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Hi my name is Tony and
this is Every Frame a Painting.
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So this channel’s been going well,
which means it’s about time
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-Time for a confession?
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Yeah, time for a confession.
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I have stolen more ideas from
this film than from any other
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-F for Fake
-F for Fake
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-Ladies and gentlemen,
by way of introduction
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-this is a film about trickery
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-and fraud
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-about lies.
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Wait sorry I’m doing this wrong.
Can we start over?
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This is an essay film by Orson Welles.
It’s called F for Fake.
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And it's one of my personal bibles.
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Everything I know about editing,
I learned from this film.
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But today, I want to talk about
one basic thing:
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-We found out this really simple rule
that maybe you have all heard before
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-but it took us a long time to learn it.
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When you’re structuring a video essay
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there’s one thing
you really want to avoid.
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-I think that’s about it.
-And then?
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-No, that’s it.
-And then?
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-Then nothing else cuz I’m done ordering
-And then?
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-If you tell a story that’s
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-you’re in big trouble.
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This is the #1 mistake
I make in my own work.
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Like here.
Watch how repetitive this is.
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-Choosing to take the money.
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-Choosing not to fight back.
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-Choosing to hide their emotions.
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-Choosing not to trust someone.
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-Choosing to wait out the discomfort.
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-Choosing to get--
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This is a list you could put
in any order. That’s why it’s so boring.
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-What should happen between
every beat that you’ve written down
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-is either the word
THEREFORE or BUT.
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-So what i'm saying is you come up
with an idea that's like, this happens
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-What are those?
-My pubes. I got em from Scott Tenorman.
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-and THEREFORE this happens.
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-Cartman, you don’t buy pubes.
You grow them yourself.
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-You're saying pubes are worth nothing?
-Yeah.
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-BUT this happens.
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-And I’ll give you the pubes.
-Sweet.
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-THEREFORE this happens.
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-Aw goddamn it!
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So throughout this movie,
Orson Welles does the exact same thing.
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Except he doesn’t connect scenes,
he connects thoughts.
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-You’re a painter.
Why do you want people to do fakes?
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-Because fakes are as good as the real
ones and there’s a market and a demand
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-If you didn’t have an art market,
then fakers could not exist.
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Even though this movie is an essay
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each moment has the connective logic
of a South Park episode.
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The second rule in this movie is to have
more than one story, moving in parallel
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-I’ll quote Hitchcock again. He said
the name of making movies is
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-He’s absolutely right.
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-You want to have two things going.
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-You reach the peak of one,
you go to the other.
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-I hope you know what you’re doing.
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-You pick the other up where you want it
When it loses interest, drop it.
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How does this work in an essay film?
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-Well, let’s say you have two stories.
Let one of them build up.
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-When it reaches peak interest,
switch to the other. Let this one build.
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-And when this gets to the top,
go back to the first. Simple, right?
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-Except F for Fake doesn’t
just have two things.
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There's also stories about
Orson Welles, Howard Hughes
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a woman named Oja,
and even the making of this movie.
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And by building each story carefully,
Welles can jump between all six of these
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without ever losing the audience.
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So when I’m making a video essay,
this is what’s going through my head.
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-And then?
-No "and then!"
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And I got all of that
from watching this film.
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Which more than anything has taught me:
it’s not about what you get.
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It’s how you cut it and
what comes out the other end.
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Remember, video essays aren’t essays.
They’re films.
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So you want to structure and
pace them like a filmmaker would.
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Therefore and But.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch.
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And if you don’t believe me,
you should at least trust Orson Welles
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who somehow figured this out
over 40 years ago.
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-Why not?
I’m a charlatan.
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But whatever. Let’s wrap up this essay.
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-Now it’s time for an introduction.
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Hi, my name is Tony and this concludes
Year One of Every Frame a Painting.
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I’d like to thank you for watching.
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-and wish you all a very pleasant
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-good evening.
