62
votes
Recommend lesser known YouTube channels that make well designed videos
Would love to watch videos that are well designed edited, especially done so in an original manner but have a low subscriber count (less than 75k subscribers?). The content could be vlogs, video essays, travel, design!
Dr. Fatima - Well researched video-essays - She is a cross-discipline Ph.D in Physics/Astrophysics and Humanities. currently at 19k subscribers
hoots - Long-form video-essays about media/culture, etc. currently at 28k subscribers
Premodernist - video essays about historical topics. currently at 57k subscribers
Tirrrb - video essays about race, sexuality, culture, etc. currently at 59k subsribers
Mexie - left leaning video essays. currently at 78k subscribers.
Roads with Beau - longer videos by beau of the fifth column. currently at 85k subscribers.
At 170K subs, CityNerd is growing fast and was under 100K subs less than a year ago. It's fast growing because of the good production values, acerbic low key style of the nerd and the growing popularity of urbanism. If you are interested in urban planning and/or urban living it's great imho.
In a similar topic Not Just Bikes, City Beautiful and Strong Towns are great channels too.
I enjoyed Not Just Bikes for a while but recently unsubbed because it sort of felt like they'd made their point and didn't have much left to say in more recent videos.
My favorite YouTube channel of all time is In Praise of Shadows. He makes video essays about the history of horror movies, essentially, but he has a unique talent for using horror to examine elements of our society and humanity in general. His series on the history of witches is one of the most compelling pieces of media I've come across.
He has more subscribers than you're looking for (300k+) but his content is so high quality so I think it's appropriate to mention here.
52 Miniatures is a great edited (and lit) and entertainingly different channel about painting little plastic people. At 60,000 subs.
https://www.youtube.com/@52Miniatures
Oh no. There's going to be Warhammer 40K isn't there?
Sometimes... but never quite in the way you'd expect. Space Marine sent by Sauron to kill the Hobbit? Excellent. :D
Thanks, this channel is fantastic! Just the quality of the videos alone is telling me I have a brand new interest!
Cathode Ray Dude is a bit past your target subscriber count at 125k, but those subscribers have been well earned! Gravis does long-form videos on retro tech, especially some of the wacky stuff that computer and electronics manufacturers got up to in the early PC era. His most recent video series is about Vista-era quick boot operating systems - usually stripped-down Linuxen designed to be able to get from zero to usable, for some small definition of usable, quicker than Vista itself could on the laptop HDDs of the era. The video about Phoenix Hyperspace, especially, has a payoff that I won't spoil, other than to say that someone was being entirely too clever for their own good!
I've been subscribed to Cathode Ray Dude's Patreon for years, and he just recently switched to doing YouTube full-time off the strength of his Patreon support base. He doesn't upload that often, but when he does, it's always high-quality content, well-produced, and well-edited. Take a look!
Straybob is a british guy that goes on long walks. ~19k subs.
As far as I can tell he does some work until he has enough money saved up for a plane ticket and a bit extra and then just goes. First videos I saw of his he was walking sea-to-sea across the middle of India. He's also done a roadtrip across the Outback and walked across Jordan now. Chill dude who just likes to see new places.
Oh, it looks like he traveled through Wadi Rum! One of my favorite places I've ever visited. So beatiful.
Hand Tool Rescue is very thoughtful tool restoration, with tiny touches of surreality to reward attention.
A Film in 3 Minutes
Really fun film analysis channel with only 4,300 subscribers. I've added a lot of films to my "to-watch" list which I'm making decent progress with, because of this channel.
The channel takes a look at a films themes, background, development, production, release and legacy, all in just three minutes. Fantastic little bite sized chunks of content.
He does generally cover a vague outline of a movies plot (but doesn't spoil twists or turns) just in case anyone wouldn't like a films story to be discussed if they want to watch it.
Straybob is a great wee travel channel. His walk across India series was really entertaining.
