I think there is a post-achievement sort of depression that is easy to fall into. I did about a month ago at the end of 2024 after realizing I did everything I set out to do that year and really only felt empty inside. But the idea of putting another carrot on that stick to chase after for another year felt completely overwhelming. I think slowing down to an extent is a really valuable experience in itself. Learning to appreciate the present moment - sights, sounds, people, etc. has been a really tough lesson to learn but I think has also really broadened my internal perspective. It's incredibly difficult to just sit with ourselves sometimes, but when we spend time in the present, especially out in nature or something, we might think and process things we didn't know we needed to process. For me, it's lead to more inspiration with what I want to do and create next, and has made just the act of living a little easier, even without a big defined "goal" to chase after.
Cannot relate more, thank you for this comment. Back in September I worked really hard on a speech contest for almost 2 months and honestly it turned out wonderful. Then fast forward a month after the speech and I became extremely depressed, almost like doing that all over again would feel impossible. Still kinda in a slump now tbh, but seeing this comment and watching this video makes me want to try a bit more
Daaaaaaaamn, I needed to hear this. I'm 25 now and I've spent the last few years of my early 20's trying to fight against this aimlessness I've been feeling. It's just so overwhelming to feel like I'm going absolutely nowhere. BUT, I've been starting to have a bit more faith that it's leading me somewhere cool and I just can't see it yet. This video was a real comfort, thank you Joel!
I just turned 27 and I remember getting so overwhelmed with that feeling a couple years ago that I broke down and cried on my mom's shoulder lol. She had to tell me my dad didn't really do much but coast through life until he was 30. I love collecting life wisdom from people, and some of the most important things I've learned is to be content with what I have and less, and not comparing myself to others. That along with cutting out social media has made me genuinely happy in life despite the issues I struggle with. When I was crying to my mom, she told me a good childhood friend of mine that I was comparing myself to likely envied me. He graduated at 16, was rewarded with a nice new car, went on to get a well-paying job and even get married. But I didn't realize how much of that apparent success was actually his parents forcing him to do it, ever since he was just a baby and his mom made him cry as she tried to force his undeveloped brain to be capable of reading. My mom said he most definitely wishes he had a slow and simple life like mine. There's no such thing as getting behind in life. Some people rush through it, others take 30 years to decide on a career/skill to hone. The important thing is that you don't compare yourself to them, because you can't. There's no such thing as being behind in life, life can only be experienced, because it is experience.
@marshoak Yeah exactly! The more I realise that everyone moves througj life at their own pace the more weight I feel being lifted off my shoulders. It's very freeing.
I find myself checking an obsession with "productivity," because it's really easy to only think of that as "what's making me money." When just watching a movie or spending time with friends or playing a game, as Joel says, are sometimes the most actually productive activities one can do. Thanks for another nuanced and encouraging video Joel.
There is a difference between meaningless and aimlessness. Your meaning exists no matter where you are aiming. To be without an immediate goal does not mean you can't find meaning in the way you live these current moments. I hope you are enjoying these moments right now Joel.
I wrote an article ranking the 12 movies (my personal opinion) for my school newspaper! It was difficult to choose what went where, but I wanted to write it and I eventually just decided to go with my gut, and if I change my mind later, so be it. I'm sure it helped that I did not create them. I still enjoyed all of them, and I hope I can convince others to watch them too. Thank you for making these incredible movies! (my top three were Love Celeste, Anyone Else But Me, and The 9th Movie. They were all so good!)
I’ve had period of aimlessness for a bit of a while now. As someone who often uses creativity to distract myself it terrified me at first. But after I forced myself to accept and appreciate it I think it turned out to be some of the best few months of my life. Aimlessness is fantastic if you let it be
One day I will be showing The Diarrhea Brothers to my children and then their children. I think giving a whole year of your life to art was a really cool thing to do Joel, thanks for making and talking about movies!
I’m in a very similar stage of my life. Coming off work I’m very proud of but that also left me very exhausted. I needed a true break, and have been exploring being happy and fulfilled in new ways. Appreciate you, Joel. Take some time to do what makes you truly happy, and remove any need for to ‘accomplish’ or build on anything. Just enjoy being :)
Thank you for these intersections of kindness on our journeys through life, Joel! This community is so special and inspiring, I love making art and watching other people make it too :D
The aimlessness when not having a project is so familiar. That exact feeling has become a bit of a valley every time it pops its ugly head up. It's funny how you mentioned that often it is actually leading somewhere. At the end of my most recent aimlessnessness, I have done something I wanted to do for months, maybe years, and it just fell in my lap. Life's weird.
