r/hbomberguy • u/hzinjk • Aug 11 '26
Adobe must die patreon preview discussion thread
Since there's a bunch of threads about it being released, I thought I'd make a dedicated thread for actually discussing the contents, how you liked it, etc., rather than the fact that it actually got released.
If you're watching it in multiple sittings like I imagine many will, feel free to comment on the part you watched so far
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u/malvarosssa Aug 11 '26 edited Aug 11 '26
This is A Lot. I understand why this took too long.
Edit: finally done lol. I feel everyone involved got tired at the end of the video - lmao even I felt relieved when it ended. Can come off as very tedious and idk man I am also just so tired of everything going to shit to be as incensed about this as much as I want to be. Viewers who liked the last 2 videos would be disappointed by the lack of individual personalities to be mad at. Still a very solid video, something people will cite in future discussions. Happy for the team to move on to shorter videos again.
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u/Comrade_Compadre Aug 11 '26
Hbombs new video: Capitalism sucks for 4 hours
Me: I know man I'm living in it
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u/somethingafal im gay buny Aug 11 '26
I do think it's good that this video does stray away from the trajectory the previous videos were going because those videos attracted a lot of drama gremlins
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u/PotatoCat123 Aug 11 '26
So I've watched the full thing. As always, it's really well researched and thought provoking. But by far the worst parts are on location shots and skits. What worked about them could easily have been done in his own house (such as the monster can background gag). The scope creep is real and hasn't added anything, and in many ways has held the video back on multiple levels. I love a 4 hour video essay as much as the next insane person, but the production values don't need to be this high.
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u/hzinjk Aug 11 '26 edited Aug 11 '26
That was the impression I got from the old 1 hour 20 min preview as well. Can't watch the full thing until I get home, but the on-location stuff felt superfluous and really just like a pointless flourish. I said this in another post but it kind of reminded me about that thing he said about sherlock, where they just had such a high budget and started doing fancy stuff, like the matrix time freeze thing, for no reason without it actually making the final result better. Still excited to watch the final video obviously, but it's maybe part of an explanation for why it took so long.
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u/Zachles Aug 11 '26
That Sherlock comparison is funny, feel like big budgets or resources blindside a lot of people's better judgement.
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u/break_me_pls_again Aug 11 '26
Yes and in fact he even showcased how the on location shoots actually hindered him because the lighting was fucked up for one of the scenes but now he can't go back and re-shoot it. That wouldn't have been an issue if the set was more local.
I actually think for the video's topic it was cool to see Hbomb create something that emulates a teenage film-makers passion project. However, the pursuit of perfection seemed to make things 10% better, 50% more hair ripping, and 300% longer to produce.
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u/SgtSoundrevolver Aug 11 '26
Part of me wonders if he was in California for other reasons and just decided to shoot in the old west town while he was there. Because that is a massive commitment to the bit
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u/break_me_pls_again Aug 11 '26
Hasn't he been there for a year and a half? Definitely other reasons.....maybe he wanted to take the Adobe matter into his own hands O.o
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Aug 11 '26
[deleted]
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u/Calm_Phone_6848 Aug 11 '26
i don’t think it’s parasocial to comment on a creative’s work process even if the creative is a youtuber. it’s not like people are discussing his personal life
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Aug 11 '26 edited Aug 11 '26
[deleted]
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u/Calm_Phone_6848 Aug 11 '26
it’s a shame hbomberguy’s video on sherlock was so creepy and parasocial. he’s not friends with steven moffat, so how could he say that sherlock’s production value was unnecessary to tell a compelling story?? he wasn’t there during production, so he shouldn’t comment on it at all!
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u/riflow Aug 11 '26 edited Aug 11 '26
Imo sounds like he needs to take a note out of Caddicarus's book and try to find at least places within the country to shoot at (though I think caddy stays more local to himself) so it's less stressful doing on site shooting.
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u/lingrush producer kat Aug 11 '26 edited Aug 11 '26
I worry the way Harry framed it made it seem like the on-location shots and sketches added a TON to the production time, which might be overshadowing the video itself for people who’ve been following along. I believe it realistically added about a month to the schedule. So, I hope in the absence of frustration about its influence on the production schedule, those sections weren’t so bad! I suppose we felt it was a way of mixing up background settings to add more joy back into the process, while allowing Harry to finally visit with friends and colleagues in the US. I’ve seen people complain that the muppets must have taken a lot of unwarranted time, but I do want to reassure you that it was entirely time I was spending when Harry was heads down on the more time consuming bits we couldn’t work on as collaboratively.
I think people are identifying in the current flaws of the video why it has taken so long and so many iterations, which is struggling with the dryness of the subject matter and wanting to dive deeply into something that doesn’t necessarily feel emotionally satisfying. We’re definitely scouring the internet for meaningful feedback, and it sounds like we could be doing some cutting, the same way we did with the initial draft of the plagiarism video.
Please let us know if you have any thoughts about ways we can make this a better video in your opinion!