I tripped over Almost Friday from a link here on Tildes.
126k, but their stuff is hilariously dark ~5 min skits.
https://www.youtube.com/@AlmostFridayTV
At the other end of the spectrum, if you have kids 2-8 who want to play a tv-video game, these were a life-saver during the Pandemic:
https://www.youtube.com/@pe_bowman
Can't agree more with Almost Friday. They are some of the most well shot, original idea skits I think I've ever seen on youtube. The end of "who made me have that gay dream?" was the hardest I've laughed at anything in years.
Intergalactic Binman (27k subs) Video essays on cars or car companies. I'm going to say this sort of fits your design criteria.
Hard Thrasher (18k subs) Video essays on military/political history from the last century but with very dry british humor.
This one is kind of out of left field, but League of Pigs (31k subs) is a channel that does pig racing but he does commentary/editing as if its a very serious sports show.
Imparter (15k subs) for me, had a breakout hit, but his other videos are solid looks at Irish history, and the latest one is a deep dive on the Parnell controversy.
Physics for the Birds is a newer channel with super great production value (though simpler and not over-the-top). The writing is top-notch and always brings an interesting flair to topics that you might not think you would be interested in at first glance.
That was outstanding. A journey into the soul with one of the best content I ever watched. My life is measurably better because of that video. I cannot expressed how deep and awesome it is. From the diorama to the Cambridge math profesor to the shaman looking dancing figures. Please go and watch it now, you will find your perspective on life renewed….
At work I get an email digest of recent Teams activity every day. The other day the email preview said "Chris and Jack have been sending you messages" (meaning two of my colleagues named Chris and Jack respectively) and I found it hilarious but no one else in the office understood why I found it funny.
Huge fan of Paragraphic, interesting stories beautifully shot. I just checked and unfortunately they're now at 250k ... but when I last visited their page it was under 100k, so I'm going to throw it in here anyways ;)
Here's a few I am subbed to
Boylei Hobby Time has cool miniatures.
Frank Makes is a wood working channel with good videography.
Mr Volt makes the stuff from the portal games in real life.
JBC creative uses his engineering degree to make some awesome 3d printed art
Oh and my favorite OG Minecrafter: Ethoslab
Seconding Boylei Hobby Time.
Frank Makes is an insta-watch for me every time he comes out with a new video!
Swegle Studios is good if you like deep dives into tornados and weather phenomena. He's not a meteorologist more of a historian and I think he went to ISU for film studies.
Just discovered this channel! Very entertaining as a weather nerd (:
Peter Dibble (58.7k) is right up your alley. He's based in the Portland area and does some well-researched and -presented historical and transportation topics. Some favorites:
Alliterative (43.9k) is a neat etymology channel, which uses a Prezi-style presentation to show connected etymologies and words around a certain theme.
Oh heck yeah. I'm interested in both of these and first time hearing about 'em. Thank you!
Nicholai Schirmer creates videos about his alpine skiing adventures. He’s at 130k subscribers now but should have millions. The quality of the footage and storytelling is insane. His free YouTube videos are better than any ski movie I’ve seen.
Beau Miles is well beyond your target with over 600k subscribers now, but just feels like no one I know has ever heard of him. Makes videos mostly at local adventures and projects. Some longer running / expedition adventures. He’s an amazing story teller. Feels like each video would be a nice little book to read.
For video essays, I'll once again recommend Pseudiom. The subjects of his videos are scattered, and always some manner of "obscure", but I find that to be part of the appeal.
Greg McCahon (47K subs) cycling from Alaska to Argentina, the videos are pretty sporadic but amazing scenery and his cycling partner Victoria is delightful.
The Story of B (1.3K subs) A Belgian guy named Bert motorcycling around the world. Only know of his channel cos I ran into him at a campground in Gippsland. His videos are even more sporadic but are great, and he's been to some amazing parts of the world.
