The Work and Art of 'Shiey'
By Cavey
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Over the past couple of years I have been watching the development and journeys of a Lithuanian born Youtuber by the name of 'Shiey'.
The art of Escapism
Imagine a dark, rusting train depot. A light flickers in the distance, a street side lamp post. In the cover of darkness, two figures sit hunched over on their backpacks. They watch the yard intently, waiting for the moment they need. Suddenly, a low mechanical sound is audible. Workers check over an old locomotive, and its numerable cars holding deposits of coal. Satisfied in their late night waddle, (and in their following smoke break) they signal to the driver to head off. Movement. look back to the bush, and our figures are gone. They've bolted, across the tracks, towards the slow moving locomotive. using the cover of darkness, they get alongside, jumping in between two of the carriages near the end of the train. throwing their bags into the car, the duo follow suit, sliding down the store of coal into the corners. Undetected, they move further into central Europe. This might sound like a scene out of a video game, but this is the day to day life of 'Shiey', (Shieyfreedom on Youtube) a vlogger with an unconventional method of living his life.
Shiey's method is simple: explore the world, do what you want, and don't get caught doing it. Living by the mantra of 'Illegal Freedom', Shiey captures his travels and shares them with his 2.4 Million subscribers (As of Jan 2023). He delivers content into what describes as his 'journal', a playlist of his many exploits and adventures. Viewers can watch from the comfort of their rooms as he gets chased by police through the north of Italy, escaping across the border into Austria, as he explores Chernobyl, inside the exclusion zone, or battling the cold in the mountains of Boznia & Herzegovenia on a bike.
He spends large amounts of time in the abandoned areas of the world, areas forgotten by society. He has a militance in his determination, always making it to his end destination one way or another. Every interesting detail is documented, as he swings off the side of train cars, watching the Slovakian countryside pass by.
We do not know his real name. We have never seen his face without a mask or pixelation. His accomplices have their voices auto tuned as to further hide their identity. He gives his western audience something that they can only dream of. True freedom.
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To a young adult like myself, who has spent most of his life in one small town in greater north London, the idea of someone running around the continent of Europe, going wherever the wind takes them, sleeping in the wilderness every night- it's a beautiful idea. But, it is that. An idea. The life of Shiey is a life that many are unable to fulfill. Those who don't have the ability, resolve, or simply the will to leave normalcy behind, are given the chance instead to watch. Watch from the comfort of their own homes. The art of Escapism.
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Shiey's videography is simple. He uses Action cameras, his phone, and occasionally a DSLR. He shoots the world as it his from his angle. No extras added. Only the basics. Shot from Shiey's POV, he shoots long takes of his surroundings, speaks to us like a friend, explaining his route and his method. A staple of his work is after speaking to us, he shows a wide shot of his surroundings. Stable, non speaking, the sounds of the world ringing out to us. The beauty of honesty is undeniable. His videos are long. Hours. They become short films, showing that you don't need to have a large budget if you have a good story to tell. And a good story he has.
Understanding the Artist
Shiey does not let a lot about his life be known online. His movement is free throughout all of the European Union, and he doesn't venture any further than that. This begs the question, does he have a Passport? Health Insurance? What does he put as his home address? We know he has a driver's license from his adventures in Sardinia, and a phone contract, but outside of these facts we know annoyingly little about the adventurer. Maybe that adds to the allure. The unknown element. Who is the figure behind the mask? Shiey doesn't focus on that as much as we do. He makes it very clear through his work that he doesn't want that information visible, and doesn't bring attention to it when he pixelates his face out or wears his mask. He values privacy. The schedule of uploads is very sporadic; we don't know when we will see him on our screens again. A community on Reddit follows his activities, and they spend these down periods worrying the worst has happened, and their favourite vlogger has finally met his end... Until he pops in to say hi.
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From this, we can understand several things about the Artist. He uses Youtube as a tool. All throughout his however long videos, you will never see an Ad. However, he plugs a Patreon page, a space through which people can give him funding to continue living and making content. Without this necessary exposure, Shiey would be tied down to the labours of common reality. This presses the question, 'Why doesn't Shiey have more ads?' Which is answered simply by looking at what he does. He doesn't like corporations. 'The Man'. He lives outside these traditions. So, there is no way he would want to see his content muddled in with this. He prefers people. People helping people. It is true that by adding advertisements he could make a lot of money, as his content never uses copyrighted material, but he makes a conscious choice not to. We can also decipher through his work, that Shiey is an Introverted soul. He hides from society on a day to day basis, and operates with a small network of close, trustworthy friends. The main friend he brings along is another adventurer only known as 'Poison'. Even more elusive than Shiey, they are often seen together in videos. When alone, Shiey uses us as someone to speak with. He tells his audience what's going on, and although it is never more than a simple rundown of current events, we feel he includes the camera in his world.
