Lost in The Last of Us Has Arrived

Lost in The Last of Us is officially live on ArTorr!

An ArTorr video on the first The Last of Us game has been in the works since before my video on The Last of Us: Part II almost 3 years ago. I originally wrote a 4 page script in June 2020 called "A Love Letter to The Last of Us," connecting the game's emphasis on emptiness and despair to my experience with seasonal depression. The video made it as far as the first stage of editing before I scrapped it, realizing both that the script got a little more personal than what I was comfortable with sharing on the internet, and that I wasn't doing the game justice. 

Two years later, after the release of The Last of Us: Part I for PS5, several ideas for a video sprung up again-- almost all of which made it into the video now up on my channel. My goal was to take all the disparate, deeply-moving elements of The Last of Us that I've always loved, and connect them through a journey of being lost and found in a world rife with contradictions. I'm very proud of the video, and hopeful that viewers who are encountering The Last of Us for the first time through the HBO live-action adaption will find the video and find even more reasons to appreciate Joel and Ellie's journey.

Over the coming weeks, I will be sharing a couple goodies and behind-the-scenes posts for this video-- along with my The Last of Us: Part II video. There's no set schedule, but you can expect something along these lines:

• The Writing of Lost in The Last of Us
• The Making of Lost in The Last of Us (Behind The Scene Commentary)
• The Making of The Unmistakable Humanity of The Last of Us: Part II (Behind The Scenes Commentary)
• And last, but not least... Lost in The Last of Us: The Patreon Cut: a cut of Lost in The Last of Us with a totally different, 3 minute intro that didn't make it to YouTube due to copyright restrictions. The intro is very special to me, and it devastated to me when I had to cut it from the video. Additionally, there will be a few bonus songs, and no YouTube ads! Woo hoo!

Alongside this, I will be starting a series of videos on my approach to editing in Adobe Premiere, which is something I'm asked about frequently. I've promised these videos since last year, but I fully intend to finally get around to it. The first episode will be about the basics of organization and general rules, but future episodes will break down particular sequences in my videos, and how I approach editing audio, video, and effects!

Additionally, I want to denote all the ways your generosity over the last couple of months made a difference in the making of Lost in the Last of Us. Through the Patreon page, your monetary support was used for:

• Research materials, including physical copies of Robert McKee's Story and Joseph Campbell's The Hero With a Thousand Faces.
• A new webcam for video outros and livestreams.
• A 128 GB SD card for my camera, which was used for several shots you saw during the video.
• Full-time hours!! This is the first ArTorr production I was able to dedicate 40 hours a week to work on.
• The motivation and focus necessary to ensure that this would be the best The Last of Us video I could possibly make.

If you aren't yet a supporter of my page here on Patreon, even just a dollar makes a difference for me. In exchange, you'll get to see your name in the credits of the next upload, and get regular updates on what videos I'm working on. Including the very next video (and the video after that), which I talked about in the the last two monthly update posts. Otherwise, thank you all for reading, and stay tuned for more on Patreon and on the channel! :)