a new series covering the emotional impact of media

Experiences matter

Exploring Emotion is a new YouTube series that discusses the emotional impact of TV shows, movies and video games. With an expressive character to help understand the importance of emotion in media, Hyla guides the viewers to find a new appreciation of the things we watch and play, and connecting them to the experiences we have every day.

The journey so far to explore emotions

  • Season One: Exploring Identities

    What’s behind a person’s identity?

    When we’ve lost our sense of direction, we always seem to turn towards what makes us as an individual. Sometimes that requires a bit more help than what we’re capable of on our own, and Hyla is here to assist. In this season, we’ll meet three people and their journey to explore what their identity really means.

    From discovering a new place of belonging, to uncovering mysterious histories, to coming across your new soulmate by chance: join Hyla for this debut season of Exploring Emotion.

  • Season Two: Exploring Decisions

    What influences the decisions we make?

    When the world seems so hopeless, what do we do to change things? What goes in our mind when we have our hearts set on making a difference? When things get so dire, do we ever put consideration to our own feelings when making our final decision? In this season, we’ll explore three journeys to save the world, along with the burdens that they carry to do so.

    From holding the Sun, to singing our hearts, to spacetime shenanigans infamously impossible to explain: this second season is surely nothing to miss.

  • Season Three: Exploring the Cosmos

    What’s beyond our planet?

    Humanity has always wondered if there’s anything beyond the home we call Earth. Perhaps there’s a new planet abundant with resources for our survival, or even new intelligence that we can learn from. Nonetheless, with all the stories we tell about the space above us, there may be more than the cosmos that may be out there to explore.

    Whether it’s a spaceship or a spacetrain, we’ll come across three people and the emotions they experience as they traverse the universe.

  • More seasons to come...

More about exploring emotion

What goes behind an Exploring Emotion video?

Exploring Emotion reviews and analyses media with a focus on narrative and character development. For example, there may be a discussion of the gameplay mechanics or cast of a TV show, but the main focus will be the characters that feature in a media piece and the story behind them. The job is then to analyse the portrayal of emotion through the narrative, discussing character traits, their experiences and their connections to other characters. Finally, we explore how these portrayed emotions impact the viewer, by connecting them to similar experiences they may encounter, and whether anything can be learned from them.

What media would be considered for a feature on Exploring Emotion?

Many of the media featured on Exploring Emotion have a strong narrative. That’s not to say other media without much narrative won’t be featured in the future! There’s also consideration to the themes featured in the media. If the themes explored are too dark or distressing, it may not fit for me to explore given my current headset. This too may change in the future however.

How often will an Exploring Emotion episode release?

Because Exploring Emotion is created by one person doing the scriptwriting, gameplay, recording and editing, the release schedule will be sporadic. There are three episodes per season, along with two short videos to introduce and conclude each season’s “theme”.

Content disclaimers

Exploring Emotion may deal with distressing subjects such as mental illness, self-harm, depression and anxiety. If applicable, viewer discretion would be advised before a video or blog post begins.

If you or someone you know are distressed over the above subjects, please consider contacting your local crisis hotline.

🇦🇺 If you or someone you know feels anxious over the subjects brought up by Exploring Emotion, consider using the free anxiety support services provided by Beyond Blue.

Video copyright information

Games

Unless otherwise stated, all gameplay is recorded using my own equipment. If a recording of someone else’s gameplay is to be used, source and permission details will be provided within the episode description.

TV Shows and Movies

TV shows and movies featured by Exploring Emotion are subject to copyright law. For this reason, the soundtracks for these works are not played for the purpose of ambient music, unless a genuine criticism or review about a particular track is being made.

Hyla does not monetise any videos on their channel. If advertisements are shown on a video, the revenue earned goes to Google Inc. and/or copyright holders. Hyla does not receive any percentage of the revenue earned from these advertisements.

Exploring Emotion follows the laws set by the United States (which YouTube’s operations are based) and Australia (which Hyla’s operations are based) regarding the use of copyrighted material for the purposes of criticism and review.

🇺🇸 US copyright law denotes the use of copyrighted material for the purposes of criticism and review as “fair use” under Section 107 of the Copyright Act (Title 17), based on the purpose of use, nature, amount used and effect of use of the copyrighted material.

🇦🇺 Australian copyright law denotes the genuine criticism and review of a copyrighted work as a “fair dealing” under Section 41 of Copyright Act 1968 (Cth), given there is sufficient acknowledgement of the copyrighted work within the review. See this informational document from the Australian Copyright Council for more details.

Only the amount required to be shown to give context to the review or criticism is shown to ensure the highest possible compliance of both acts.