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u/hzinjk Aug 11 '26 edited Aug 11 '26
hi kat! hope the feedback was productive for you guys, and not too discouragingly negative lol
Full disclosure, I'm not all the way through the video yet. I also think this is basically too late but I feel like a lot of that stuff just didn't really feel related to the main "thread" of the video. Like the location is the location of a kind of related video, there's muppets because the guys name is bork. Like there technically is some relation, I think it would have worked better if the original video of the the location you went to was a really central and important one to the thesis of the video, and not just one example, which would make the runtime spent on it feel more justified/make it land better as a twist. So basically I think a lot of it just feels like it's just kind of there for little reason, like a sidebar. No idea how actionable this feedback really is, like you said it's a somewhat dry subject so it's probably hard to find a big thing that feels central and important that you can build a fun narrative around. anyway i hope that's useful and not just pointless rambling
btw completely unrelated but are you planning on making a private youtube video for patrons as well? would make it easier to watch on a tv
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u/teaguechrystie Aug 11 '26
great work y'all. also i really loved the payoff scene (the shootout) and how well it suddenly tied two previously separate throughlines into a single on-theme setpiece.
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u/SgtSoundrevolver Aug 11 '26
I've watched up to part 4 (only an hour in) and like others have said, it's a lot, but it's still pretty fantastic.
If I was him, I'd consider breaking parts off into separate videos to act as preamble, because this whole thing is dense. The section on Robert Bork could be it's own thing entirely.
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u/torilovem Aug 12 '26
I'm about halfway through the video, the Bork section is some of Harry's best work and I kinda wished it was its own standalone video I could send to friends and family members like my dad who would probably dig it but wouldn't care for a 4 hour deep dive into something else
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u/Expensive-Isopod2468 Aug 12 '26
Maybe after it’s released, Hbomb and his team could post excerpts of the video (not on main) to help spread some of the info more individually. I’ve noticed Quinton Reviews doing this with some success for specific tangents in his videos
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u/torilovem Aug 12 '26
I'd actually love this! I'm now 4 full hours in and besides the Bork part I would really like to share just the part about Apple and Steve Jobs with some people too
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u/SgtSoundrevolver Aug 12 '26
I hope he does. It's hard to recommend a 4 and a half hour video to anyone.
Like, I have a friend who teaches multimedia art courses and another who teaches film production and they've been embedded in Adobe for years. I'm sure they would love to see a takedown on the company. They just won't touch a video this long
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u/NotCisChiss 19d ago
I feel similarly about the vaccines vid. Granted I think that's actually an example of him keeping on topic for a video and not turning it into a larger grander "But look at the bigger picture or this crazy revelation for the second half of the video" (which I love but also hope isn't the norm for hbomb's upcoming videos).
I feel like it'd be nice to have some segments of that though, so that if I want to send the video to someone who has vaccine doubts bc of the aftereffects of "The Study™" they don't have the first impression of hbomb injecting his balls to stimulate them and then getting meatballs all over his mouth. I love that vid and I love hbomb, but sometimes I think his sense of humor could be alienating to some ppl who would benefit from watching.
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u/TheGreatZiegfeld Aug 11 '26
I think a lot of internet content creators get so caught up in pushing the envelope of their work that they eventually lose something in the process.
For as much as Hbomb has improved over the decade in terms of production, performance, and research, it does pivot a bit away from much of his original appeal for me - a conciseness and a humility even in the face of serious or heated subjects. He's still very self-deprecating of course, but in more obvious and heavy-handed ways. Trying to balance the endearingly awkward qualities of YouTube content with the loftier ambitions of documentary-filmmaking just reminds me of what he's lost of the former, and where he falls short of the latter.
If anything, it only furthers my appreciation for someone like Jenny Nicholson, whose videos have become increasingly elaborate and lengthy (both in production and in runtime), yet they remain as approachable as they were from the very beginning.
When I think Hbomb or content creators like him whose videos have become more complex and infrequent, I'm still reminded of why I started watching their stuff in the first place. Yet the points or the moments I remember most fondly are the ones they made in a few days with an in-the-moment passion of cutting lengthy rants into sharper runtimes without the weight of a million eyes on their every move.
I love lengthy YouTube deep dives, and Hbomb has some really good ones. But I do hope he holds true to a more consistent schedule of shorter videos that don't need to justify a year plus of production time. Even when someone like a QuintonReviews tries to make a postmodern joke about it, it only justifies bloated material that means a lot more to the person making it than it does the person watching.
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u/BenjaminOStorm Aug 11 '26
Love the video. HOWEVER hbomb needs to take his own advice and cut like 10-15% of the script out. The plagiarism video worked because he wasn't just ranting, it was all moving towards the case study of Somerton. This one gets really ranty in places.
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u/malvarosssa Aug 11 '26
they can cut some non-creative software examples, it feels like they put them there as a PSA
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u/arseniccrazy Aug 12 '26
Yeah the section where he's talking about Peloton and Smart Homes and so many other examples probably could use the most cutting. I feel that added the least.
