’t meant to be an insult ;-;)
Y'know, I clicked on this video somewhat cynically, I expected a video that failed to justify its 50 minute runtime. I expected a video that failed to keep me engaged throughout its duration. I expected a video that failed to sincerely engage with its subject, I expected a video complaining about these videos being too cringe. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that every single one of those expectations was wrong. Your scriptwriting skills are phenomenal, and you manage to come across as thoughtful and sophisticated without coming across as pretentious or snooty. You sincerely and honestly engaged with these pieces on their own terms, and encouraged them to be better. To embrace the illusion of the cringe, to allow sincerity to defeat the false need of conformity. This was a great watch and well worth my time. I'm looking forward to whatever you put out next.
if you ever want to expand on this topic in a future video, maybe a part 2, "godispasen" actually has two videos similar to scripted minecraft content, with the majority of it actually being full fledged, cartoon-style animations using mine-a-mator. Really suggest checking some of his stuff out.
i know nothing about you or your videos but this was so well made and you care so much about the topic that i'm subscribing. you've reeled me in, damnit.
Sublime analysis! I hope to see (and perhaps create) more films like Whitepine that utilize Minecraft as its canvas, as it feels like we've barely even made our way of the cave, to use another Greek allegory.
Guys be making the most Amazing, awesome, storytelling, personal, emotional, documental, dramatic, scientific video just for it to be about a block game roleplaying
There was a roleplay I forgot a long time ago… a zombie apocalypse one. At first it was single player and used custom NPCs. I remember the protagonist sacrificing himself in an explosion to save his friends/family. Then he came back in the next season with a chip on his shoulder. He killed an innocent man whose kids were surrounded by a horde stuck in an old McDonald’s. I also remember one quote: “Holy shit! He just dropped those kids like a sack of potatoes!” If anyone knows this rp and what happened to it, please reply and tell me, even if you only remember a little. It’d be nice to finally know how it ended after all these years.
That's where the point about the gladiatorial games comes in- those definitely weren't scripted, either, but at least from an outside perspective they follow a roughly preordained structure that's close enough for the content to be analogous in a crudely referential sense (i.e. in the prison video there's the preordained structure of the prison's investors coming to visit, what the players do within this structure is unscripted and unprompted but it still exists). Don't know if I articulated that well enough, though.
ok my original comment I'm pretty sure is too long for UA-cam to comment bc it keeps saying returned error, so I'll just summarize it. ill put the google doc link to my full thoughts under this. This is a genre of content ive only just gotten back into and I've watched all of the examples in this video, so im going to respond to each chapter in no more than a paragraph. DSMP - I agree with what you said, after the l'manberg arc ended, everyone wanted to be the main character, everyone wanted the spotlight and their five minutes of fame and bc of that, the story suffered. The constantly branching plotlines led to just a huge, jumbled mess that made it basically inaccessible for newcomers and even us older fans found it hard to keep up. This isn't to say that the plotlines themselves were bad, I enjoyed a few of them, but it just so overwhelming to catch up again and again. I think that if the creators just worked together to incorporate all of their ideas into one cohesive overarching story that still let them do their own things, then maybe the server's story wouldn't have had to ended so lazily. Unstable Universe - I somehow also agree with most of the issues you mentioned with Parrot's series but there was something i disagreed with. Firstly, i don't think the series being limited to the constraints of the game mechanics is a bad thing. Even if the episodes are scripted and they do use creative to pull off the mega builds, i don't mind it having the facade of being vanilla because i think it just makes the dynamics between characters more compelling. Like they're all just friends who wanted to play minecraft together so when things go wrong, it feels more impactful. But this may just be a me thing. Parkour Civilization - you somehow managed to captured my thoughts about the story really well. I watched it before it got mega viral so I'm biased when it came to first impressions but yea overall its an actual good story. Simplicity is key, and Evbo pulled it off quite well. Similar to the point you made in the UU chapter, it being within the rules and limitations of the game isnt a bad thing imo and unlike UU Parkour Civilisation kinda has to remain within the realm of the game. Its whole concept revolves specifically around minecraft parkour, trying to change the rules of the game would be changing the parkour and ultimately the end product so it being vanilla is kinda mandatory. Whitepine - since you're gonna make a seperate vid on whitepine i'll hold my thoughts on the actual series till that vid drops but i want to talk about the implications of Whitepine's existence within this genre. Whitepine is an anomaly, like you said. Unlike the previous examples, its a lot more cinematic and serious in its storytelling and its very obvious a passion project. I'm not saying that the creators behind the other series dont care about their series, but it feels like ivory actually cares about the story being told. You can tell she pays attention to everything and her love for this medium is very prevalent. When you compare it to the other series in this video, WP easily outshines them in terms of presentation and artistic vision. Conclusion/Summary - I liked this video more than i expected, i went into this expecting to fully disagree but i actually agreed with most of the video. I honestly just want all of the creators in this video to just keep doing what they do, the only way they'll ever improve is if they try whether or not they'll succeed. In the immortal words of Evbo_ "Parkour isn't about making jumps, it's about getting up and trying again" or smth like that. Goddamn i did not expect this to be so long lmao, if anyone read this entire thing umm reply with a thumbs up emoji idk. Also i would love for you to make a video on minecraft args its another genre of mcyt i fucking love and need someone to make a video on. or i could do it myself but im lazy lol.
Ive been thinking of making a video like this for so long, its something thats bothered me so much recently and seeing this was a nice breath of fresh air. I think Parkour Civilization is an especially pertinent example because it has all the makings of a decent or even good story but is held back by its adherence to the medium and painful insistence on a monotobe voiceover to deliver the plot instead of just showing us the story. There is very little direction or artistic choices made which holds it back so much from what it could be. As someone whos been watching Ivory for years Ive always seen her as a diamond in the rough even back when she was just making prison break videos she managed to show artistic skills and I really hope that the moderate success of whitepine causes a change in the minecraft content space. Minecraft isnt just a game, its an art form!!!!
I’ve watched Ivorys stuff since she was known as mythrodak, So seeing whitepine mentioned makes me happy, Really enjoyed the video. Keep up the great work!
I personally think that content smp is really good, I am not entirely sure that it is scripted even though you gave it as an example of it. Some out of character comments they have made makes it sound like the battles and duels have actual story stakes, they may be planned to happen but have actual consequences
Yeah i think they try to script as little as possible, with as few people knowing about the scripted parts as possible - for instance, when mouthpiece (funny charter ghost guy) first appeared, rat litterally had no clue arathain was doing that. the only part of that which was scripted was that arathain told rat to go to the place under bonesburrow and break the effigy, but he didnt tell him what it would do. similar happens everywhere else - lux had no idea about the anchor, winsweep didnt know about the broken lesser divinity, etc. I'm fairly sure that the only significant thing that's actually scripted is when someone is permakilled by charter, to make sure they're fine with it lol
One memory i have is me watching a let's play series back in like 2016 or something, I question in the comments why they introduce it as a lets play when the series is clearly a roleplay. The UA-camr responded saying it was a lets play series. 3 video later starts to introduce it as a roleplay.
omg i love thhis video... ive been saying for a while that movies made in minecraft are gonna be the next big thing thats why ive been trying to make a movie in minecraft for so long
Whitepine to me feels like something that would air over a course of a few weeks on the BBC years ago, and then never be heard of until a mysterious DVD release years later.