Best thing I did for myself was just letting myself enjoy and honor the creative works of others without pressuring myself to create something of my own. Sometimes we are ready to create stuff, and sometimes we are ready to consume. Most creators just want you to enjoy their work without strings attached, and I think it's okay to give yourself permission to do so.
Thank you for this, Joel. I’ve been feeling aimless since my dog passed away last year. It may sound silly, but she was my whole world, and we’d been inseparable since I was 16. We grew up together, and then she grew old and I embraced the role of caregiver, and when she was gone all I had left to care for was me. A lot of paths opened up for me; I could travel without worrying about her, I didn’t have to stress about potential future vet bills anymore, I could move to another state or another country or a shack in the woods if I wanted to. But no path felt enticing enough to walk down, so I’ve just stayed stuck, aimless. But much like being bored, maybe being aimless is a positive thing. It means I can explore different options and avenues for creativity, and I don’t need to choose just one direction and go all in on it right now. I can just sort of float around and see what feels right while I continue to process my grief. I didn’t intend to write all of this, but here we are! Thank you for the movies, and the words of wisdom. 💜
It’s hard to feel ok just living and enjoying a break doing ‘unproductive’ things like enjoying time with friends, or hobbies that aren’t work-related. But it’s so easy to get burned out if work is all there is and there’s no time for playing, relaxing, and experiencing things just for the experience. It’s all wrapped up in thoughts like ‘I’m being indulgent’, and ‘Do I deserve this?’ for me. But *everyone* deserves to be happy and find a balance that works for them. Especially with creative work, if you’re forcing yourself to find something to do, it undermines the expressive impulse that should be behind it all. ‘I need to find something to make my art about, even though I’m not inspired right now.’ I think you’re spot on trying to go with the flow and really letting your feelings determine what direction you go in from here. And if your feeling is ‘I’ll feel better doing something just to feel productive’ then that’s ok too!
Thanks for this video! My relationship with 'breaks' as an artist is always tough and changing. I have a lot of people who tell me I need to take breaks, and then when I do, I feel awful. I become less motivated and less invigorated and it takes so much work to get back on track. And then this summer I was out of school and had an easy job and things slowed down, and slowly I made some incredible work and started the big project I'm working on now. It's not a 'break'; I don't have to step back or distance myself. It's just a period between projects of wandering around aimlessly and letting things come slowly and cling onto me.
Man, watching this video was like having an actual talk O_o, and it works. The everlasting need to create and the times we can't really do just that, even though we can't really go without either. It's very calming to know others go through that too.
I like these videos because it feels like I get to listen to a true professional talk about their passion with a genuine and relatable perspective. Which seems to be very rare for some reason.
Totally resonate with this. I just finished a massive project that took me about 8 months to complete and now that it’s going to festivals I certainly do feel a little aimless, but I feel some pressure because my uploads got really sparse in that time I wanna get back into the “swing of things”
I just learned about this feeling in my psychology class. You're going through MAMA, which is mortification, achievement, mortification, achievement. You've achieved something big and now you're in your mortification/aimless phase. Once you decide on what to do next, you'll be right back on your way to achievement. You've got this, bud!
“I write jokes for a living, I sit at my hotel at night, I think of something that's funny, then I go get a pen and I write it down. Or, if the pen is too far away, I have to convince myself that what I thought of ain't funny.” - Mitch Hedberg
You always know how to make me feel optimistic, Joel. It really is nice to have someone like you in the world that genuinely loves the arts and encourages other to keep going even when things get bleak.
Hi Joel! Please enjoy your aimlessness, I look forward to your next aim when it’s out! I’m just a random soul who enjoys your videos, and I was just thinking about how something like a choose your own adventure movie with hundreds of branching paths could be novel enough for your repertoire of experiments. It’s like taking your expertise in short videos and fitting them to a longer narrative arc of a feature. They also require tons of work, which you are clearly not shy from. Perhaps, I can imagine, some branches being more interesting to explore than others, and so finding the ones that you find most interesting becomes a sort of game! I can imagine people being excited when certain branches get updated while others stay dormant. Anyway, please enjoy your break and don’t rush into 2025 yourself!