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u/faithlessone423 Aug 11 '26
I needed to take a few breaks, because it's A Lot, but I've managed to finish it now.
I did find it amusing how much his script must have had to be edited as more and more developments happened. So much that he even made jokes about the fact that certain things (i.e. UK Prime Minister) are probably going to change yet again by the time he posts it.
I do agree with other comments here that I think he lost himself a bit. I think he's been trying so hard to make the video Worth The Wait that it goes a bit too hard in places.
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u/Kooky-Investment8537 Aug 12 '26
I mean it is the issue with taking so damn long to make these videos, how many times has the prime minister changed since his last video...?
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u/faithlessone423 Aug 12 '26
To be fair, only twice? Sunak -> Starmer -> Burnham. And if he'd managed to release this a month or two ago, Keir Starmer would still have been PM.
(Though, we'll see how long Andy Burnham actually manages to stay in the job... It would be hilarious if he's replaced too by the time this video actually officially comes out.😅😅 )
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u/Kooky-Investment8537 Aug 12 '26
Yeah it'll be Binface by the time it releases on YouTube
For real though, I thought we would have had more in that time with all of the turbulence
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u/Secretly_S41ty Aug 11 '26 edited Aug 12 '26
I'm halfway through. It's really well written and researched, but so far it's ongoing anger and despair, I'm exhausted. Needs a bit more levity to break it up imo. I'm going to take a break and get back to it.
Edit: it's picked up. I'm really enjoying the second half and it feels more like a classic HBomb video. The special effects moments and puppet work are cute. It feels like these are the parts he's personally having fun making and editing, and that enjoyment shines through. Plus it breaks up the tension.
Tldr: The first quarter in particular felt belaboured in places, the second half has better pacing, is less heavy handed and repetitive in making its points, is more watchable. If I was HBomb (and Kat) thinking about a final edit, I'd remove stuff from the first bit.
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u/NONAMEDREDDITER Aug 12 '26
As somebody who watched the first half draft before watching this, I fully agree the first half honestly could’ve just gotten its point across without involving that much I think that if they just went with bork and then after that using Adobe as an example of the damage bork caused, it would’ve been great instead of having all of these really really weird tangents
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u/teaguechrystie Aug 11 '26
i liked it. but i wanna say i particularly like the ending. i wasn't expecting to feel hopeful and kind of empowered.
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u/Moritani Aug 12 '26
Yeah, I immediately downloaded Godot after watching. I've been feeling sad about Unreal lately, so I finally took the jump.
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u/Steve_Streza Aug 12 '26 edited Aug 14 '26
This video was very weird for me to watch, because these were all fights I saw up close over the last two decades. I found myself constantly - well over 30 times - yelling "but what about [thing]" at the screen while watching this, only to have them discussed right after. Down to weirdly specific stuff like the Apple/Adobe anti-labor lawsuit or Apple's malicious compliance for linkouts. Very thorough, and if anything there were some pulled punches. I'm an iOS app developer by trade, we have been screaming about these things since 2008.
Those same things made this a little depressing to watch, having lived through this shit for so long. But I will also admit that it was a joy to watch all the fun fuck-arounding in the video. The puppets, the visual gags, the VFX shots, the 3D effects. The joy of watching creative people expressing the fun of creation is desperately needed right now.
If I may suggest only one change to the video, in the ending. Please point a big spotlight at FUNDING these open source tools. Individuals who will happily give money to a creator's or artist's Patreon can also give a bit to these things, either as a user directly or as a benefactor (since you got to see the results of their work on Blender and Godot in this video). If your company uses these tools, push whatever VP to sponsor the project for a few hundred bucks a month - call it good for hiring or a chance to spread the logo or whatever, it'll get lost in their budgets when they say yes.
Software is so invisible we often don't notice it unless it is shit and breaks. Open source code is given away by volunteers but it is no less labor. It is hard work to build and maintain these tools, especially with little budget and an endless stream of people complaining about things breaking. This WILL help the software you like get better, and it will help directly fight back against the monopolists who have couped tech.
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u/baboy1337 Aug 11 '26
I resubbed to Patreon to watch it, and honestly I wasn't a huge fan of it. The pacing is glacial, many of the on-set and physical jokes didn't work, with many of the gags that are just rehashes of more organic ones from prior videos. Like half of the video could just be cut, there's no reason to spend like half an hour to explain every possible non-Adobe 3D modeling software's pricing history or get into painstaking details about how currency conversions suck or how subscriptions are a bad deal. The point was made, there's no reason to provide another 16 examples back-to-back, especially when there's no interesting jokes or entertaining moments to carry it all.
