Seeing a YouTuber with aspirations of becoming a professional-grade filmmaker is not exactly anything novel, but seeing a filmmaker who has aspirations of becoming a YouTuber? That’s a bit different. And yet, that’s exactly what M. Night Shyamalan is revealing through the creation of his own YouTube channel and the release of his very first video on the platform.
In the actual text of the video, there’s very little to write home about: it primarily consists of Shyamalan sitting on a bench outside of his offices and talking directly to the camera about how he had long wanted to start a YouTube channel, and now he’s done just that and will post further videos that may take any number of shapes or forms in the coming months. But if you’ll indulge me, I think there’s actually a lot that this YouTube video is expressing, if you’re willing to read just a smidge between the lines.
If you’re unfamiliar with M. Night Shyamalan by name, you’re almost certainly not unfamiliar with his work. The writer-director-actor has been a prominent figure in Hollywood for more than thirty years, having made hits across multiple decades within that time, including The Sixth Sense, Signs, The Village, Split, Old, Knock at the Cabin, Trap, and more. In addition to these predominantly successful films, however, Shyamalan has also had his fair share of misfires over the years. Projects like Lady in the Water, After Earth, and The Last Airbender all underperformed at the box office and were outright trounced by critics and audiences alike at the time of their release.
This reputation for creating divisive films really began to catch up with him in the mid-to-late ‘00s and into the early 2010s, a time period not exactly renowned for its racial inclusivity. Shyamalan became a low-hanging fruit for many for these reasons and more, and the online discourse surrounding him turned outright toxic very quickly. All of this is relevant because it appears very much that the YouTube channel is Shyamalan’s way of engaging directly with fans and viewers in a way that allows him to take the reins of his own online reputation in a more palpable way.
There’s also the craft of the video itself. While the setup is incredibly simple, the video notably is all captured in a single take, with no cuts or edits to speak of. Thus, the vibe of the whole video is very “open,” as Shyamalan refers to it; just the filmmaker sitting and speaking very calmly to anyone who may be watching. All of this results in a video that is quite soothing and feels as if it does afford viewers a genuine slice of time to sit with Shyamalan on his favorite bench and simply exist.
I think this is great, and I hope it encourages those who have long-held negative opinions of the filmmaker to re-evaluate. For what it’s worth, I think he’s become one of the most fascinating filmmakers working today and that the Josh Hartnett-starring Trap (Shyamalan’s most recent film) was straight-up phenomenal. I look forward to seeing what other kinds of videos Shyamalan will post in the future on his new YouTube channel and how he may begin to subtly take a more personal role in the online discourse surrounding his career.
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