You are the voice of a generation, not really, but you are super special to me and a lot of people. Glad to hear you’re cooking still. Im glad you aren’t burnt out after last year.
I really needed to hear this today. I’ve been working as a full time musician for little over a year now, and sometimes I question if I lost the passion I had, when I started making it my work. I don’t know, I guess whenever you seriously commit to something artistic there comes a point where it all starts to feel like another job. But I think we all put a little too much pressure on ourselves sometimes, because we just care so much about what we’re creating and strive for perfection in our art. Like you said, you can’t swim too far from the tide. Thanks Joel
What an amazingly refreshing concept for a Minecraft video, or any video for that matter. I've never seen the concept of multiple people providing their own commentary before. It's not the same (but of a similar vein to) a game of telephone or exquisite corpse or "artists reanimating" something.
feels good to hear someone who inspires me deal with the same need to make things every day to feel accomplished. Especially someone who works more than most. Thanks for sharing Joel 🫶
It's a little bleak but I do think there's an inner "ok, and?" to everything we accomplish. There isn't a finality to it like the way a story ends. You're never done, so then where are you even going? Definitely a little disorienting. Gotta put down all the road markings yourself.
Thanks for sharing your feelings, Joel, it’s nice to know someone else goes through the same things, especially an artist like you. I’m still 16, though not for much longer, so I know I have loads of time to develop as a writer and all around person but lately it’s been hard to scope a concrete future where I achieve everything and pull through. In high school you’re kinda conditioned to compare yourself to others, and I don’t think I have the calibre to become a screenwriter or whatever I want to become. Even compared to myself, it’s like I just keep slipping away. I haven’t been going to the gym, I haven’t been writing, I haven’t had any ideas at all. It just feels like the way I used to perceive myself is completely falling apart, and I’m once again aimless. I don’t know what creativity means anymore. I don’t mean to be depressing, but I really just needed to get that off my chest. My sister’s applying to uni and I haven’t even looked at one yet. Hope you have a good day/night Joel, and that maybe the next movie you watch is a little more entertaining than the one you ended up picking
Thank you for sharing your thoughts, Joel. I understand you're feeling aimless after a project like this, but I have full confidence you'll find your next direction sooner than later. You are a great inspiration to me and a lot of other people. I'm no filmmaker - I crochet - and whenever I consider challenging myself and commit to a huge project I think of you and put on one of your movies and start crocheting. All the love from Sweden!
Joel, you're the most positive person I see putting stuff out there on TH-cam. I genuinely appreciate all the thoughts you share and it helps me appreciate life more.
Top three for me: 3. Point Girl (for the social media realism) 2. Hiccups (for the dramedy of a realistic relationship) 1. The Hero's Journey (for the vibe of a 'hometown loser')
Your comment about never asking yourself whether or not you should make a movie reminded me a Matt Farley, a very interesting independent filmmaker & artist with the motto of "make every idea that you have" I'd strongly recommend his films Don't Let the Riverbeast Get You & Local Legends
Do rest and collect yourself. You've done well, but don't burn out. We'll be here to watch anything you put out there, cause we know it'll be good and sincere.
Hey joel, I haven't had the time to watch all twelve movies yet, but I just wanted to let you know It Just Takes Time is a wonderful film and one of my favorites of 2024. Thank you for making it!
You're the best Joel! I would love to see the budget breakdown for some of your other films you didn't do. I need to know what you spent on all that Diarrhea!
My brother just died. He was taking a shot every time you said “12 movies in 12 months.” The doctors said they could have saved him if you had only made 11 instead of 12. No hard feelings, though. It’s the way he would have wanted to go. Good luck in the new year :D 🎉
Hearing your working on music made my heart stop. “Talk to me when you’re ready if you want please” is one of my favorite albums of all time and was maybe my most listened to album last year. Extremely excited to listen to whatever you put out next!
Man, honestly? I can’t imagine what it’s like to have something that you want to do that you _don’t_ talk yourself out of doing. I talk myself out of doing everything
Imo the best was You're Point Girl. And well, I figured, following your story, that it was autobiographical). I also really loved the first one, was it the Hero's Journey? The one about Caleb, I actually cried with that one in the end. I've followed you for years and I gotta say, you are pretty cool, although we are in very different lines of work, you are an inspiration.
