CONFESSIONS OF A TGWTG REJECT

Hello, I’m B D MacDonald and I am a recovering TGWTG Reject. It’s been two months since my last cameo.

That’s how these things are supposed to go, right? A thin veneer of false sincerity stretched over snide sentiment? Snarky comments to paint an ugly picture in broad strokes? Hm.

No, sorry, I can’t do it.

As much as I’ve fought it in my career choices, I am son to a teacher and grandson to two; critical thinking is kind of hardwired into me. And yes, I am a TGWTG Reject in the sense that I’ve unsuccessfully applied to the website ‘That Guy With The Glasses’ and I’ve done so three times. But that’s not really what the term refers to, is it?

A ’TGWTG Reject’, as used by detractors of the site (and the forum community grown around it), is an obese man-child cam-whore living at his parent’s house who regularly makes poorly-produced 30-minute videos ranting on movies, games or toys in the quest to become internet famous and get enough ad revenue to live off of.

I can tell you that the reality is rarely like that. In fact, the diversity of the homebrew review scene is staggering. There are artists and army veterans, English majors and Engineers, web designers and opera vocalists. There are single parents, couples, gay men and women, and... well yes, even some virgins.

I’ve spent two years in this community actively breaking it down to its components to understand it.

This blog is a place for me to express the theories and philosophies I developed over that time.

• What are the limits of free use?
• Why a title sequence can actually hurt a show.
• How soon should a video capture attention? How often does it need to renew that attention?
• What are the limits of review?
  

It’s a place for me to address misrepresentations of what really is a unique sub-community.

• Who are the people behind the videos?
• What are the stories behind the people?
• Why do they do what they do?
  

It’s also a place for me to talk about the underbelly of that community.

• Where does fandom cross into obsession?
• The bottomless pit and the diminishing pot of gold.
• The problem of ego.
• Double standards.
  

Allow me to extend an invitation to you, dear reader, to take a different look at the unusual world of the home brew videomaker. Whether you love the culture or hate it, I promise you’ll find an interesting debate here.

B D MacDonald is a freelance videographer and filmmaker. His other blog, Trenchcoat Anti-Critic, is far better written, he promises.