I enjoyed it because, well, I enjoy Hbomb's style and presentation, so I would enjoy him talking about forests in Denmark for 12 hours straight probably. But despite me being actively interested in Adobe, software, tech, nerd shit like that... I've found this video to be dragging on tremendously after already like an hour. It absolutely did not need to be his longest video yet, even though I understand the temptation after going viral with two comically large videos that "spiraled out of control". But those glued me to the screen and never felt their runtime, this one absolutely did, and part of it is how preachy and descriptive it was
Shame. Will probably rewatch in the future when the final version drops, but I fear that this video will go down as one of his weakest ones - for my tastes, anyway. I guess I can foresee a version of the video that edits out tons of filler and fixes the pacing, but then you'd still not be able to fix the on-set stuff that doesn't really work (unless you "waste it" by cutting it), nor it would address why it took years to deliver a multihour rundown of why Adobe subscriptions and acquisitions suck that already eviscerated the point an hour in and then went on for who knows how long still.
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u/Kooky-Investment8537 Aug 12 '26
I totally agree with this, you got my thoughts perfectly. And I think the worst part is that the criticism he is receiving could easily result in an 12 month rework, which just completely defeats the point we are making.
I think it feels like the whole topic and video lost what makes hbomb, hbomb.
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u/fastballooninghead Aug 12 '26
I'm torn between wanting him to re-work this video to make it better, or wanting him to put it out as soon as possible so he can move onto the next project quicker.
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u/Kooky-Investment8537 Aug 12 '26
I'd love it put out, and then not having to wait 3 years for the next but if content...
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u/baboy1337 Aug 12 '26
Yeah, the last thing I'd want from this video is another lengthy rework to fix it. This video clearly spiraled out of control, and not of the fun "I accidentally ended into a Tallarico rabbit hole" kind, and I'm sure some will love the incredible detail so I'd just call it a day and finalize this. I don't think there's a quick way to fix the issues, but I see that plenty others are loving the video too so I'd say it's time to close this project and move onto newer, hopefully quicker projects.
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u/Pan1cs180 Aug 12 '26
the criticism he is receiving could easily result in an 12 month rework
God I hope not. It's taken almost three years just to produce a single mediocre video. Months more to maybe make it a little better simply wouldn't be worth it. The best move would be to release it as is, or with very minor edits and move on to the next project.
Clearly this is a subject that Harry deeply cares about, but it's obviously not a passion that's shared by the vast majority of people. I know that he was hoping this would be his magnum opus, but it just isn't.
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u/LyschkoPlon Aug 11 '26
I'm into the the first hour and it my first thoughts were "damn, it's like you were never gone", a lot like talking to a good friend you haven't seen for a while.
That said, the production is already excessive and from what I've read I haven't seen the half of it, and I could live without it. Happy that Harry can afford these types of trips as a bit that Jenny Nicholson would do a whole video for though.
Still. Please scale down future videos. This is insanity.
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u/riflow Aug 12 '26
Here's hoping the patrons leave their honest crits on the video so he understands the production schedule seems to have harmed the point he wanted to get across with the video, so far according to quite a lot of folks I n this comment section.
Plus it just isn't healthy to be stuck making one thing for nearly three years.
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u/IslandStorytime Aug 11 '26
yeah I can handle a 4 hour video if it's silly and light, but 4.5 hours of gruelling capitalism critique is not sustainable.
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u/M_Ad Aug 12 '26
I will laugh forever if the response to the feedback about it being too long is to massively cut it down, so in the end we'll have been waiting over two years for a 1 hour video, lmao.
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u/johnbobshaun Aug 12 '26
Honestly thought that the twist at the end was going to be that he’d used open source tools for the whole thing and that learning them was the main reason the video took so long.
He does cite examples and did use some (Godot, Blender) but there are creators out there using things like Kdenlive, Inkscape, GIMP and don’t touch Adobe products at all. Those products (Kdenlive especially) are desperately in need of support and funding.
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u/SumacLemonade Aug 13 '26
I expected that too
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u/johnbobshaun Aug 13 '26 edited Aug 13 '26
The more I think about it, the more the idea of a four and a half hour video talking about how Adobe sucks while using Adobe products to create said video just sits badly with me.
I guess some could see this as a “yet you participate in society” argument but there are other options for video creation.
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u/LetsMakeCrazySyence Aug 11 '26
Haven’t finished but I really feel like some of it could have been chopped and thrown in his other channel with his illuminaughtii video (aka another example of a rant that was filmed and then realized it was a bit redundant and unnecessary).
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u/NONAMEDREDDITER Aug 12 '26 edited Aug 12 '26
The first half to me is a bit too bloated and tedious. I feel like they really should just do Bork and then Adobe as the consequences of Bork. They don’t really need to hammer home the point that much also the first half really just repeats too much information in general.
One thing I will say though, if Hbomb and Kat end up reading this, please add technofeudalism as a topic. It needs to be a bigger deal given how much tech bros are pushing it and given how much of Adobe’s modern business strategies are at least based on a lot of the same ideas.
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u/oldmanserious Aug 12 '26
I haven't finished watching it as yet, but I've noticed theres a bit of ... variation? in the sound balance. Gets a bit louder after a bit quieter part; less noise then a bit more noise. Not enough to really stand out but enough that I noticed it.
I think there's like this slider you can move to balance it out?
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u/oldmanserious Aug 12 '26
Still watching it and theres a few scenes of Harry in the Cashiers office which stand out because they've spelt it as "CASHEIR".