Also, you only briefly mentioned found footage/ARG series, but as an enthusiast of those there is definitely a lot of very valuable stories there with sometimes downright impressive acting and execution. A lot of them would be off-topic for this video, bc ARGs are their own genre not really comparable to filmmaking, but some (such as AndrewGaming67) do tell a touching, if simple, story. They're definitely a genre worth looking into. They can be a little hard to find, considering their nature as something you're meant to stumble upon randomly and mysteriously, and explanation channels do serve the function of giving these series the necessary exposure, but if you really want an atmospheric experience, please watch the series itself first, attempt to piece the story together on your own, and only then watch the explanations.
thats why all the videos that i make are non scripted, i think it has more personality and just unpredictableness if you do things that aren't scripted 🙏
The more interesting thing i believe about WhitePine, is it has a good bit of people from other things like clown. Like you mentioned you wished people did more with clown then just "the guy you gotta beat" and ivory has, sure at the minute his just a headmaster but its still more then most of the other scripted content hes in from an acting pov. Sure its mainly cuz its a whole diffrent acting scene, but i feel like it should still be noted
oh no, the silly video I wanted to put on in the background became inspirational again.. I used to watch alot of videos from a guy named NewScapePro, I remember stumbling upon his Minecraft Fallout roleplay and just sticking with it. It was funny, and just very cozy. He made much more with the rest of his group, having some overlap with SkyDoesMinecraft before he waas ousted as a terrible human being, he sadly privated or deleted most of his older content, leaving only his Minecraft SCP series up, with also his other Fortnite stuff being up (Never watched those.). I still miss the fact that I cannot rewatch Minecraft Fallout in it's entirety, I did read that he was emberressed by his older content and that's why it isn't up, but it still is something I miss being able to go back to. As much as I can act like it isn't. Those silly little Minecraft Roleplays where a huge part of growing up.
Number 1: use of Mario Galaxy music! I never knew everyone else liked the game as much I do, but the music only fits in the game in my opinion. It really makes me feel like I'm in space, and that just doesn't make sense in most contexts.
Surprised to see no mention of Aphmau and her Mystreet/Minecraft Diaries series! I'd argue she set the blueprint and these SMPs deviated.. Edit: Got to your conclusion and saw some! I heavily encourage you to watch the Minecraft Diaries series and give your thoughts!
I think if we are comparing minecraft scripts to movies, Parrot's is like popcorn movies. The ones like Marvel or London has Fallen. They focus on action and spectacle with not much deeper themes. Whitepine is more like Stanley Kubrick, with a lot more craftsmanship surrounding the art form. Parrot's videos are nice to turn off to. I grab some hot chocolate, some biscuits, watch Parrot and chill.
13:45 ??? that one never happend? Tommy never became friends with Dream post Exhile, there wasnt a storyline like that. (at worst there were explicitly non canon moments) DSMP spoilers below: It went Exhile -> Tommy lives at Technos (Tommy is hiding from Dream) -> Doomsday (tommy is against Dream) -> Disc fight (Tommy vs Dream) -> Prison (Tommy is against Dream and gets killed by Dream) -> Prison break (Tommy is still against Dream) -> Ending (Tommy is still against Dream, then they get blown up by nukes) (Other then that ... yeah crititisms of main character syndrome thing are very spot on)
I dont know how to take this video. I too enjoy content that is thoughtfully made or uses a medium to express something important to the creator. But, I think I disagree with this being a genuine issue. You seem to have a massive issue with things you consider to be content, or that tell stories in a way you dont give with. I dont really think thats a fair enough reason to treat these things like they're bad? Its the same issue I had woth Raymundo's video about UA-cam slop, though a bit more concentrated. I think there will always be Whitepines, Andrewgamings, Bubs, etc, people who use minecraft to make what most people would define as art. That's just one niche in scripted stuff though. There's room for all of these kinds of content.
21:25 Me, I can. Also idk if you knew but spoke and wemmbu have their own unstable povs, I do personally agree parrots specific videos go on WAY too long and can be a bit boring compared to spoke and wemmbu, but I don't think unstable is the worst of the worst, I do think the plot armor in unstable. especially parrots, is INSANE however LMAO
While I know this is not what you were getting at, all you seem to be doing is showing what YOU think is better and not what OTHERS think is better. If you break this video down into one sentence, it would be “I don’t want stories inside Minecraft to feel like they are inside Minecraft” which to me, feels very one sided. You addressed the fact there was still SOME issues with whitepine, but since you liked it, you directly said “it wouldn’t do this justice to go on a rant about all of its flaws.” And yet the other two which you admitted were still entertaining, you did? In order for a video like this to have impact, it needs to talk about the opinions of majority, not minority. It just feels like a light amount of selfishness. Please, if this is not what this was meant to be, please explain what it was.
the way you seprated content from art is lowkey kinda feels like you just tried to sound smart, you explained that parkour civilazation uses how people limit themselfs to the progression of the game in such movies and subverts it and then you turn around and say how it was made for views as if that makes it not art, like have any other motives in making art somehow removes some sense of "artistic purity" that magically removes it from being art and when you tried to show an example of a minecraft movie that is art you just showed a bunch of pretty minecraft landscapes and music in the bacckround and expected that to be seen as an explaination, you said that you didn't wanna talk about what actually makes it art yet you brought it up anyway
![I Survived 1,000 Days in Hardcore Minecraft Survival [MOVIE]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/0HLplffQrJk/mqdefault.jpg)
Men will do anything to talk about ancient rome
I’m more interested in New Rome, actually.
@@FrostbyteFreeman Times New Roman.
@@arr8762I’m more of a Sans Seriff Guy myself
How often?
@@KnightOfDark Arial for the win for me
Parrot is telling a minecraft story. Evbo_ is telling a story that is grounded and told through minecraft. Whitepine is telling a story that happens to be expressed through minecraft.
basically yes
“The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly”
Clown being in all three:
how does he have so much TIME TO BE IN ALL THESE HES EVERYWHERE
Literally lol
It's not fair to compare Parkour Civilization with Whitepine, it's like you're comparing a theatrical performance with a movie. Whitepine utilizes elements of cinema (post-processing, lighting, camera control) while PC is a theatrical performance set within the game, treating the game just like theater treats the real world. There's nothing inherently artistically worse or "insincere" about fully accepting the confines of the game and performing within them-I see a profound beauty in how much people can tell in a relatively confined environment. Stories told wholly through the game as it is can be closer to us, because playing Minecraft is an experience we all share. Would you compare a solo piano piece with a fully produced electronic music track, arguing that the second one is better because it isn't restrained by its instruments?
Why are you surprised or disappointed that stories told through Minecraft primarily use symbols, devices and established concepts from Minecraft to drive the story? Whitepine uses aforementioned cinematic elements to tell its story, but obviously most scripted content isn't going to do that, because (good) lighting, camera work or post-processing aren't devices that the game offers you. There's no reason creators should constrain themselves to established real-life vehicles of storytelling. Limitations breed creativity.