I felt aimless for a while and stopped making movies and just focused on arcade highscoring.. I am back making movies again. Wrapped on my next feature recently!! With all these fires, I ended up in Ventura and made a movie that is kind of about that.. I think breaks are good.. it helps me refresh and gain new perspectives and ideas. 12 features in one year is a crazy accomplishment.. Especially with all the different states and countries you filmed in.
Are you planning on doing the production videos on the remaining movies that didn't get those videos made for them? I really enjoyed hearing about the behind the scenes and would love to hear more about the movies that didn't get that treatment
Joel, I can't wait to see what you do with the Television series of "Live Action Donkey Kong 64, the Musical" over the next 4 years. Good luck and happy movie making!
I feel I've been aimless for a little under a year now. I really badly want to focus on digital art and make it a career for myself, everyday it's eating away at me not being able to do what I want, but life or my mental barrier keeps getting in the way. When I do have the free time, I'm either too stressed about things coming up in the future, or I become too judgmental of my own abilities as an artist (I have a bad issue with comparison), even though I know if I just did what I wanted to, I would make myself proud. I feel like I've fallen off my raft for a while, I hope the current drifts me somewhere fun, I'm sick of fighting it. Anyway, it's nice to know from a fellow artist that I'm not alone.
I just realized how Massachusetts your accent is. I feel like this video deserves a deeper comment than that, but it struck me. I guess my only deep thought is that you don't have to be too worried about going against the grain, you have a lot of people who trust you to make great things, and you haven't let them down so far.
careful with the existential thoughts! hope good stuff and meaning comes out of it but make sure it doesn't lead down a spiral ehh very good advice at the last bit. keep good ppl around, hold on to them with your teeth, while you can. and all the other stuff. love from Denmark
ok hear me out: videogames I bet a Joel-made videogame would be fantastic. One of those FMV ones, so it's still mostly movies, but now we can play around with it and poke at things.
I'm actually curious what a Joel Haver video game would be like. Maybe you could make a movie about making a game? Making a game is one of the hardest things and you'll definitely try talking yourself out of it halfway but that's just normal.
I have the same case but with programming. I've had many interesting projects in the last few years, but now I'm kind of stuck and don't know where to go. I guess it's universal issue for everybody, just have to wait and follow my nature
Movies love you too, Joel!
I am Movies and can confirm this.
I think there is a post-achievement sort of depression that is easy to fall into. I did about a month ago at the end of 2024 after realizing I did everything I set out to do that year and really only felt empty inside. But the idea of putting another carrot on that stick to chase after for another year felt completely overwhelming.
I think slowing down to an extent is a really valuable experience in itself. Learning to appreciate the present moment - sights, sounds, people, etc. has been a really tough lesson to learn but I think has also really broadened my internal perspective. It's incredibly difficult to just sit with ourselves sometimes, but when we spend time in the present, especially out in nature or something, we might think and process things we didn't know we needed to process.
For me, it's lead to more inspiration with what I want to do and create next, and has made just the act of living a little easier, even without a big defined "goal" to chase after.
I had a very similar experience with a massive project I was working on this past year
great comment
Cannot relate more, thank you for this comment. Back in September I worked really hard on a speech contest for almost 2 months and honestly it turned out wonderful. Then fast forward a month after the speech and I became extremely depressed, almost like doing that all over again would feel impossible. Still kinda in a slump now tbh, but seeing this comment and watching this video makes me want to try a bit more
Well said
The Diarrhea Brothers Save the Day is top 1 😂😂😂
I liked it but I didn't enjoy the cameo from that one guy
@@RobTFilmsbus jackson?
you should rank them by how difficult they were to make or something like that
that'd be cool i think
Daaaaaaaamn, I needed to hear this. I'm 25 now and I've spent the last few years of my early 20's trying to fight against this aimlessness I've been feeling. It's just so overwhelming to feel like I'm going absolutely nowhere. BUT, I've been starting to have a bit more faith that it's leading me somewhere cool and I just can't see it yet. This video was a real comfort, thank you Joel!
