Behind-The-Scenes: The Art of the Failure State

Here's my thoughts on my Failure State video!

I always love to make videos on more general topics, since coming up with examples and ideas is more fun when I can do it all around one big, central concept. Specifically, I had this idea about "Death In Video Games" after thinking about Sifu and wanting to make a video talking about it. That idea then transformed more into failure states when I thought about things like Call of Duty's baby flashbang or what NakeyJakey talked about in his Red Dead video.

I think there's so many cool ways that games handle failure, like in David Cage games, where they're able to account for what the player does. And I just wanted to cover my frustration that most games are seemingly unwilling to do something like that. I think a triple-A video game without any game over/death screens would be incredibly cool. If something like GTA VI had no "WASTED" message, but instead you got picked up by an ambulance or sent to jail for a short time. Which is something that GTA RP servers already do that I think makes them stand out.

And of course, most people are probably aware of how much I love FromSoft games at this point. And seeing the way they handle death be confined to the "Soulslike" genre instead of being adapted by more games is a little sad to see. I genuinely hope bigger games can adapt their death mechanics instead of using the same tired trope.

Oh, and I still cannot believe the Borderlands movie is a real thing. I mention it in the video, but I looked into it more while researching, and they've got Kevin Hart and Bobby Lee in it? And Cate Blanchett as the lead? Jack Black as ClapTrap?? Jamie Lee Curtis??? The voice actor for Dutch in Red Dead is there??? And it's all directed by Eli Roth????? That movie is going to be insane. It'll either be the worst video game movie ever made, or some monstrous masterpiece. And judging from the fact they still haven't given a release date or trailer or anything this far into production is a bit worrying. I hope it'll be good or so-bad-it's-good, but it might just suck outright.

Recording

I finally got a new camera! Yay!

In fact, I actually bought a bunch of equipment to help me film. I posted about it a bit on Twitter, but I have a full mirrorless camera with a teleprompter now. So I don't have to read my script line-by-line, or constantly record small chunks at a time on my phone.

I think the teleprompter is pretty unnoticeable? I was even looking for it and I think it's a bit hard to tell I'm using one, which is a good enough job for me. It certainly made recording way more efficient. I'd highly recommend one for anyone doing scripted videos like me, because not having to memorize lines is a godsend.

Editing

For this video I also knew it was going to be shorter, since I didn't want another 40 minute behemoth like most of my videos are. And because it was shorter, I wanted to focus a lot more on the edits. I made sure every transition was as slick as I could, and there was tons of relevant footage and images and text on screen. It naturally took more work, but I think it resulted in a much smoother video overall.

Watching lots of Max0r videos and similar content just made me realize how simple my editing is. And while I don't necessarily want to take months to edit like they do, I also want to continually improve my style and make every video a little better looking than the last. And I think this was a big step towards that.

This sort of 20-ish minute video with smoother editing is what I'd ideally make most of the time. It hits a nice middle ground for me and doesn't make editing too much of a pain. Finding footage is still brutal, but more bearable than in a video that's twice as long. But knowing me, I'll probably make an hour long video next because I can't help myself.

Thoughts

Overall, I'm very proud of this one. It's on a topic that I thought was interesting, and sort of stands on its own very nicely. I was originally going to say that it's on a niche topic so I'm proud of that, but I guess it's not anymore. I got lots of comments about Adam Millard making a similar video, and after checking that out I did see similarities.

This is now the third time I've made a video two or so days after someone else on the same topic. My history of video game monetization came out after another channel covered the topic, with the same title and everything. And my Matrix video came out after RedLetterMedia's review, and I think we even use the same jokes and ideas sometimes.

Now, of course, I didn't plan to make videos on the same subjects as other people. In fact, every time I found out it was after the fact. I usually have the script and idea solidified over a week before uploading anyway. But it is funny that it's happened more than once. And this time people actively commented on the similarities. I'd hope people would be wise enought to know I couldn't have plagiarized, but I guess if you think I can record and edit a video like this in less than two days then I'll take that compliment. And I even said I wanted more discussion of the topic online, so someone as good as Millard making a video on it is perfect. He covers a lot of topics and issues I don't bring up.

After this, I think I'm gonna catch up on all the anime I missed while working. I want to make another anime video, but I'm not exactly sure what to cover right now. A general show review seems a little simple. But I'm sure I'll figure something out. If you have any ideas, let me know!