What can we learn?
The format by which Shiey creates is individual, and feels almost lost in time. We are along for the ride with this nomadic, faceless man, carving his path through cities full of stories, creating his own as he goes. We see people pass by, not looking for a second as he slips through their worlds. Shiey leaves little trace of his existence, and lives out his days in anonymity. What legacy will this rogue leave behind him?
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I don't know about you, but that sounds like a pretty good western film. Look to the 1960's, to the time of the italian westerns that took over the international film landscape. The Dollars trilogy, Clint Eastwood- 'The man with no name'. Sound familiar? Like Leone's iconic character, Shiey is an Antihero. He does things we all know he shouldn't, and doesn't do what is morally good to anyone. But that isn't to say he isn't a good person. Absence of morality is understandable for someone who doesn't speak to many. Shiey tells the story of a never ending journey. A life committed to that leads one down a lonesome path. When you sit back and think about it, It's a melancholic existence. His aesthetic of a lone wolf, exploring abandoned buildings and cold war era bases, gives us the idea of a time gone past. Shiey lives amongst the shell of an old civilisation, and finds solace in emptiness. This is an interesting character to ponder and study. What is his motive? What does he want to find?
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I bring this to attention purely because I am a filmmaker. More accurately, a storyteller. I see this person, this existence, and can't help but feel compelled to play around with this idea. I have glimpsed at moments akin to what he experiences on a daily basis. Travelling up and down the UK on coaches, seldom accompanied, meeting people in strange and wonderful places, being a tourist in other people's lives. Why do this? I always had a reason, mainly boredom, sometimes to try and further my career, but is this the same for Shiey? There is a plethora of opportunities readily available in looking at this character. A character study, questioning reasoning for loneliness, the necessity for seclusion. I would like to put this person into a different context. See what would happen if you try to place a rogue in a place like Canary Wharf, or Times Square. Would they thrive like other urban explorers, such as Nightscape? What happens when they have to deal with camera surveillance in a dense population?
Maybe you look at the way that this whole escapade started. What caused this solitude that has overran this life? Back in 2022 I wrote my own equation for creating character in film.
Character: Identity + Context = Ideology
By making an Identity, a persona, and adding in context to a person’s life, you can create a reasonable and understandable ideology that gives our character meaning. With Shiey, we know his ideology. So we can use this to try and understand their mentality.
Ideology = Identity + Context
Illegal freedom. Privacy. Exploration. These fuel the character that we see online. From this, we can begin to build a character to use in our own projects. Lawlessness: Following in a father’s footsteps, or rebelling against a strict upbringing? Privacy could be attributed to a bullied upbringing, in the world of social media where they couldn’t escape torment. Maybe they’re not the prettiest of people. This need for exploration is probably the most free choice to make when developing your character, and it can become a decisive point in your characters journey to becoming your protagonist you want them to be. Was he pushed out of where he came from, made to spend his days trying to find a new place to call home? Does he yearn for the unknown, a man more comfortable in the 1700’s, exploring new frontiers for the advancement of humankind? Or did he watch someone like Shiey, in his room, all alone, and decide that this was something he wanted to experience for himself.
So, what am I trying to say? Why have I gone on and on about this man who clearly doesn’t yearn for the spotlight. I think I wanted to discuss the opportunity, the potential when talking about someone who genuinely doesn’t care for rules. Someone who is genuine. One of god’s own prototypes, never meant for mass production. You can take the world and reflect it onto your own work. I am a big fan of Shiey. His way of storytelling and creating narrative, his use of cinematography, it’s truth compels me to watch on. The mix of POV and landscape shooting is something I’d like to experiment with, especially in a film about personal development. With the emphasis on new media in the 21st century, Film has had to evolve to compete with the content of YouTube. Maybe, by incorporating the stylings of Shiey I can develop my filmmaking practice into the new era of content creation. Using higher production levels, shooting a character making their way through the world by themselves as they try to find their way.
By mixing the rawness of Shiey’s content with a higher production budget, proper actors and sound design, modern cinema could have a new era of hyper-realism that becomes the new standard for action film across the globe. On the other hand, the slow pace of his projects is a direct contrast to the shortening retention span of the youth of today.