I just turned 27 and I remember getting so overwhelmed with that feeling a couple years ago that I broke down and cried on my mom's shoulder lol. She had to tell me my dad didn't really do much but coast through life until he was 30. I love collecting life wisdom from people, and some of the most important things I've learned is to be content with what I have and less, and not comparing myself to others. That along with cutting out social media has made me genuinely happy in life despite the issues I struggle with. When I was crying to my mom, she told me a good childhood friend of mine that I was comparing myself to likely envied me. He graduated at 16, was rewarded with a nice new car, went on to get a well-paying job and even get married. But I didn't realize how much of that apparent success was actually his parents forcing him to do it, ever since he was just a baby and his mom made him cry as she tried to force his undeveloped brain to be capable of reading. My mom said he most definitely wishes he had a slow and simple life like mine.
There's no such thing as getting behind in life. Some people rush through it, others take 30 years to decide on a career/skill to hone. The important thing is that you don't compare yourself to them, because you can't. There's no such thing as being behind in life, life can only be experienced, because it is experience.
@marshoak Yeah exactly! The more I realise that everyone moves througj life at their own pace the more weight I feel being lifted off my shoulders. It's very freeing.
wait till you're in your 30's 😂
I find myself checking an obsession with "productivity," because it's really easy to only think of that as "what's making me money." When just watching a movie or spending time with friends or playing a game, as Joel says, are sometimes the most actually productive activities one can do. Thanks for another nuanced and encouraging video Joel.
So true about directors not going back to shorts. But following the trend, weekly short, monthly films... i look forward to the bimonthly miniseries.
There is a difference between meaningless and aimlessness. Your meaning exists no matter where you are aiming. To be without an immediate goal does not mean you can't find meaning in the way you live these current moments. I hope you are enjoying these moments right now Joel.
I wrote an article ranking the 12 movies (my personal opinion) for my school newspaper! It was difficult to choose what went where, but I wanted to write it and I eventually just decided to go with my gut, and if I change my mind later, so be it. I'm sure it helped that I did not create them. I still enjoyed all of them, and I hope I can convince others to watch them too. Thank you for making these incredible movies!
(my top three were Love Celeste, Anyone Else But Me, and The 9th Movie. They were all so good!)
I’ve had period of aimlessness for a bit of a while now. As someone who often uses creativity to distract myself it terrified me at first. But after I forced myself to accept and appreciate it I think it turned out to be some of the best few months of my life. Aimlessness is fantastic if you let it be
As always, your accepting nature does not disappoint. Even when it’s towards yourself.
One day I will be showing The Diarrhea Brothers to my children and then their children. I think giving a whole year of your life to art was a really cool thing to do Joel, thanks for making and talking about movies!
Thanks goodlongpee
I’m in a very similar stage of my life. Coming off work I’m very proud of but that also left me very exhausted. I needed a true break, and have been exploring being happy and fulfilled in new ways. Appreciate you, Joel. Take some time to do what makes you truly happy, and remove any need for to ‘accomplish’ or build on anything. Just enjoy being :)
Thank you for these intersections of kindness on our journeys through life, Joel! This community is so special and inspiring, I love making art and watching other people make it too :D
The aimlessness when not having a project is so familiar. That exact feeling has become a bit of a valley every time it pops its ugly head up. It's funny how you mentioned that often it is actually leading somewhere. At the end of my most recent aimlessnessness, I have done something I wanted to do for months, maybe years, and it just fell in my lap. Life's weird.
Best thing I did for myself was just letting myself enjoy and honor the creative works of others without pressuring myself to create something of my own. Sometimes we are ready to create stuff, and sometimes we are ready to consume. Most creators just want you to enjoy their work without strings attached, and I think it's okay to give yourself permission to do so.
