Interview with Jeremy Scott of CinemaSins

If you’re like a lot of people in the world, you like movies. And if you like movies, you’ll probably agree that even the best movies have some sort of issue with them. That’s the rationale behind CinemaSins, a YouTube channel dedicated to pointing out “sins” in movies, be they cliches, plot holes, moments of flawed logic, or even just general nitpicking. Their motto is simple: “No Movie is Without Sin.” They’ve sinned everything from beloved films – like Back to the Future, Frozen, and The Dark Knight trilogy – to disliked movies like The Room, Twilight, and Batman and Robin. The sinning has even extended into other forms of media, with Music Video Sins and Brand Sins becoming recent additions to the CinemaSins empire.

While videos are predominantly created by two people, the voice and face behind them is Jeremy Scott, who is set to release his first novel, a story about disabled superheroes entitled The Ables, on May 1st. I asked him a few questions about his channel and the novel.

DB: You’ve become a huge success in the past couple of years. What do you think has contributed the most to this success?

JS: We don’t know for sure. But we have a few ideas. It was certainly many factors, one of which was our consistency of upload. We haven’t missed a week yet, and for nearly the past year, we’ve had 2 per week. It also helped a ton that we got a lot of press early on from major publications online, though we did little to cause that to happen. And we’ve been consistent with our release days as well, which we think helps. But some of it is still a mystery to even us. There’s no one set formula.

DB: Do you consider the channel a job, or a hobby that makes money? At what point did/will it become a job?

JS: It’s our job. We both work more than full-time hours. That being said, we also love it, so it’s a hobby-job. A jobby. I went full-time about three months in, and Chris [Atkinson, the other key player behind CinemaSins] went full-time about three months after that.

DB: You’ve got three channels under your belt, and now you’re on your way to becoming a published author. What big things do you have planned next?

JS: Nothing set in stone, but a host of cool possibilities. One thing I’m excited about is an animated series we’ve written, and we’re hoping to move on that soon. It would be an online series, 3-5 minute episodes each, and that’s about all I can say until we get further along in development.

DB: Moving on to your novel, did you write it with the same tone you use for your videos? Or is it more of a different side to you?

JS: It is nothing like the tone of the videos. The videos have always been an exaggerated version of my sarcastic side. The book is nothing like that, though I suppose there is some of the same kind of sense of humor here and there.

DB: If you had to compare the novel to any other book, what would you compare it to?

JS: Hmm. This one’s tough. I use movies more as comparisons. I’d say it’s part Goonies, part Sky High, part Stand By Me. I have no idea if that helps, but that’s the way I would describe it.

DB: You’ve made it clear before what movies you like, but what sort of non-movie things do you enjoy?

JS: I’m personally a big fan of hockey. And I love video games, though I don’t have nearly enough time for them these days. I’m an animal fan, with plenty of pets… and I play terrible guitar and write songs that will mostly never see the light of day. Oh, and I play golf every now and then.

Even with several million subscribers between his three channels, Jeremy Scott still manages to be as humble and down-to-earth as when he first started back in 2012. His success is a testament to the value of hard work and it shows no signs of stopping anytime soon. If you’re interested in reading his book, The Ables, you can preorder it at www.theablesbook.com.