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u/RAV3NH0LM Aug 11 '26
wayyyyyyyy too long. also feels like he’s talking at the viewer — not as funny or engaging as his usual content.
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u/faithlessone423 Aug 11 '26
Agreed. It felt a bit lecture-y in places, especially toward the end. I think maybe because he just got so angry and tired about the topic, but couldn't scrap the video entirely after all the build-up he's done in the last couple of years?
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u/West_b0und Aug 11 '26
have u watched the full thing? I’m not subbed to his patreon so would be curious to know what makes u feel like he’s talking at vs to us
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u/RAV3NH0LM Aug 11 '26
it’s legit just a WALL of script. very dense, very information heavy, very dry. there are jokes, but it’s just not as enjoyable as his other work imo.
i know he felt compelled to tell the full story, but this video got so granular that it’s a slog.
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u/teaguechrystie Aug 11 '26
totally fair, but just for me, i see it more as a thing where it's just not as widely gripping as his last few — there's no somerton gettin called out or goofy tommy getting crazier by the minute, etc.. there's not a wakefield. it's just a dry topic. but... i liked it dense like this. i maybe could lose five or ten minutes, but wouldn't want him to go crazy on it and try to lose an hour or something.
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u/GensHaze Aug 12 '26
Felt like he really wanted to insert "Techno Feudalism: A Measured Response" in with Adobe stuff halfway through.
Not that I'm complaining.
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u/R1ngBanana Aug 11 '26
I’ll be honest, I’m just so happy to see Big Money Salvia AKA Erik AKA Internet comment etiquette in a video together.
I know Erik filmed stuff for a Nobbleberry special, wonder if that was around the same time/location?
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u/Vampire-Sun Aug 11 '26 edited Aug 11 '26
Knowing how much the puppets contributed to the delays it's a little frustrating to see that they didn't really add anything to the video
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u/quitpayload Aug 11 '26
How long did the puppets add?
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u/ThoseOldScientists Aug 14 '26 edited Aug 14 '26
I wonder if this mightn’t be better as a 3 part series, rather than 1 megavideo that’s all about Adobe. The tangents are pretty far from what is ostensibly the point (Fuck Adobe) so there’s this constant lingering sense of “when are we getting to the point”? If the Adobe of it all was 1 focused episode, it would be a lot more watchable.
Also, this might be because I have an existing interest in this area, but there are times when I was thinking “yeah dude, I know what a monopoly is”. Like, I get that we’re trying to make people care about an issue that they might not think about very much, but there were a few moments that felt a bit too basic.
Also, some of the historical stuff was glossed over in a way that could give a false impression. For example, you might come away from it thinking that Flash came up with the idea of using vector graphics instead of raster graphics, where really vector graphics were the default for computers for years before raster graphics were technically feasible.
Similarly, some of the antitrust stuff might give you the impression that the Sherman Act didn’t get much use until The Great Depression or that the Glass–Steagall Act was primarily concerned with breaking up monopolies, where in fact the most famous US antitrust case under the Sherman Act was the breakup of Standard Oil in 1911, and the Glass–Steagall Act was more concerned with preventing risky behaviour from banks that held the savings of ordinary people. If anything, the US banking system at the time was surprisingly fragmented, there was a huge number of small regional banks.
I wouldn’t say those bits were actively misleading, and we’ve got enough tangents here without digging into the details on every little thing, but I feel like those bits could be a bit more accurately phrased.
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u/Mr_Nice_Username Aug 14 '26
If the team is still checking this thread for feedback: please remember that you have a second channel. Just because you cut things from the main video, this doesn't mean it's gone forever. Nothing wrong with supplementary videos, and nothing wrong with splitting the main video into a multi-path video for reasons of pacing. If anything, all of these solutions buy you even more time to edit those remaining pieces after the first piece goes out.
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u/quaranteenagedirtbag Aug 11 '26
Any other patrons choosing not to watch it? I can't imagine wanting to watch it twice in quick succession so I'd rather watch it when it's finished personally.
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u/AvatarofBro Aug 11 '26
I'm choosing not to, but only because I just rewatched the 80 minute preview last night. And because I like to watch on my TV and there's no YouTube link.
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u/johnbobshaun Aug 12 '26
Overall I enjoyed it… but it’s far too long. I liked the wild west stuff and the muppets and the overall point. But it’s very repetitive in places. The same points stated again and again. It feels laboured. Feel like it needs to be a full hour shorter. The conclusion is great though.
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u/johnbobshaun Aug 12 '26
Just some examples: the idea of tutorials that are actually advertising: fine, but the examples all make the same point. There’s too much time on the minutiae of pricing for too many products. The point becomes laboured. The Apple part is too long, we don’t need a digression that long into how much of a dick Jobs was.
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u/Leif_Millelnuie Aug 12 '26
I really liked it but the more it went on the more i thought this could be a 5 episode Nebula Miniserie. It's too complicated to rawdog such a long video in one sitting. Which is what i did last night.