Thank you for this, Joel. I’ve been feeling aimless since my dog passed away last year. It may sound silly, but she was my whole world, and we’d been inseparable since I was 16. We grew up together, and then she grew old and I embraced the role of caregiver, and when she was gone all I had left to care for was me. A lot of paths opened up for me; I could travel without worrying about her, I didn’t have to stress about potential future vet bills anymore, I could move to another state or another country or a shack in the woods if I wanted to. But no path felt enticing enough to walk down, so I’ve just stayed stuck, aimless. But much like being bored, maybe being aimless is a positive thing. It means I can explore different options and avenues for creativity, and I don’t need to choose just one direction and go all in on it right now. I can just sort of float around and see what feels right while I continue to process my grief. I didn’t intend to write all of this, but here we are! Thank you for the movies, and the words of wisdom. 💜
It’s hard to feel ok just living and enjoying a break doing ‘unproductive’ things like enjoying time with friends, or hobbies that aren’t work-related. But it’s so easy to get burned out if work is all there is and there’s no time for playing, relaxing, and experiencing things just for the experience. It’s all wrapped up in thoughts like ‘I’m being indulgent’, and ‘Do I deserve this?’ for me. But *everyone* deserves to be happy and find a balance that works for them.
Especially with creative work, if you’re forcing yourself to find something to do, it undermines the expressive impulse that should be behind it all. ‘I need to find something to make my art about, even though I’m not inspired right now.’ I think you’re spot on trying to go with the flow and really letting your feelings determine what direction you go in from here. And if your feeling is ‘I’ll feel better doing something just to feel productive’ then that’s ok too!
Thanks for this video! My relationship with 'breaks' as an artist is always tough and changing. I have a lot of people who tell me I need to take breaks, and then when I do, I feel awful. I become less motivated and less invigorated and it takes so much work to get back on track. And then this summer I was out of school and had an easy job and things slowed down, and slowly I made some incredible work and started the big project I'm working on now. It's not a 'break'; I don't have to step back or distance myself. It's just a period between projects of wandering around aimlessly and letting things come slowly and cling onto me.
Man, watching this video was like having an actual talk O_o, and it works. The everlasting need to create and the times we can't really do just that, even though we can't really go without either. It's very calming to know others go through that too.
You do whatever you like. Take as much time as you need until you hear that inner voice scream with inspiration and with the need to create. ❤
This is the exact kind of vibe I'm trying to put out every single day. thank you
I like these videos because it feels like I get to listen to a true professional talk about their passion with a genuine and relatable perspective. Which seems to be very rare for some reason.
Totally resonate with this. I just finished a massive project that took me about 8 months to complete and now that it’s going to festivals I certainly do feel a little aimless, but I feel some pressure because my uploads got really sparse in that time I wanna get back into the “swing of things”
Wow. I think this video is exactly what I needed right now.
I just learned about this feeling in my psychology class. You're going through MAMA, which is mortification, achievement, mortification, achievement. You've achieved something big and now you're in your mortification/aimless phase. Once you decide on what to do next, you'll be right back on your way to achievement. You've got this, bud!
Joel, the king of good vibes. Thank you everything Joel, talk yourself into as many ideas as you desire
Features are like fine wine or cheese. Once you have the good stuff you don't want the Costco stuff ever again.
‘Everything i’m saying i just need to hear right now’ 🥹❤️
"Crazy stuff happening in the world, stupid stuff, who cares? Other than everyone..." really enjoyed that sentence for some reason lol
Crazy you uploaded this on a day where I really needed it. Thanks Joel!! You helped me feel a bit lighter today.
“I write jokes for a living, I sit at my hotel at night, I think of something that's funny, then I go get a pen and I write it down. Or, if the pen is too far away, I have to convince myself that what I thought of ain't funny.” - Mitch Hedberg
i frequently talk myself out of great ideas 😭
You need at least a few disasters to tell your grandkids about
"Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time."
I’d love to hear about more behind the scenes or processes behind your films, maybe even commentary for Patreon…? 😁
You always know how to make me feel optimistic, Joel. It really is nice to have someone like you in the world that genuinely loves the arts and encourages other to keep going even when things get bleak.
Hi Joel! Please enjoy your aimlessness, I look forward to your next aim when it’s out! I’m just a random soul who enjoys your videos, and I was just thinking about how something like a choose your own adventure movie with hundreds of branching paths could be novel enough for your repertoire of experiments. It’s like taking your expertise in short videos and fitting them to a longer narrative arc of a feature. They also require tons of work, which you are clearly not shy from. Perhaps, I can imagine, some branches being more interesting to explore than others, and so finding the ones that you find most interesting becomes a sort of game! I can imagine people being excited when certain branches get updated while others stay dormant. Anyway, please enjoy your break and don’t rush into 2025 yourself!
You are the voice of a generation, not really, but you are super special to me and a lot of people. Glad to hear you’re cooking still. Im glad you aren’t burnt out after last year.