I will say though, "content"ization of art is a plague, and I wish we'd get a Parkour Civilization that's art, not content, while also accepting the challenge of staying within the game's confines to tell its story.
my favourite scripted minecraft scene is "Minecraft, But It's Just A Burning Memory"
Its 4 minutes, it doesnt have any words, but it follows a script of events.
Please watch it, THAT is the minecraft scripted content i want
I just watched that
It hurt
In a good way
Just watched it, good 4 minute watch 👍
The amount of mods that have been made that enable Minecraft as a storytelling medium is like we've never seen before. Camera utility mods, building mods, create, and so much more are just a few that have taken the game of Minecraft to the next level, and I hope we start to see that in the media that is made about Minecraft. Amazing video, great topic, keep up the good work man!
Totally agree! From what little time I've spent playing with it, Flashback is leagues ahead of other comparable mods in terms of its cinematic utility, and like I said in the video, the art of building is in the best place it's ever been too. We're only just beginning to scratch the surface of what's possible, and I hope to see more artists push against those boundaries. Glad you enjoyed the video, and thanks so much for the comment!
I've been using a cinematic Minecraft mod called Blockbuster for years, and a new edition called Blockbuster Studio is now available for 1.20.1!
@@Joziah3 "Blockbuster Studio is now available for 1.20.1"
i'm sorry wut. you can't just drop that bombshell on us with so causally!
32:51 its not really a retcon though. His origins were never revealed, and they were even foreshadowed in his vault
I think the issue you mentioned where everyone in an SMP wants to be the main character is alleviated in [REDACTED] SMP. No one feels like the main character but they all feel like protagonists of their own story that is taking place at the same time as everyone else's. I personally would really recommend it. It's in my opinion the best scripted smp. Also if you like Minecraft art I recommend Zeemyth his stuff goes beyond traditional Minecraft content and elevates it to a form of art in a way that most others don't.
I really liked the analysis in this video. And so I'm also gonna tell ya about one of my favorite series which is a semi-scripted minecraft Let's Play series made by "MrLololoshka" and his team, it's a Russian channel with over 10 million subscribers, and they basically have been making a series of Let's Plays with over 500+ episodes for about 3-4 years now, it's a 1 global story that is basically made by a bunch of people for 1 person (the youtuber himself) to play and enjoy (and well, record and upload videos of it to the channel lol). MrLololoshka himself doesnt know the script so he's basically like us, the viewers but instead of watching he's the one to play and interact with the characters and environment in the story. It has english subtitles so i recommend checking it out, i have never seen anybody else make something simillar to his (their) content, so it is pretty special i would say, hah.
To the people that read this comment, have a good day/night!
I'm three minutes in and this dude is talking about ancient Rome, I'm hooked.
Glad the classic Frostbyte Freeman tangent strategy was able to reel you in.
Stumbled across this video after it was posted by a friend in a discord I'm in. Genuinely great, refreshing, insightful analysis about the genre :)
Thank you so much for the kind words! I'm very happy to hear that someone enjoyed this video enough to share it, and that you managed to get something out of it too!
i think the idea of clownpierce as pure evil, the final boss, could be done well. lord english from homestuck, death from puss in boots, heavy from emesis blue. the essence of death and brute force behind a shell of humanity. it works if the portrayal is evocative. regardless, i think clown's role in parkour civilization undermined the depth of his character, his straightforward villainous persona undermines the fact that he and evbo are the first two characters to share a love of parkour (some read this as a metaphor for a love of art), but his love is for parkour races, a form of parkour (or art) that is done with the purpose of killing. a good comparison is the boy and the heron, but it's different because the boy and the heron does not have a neutral artist as a foil.
MFW I get spoiled on emesis blue cuz I still didn't watch it 💀
I see Whitepine is a chapter in this video. Can't wait to get to that part and hear your thoughts on it.
That’s one of this video’s shorter segments in terms of actual stuff said- you’ll see why. Hopefully you appreciate my analysis regardless, though!
He proceeds to never tell anything, and I wanted to hear him describe it cuz I'm listening to the video and not watching 😭🙏
Brilliant video! My favorite is and will probably always be the early Dream SMP, but that is largely due to nostalgia. Good job at making an almost hour long Minecraft video while always having something important to say. Like you said, those are rare to come by.
HAHAHAHAHAHA thank you! I'm glad you thought my analysis here was somewhat salient, if nothing else, and that you picked up on the self-deprecating tone of that aside!
This comment is gonna be a long one but I'd like to talk about two hugely successful Scripted Minecraft series from the past and how they nearly changed how stories were told in Minecraft.
First is SamGladiator and the Yandere High School series, honestly some of the jokes in this series nowadays were definitely not for kids and at least the first season is rarely scripted. You talked about some of Unstable Universe being filler and I'd say Yandere High School has a lot of it which makes it difficult to rewatch. The enjoyment of Yandere High School largely comes from the natural funny interactions between Sam, Taurtis, Grian, and the rest of the characters. The eventual dissolution of those relationships eventually led to the series dying in later seasons though. The few story beats that did exist were actually pretty solid and made me feel emotion, at least as a kid.
The biggest minecraft roleplay youtuber of all time to this day is Aphmau, I largely saw MyStreet season 1 as the footage showcase here but the way it and by extension the highschool MyStreet series evolved over time was very impressive as a viewer back then. The story took itself seriously, had character arcs, used animation, had amazing and changing settings (especially Season 2 and 4) and had long term arcs. It's not exactly my kind of genre nowadays but it feels like the highest minecraft roleplay was ever taken to its limits, at least before whitepine according to what you're saying about it. (I haven't seen it yet) Aphmau also started several other series but the issue from what I know is that they simply weren't as profitable, the stuff Aphmau was doing especially towards the end of MyStreet definitely required over a dozen people to work on things simultaneously, eventually Aphmau found success with far easier content and that's what's propelled her to her position today. I get why the change happened but as a viewer it felt like a void was left for storytelling in minecraft, which of course only intensified between 2017-2018.
Because of this when Minecraft was revived the new standard for storytelling as you said was pretty much defined by the DreamSMP. I'm sure a few youtubers back then evolving in certain ways could've eventually lead to a far more thriving storytelling scene but that's in the past, at least now in the future there's a chance that Minecraft Storytelling can reach the peaks it once did, It's been nice to see people taking some aspects of Evbos Parkour Civilization serious at least. (also I'll just mention Slimecicles 100 days Zombie Apocalypse has pretty great storytelling as well)
I had a ton of thoughts on this and now felt like the perfect time to get them out. Its great to see you return, some of your documentaries inspired me years ago and I'm glad they're back, I agree with this videos message and good luck to anyone who wants to make their own Minecraft stories. :)
My GD pookie 💞
ok, this is a reminder for me to watch whitepine
It's so good. I seriously encourage you to give it the chance if it seems like your cup of tea.
you already watched it? if not. here a friendly reminder to do so.
@@Quinnjjgaming i did, but ty :)
I previously never knew about this. Watching now!
In my opinion, Parrot’s unstable series was really enjoyable to watch and I don’t see a problem with it. In fact, I don’t see a problem with scripted content in general. The problem for me only comes when the videos are not clear about it being scripted and fake elements of it. But overall, scripted content is really entertaining for me.
A brilliant video, one thing holding this new wave of videos back, there are a lot more like Whitepine (Faces in the sky, 00 - The Fool, Ancient Debris, *self-plug alert*), is it being shelved as "Minecraft Roleplays" or worse Machinimas.
