The creative process is fluid and it’s not always easy to identify the exact origin of an essay idea. We ask that the majority of your creative work—planning, writing, recording, and editing—take place during the 48 hour jam timeframe.

An old conversation with friends? Great inspiration. That half-written script you've been working on? Please save it for another time.

You’re welcome to use assets (your own or online) that would otherwise be difficult to obtain in 48 hours, such as specific gameplay recordings, film/television footage, stock footage, or music libraries.

Note: The goal of the Video Jam is to see what we can make in 48 hours. If you use AI to make your video for you, you’re missing the point.

There are no requirements for video length, but we strongly encourage participants to plan their submissions with the 48-hour timeframe in mind. For reference, last year’s Video Jam had entries ranging from 2–20 minutes.

Think about your own workflow and what will be achievable for you. We recommend aiming for 5 minutes or less if this is your first time participating.

Voiceover narration is not required.

Simply upload your video to YouTube and add it to the collaborative playlist. If you’re in the Discord server, you can share a link to your video and let people know you’ve finished.

If you are working as part of a team, only one person needs to upload it. All team members should be properly credited in the video description. You can also use YouTube’s “collaborator” feature to share the upload between multiple channels.

There is no limit on the number of videos you can submit in 48 hours.

You're welcome to add your unfinished video to the playlist. This is an exercise to see what you can do in 48 hours—we don't expect all participants to produce a complete, polished video essay.

We will allow uploads after the deadline (within reason) if you are delayed for reasons outside your control. Please join the Discord server and notify us in the #video-jam channel.

All videos that are uploaded to the playlist are automatically part of the Video Jam. Videos will only be removed from the playlist if they are identified as spam or appear to violate any of the guidelines described on this page.

Please familiarize yourself with YouTube’s community guidelines to avoid triggering video removal.

In other collabs hosted by The Essay Library, we’ve offered to upload videos on participants’ behalf for inclusion in the playlist. However, we cannot offer this during the Video Jam—we’ll be busy working on our own entries.

If you are coming from another platform (Vimeo, Critical Commons) please note that you will need to use your own YouTube account to submit. This does not require having an established channel; you can create a new account for this purpose. If you already have a Google account, you should be able to use that to upload to YouTube.

If you want to prevent the video from appearing on your public channel page, select “unlisted” when you upload.

Individual video essays created for the Video Jam can be published as soon as they’re complete. At this time, there are no plans to publish the videos as a compilation on The Essay Library channel.

Last year, a server member edited a highlights reel of all the jam entries, and we hosted a premiere on our channel. We may do something similar to showcase this year’s participants.

You’re free to upload your video on any platform. If possible, please link to this website and/or the YouTube playlist to provide context about the Video Jam project.

Your video will remain 100% your own property. After the Video Jam is over, you can do whatever you want with it, including making changes or additions. While you cannot add any revisions or extended cuts to the Video Jam playlist, you’re welcome to share it in The Essay Library Discord server.