I really needed to hear this today. I’ve been working as a full time musician for little over a year now, and sometimes I question if I lost the passion I had, when I started making it my work. I don’t know, I guess whenever you seriously commit to something artistic there comes a point where it all starts to feel like another job. But I think we all put a little too much pressure on ourselves sometimes, because we just care so much about what we’re creating and strive for perfection in our art. Like you said, you can’t swim too far from the tide. Thanks Joel
I think the world could use some simple wholesome content right now.
I just wanted to say you are an amazing person and this is a really really good reminder to go with the flow of life so thank you for that
Hey Joel, always love these down to earth videos with a random rant. Never change, much love from France
What an amazingly refreshing concept for a Minecraft video, or any video for that matter. I've never seen the concept of multiple people providing their own commentary before. It's not the same (but of a similar vein to) a game of telephone or exquisite corpse or "artists reanimating" something.
your creativity is incredibly inspiring
feels good to hear someone who inspires me deal with the same need to make things every day to feel accomplished. Especially someone who works more than most. Thanks for sharing Joel 🫶
Joel, thanks so much. This gave me the strength to be weak today. Here's to creating memories with love 💖
Thank you for this. I think a lot of us needed to hear this.
It's a little bleak but I do think there's an inner "ok, and?" to everything we accomplish. There isn't a finality to it like the way a story ends. You're never done, so then where are you even going? Definitely a little disorienting. Gotta put down all the road markings yourself.
Thanks for sharing your feelings, Joel, it’s nice to know someone else goes through the same things, especially an artist like you. I’m still 16, though not for much longer, so I know I have loads of time to develop as a writer and all around person but lately it’s been hard to scope a concrete future where I achieve everything and pull through. In high school you’re kinda conditioned to compare yourself to others, and I don’t think I have the calibre to become a screenwriter or whatever I want to become. Even compared to myself, it’s like I just keep slipping away. I haven’t been going to the gym, I haven’t been writing, I haven’t had any ideas at all. It just feels like the way I used to perceive myself is completely falling apart, and I’m once again aimless. I don’t know what creativity means anymore. I don’t mean to be depressing, but I really just needed to get that off my chest. My sister’s applying to uni and I haven’t even looked at one yet. Hope you have a good day/night Joel, and that maybe the next movie you watch is a little more entertaining than the one you ended up picking
I like it when you show the flip-floppieness of humans, it’s not always a bad thing when it comes to creativity
Thank you for sharing your thoughts, Joel. I understand you're feeling aimless after a project like this, but I have full confidence you'll find your next direction sooner than later. You are a great inspiration to me and a lot of other people. I'm no filmmaker - I crochet - and whenever I consider challenging myself and commit to a huge project I think of you and put on one of your movies and start crocheting. All the love from Sweden!
Joel, you're the most positive person I see putting stuff out there on TH-cam. I genuinely appreciate all the thoughts you share and it helps me appreciate life more.
I don't think I've ever someone with a Patreon say "You don't really need to subscribe to it, you're not missin' much". Stay humble my man
Thank you for reminding me where these feelings can lead me Joel
Top three for me:
3. Point Girl (for the social media realism)
2. Hiccups (for the dramedy of a realistic relationship)
1. The Hero's Journey (for the vibe of a 'hometown loser')
Thank you kindly
Your comment about never asking yourself whether or not you should make a movie reminded me a Matt Farley, a very interesting independent filmmaker & artist with the motto of "make every idea that you have"
I'd strongly recommend his films Don't Let the Riverbeast Get You & Local Legends
watching your films last year has inspired me to make my own feature this year. thank you for everything joel i really appreciate you
Thank you Joel, we love you!
You are a great and kind soul my friend. I hope you keep doing well.
That Curious George video is probably one of my favorite short films
Do rest and collect yourself. You've done well, but don't burn out. We'll be here to watch anything you put out there, cause we know it'll be good and sincere.
love you joel and looking forward to wherever inspiration takes you next!
this was helpful to hear, Joel. Especially coming from someone who makes so much great work so consistently. Keep it up!
Just started school for digital art and media and you are such an inspiration
Hey joel, I haven't had the time to watch all twelve movies yet, but I just wanted to let you know It Just Takes Time is a wonderful film and one of my favorites of 2024. Thank you for making it!