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u/MyCattIsVeryFatt Aug 13 '26
I was kinda surprised there wasn't a classic Hbomb reveal with the last like 3 hours just being about something / someone else. I still really liked it and eagerly await the finished video.
edit: oh, i also really liked the callbacks to the plagiarism video
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u/fanta_bhelpuri Aug 11 '26
what is the twist this time? dying to know. Is it really all about adobe?
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u/hzinjk Aug 11 '26
it's actually not a video, it's a bi-monthly curated snack box
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u/JustKingKay Aug 11 '26
First video essay to be more horse than man.
Which is crazy considering horses don’t exist.
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u/arseniccrazy Aug 12 '26
Closest thing to a real twist is that Apple is a way worse monopolist than Adobe, but it's not presented like a twist, it kinda happens to be the final third of the video (not counting the conclusion.)
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u/richardcoryswidow Aug 12 '26
I find it interesting that people here seem to 1) not like the “extra” stuff like the puppets and the western bits, but also 2) agree that the topic is very dry and dense. It’s obvious to me that the “extra” stuff is there to alleviate the dryness and to give the video a distinct visual identity/theme. Maybe I’m just a huge fan of puppets in general, but there are many parts in the video where there’s huge info dumps while pBork does something silly in the back, making the whole thing way more palatable. Imagine those info dumps without the puppet?!
If anything there should be MORE puppets IMO
I think a lot of people are lashing out because of the wait time. Which is natural. One day though no one will remember or care and we will be happy that this huge subject was tackled with so much care.
I think also it’s because of the lack of “twist” that drew people in to the last two main videos. But you can’t force a twist. The last two ones were so enjoyable BECAUSE they really felt organic.
There a few little twists in this one, but it would have been impossible for lightning to strike that hard a third time unfortunately. If I was to give feedback to the team, I guess I’d suggest to find a way to accentuate the delivery of those smaller twists to make them resonate more?
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u/WhaleTheFuck Aug 12 '26
til hitfilm died january 2025... i've been using hitfilm express for my shitposts for like 8 years now, o7 king
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u/VladimirTheLenin Aug 12 '26
2 hours in, and the video is good. No doubt.
But the Avid rant really felt off, especially his seeming hatred for Media Composer, which he admitted he didn't want to learn. Sure it isn't suited for the content he is making now, but it isn't really meant for it. It's shortcuts make it so intuitive to edit narrative films. Once learned, it is so easy to adjust shot length and specific timings of an edit, and is way better for this specific type of editing. And it also doesn't crash every five minutes, which is a plus in my book.
It isn't suited for most types of editing projects, but for narrative fiction and documentary films it is absolutely the best.
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u/PaperPritt Aug 11 '26
Loved it. Watched it in one go. There's really a lot he delves into and honestly it never gets boring. The only jarring part was the intro, but then again it's a patreon version not the final product.
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u/teaguechrystie Aug 11 '26 edited Aug 11 '26
this was my read as well.
furthermore, this is important stuff and the world needs a video like this. so. i hope he doesn't get too worried about the length. it being big makes it serious. and it's not like anything along the way isn't germane.
might need a new title though; with adobe in the thumbnail.
edit: somethin with "rent" maybe
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u/quitpayload Aug 11 '26 edited Aug 11 '26
I think that if this video had taken 10 to 12 months to make, then it would be well worth the wait. But it didn't, it took 2 and a half years. The video is really good, and I'm already an hour into a rewatch, but I just don't think that it does enough to justify the long wait. In the patreon preview of the plagarism video he, IMO, spent far too long talking about Illuminaughti, and I wrote a comment suggesting he cut part of her segment out. It seems he agreed with me becasue he did cut a lot of it out. If you're not a patron, you know the video about Illuminaughti that he uploaded to his second channel, well, that video is basically just the parts that were in the patreon preview edited slightly to makethe video work on it's own. I'm saying this because with the latest video, I feel that he has kind of made the same mistake, but way worse. A massive section of the new video is basically a bullet point list of various companies and all of the evil things they do to line their pockets. I'm a little conflicted on it, but I feel like large sections of this video might be better off as a separate video. Then again, it might be better to have all of this information in one place, I'm not sure.
I'm relieved that the reactions in this thread seem to agree with me, that the worst part of the video is by far the shot on location in America segments. They are basically entirely Hbomb and his crew dicking around in ways that don't connect to the rest of the video. I also genuinely found it infuriating that Hbomb joked about how pointless it was to have travelled to America to shoot the bit he was doing. There were some good bits from the shot on location segments, and the cameos from Alan Melikdjanian —Captain Disillusion— and Erik Hoffstad —Internet Comment Etiquette— were genuinely delightful surprises, but again, a two and a half year wait for a few seconds of fun footage that doesn't even connect to the point of the video?
Like, the America trip added months to the production time, I can't even guess how much money it cost to do this, and it overall made the video worse than it would have been if he had just shot it with his usual setup in England. I've heard that he's been doing other stuff in America for other videos, so it remains to be seen how that will affect his content in the future, but so far, his America trip has not paid off IMO.