We need a new name for this new wave of videos for it to grow on its own. My contendor for the name is "Minema" (Minecraft + Cinema).
Its a very well-made video. Unlike other video essays on Minecraft content this video is such a fresh take. It gives a feeling of hope. That maybe Minecraft isnt dying at all, that maybe the golden age of Minecraft is yet to arrive.
Someone made a skyblock civilization movie, and I LOVE the fact that kids can grow up watching these incredible story videos. However, that skyblock video had some plotholes and infuriating moments which I won't get into... But as I watched and yelled at the screen, I realized, holy crap, I'm actually invested in this. They tricked me into enjoying scripted minecraft content!!!! But I guarantee there'll be more vids like that and I'm SO excited for them. I love how the future of mc yt content looks right now.
I just searched it up and laughed when I realized it was made by someone who was actually close friends with Evbo
This was surprisingly eye opening. I like the message of being sincere about the art you create.
Funny that I now look back at the Yogscast's Shadow of Israphel & adjacent series and recognise so clearly the dreamlike haze in which I understood what it actually was (or rather, didn't) at such a young age, and yet I can still sit here and be shocked to learn that Technoblade didn't exist carving out his own space on the periphery of the larger narrative but as an author. Because of course he was. I always felt like I was watching someone mess about while the larger thing went on but of course it was always central.
Something incredibly moving about seeing that last example with its framing and consideration - I was involved as a writer for something momentarily intended to be staged in Minecraft once upon a time, and I never imagined it could look as clear or purposeful as it does there.
I suppose my favourite would be another one from youth, the Jaffa Factory series, where maybe I was aware of its nature a little more but so interested in the technical side (and represented by the fact that almost all of them knew nothing either) that it didn't much matter.
Thanks so much for commenting, dude! Glad to hear that on a personal level my analysis was able to somewhat encapsulate your thoughts on the form- like I said, the tools to enable the utilization of Minecraft as a storytelling medium have become so much more sophisticated in the last few years alone, and yet the potential of the form has still remained largely untapped.
@@FrostbyteFreeman after having now gone to check out WhitePine 1, I can only now properly understand the need for a video highlighting exactly this. I spent the whole time unable to shift my eyes - how the feeling and atmosphere of any single moment has been achieved is remarkable. Great video & I'm really enjoying your return!
Dreamlike Haze is the most perfect definition I'd use to describe watching that series as a child, and in a way most of their map or lab gameplays. This is a truly fascinating outlook, honestly. God bless ya and Jesus loves ya, man, thank you for your comment
I do think there's something to working within constraints. As long as it bends to the irony plague you're probably right about gameplay-based stories, but that's true for anything. Who wants a story its own author doesn't even believe in?
To be honest I assumed there were lots of stories like Whitepine and I just didn't know about them because I wasn't looking. If Whitepine is really a new and rare concept it's depressing it took 15 years to get this far.
Oh, absolutely. I think you’re definitely right- don’t know if I articulated this well enough or not, but a big part of the charm of stories like Parkour Civilization is that it takes those constraints and hard-bakes them into the world in such a way that they no longer function like hard and fast restrictions. The irony plague is definitely a problem in storytelling and culture in general, though, not just Minecraft UA-cam stuff. And as for Whitepine, there’s definitely a lot more projects with a similar philosophy nowadays, and even back in the day I’m sure there were plenty of roleplay-driven stories that approached a similar level of quality. My main goal there, though, was to underscore how Ivory is pushing Minecraft to the brink as a filmmaking medium by using a lot of newly developed tools and mods that have really democratized the space and made it that much easier for stuff like Whitepine to be made in the first place. I personally think you’re right that the space hasn’t really come all that far yet in the grand scheme of things, but hey, long ways to go yet, yeah? Thanks for commenting.
You mentioning that everyone in an SMP wants to be the main character made me think again about Techno's place in the DreamSMP. Because while he was like, a major character, you wouldn't call him the main character. That was always Tommy. But neither Techno nor his viewers wanted him to be a protagonist, we enjoyed him as an antagonist, a villain. Which isn't a role that most people would want (hell, Dream sure as heck didn't want it in the end), but Techno placed himself as always being at odds with anyone wanting to be a main character in that SMP, he was the destroyer of governments. The only "special" thing about him was that he was the single best player on the SMP, but did not have the ambition to use that fact to make himself the most important one.
Anyway I guess I should watch Whitepine sometime, I just haven't really gotten round to it.
This feels like it used to be better. Back in the day, proper filmmaking in video games was called machinimas. I feel like people are just looking in the wrong direction. As a child I used to watch a lot of machinima channels that did full on tv series (which I'd rather not mention here because uh... I definitely do not want to promote russian channels lol). Whitepine is by every single vibe and definition specifically a machinima.
There's kind of an interesting point with content SMP. After I started watching multiple creators perspectives I realised just how different a story could seem depending on perspective. At least some of that is definitely because of the constraints of content making and needing to act like you're the main character so you're video works well, but I think it's also (perhaps unintentionally) a pretty interesting example of how perspective shapes how we see events, which I think is well exemplified by the sentiment "in content SMP there are no heroes" which I often see in the community.
I stopped my entire channel for a lot of the reasons you touched in this video. I felt like the videos I actually wanted to make would perform so poorly they were pointless so I would unlist them - yet idk, I guess this video inspired me a lot. Nobody should stop being creative simply because of the performance.
Gosh darn it, as an artist myself (not a UA-camr nor a content creator), this video reasoned with me a lot more than what I thought, even though I don't make Minecraft videos or anything like (although I do enjoy them a lot).
Something I adore about these Minecraft content creators is their creativity when making stories, and the ways they use the medium of Minecraft to make it possible. It's just that a lot of time their potential is wasted or unexplored (Parkour Civilization 😔), perhaps because sometimes they haven't acquired the experience needed to make it, but I feel like that most of the time is just like what you said during the video, they are scared pushing further it's story because they don't want to be deemed as cringe by others due to the medium the use.
Minecraft is a very powerful tool for storytelling with thousands of mods at its disposal and community people passionate about it, but I feel like the problem comes with how other people outside the community view it.
Most of the time these people's only see these scripted or roleplay videos as something childish/cringe or something that only kids can enjoy it (exploiting it for that same reason and only viewing it as a tool for making money), therefore disregarding it's potential for art and filmmaking, and making the people who wants to use it that way be embarrassed for trying to make something serious out of it.
But no matter how cringe a story is, as long as they put effort and passion towards it, I will alway enjoy it and support them, because as any other artistic person, we can always learn and improve our crafts. And to be honest I am very glad that there are other people who think like that as well, because Minecraft (as I stated previously) is an amazing tool for making up stories, and I'm so glad that there are people who aren't afraid to show their creations to the world through it!
(Lmao sorry if something reads weird, english is not my first language and I didn't know how to explain my thoughts in a coherent way without making it sound weird xD)
IMO my biggest issue is this play between script and roleplay. people can feel when stuff are pre-scripted, and it makes it just awkward. the creators need to either go past the theatre line, fully script it, make it FEEL like a story, or go full DND mode, have one person who architect the story instead of playing in it, and a small cast of players who go on the adventure, act a pre chosen role, but given full freedom to act as they think fit the character, then when the story is done, maybe re-shoot some parts for the story's sake, but keep everything really natural, make it FEEL like you're watching a real DND adventure.
