Once I take into consideration YouTube I feel of some various things. There’s online game stuff, there’s tremendous large celeb dudes like Mr Beast. Then there’s the basement degree rubbish my youngsters watch once I’m too busy/lazy to mum or dad correctly. Oh, and types. Limitless quantities of manufacturers spruiking music, gear, films, no matter.
However as a sprawling, algorithm-driven, rendezvous level for a large spectrum of content material, everybody’s YouTube is completely different. It is largely… not nice. YouTube tends to serve up the disposable. My YouTube, for instance, is Premier League highlights, mountaineering tutorials, anime clips and that is it. Relying in your pursuits (and no matter phrases you bashed into the Google Search bar within the final 24 hours) your mileage will most undoubtedly differ.
Level being: it’s extremely potential – even supposing this can be very well-liked and has racked up thousands and thousands of views and subscribers on YouTube – that you have by no means heard of DUST.
Technically DUST is the Sci-Fi division of Gunpowder & Sky, a media manufacturing and distribution firm primarily based out of the US. In 2018 DUST acquired and distributed the extraordinarily good Prospect, a characteristic size film starring Pedro Pascal and Sophie Thatcher. However for the needs of this text, I am focusing particularly on DUST’s completely balling YouTube channel, which capabilities as a receptacle for a whole bunch upon a whole bunch of sci-fi shorts with surprisingly excessive manufacturing values.
When you’re a fan of sci-fi and you’ve got round quarter-hour to kill, I 100% advocate hopping onto DUST and hitting play on just about something.
As a spot for aspiring filmmakers to point out off their abilities, DUST’s movies largely characteristic excessive idea sci-fi – kind of like a post-modern Twilight Zone for Zoomers. Virtually all have surprisingly good particular results, respectable performing performances and – above all – come bursting with grand concepts.
The standard varies dramatically. Some concepts are clumsy and unrefined. Others really feel flat out cringeworthy. Some characteristic clunky execution and unhealthy writing, however you are all the time simply quarter-hour away from a model new quick and a model new expertise. Every so often, you will uncover a gem.
Most really feel a little bit like FTL – a little bit generic, however respectable – specializing in area journey and alien encounters. Others are utterly insane, like this video which has Genghis Khan touring to the Moon at a wizard’s behest so as to conquer it. One other, titled Regulation, tells the story of a lady who refuses to just accept the “Completely happy Patch,” a habits modification gadget all youngsters are legally compelled to put on sooner or later. (That got here a bit near anti-vax propaganda for me, but it surely was nonetheless a enjoyable watch.)
I particularly loved Alientologists, an unique DUST quick that topped out this spectacular checklist from IHeartSciFi. On this quick Earth is totally kaput, exploded, destroyed. In its wake a bunch of quirky aliens are attempting to make sense of humanity’s tradition via the lens of its trash. Sport Boys, bras and – in the end – a jukebox all get in on the act. Not like many of the movies you see on DUST, Alientologists refuses to take itself significantly and can ceaselessly make you snort out loud.
Do not get me unsuitable: you will 100% run into some clangers on DUST, however the quick run instances makes them simpler to digest. Most of the time there’s one thing worthwhile in each video you watch. When you’re a sci-fi fan who has drained the effectively dry, you might do rather a lot worse. Simply do not blame me for those who watch one thing horrible. One thing good is simply across the nook. Identical to in Alientologists, one man’s trash is one other alien’s treasure.