You're the best Joel! I would love to see the budget breakdown for some of your other films you didn't do. I need to know what you spent on all that Diarrhea!
Thanks for sharing Joel, you are an enigma dude!
My brother just died. He was taking a shot every time you said “12 movies in 12 months.” The doctors said they could have saved him if you had only made 11 instead of 12. No hard feelings, though. It’s the way he would have wanted to go.
Good luck in the new year :D 🎉
Hearing your working on music made my heart stop. “Talk to me when you’re ready if you want please” is one of my favorite albums of all time and was maybe my most listened to album last year. Extremely excited to listen to whatever you put out next!
Man, honestly? I can’t imagine what it’s like to have something that you want to do that you _don’t_ talk yourself out of doing. I talk myself out of doing everything
Wow thanks for sharing Joel, there’s a lot of wisdom here!
Imo the best was You're Point Girl. And well, I figured, following your story, that it was autobiographical). I also really loved the first one, was it the Hero's Journey? The one about Caleb, I actually cried with that one in the end.
I've followed you for years and I gotta say, you are pretty cool, although we are in very different lines of work, you are an inspiration.
Theres a song that says, "I'd rather be lost than stay the same" love ya joel
Thanks Joel. Appreciate ya
thanks for keeping it real as always. definitely relatable.
Keep on wandering and you'll find what you weren't even looking for.
Good job Joel. I'm happy to see what you come up with next
I felt aimless for a while and stopped making movies and just focused on arcade highscoring.. I am back making movies again. Wrapped on my next feature recently!! With all these fires, I ended up in Ventura and made a movie that is kind of about that..
I think breaks are good.. it helps me refresh and gain new perspectives and ideas.
12 features in one year is a crazy accomplishment.. Especially with all the different states and countries you filmed in.
*You're so cool Joel thanks for always being yourself
aimlessness is a gift in-between periods of hyper-fixation and motivation
Are you planning on doing the production videos on the remaining movies that didn't get those videos made for them? I really enjoyed hearing about the behind the scenes and would love to hear more about the movies that didn't get that treatment
Thank you Joel! Needed this
this is everything i needed to hear right now (i hope)
Joel, I can't wait to see what you do with the Television series of "Live Action Donkey Kong 64, the Musical" over the next 4 years. Good luck and happy movie making!
Thanks for the video man ❤
I feel I've been aimless for a little under a year now. I really badly want to focus on digital art and make it a career for myself, everyday it's eating away at me not being able to do what I want, but life or my mental barrier keeps getting in the way.
When I do have the free time, I'm either too stressed about things coming up in the future, or I become too judgmental of my own abilities as an artist (I have a bad issue with comparison), even though I know if I just did what I wanted to, I would make myself proud.
I feel like I've fallen off my raft for a while, I hope the current drifts me somewhere fun, I'm sick of fighting it.
Anyway, it's nice to know from a fellow artist that I'm not alone.
excited to see what ur workin on !
I talk myself out of every idea
after finishing and releasing one of my albums, i found myself creatively aimless. Maybe there's a connection here...
Love sleepy talking Joel videos : )
We love you Joel!
I just realized how Massachusetts your accent is. I feel like this video deserves a deeper comment than that, but it struck me. I guess my only deep thought is that you don't have to be too worried about going against the grain, you have a lot of people who trust you to make great things, and you haven't let them down so far.
Just like Momma Haver, wanderlust
I've just come off of a year of aimlessness. It was rough.
careful with the existential thoughts! hope good stuff and meaning comes out of it but make sure it doesn't lead down a spiral ehh
very good advice at the last bit. keep good ppl around, hold on to them with your teeth, while you can. and all the other stuff. love from Denmark
ok hear me out: videogames
I bet a Joel-made videogame would be fantastic. One of those FMV ones, so it's still mostly movies, but now we can play around with it and poke at things.
I'm actually curious what a Joel Haver video game would be like. Maybe you could make a movie about making a game? Making a game is one of the hardest things and you'll definitely try talking yourself out of it halfway but that's just normal.
I have the same case but with programming. I've had many interesting projects in the last few years, but now I'm kind of stuck and don't know where to go. I guess it's universal issue for everybody, just have to wait and follow my nature
thanks joel