Only thing I can see wrong with what you said about Whitepine is the difference between it being a Minecraft film, and a film WITHIN minecraft.
Saying Whitepine is related to Minecraft is like saying that The Two Towers is an Arriflex 435 movie. It devalues the idea of it being just...a movie, by intrinsically tying it TO Minecraft, when its SO MUCH MORE than just that. I know that's kind of what you are saying, but the title reflects something ENTIRELY different.
Whitepine is art made WITH Minecraft. Not in it. It uses the natural strengths and limitations to create genuine art.
What a well crafted analysis video! I started watching, fearing that this was going to be one of those lackluster videos that didn’t offer any actual analysis, but BOY HOWDY I AM SO GLAD I'M WRONG!
If I had to recommend a Minecraft scripted roleplay to get into, especially after the breath of fresh air that is Whitepine, I would highly recommend Azora by The Invisible Davis studios, in conjunction with Queen Kat Productions! It's a cinematic, original fantasy roleplay with high stakes, mysteries, and some mature themes all wrapped in its 8 episode run. Its on hiatus now, but Davis and Kat are revamping the series and may have more info on what it looks like soon!
16:20 VERY bold statement, really find it hard to imagine Minecraft rp videos being the first video game YT content to create art 😅
About the unstable universe, i think that 3-4h videos is a bit much but the videos themselves are really entertaining.
a German Minecraft UA-camr I've watched since I was a kid often made cinematic creations in Minecraft. Some were Minecraft stories he was telling, others were wholey original
His name is HerrBergmann
This video was an interesting analysis and though I disagree at several points I appreciated the fresh perspective.
Freeman: Constantly says he's not trying to compare Minecraft movies to actual movies
Freeman: Constantly compares them to movies
i think unstable universe has improved SO MUCH over the time that it's been made, when i watched the first video of his on unstable, i enjoyed it, though didn't enjoy it as much as his older videos before he went to scripted content, and the views the video had reflects that most people probably thought the same. his 2nd video, though not perfect, i think was a great improvement. I loved watching it, though i would still only watch it at 30-60 minutes at a time, and looking back at it, it did lack a huge part that made it a story, and not just interesting and entertaining things only trying to be a scripted minecraft video. I think his most recent video changed that. it was definitely one of the best minecraft videos i have seen, and a HUGE improvement from the rest. it's crazy to me how much they've already improved in a few months. it's definitely not the quality of some big movie, but i think it's proof that there's been a consistent improvement in the videos over time. I think one of the things i love about unstable is that they stay to the base survival-mode of the game, it's interesting to me seeing them have creative concepts, while still sticking to the boundaries of what's possible in the actual game. I also don't quite understand the criticism for it sticking to that, because you could say the same for most things. if it's a negative to stick to Minecraft survival and be creative and tell stories in that, why isn't it a negative to stick to Minecraft as a whole?
Sure! Here's a corrected version of your text:
When I heard that Efbo was now making a PvP Civilization, I started joking about how we should make a parody called Speedrun Civilization. But then, as I actually started writing it, I realized I wanted to take it seriously. I wanted to create a story worth telling, a story worth hearing. I hope I’ll be able to make this with my friends and that it doesn’t end up becoming just another unfinished project, because I genuinely want to make something good.
So, how, in your opinion, does HermitCraft fit into this arc?
Actually, this is a really good question. I wrote it off on first glance, but Hermitcraft is in a really interesting spot. There's a few things that were obviously scripted, some that might be, and the majority that almost certainly isn't. I think the best instance of Hermitcraft scripting might be: "Is the moon big?" They all knew the event was happening, but everyone had their own authorial spin on things. Doc and Ren had a completely different ending to those who leapt into the Boatem Hole.
Hermitcraft is, after all, a group of people making videos to entertain the masses and earn a living, but it's also somehow a group of friends just hanging out and playing Minecraft. Forgve me if I"m wrong, as I have little experience with any other forms of scripted Minecraft content and/or SMPs, but that feels like something special.
To summarize: Huh, good question. I'm curious about Frostbyte's thoughts on HC too.
@@roguewolven there is a TON of scripted minecraft in HermitCraft. Take this season, BDubs is a Civil Court Judge that encourages server members to sue each other. They may make the decisions kind of on the fly on who is suing who, but they're scripting the story. The bad acting, thorough setups, active RP from a huge portion of the community and BDubs own way of editing the footage does transcend the game into actual entertainment/art. This season is especially good, but they've been doing this content since the LogFellows and NHO. It's the best blend of scripted and LP Minecraft on UA-cam.
But it's also just some people playing Minecraft on an SMP that do huge, ridiculous builds with awesome redstone and game breaking bugs.
They've even broken the 4th wall about this, specifically in the civil war arc (which includes RAP BATTLES, Jesus it's so stupid and amazing) where they explained to viewers about what role play is and how it's cool among friends.
That's a very interesting question! Definitely one that I have a lot of thoughts on, and a subject too demanding to occupy much space in this already monstrously long video, so you'll have to forgive the omission on my part. The mutually agreed-upon narrative conceits of Season 8 and the beginning of Season 9 occur at a really fascinating space in the history of the genre for me- so close in proximity to the heyday of some other popular bastions of scripted Minecraft content that it's impossible to ignore that kind of coincidence. This was a server in its eighth season, after all, and as the numbers kept climbing higher, it was only natural that the Hermits would want to experiment and explore to see what Hermitcraft could be. For me, though, I find the Hermitcraft scripted stuff most interesting not within the broader context of scripted Minecraft storytelling, but rather within the context of Hermitcraft itself. Even after the Hermits started to tone down the unified, shared lore stuff, there was a greater emphasis on experimental storytelling through base building, and this season, with everyone so close together on the map, there's been a real concerted effort at keeping their theming cohesive and remaining a close-knit community. Definitely something I'd want to talk about at length to actually capture my thoughts appropriately, though, so apologies if it doesn't all come across here in this little blurb. Excellent question, and again, thanks so much for commenting!
You're absolutely right! I think Hermitcraft's approach is very special, and I totally agree that the stylistic choice to give everyone the authorial autonomy to write their own ending to the same series of events produced some very fascinating results. There's a really excellent animation- by chrisrin, I believe, off the top of my head- that really encapsulates what I find so compelling about the Season 8 conclusion (just search up Hermitcraft Let's See How Far We've Come or something to that effect if you haven't seen it already). Thanks so much for the comment and insight, I really do appreciate it!
@@OrionsVantage Honestly, yeah, great points. Most of the big events on the server seem scripted to some extent. Cub's takeover as higher management for the permit office, to pluck another example from this season. I love Hermitcraft, I really do. It's so cool. You can tell it's a group of friends hanging out and telling stories. Extra bonus points that we get all the wonderful videos of them just playing Minecraft and randomly engaging one another. The proximity voice chat was especially huge for that. Ah, but I'm rambling.
How does this not have more views this video is amazing
Because it's an hour long and I only uploaded it like three hours ago. Thank you so much for the comment, though, I'm sincerely happy to hear you enjoyed it!