I'm a big Magic: The Gathering player who enjoys watching people playing online. Most of these channels are small, but very useful when it comes to learning more about the game!
yellowhat plays mainly Modern and Legacy but is extremely talented.
ThrabenU is another one I like, mainly focusing on Legacy content. Phil is a great player and fun to watch.
Finally, BoshNRoll is an entertaining streamer who plays very fun decks.
This is well above your subscriber count, but I like the production quality of
https://youtube.com/@TheHistoryUnderground
He visits historical places and gives a good first-person view of the places. I liked all the German WW2 locations that he has visited. They also visit lots of Civil War videos, but I haven't watched them.
Playing it straight 4K subs.
Quite underrated video essayist on video games.
The Infinite Review lovely irish fellow making mostly funny or philosophical and also slightly melancholical videos. He's reviewing the entire universe one random thing at a time for 32k subscribers and that's way too low for the appeal and quality of his show.
A highlight of mine is this Evangelion video which is mostly about feelings of loneliness and the way we now consume media. Also this video about visiting Japan and Sonic Curry is a masterpiece.
meeptop - 40.8K subscribers. Film/TV analysis and essays. Well-thought out and well-argued opinions and a solid backlog of videos to go through. Recommended videos (spoilers for all media mentioned): Was HBO's The Last of Us Really Necessary?, The Fatal Flaw of Glass Onion, Chicken Little is Neoliberal Propaganda
Leon Talks a Lot - 45.5K subscribers. Gaming video essays. Used to make mostly COD Zombies videos (which are still good) but has recently branched outside of that, which makes me curious to see where he goes next. Recommended videos: This Character Has Made People Religious, The Most Accurate Depiction of an Addict in Video Games, The Subtle Horror of Kino der Toten
Pete Beard's Unsung History of Illustration is a great channel for art history buffs.
https://youtube.com/@petebeard
Ed Pratt: This guy cycled around the world on a unicycle and made an excellent series about it which is absolutely worth to watch. He was 19 years old when he started and it took him three and a half years. His world tour is done now but he still makes the occasional video about cycling, his latest long tour was in Georgia (with his now ex-girlfriend which he met on his world tour).
Timothy Cain: The creator of Fallout. He makes interesting videos about his experience as a game designer/producer/programmer. He talks about the Fallout series and other games he made. Wonderful stuff. He's a good speaker and easy to listen to.
This Place has some of the best science content on youtube in that is breaks down more complex topics into an entertaining and effective way. Shame the owner doesn't post very frequently.
I’m cracking up because the one I was going to suggest now has 1.7m subscribers. I had no idea. It had a few thousand when I subbed.
Maybe not what you’re looking for but if anyone likes analog horror/EAS mocks(entirely fake) and scenarios https://youtube.com/@HarvesterYT (34.1k subscribers), these videos are very well done and quite spooky.
https://youtube.com/@GEMINIHOMEENTERTAINMENT is one of the best analog horror channels out there if you’re interested. Over 200k subscribers but, probably still unknown to most.
Looking for: a 3brown1blue-quality video explaining the general workings on photogrammetry, and then another video that really walks through the math and implementation.
🙏
Most of mine are food related:
Best Ever Food Review Show
ProtoCooks with Chef Frank
bigstackD Casting
Hand Tool Rescue
You Suck at Cooking
I am going to take liberty in the fact you posed 75K as a question and propose Explosions&Fire (350K~) and the secondary channel Extractions&Ire (175K~). Two chemistry YouTube channels that I think have a wide appeal because the host is so genuine. To me, it kind of feels like watching early YouTube.
Apparently most of what I had considered small YouTube channels in my subs all have 300K+.
I just found two guitar related channels that I really enjoy. The first is Guitar Making with Chris Reynolds with about 3k subscribers. I watched his entire Partscaster series last night because I’ve been thinking about building a Tele.
Second is session musician Michael W. Westbrook with about 17k subscribers. He does some amp builds which are pretty cool.