The Inspiration Behind My Idea

Who are they and what do they do?

An inspiration for my idea for my Final Major Project, which is going to be an interactive historical timeline, is a YouTube channel called vlogbrothers (vlogbrothers. (2007). vlogbrothers. Available: Last accessed 29th April 2016.) who have a number of channels other than the vlogbrothers. The other channels that include SciShow (SciShow. (2011). SciShow presented by Hank Green and Michael Aranda. Available: Last accessed 29th April 2016.) and CrashCourse (CrashCourse . (2006). CrashCourse presented by Hank Green,Adriene Hill and Jacob Clifford . Available: Last accessed 29th April 2016.). Vlogbrothers channel explain popular subjects like news events. CrashCourse is the channel that mainly create educational video series that explain science, politics and history.

While CrashCourse does have videos on science, they explain a large subject while the SciShow explains a certain subject.

What work have they produced? 

The vlogbrothers produced educational videos over three YouTube channels. Each video has no bad language and no violence, so each video is child friendly. I think the creators of the videos have school use in mind when creating the content. They also add a bit of comedy to their videos to make their videos more enjoyable, so people are not just sitting there taking in a lot of episodes. They also use animation by in their history videos to explain information that would be difficult to explain by using just words, so they make it easy to understand visually as well.


What makes their work interesting?

What makes CrashCourse interesting is they add a bit of humour to their videos so it is not boring. They also use animation to simplify the historical events to make it easy to understand.

Why is this person/company important?

CrashCourse is important because they create interesting videos and do not give out the information in blocks of text. I hope to do something similar in my Final Major Project, I hope to make the information I give out not boring and as interesting as theirs. I could also use their videos as research material to gather information for my project as well.

What do you think their inspirations were?

I think their inspirations were the high school teachers because at the end of their history videos the host always gives credit to his high school history teacher, who also helps him write scripts for the episodes. So their years of education could have inspired them to create their videos, maybe they thought they had something similar when they studied the subject of the video.

What techniques and skills do they use?

A technique and skill they use is they use animation created by another YouTube called Thought Cafe/Thought Bubble ( The purpose of the animation is to make some parts easy to understand when an detailed explanation is required, so they do not have to go in more detail and bore their audience. Another skill they use is comedic. They add some comedy into their videos to make them more interesting, for example in their history videos, they have a running gag when ever the Mongols are an exception. They also make their set look like a classroom, so this shows the purpose of the video is for educational purpose and their target audience is generally in education. The classroom set would probably make people feel more comfortable because most of the time when people learn new information and skills is in a classroom or some sort of learning environment.

How are they relevant to your project?

CrashCourse is relevant to my project because I hope to create a something similar to their videos, either a similar video or an educational application that gives out information in similar way they do. I can also use their videos as research material to gather information for my project.

What can you learn from them?

I can learn useful ways to give out information, either present via an animation or how to present the information with some comedic elements. I can also learn useful information from their videos to use in my project.




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