I found your channel through your this is honestly the best minecraft video essay i have ever seen i found your channel through your 'bdubs is the goat video' and your videos are actually amazing and there is more room fore content like yours. Hope you keep making videos man, you deserve to go places.
Also, can't wait to see your video on white pine you truly inspired me with this video
Thank you so much! That's seriously so kind of you to say- glad you found me from this most recent run, and that you've sincerely been enjoying my stuff! Praise this weighty means the world to me :)
@@FrostbyteFreeman thanks man great to see a youtuber who isnt afraid to be earnest
One of my favorites, and a slightly less-known project, is the Herobrine Origins universe from Elite Productions (now rebranded as EP Films).
Admittedly, the first couple episodes don't have the best production, and there is definitely a strong "homage" element in part 1, but in my opinion, the series peaks with "Herobrine Origins: The Movie" which is a more polished version of the first 3 episodes. I also really like the prequels and spinoffs such as "BRINE," "entity_303," and "Lick."
Their last episode, Herobrine Origins Part IV, does lean a bit too much into the spectacle and homage qualities in my opinion, but it's still a solid ending to the story and universe.
Definitely worth a watch for anyone who hasn't seen it. I'd suggest starting with Herobrine Origins: The Movie and then branching out into the prequels and spinoff films.
I really hate scripted minecraft content especially when its not instantly clear it is scripted very happy that atleast unstable universe puts it in the description some of the things that happen in smps seem kinda unbelivable to me its very unclear if a lot of the popular smps are secretly partially scripted
Interestingly the Hungarian minecraft youtube community made a few, hour long movies using the game around 6-8 years ago. They even had a brief theatrical run in some smaller cinemas in the country. (they're still up on youtube on a channel titled MineCinema)
19:47 this point is actually incredibly relevant to me right now, my friends and i recently watched the green mile together and it quickly became one of my all time favorite movies, but whenever i mention that my friends go “yea but its SOO LOOONG”, but i don’t think that counts as a “critique” because it effectively uses every second of that run time, a piece of media being long isn’t inherently a bad thing, it just has to justify that length
I absolutely loved the video! Scripted minecraft stories were and still are my bread and butter. It's crazy because, as you said in the video, when I tell people that I was a Minecraft Diaries, Dream Smp, Qsmp, and civilizations fan, well... I'm basically a huge cringe nerd in their eyes. But thats never stopped me because I am fascinated by stories being told through different mediums. I feel the same way about animation and amateur animation on UA-cam. The fact that someone can hone a craft to use it as a storytelling device is incredible to me.
I would be remiss to say, though, that I just watch the video to go down memory lane. You always have an insight that's fascinating and well articulated. Frankly, I want to pick your brain on thousands of topics because I know I'll be captivated the whole time.
With that being said, there is one point I disagree on in the video. I think that there is charm still in minecraft role-playing hinges on the mechanics of the game to create parameters of the story. For example, gravity in the game doesn't apply to a handful of things. If someone were to come up with an explanation for that, the world building (pun intended) would be inriched for it. But I understand that when you spoke on being limited to minecraft centric role-playing, the story suffers. I don't want to see manhunt content, but I do want to see people creating myths about the end or the nether. I want respawn mechanics to hurt the player and have in world consequences for the character and the story.
I hope I make sense. I'm not the most well-spoken, especially when I'm sleepy. Great video! I'm glad you're here on the platform❤
Zeemyth is to me another amazing contender for scripted Minecraft content. Whilst he does lean into an ARG style in his videos, nonetheless, even without needing to analyse and decode any ciphers, riddles, or links, you can always still see An amazing story and amazing execution, all in Minecraft.
I love this video. This was where I really understood other people's perspective on their opinion about these tales. Out of all these parts, what stood out for me the most is your insight for parrot. As a person who hates cliff hangers, it felt like Parrot's stories were like something for me to watch before going to sleep. It's long in a way that it keeps me watching. I never knew if they were ever really connected; but once I realized it wasn't, there was nothing for me to hold on yet the CONTENT itself. I enjoyed the one where they were trying to find spoke, and the other one where they were stuck in proton, since it had the endings I didn't expect of. There was also another hour long story that was made by Planetlord and him. It was short yet entertaining like it should be. Parrot's stories were like "tales of the untold" from the dream smp, yet longer and dragged out. Parkour civilization really had progression, and went pretty well. As from what I know, Evbo has a new series called pvp civilization which is somehow similar to parkour civilization. Whitepine is a series of mystery, which was a new concept for me; looking at Ivory's film making and the music she composed already meant that she had what it took to be what she wanted to portray. Overall, this was a video that I truly agreed with. All of these works are amazing, having the passion to make these with a mind full of vivid ideas, and portraying these out of a blocky game.
Yeah yeah Whitepine is good. But Whitepine is temporary, the "can you beat Minecraft with dementia?" series is forever.
Literally.
I got into your channel with the *AMAZING* Bdubs video and damn, you really don't keep disappointing with these excellent and complicated hour-long video essays! Sad that I didn't know of you before that.
Also, about the video itself... Comparing scripted Minecraft roleplay videos to playwrighting instead of cinematography is... Strangely genius, I really haven't thought of that before, that's really true! There's barely any editing in most of them if you look at it, just different setpieces the characters act in. That's the main charm of them I'd say, and the lower tail end of editing is in my opinion definitely superior to that of the hyperactive brain-frazzing attentiongrab editing of most modern MC content, but either way it's certainly an excellent comparison that I've failed to draw.
Really interesting analysis. I’m wondering what your thoughts were on quackity‘s last couple of dsmp lore streams because those felt really much closer to movies than the rest of the dsmp. Being fully pre recorded and with cinematic angles and stuff. Also the plot about Q teaching Slime how to be human in a way which revealed c!quackity’s warped world view and slimes apparently innocent questions gently poking holes in q‘s way of thinking. That shit was so good.
They seem to be much closer to what the video says makes good scripted Minecraft content.
Though maybe you haven’t watched them?? Which probably makes sense since by the time they came out the dsmp was definitely declining.
I think a MASSIVE part of the future of minecraft storytelling is the mod flashback, you can genuine make some INSANELY good cinema stuff by using it. It's like replay mod but designed for making cinematic stuff
I wish to create something as special as whitepine. As a writer, it is kind of a thing I hope to reach one day.
Maybe this is my medium…
I have a big dream of creating my own story through minecraft someday. Since i was a kid i would play the game and create narratives to my gameplays in head. Im commited to it but i dont really know where to start, plus i have some other issues, for example that english isnt my first language, and while actively talking i make mistakes. Im trying to figure that out, and i hope that one day ill manage to tell a story through this beloved game of mine!
Besides, that was a really great video! I recently watched whitepine, and i was so so so much impressed by it so ill definitely come back for the video about it.
I'm currently writing a story and this video shows me that I'm possibly going in the right direction with what I have in mind, thanks for finally showing me that it can be more than just another project in the pile.
