I rarely trust recommendations given to me by algorithms. I’ve cooked inedible recipes, fooled around on BookTok, and fallen for viral song snippets. But there’s one group that never lets me down: fan cam makers.
For the uninitiated, there’s a world of viral, fan-made videos on social media featuring one or more celebrities or characters, usually with music, called fan edits. Looking down, fancams usually feature just one celebrity or public figure, while videos usually use footage from TV shows and movies. The particular fancams that serve as my de facto film school are the ones that compile clips of specific roles of 40+ actors to unexpectedly sexy hyper-pop songs.
Fan edits are the love language of the internet
Sorry cinephiles everywhere, but the surefire way to get me to see a movie isn’t a catchy trailer, stellar reviews, or even a reputation as an actor or director, what matters is whether Stan’s account felt inspired enough to create a sparkly fancam of the male lead . If a performance inspires fans to open up Adobe After Effects and pick up a Kim Petras song, chances are that’s something I want to see. The more amazing the combination of movie and song, the more intrigued I am.
I lack a broad knowledge of cinema, and two years ago I tried to change that by setting myself the modest goal of watching 10 movies a month. However, the sheer number of movies I haven’t seen overwhelms me, so I turn to fan cams to guide me.
I was recently stopped dead in my tracks by a series of clips from Anatomy of a Fall, featuring grizzled French actor Swan Arlo running his fingers through his hair and talking with his hands while wearing an array of black sweaters, all set to Rina Sawayama’s “Comme Des Garçons (Like The Boys).” Reposted and titled “ANATOMY OF A FALL LAWYER FANCAM ANATOMY OF A FALL LAWYER FANCAM”, the original post read “swann arlaud as vincent renzi the dilf twink lawyer in anatomy of a fall” (which is part of the SEO practice standard for the creators of fan cameras).
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This particular fancam was my introduction to the French crime thriller, and I was sitting in a movie theater just days after the video hit my feed. It’s a movie I probably wouldn’t have seen without the lure of a gorgeous, elfin man tuned to pop music that turns my brain off. Anatomy of a Fall it was a fascinating watch, and even though it wasn’t my favorite movie, I’m glad a fan cam exposed me to a foreign film.
Anatomy of a Fall it was hardly the first excellent movie experience I’ve had thanks to a fan cam. During the Twitter confrontation over who is hotter al pacino or robert de niro earlier this year someone shared a clip of Pacino running around in dog afternoon, juxtaposed with “The Dog Days Are Over” by Florence and the Machine. Needless to say, I wasn’t disappointed with this 1975 Sidney Lumet classic — and it was something I probably wouldn’t have come across on my own without those fancams.
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These fancams often provide little context about the film—sometimes even giving up the title, leading me down a rabbit hole—or about that particular fancam muse’s role in it.
The song choices can be quite literal, as is the case with ‘The Dog Days Are Over’ or in this one fan cam on Cillian Murphy as Jonathan Crane c batman begins where a snippet of “Just Dance” — “semi-psychotic, sick, hypnotic” — plays on loop.
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These fancams often take a film that has a predominantly male target audience and offer a different, edgier perspective on it. Instead of focusing on how brutal Christopher Nolan’s is Batman begins well, the fancam focuses on Murphy looking hot and belting out Lady Gaga’s lyrics.
Another Murphy fan cameras, as one of his own Red eye a set of symbols of “SOS” by Rihanna, include more absurd music. Somebody help me!
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While the trailers may give away too much of the plot, the fancams move so fast that you all really we know that an actor’s performance (and appearance) warranted that response—that and which diva the fancam artist assigned him.
I know a movie is really good when it’s not a Gen Z fancam muse Timothee Chalamet or Paul Mezcal. The more random the better. During the lead up to Oppenheimeredition of, my timeline is full of fancams of Watching the detectives, a rom-com in which Murphy co-starred with Lucy Liu in 2007; my favorite is the mariah carey soundtrack “Fantasy”.
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People taking pictures may scoff at my method. Fancam, however, implies a cult following of like-minded viewers and ultimately expands my horizons beyond the typical social media accounts posting ads for upcoming releases. Fancams embody the best part of consuming entertainment through social media: stumbling across people with such passion that it drives others to engage with the media they love.