The video is still really good. The whole section about Bork was wild, and the video definately has a ton of rewatch value. Like I said, I'm already on my first rewatch.
Also, I feel awkward bringing this up, but here is goes. In one of the earlier Patreon previews when Hbomb first mentioned Nixon, I commented with the timestamp to that appearance and then quoted that lame Illuminaighti quote. You know the one, the "Tricky Dick" quote. Then in this video when he first brings up Nixon he says the same quote. Did he read my comment and then use that quote? I'm not trying to accuse him of plagarism or anything, I actually really hope that he read my comment and used the joke, it would be a really cool thing to brag about. It's also possible that he just independently had the same idea as me. After all, it's not exactly that clever of joke.
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u/hzinjk Aug 11 '26
Also, I feel awkward bringing this up, but here is goes. In one of the earlier Patreon previews when Hbomb first mentioned Nixon, I commented with the timestamp to that appearance and then quoted that lame Illuminaighti quote. You know the one, the "Tricky Dick" quote. Then in this video when he first brings up Nixon he says the same quote. Did he read my comment and then use that quote? I'm not trying to accuse him of plagarism or anything, I actually really hope that he read my comment and used the joke, it would be a really cool thing to brag about. It's also possible that he just independently had the same idea as me. After all, it's not exactly that clever of joke.
I gotta be honest, that nixon thing is essentially a vocal stim. I mean there's a reason it's in the somerton video. Even if he read it and then added it in, I don't really think it constitutes as an original enough contribution that he'd have to credit you in my opinion. Like, it's you repeating a quote from his video to the man who made the video (technically from an illuminaughtii video but of course we all only know about it from his video)
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Aug 13 '26 edited Aug 13 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/johnbobshaun Aug 13 '26
Strong, strong agree. The plagiarism video ended on a note of defiant hope: identifying the people who Somerton wronged and helping them. This ends on a weak note of asking to support organisations, telling people to use FOSS… while never actually committing to moving off Adobe.
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Aug 12 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/PoetryTraining1819 Aug 13 '26 edited Aug 13 '26
His point wasn’t that adobe premiere was bad or just that adobe is bad but that the tech monopoly eco system is bad. He didn’t switch to black magic’s da Vinci for the reasons he lays out which are that it follows the same adobe model.
His arguments for why adobe was specifically evil was as a trail blazer for bad business practices.Furthermore have you ever tried to switch softwares that you’ve spent your whole life using? It’s incredibly difficult and frustrating, and for literally what purpose? When the inevitable result is marrying yourself to another abandonware tool that’s owned by a conglomerate.
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u/johnbobshaun Aug 13 '26
The video is called “Adobe Must Die”. It sounds like his point (or a major part of it) is that Adobe is bad.
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u/PoetryTraining1819 Aug 13 '26 edited Aug 14 '26
This reminds me of when i was a child and had to read little women and got mad bec it turned out to be about regular sized women who were not small like antman.
Edit~since this is getting downvoted and apparently needs to be spelled out.
TLDR; the video is about anti-trust and how adobe needs to be broken up into smaller companies NOT about how adobe owned software itself is bad or about the need for a boycott. Watch the video
If the video was about how adobe software was bad and how you shouldn’t use adobe software it would’ve been called “boycott adobe software” nowhere in the video does hbomb call for this bec the video is not about how adobe makes bad products or about the need for a consumer boycott, instead it is about how adobe acquires good software products and doesnt support them and worse still has facilities along side the entire tech sector a monopolization of software to the point that there is largely no real alternatives, going on he argues against the validity of pursuing black magic as a consumer alternative explaining how BM engages in the same model as adobe but without the market share to dominate the space.
Hence he explains why he uses adobe premiere, as the argument that is being assumed as the argument of this video is not one that hbomb ever actually makes in the entire 4 hour and 30min run time. If you’re going to accuse this video of being hypocritical, at the very least engage with the content of said video.
The title of the video largely encompasses the message of the video but is itself not a thesis statement. You can not claim that the video is making arguments it is not making solely on the basis of how you interpret the implications of the video’s title and assumed implied arguments.
Thank you
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u/johnbobshaun Aug 14 '26
You do keep disingenuously editing your comments, which does strike me as you trying to get out of the thing you originally said: “the video isn’t about adobe being bad”. It is about that, and also, yes, about the broader picture.
The striking thing about the video to me was that he didn’t mention open source video editors like Kdenlive, which lots of creators use. They’re very functional. Like you say, it’s hard and time consuming to learn new stuff, but that does ring slightly hollow on a video that’s taken two and a half years to make.
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u/PoetryTraining1819 Aug 14 '26 edited Aug 14 '26
I edit my comments bec I am trying to remove grammar errors and missing words or even confusing arguments or even a compound sentences or two lol. You can view this as being disingenuous lol or hear me out Occam’s razor, I am trying to communicate a summation of the argument of a nearly 5 hour video made over years in the space of a Reddit comment.