I feel like Parrot’s videos are like Hallmark movies for Minecraft players
Like I appreciate the time and effort put into them, especially the builds, but they all feel tailor made to appease the algorithm and get as much views and watch time as possible
I do hope to see them improve in their storytelling and whatnot though I’d love to watch more of Parrots videos once they become more than glorified background noise ^v^ (I swear that wasn’t meant to be an insult ;-;)
Y'know, I clicked on this video somewhat cynically, I expected a video that failed to justify its 50 minute runtime. I expected a video that failed to keep me engaged throughout its duration. I expected a video that failed to sincerely engage with its subject, I expected a video complaining about these videos being too cringe.
I was pleasantly surprised to find out that every single one of those expectations was wrong.
Your scriptwriting skills are phenomenal, and you manage to come across as thoughtful and sophisticated without coming across as pretentious or snooty. You sincerely and honestly engaged with these pieces on their own terms, and encouraged them to be better. To embrace the illusion of the cringe, to allow sincerity to defeat the false need of conformity.
This was a great watch and well worth my time. I'm looking forward to whatever you put out next.
if you ever want to expand on this topic in a future video, maybe a part 2,
"godispasen" actually has two videos similar to scripted minecraft content, with the majority of it actually being full fledged, cartoon-style animations using mine-a-mator. Really suggest checking some of his stuff out.
i know nothing about you or your videos but this was so well made and you care so much about the topic that i'm subscribing. you've reeled me in, damnit.
Sublime analysis! I hope to see (and perhaps create) more films like Whitepine that utilize Minecraft as its canvas, as it feels like we've barely even made our way of the cave, to use another Greek allegory.
Holy fuck. I actually agree with almost every point you mentioned in this video. So glad the algorithm served me this.
Stampy's Lovely World was and is my favorite Minecraft story
Guys be making the most Amazing, awesome, storytelling, personal, emotional, documental, dramatic, scientific video just for it to be about a block game roleplaying
There was a roleplay I forgot a long time ago… a zombie apocalypse one. At first it was single player and used custom NPCs. I remember the protagonist sacrificing himself in an explosion to save his friends/family. Then he came back in the next season with a chip on his shoulder. He killed an innocent man whose kids were surrounded by a horde stuck in an old McDonald’s. I also remember one quote: “Holy shit! He just dropped those kids like a sack of potatoes!” If anyone knows this rp and what happened to it, please reply and tell me, even if you only remember a little. It’d be nice to finally know how it ended after all these years.
I don't know if you just needed background footage, but Ish's events aren't scripted. I played in one, so I'd know.
That's where the point about the gladiatorial games comes in- those definitely weren't scripted, either, but at least from an outside perspective they follow a roughly preordained structure that's close enough for the content to be analogous in a crudely referential sense (i.e. in the prison video there's the preordained structure of the prison's investors coming to visit, what the players do within this structure is unscripted and unprompted but it still exists). Don't know if I articulated that well enough, though.
took the words right out of my mouth! Also the Undertale music at the end fits so well
Right, i used to watch mythrodak(now Ivory) back in the prison days, it's crazy to see how far she has come
listing evbo as a problem in the thumbnail is crazy that writing is peak
ok my original comment I'm pretty sure is too long for UA-cam to comment bc it keeps saying returned error, so I'll just summarize it. ill put the google doc link to my full thoughts under this.
This is a genre of content ive only just gotten back into and I've watched all of the examples in this video, so im going to respond to each chapter in no more than a paragraph.
DSMP - I agree with what you said, after the l'manberg arc ended, everyone wanted to be the main character, everyone wanted the spotlight and their five minutes of fame and bc of that, the story suffered. The constantly branching plotlines led to just a huge, jumbled mess that made it basically inaccessible for newcomers and even us older fans found it hard to keep up. This isn't to say that the plotlines themselves were bad, I enjoyed a few of them, but it just so overwhelming to catch up again and again. I think that if the creators just worked together to incorporate all of their ideas into one cohesive overarching story that still let them do their own things, then maybe the server's story wouldn't have had to ended so lazily.
Unstable Universe - I somehow also agree with most of the issues you mentioned with Parrot's series but there was something i disagreed with. Firstly, i don't think the series being limited to the constraints of the game mechanics is a bad thing. Even if the episodes are scripted and they do use creative to pull off the mega builds, i don't mind it having the facade of being vanilla because i think it just makes the dynamics between characters more compelling. Like they're all just friends who wanted to play minecraft together so when things go wrong, it feels more impactful. But this may just be a me thing.
Parkour Civilization - you somehow managed to captured my thoughts about the story really well. I watched it before it got mega viral so I'm biased when it came to first impressions but yea overall its an actual good story. Simplicity is key, and Evbo pulled it off quite well. Similar to the point you made in the UU chapter, it being within the rules and limitations of the game isnt a bad thing imo and unlike UU Parkour Civilisation kinda has to remain within the realm of the game. Its whole concept revolves specifically around minecraft parkour, trying to change the rules of the game would be changing the parkour and ultimately the end product so it being vanilla is kinda mandatory.
Whitepine - since you're gonna make a seperate vid on whitepine i'll hold my thoughts on the actual series till that vid drops but i want to talk about the implications of Whitepine's existence within this genre. Whitepine is an anomaly, like you said. Unlike the previous examples, its a lot more cinematic and serious in its storytelling and its very obvious a passion project. I'm not saying that the creators behind the other series dont care about their series, but it feels like ivory actually cares about the story being told. You can tell she pays attention to everything and her love for this medium is very prevalent. When you compare it to the other series in this video, WP easily outshines them in terms of presentation and artistic vision.
Conclusion/Summary - I liked this video more than i expected, i went into this expecting to fully disagree but i actually agreed with most of the video. I honestly just want all of the creators in this video to just keep doing what they do, the only way they'll ever improve is if they try whether or not they'll succeed. In the immortal words of Evbo_ "Parkour isn't about making jumps, it's about getting up and trying again" or smth like that.
Goddamn i did not expect this to be so long lmao, if anyone read this entire thing umm reply with a thumbs up emoji idk. Also i would love for you to make a video on minecraft args its another genre of mcyt i fucking love and need someone to make a video on. or i could do it myself but im lazy lol.
docs.google.com/document/d/1KwERru2ME9frmQxTvKI9e5YmmwWbxpO5IAncmVpluH8/edit?usp=sharing
Ive been thinking of making a video like this for so long, its something thats bothered me so much recently and seeing this was a nice breath of fresh air.
I think Parkour Civilization is an especially pertinent example because it has all the makings of a decent or even good story but is held back by its adherence to the medium and painful insistence on a monotobe voiceover to deliver the plot instead of just showing us the story. There is very little direction or artistic choices made which holds it back so much from what it could be.
As someone whos been watching Ivory for years Ive always seen her as a diamond in the rough even back when she was just making prison break videos she managed to show artistic skills and I really hope that the moderate success of whitepine causes a change in the minecraft content space. Minecraft isnt just a game, its an art form!!!!
3:40 MF out here saying Minecraft RPs started with ROMAN EMPIRE...
And now you piqued my interest and I'm looking forward to see those 50+ minutes 😅
I’ve watched Ivorys stuff since she was known as mythrodak, So seeing whitepine mentioned makes me happy, Really enjoyed the video. Keep up the great work!
I personally think that content smp is really good, I am not entirely sure that it is scripted even though you gave it as an example of it.
