In 2022, I learned how to make YouTube videos.

Bladepoint Media was a personal brand I was messing around with from 2022 to 2023. I was frequently watching channels about fiction writing and story structure, so I wanted to start one of my own.

This was mostly an excuse for me to experiment with recording and editing videos.

In most cases, a copywriter is only responsible for writing the words on a page. However, it doesn’t hurt to learn other creative skills. If you know how to edit videos for pacing, then you know how your words will translate into the finished project. If you know a little bit about layout and design, then it will help you communicate with your graphic artist further upstream.

I pride myself on learning new software and being a generalist. Adaptability can be a huge advantage in the digital marketing landscape. I know some Davinci Resolve, CapCut, and a little bit of Affinity Photo.

That said, I only produced this one video for Bladepoint Media. I quickly discovered video editing is it’s own unique skill curve with its own unique challenges.

The writing, recording, clip sourcing, editing, and general “putzing around” it takes to produce even one ten-minute video (for me) took upwards of 20-30 hours using my HP Envy laptop from 2019.

The poor thing was practically smoking from its USB ports and making all manner of whirring noises and technical chirps as the final project rendered in agony. I’m not fluent, but I think this was Windowsese for, “Jack, for the love of God, please put me out of my misery and never try something like this again.”

I still enjoy making videos periodically (now using a much more powerful Macbook Air) but I prefer to spend more of my time improving my writing, research, and strategic capabilities.

With that context established, how about I explain this video you’re going to watch?

It’s about Seinfeld. Yes. Seinfeld.

…not the topic you were expecting, huh?

Surely an aspiring author like myself would choose to examine one of the literary greats: Dickens, Brontë, Kafka, or Fitzgerald. Twain, Tolkien, and Tolstoy.

I even thought to myself, maybe C.S. Lewis is a good choice…

But then my conscience quickly clapped back. “An analysis on The Chronicles of Narnia? You’re a lyin’ b*tch and a bibliophobe. Jerry Seinfeld—take it or leave it!”

(Books don’t make me howl with terror, by the way. I was just super committed to that joke.)

If you were to ask me why I was compelled to hunch over my laptop like a sewer-dwelling gremlin for a week straight and painstakingly craft a video essay on a popular episode of a sitcom that’s notorious for being “about nothing,” I don’t think I could give you a rational answer.

Sometimes the winds of creative inspiration just blow in a particular direction, and when that happens, you’ve simply got to spread your wings and let the tailwind carry you wherever it pleases.

Because, in this line of work, the best ideas are most often found in the most unexpected places.

What can I say? I’m an adventurous spirit.

I hope you enjoy my analysis of a fictional guy (based on a real guy) who’s a bit too authoritarian about his lobster bisque.