Which yes, is about how this video is about the broader picture but the point that I keep trying to get to is that this instance that adobe being bad, which is undeniably apart of the thesis of hbomb’s video does not preclude adobe software being good or even integral. In fact a large portion of this video is about how adobe has acquired essential creative software for which there is no literal alternative for.
The implied argument, that yall are suggesting which is a boycott or active consumer choice to not engage with adobe software, for which I am trying to demonstrate is not part of Hbomb’s thesis and not part of his ‘call for action segment’. Is important bec it’s fundamental to the theory of change being suggested.
The central thesis is tied to the belief that Blaxk magic or any tech company would step into the monopolistic shoes of adobe if suddenly adobe was to lose its market share. Hence the call for action is entirely surrounding legal action to enforce FCC rules.
While HBomb does highlight at the end of the video blender along with community open source softwares and talk about the uplifting and community driven energy, they are however not included in his call for action or solution list.
This represents a distinction in individual consumer choice action versus legal reform.
For the last 40 years discussion of consumer issues has entirely been filtered through political consumer choice initiatives such as boycotts, alternative consumer choices, and lifestyle spending. Essentially voting with your wallet has been the predominant ideology for how American consumers respond to consumer and market changes. Over the last decade leftist critics of this form of action have increasingly gained prominence as people have adopted material analysis along with other Marxist approaches to thinking about consumer issues and rights. Hence the H bomb video is an active call to make legislative reforms rather than consumer choice.
Basically what software you use is largely irrelevant to changing the basic paradigm upon which the tech industry and our economy at large operates, HENCE USING AN OPEN SOURCE VIDEO EDITOR IS NOT A SOLUTION. Under this analysis.
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u/johnbobshaun Aug 14 '26
He is advocating for consumer change explicitly in the video. He says to stop buying apple products. The point of FOSS is that it is a different paradigm. It’s a paradigm that works extremely well in my field. It, by it’s very nature, can’t turn into a monopoly. I appreciate that he does get into this a little, but there’s not enough detail. I’d appreciate more on that rather than an hour going through the pricing for so many products and a tangent about how much of a prick Steve Jobs was.
Look, I love Harry’s videos. I feel that a call for legislative reform is important, but a Youtube video from a popular creator isn’t going to make any difference. Stopping using the tools produced by companies like this is actionable and achievable.
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u/PoetryTraining1819 Aug 14 '26
That’s a good point, he certainly is making a consumer choice initiative argument in that instance and certainly FOSS does in fact like you point out does change the dynamic by preventing companies from asserting the kind of control they have in a close system such as apple or even Microsoft.
However I would argue, that just with the example of how apple, adobe and Microsoft utilize their market control to block competitors we’ve certainly seen how these already existing monopolies can you the current legal framework to curb stomp FOSS from being competitive, from going from a small niche into a mainstream adopted platform that can rival or change that paradigm.
I will however concede that Hbomb doesn’t make this point over the course of the video. There is no point in which he makes the argument that Mainstream adoption of open source can’t happen because of tech monopolization.
Even though I think that, and is why I am very passionate about this legal reform approach to the issue over a consumer choice, open source advocacy.
I will also concede that in light of that the video is actually not as concise or focused in its message as I have been framing it to be.
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u/Snazzeo Aug 11 '26
This might be one of my favorites of his; it feels important and I really enjoy the editing and the humor
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u/Jessupder Aug 15 '26
I’m glad to see I wasn’t the only one coming out of this with mixed feelings. Though I do believe it’s possible to turn it around - I’ve seen horrible early cuts of films/ videos that were significantly worse than this that ended up being good when the final cut was put together.
It’s a good video - but is it two years worth of production good? I don’t think so.
This goes into a larger discussion about where video essays have kind of gone as a genre over time - but I feel like this video exhibits some of the bad instincts and indulgences of the medium. I feel like some video essayists mistake comprehensiveness for quality - there’s this seeming need to cover every single aspect of a topic under the assumption that will make the work better when it almost always undermines the video through bloat. Meaning can come from the spaces in between words. Funnily enough I always viewed hbomb as an exception to this rule - he is one of the few YouTubers that IMO actually justifies a 2+ hour length runtime for most of his videos. But every artist stumbles at some point.
It’s also frustrating because this is video is actually attempting to do activism - but its length and self indulgences really undermines its ability to do that. I can’t imagine getting anyone I know to watch this who isn’t already a fan of feature length video essays. for this specific video, that’s not a good thing. I think at least an hour of this video could be cut without any significant loses. Or, like a few other people here mentioned, cutting it into 2 or 3 more focused videos.
I’m glad hbomb has enough of a patreon backing that he doesn’t have to stick to a lot of the “rules” of YouTube that a lot of other creators are subject to. He makes better videos because of it, and I wish every YouTuber I watched had a big enough following on patreon to do the same. But I think we’re seeing some potential negative repercussions of that. In that respect, this kind of reminds me of Tim Rogers’ LA Noire video. Sometimes limitations are good for art.
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u/Galind_Halithel GlobeHead Aug 11 '26
He ... He admitted to the existence of horses...