Some out of character comments they have made makes it sound like the battles and duels have actual story stakes, they may be planned to happen but have actual consequences
Yeah i think they try to script as little as possible, with as few people knowing about the scripted parts as possible - for instance, when mouthpiece (funny charter ghost guy) first appeared, rat litterally had no clue arathain was doing that. the only part of that which was scripted was that arathain told rat to go to the place under bonesburrow and break the effigy, but he didnt tell him what it would do. similar happens everywhere else - lux had no idea about the anchor, winsweep didnt know about the broken lesser divinity, etc. I'm fairly sure that the only significant thing that's actually scripted is when someone is permakilled by charter, to make sure they're fine with it lol
didn't even mention Shadow Of Israphel
One memory i have is me watching a let's play series back in like 2016 or something, I question in the comments why they introduce it as a lets play when the series is clearly a roleplay.
The UA-camr responded saying it was a lets play series. 3 video later starts to introduce it as a roleplay.
It’s telling that Minecraft as a storytelling medium has been so stagnant that Shadow of Israphel is still one of the more impressive works out there
omg i love thhis video... ive been saying for a while that movies made in minecraft are gonna be the next big thing thats why ive been trying to make a movie in minecraft for so long
Whitepine to me feels like something that would air over a course of a few weeks on the BBC years ago, and then never be heard of until a mysterious DVD release years later.
As someone in love with parkour civilization, i do agree that there is room for improvement even in masterpieces
Also, you only briefly mentioned found footage/ARG series, but as an enthusiast of those there is definitely a lot of very valuable stories there with sometimes downright impressive acting and execution. A lot of them would be off-topic for this video, bc ARGs are their own genre not really comparable to filmmaking, but some (such as AndrewGaming67) do tell a touching, if simple, story. They're definitely a genre worth looking into. They can be a little hard to find, considering their nature as something you're meant to stumble upon randomly and mysteriously, and explanation channels do serve the function of giving these series the necessary exposure, but if you really want an atmospheric experience, please watch the series itself first, attempt to piece the story together on your own, and only then watch the explanations.
26:56 🔥🔥🔥🔥
thats why all the videos that i make are non scripted, i think it has more personality and just unpredictableness if you do things that aren't scripted 🙏
Man he jumped for the beef
In Parkour Civilization, nobody jumps for the beef.
The more interesting thing i believe about WhitePine, is it has a good bit of people from other things like clown. Like you mentioned you wished people did more with clown then just "the guy you gotta beat" and ivory has, sure at the minute his just a headmaster but its still more then most of the other scripted content hes in from an acting pov. Sure its mainly cuz its a whole diffrent acting scene, but i feel like it should still be noted
oh no, the silly video I wanted to put on in the background became inspirational again..
I used to watch alot of videos from a guy named NewScapePro, I remember stumbling upon his Minecraft Fallout roleplay and just sticking with it. It was funny, and just very cozy. He made much more with the rest of his group, having some overlap with SkyDoesMinecraft before he waas ousted as a terrible human being, he sadly privated or deleted most of his older content, leaving only his Minecraft SCP series up, with also his other Fortnite stuff being up (Never watched those.). I still miss the fact that I cannot rewatch Minecraft Fallout in it's entirety, I did read that he was emberressed by his older content and that's why it isn't up, but it still is something I miss being able to go back to.
As much as I can act like it isn't. Those silly little Minecraft Roleplays where a huge part of growing up.
first person < third person
basicly
Imagien watching this video, knowing NOTHING about parkour civilization, and hearing the quick summary of it LMAO
Number 1: use of Mario Galaxy music! I never knew everyone else liked the game as much I do, but the music only fits in the game in my opinion. It really makes me feel like I'm in space, and that just doesn't make sense in most contexts.
Surprised to see no mention of Aphmau and her Mystreet/Minecraft Diaries series! I'd argue she set the blueprint and these SMPs deviated..
Edit: Got to your conclusion and saw some! I heavily encourage you to watch the Minecraft Diaries series and give your thoughts!
I think if we are comparing minecraft scripts to movies, Parrot's is like popcorn movies. The ones like Marvel or London has Fallen. They focus on action and spectacle with not much deeper themes. Whitepine is more like Stanley Kubrick, with a lot more craftsmanship surrounding the art form. Parrot's videos are nice to turn off to. I grab some hot chocolate, some biscuits, watch Parrot and chill.
13:45 ??? that one never happend? Tommy never became friends with Dream post Exhile, there wasnt a storyline like that. (at worst there were explicitly non canon moments)
DSMP spoilers below:
It went Exhile -> Tommy lives at Technos (Tommy is hiding from Dream) -> Doomsday (tommy is against Dream) -> Disc fight (Tommy vs Dream) -> Prison (Tommy is against Dream and gets killed by Dream) -> Prison break (Tommy is still against Dream) -> Ending (Tommy is still against Dream, then they get blown up by nukes)
(Other then that ... yeah crititisms of main character syndrome thing are very spot on)
I dont know how to take this video.
I too enjoy content that is thoughtfully made or uses a medium to express something important to the creator.
But, I think I disagree with this being a genuine issue.
You seem to have a massive issue with things you consider to be content, or that tell stories in a way you dont give with. I dont really think thats a fair enough reason to treat these things like they're bad? Its the same issue I had woth Raymundo's video about UA-cam slop, though a bit more concentrated. I think there will always be Whitepines, Andrewgamings, Bubs, etc, people who use minecraft to make what most people would define as art. That's just one niche in scripted stuff though. There's room for all of these kinds of content.
This is the guy who said Bdubs is the goat
And I stand by that, too. You can’t change my mind.
What are your thoughts on Minecraft parodies, like are they more “art” then “content”
21:25 Me, I can. Also idk if you knew but spoke and wemmbu have their own unstable povs, I do personally agree parrots specific videos go on WAY too long and can be a bit boring compared to spoke and wemmbu, but I don't think unstable is the worst of the worst, I do think the plot armor in unstable. especially parrots, is INSANE however LMAO
Have you watched the Tribunal Storyline? I recommend checking it out. It uses a mod called Blockbuster
Some other really good, but underappreciated minecraft storytelling I've seen are godis' awesomeville series and [REDACTED] SMP/Better SMP
While I know this is not what you were getting at, all you seem to be doing is showing what YOU think is better and not what OTHERS think is better. If you break this video down into one sentence, it would be “I don’t want stories inside Minecraft to feel like they are inside Minecraft” which to me, feels very one sided. You addressed the fact there was still SOME issues with whitepine, but since you liked it, you directly said “it wouldn’t do this justice to go on a rant about all of its flaws.” And yet the other two which you admitted were still entertaining, you did? In order for a video like this to have impact, it needs to talk about the opinions of majority, not minority. It just feels like a light amount of selfishness. Please, if this is not what this was meant to be, please explain what it was.
5:10 THE TIMING
the way you seprated content from art is lowkey kinda feels like you just tried to sound smart, you explained that parkour civilazation uses how people limit themselfs to the progression of the game in such movies and subverts it and then you turn around and say how it was made for views as if that makes it not art, like have any other motives in making art somehow removes some sense of "artistic purity" that magically removes it from being art and when you tried to show an example of a minecraft movie that is art you just showed a bunch of pretty minecraft landscapes and music in the bacckround and expected that to be seen as an explaination, you said that you didn't wanna talk about what actually makes it art yet you brought it up anyway