MONDAY BLOG: NOW WITH WOMEN!

Morning chums. Happy Monday.

Firstly, apologies for the lack of BYAMPOD. With the way things have been of late for us, we’ve just had to do what we can do when we can.

Last week we prioritised the latest videos. This week I need to catch up on some work, and Sanja’s doing the accounts – thrills! – but we will aim to get a BYAMPOD recorded (as well as a Writer’s Club). I think we’ll also do a Biffo’s Brain on Thursday, so mark that down in your private ledger.

This weekend we’re heading down to Brighton to see my daughter for her birthday, but we’ve booked an extra night so that we can get some filming done over a couple of days.

The initial aim for the next video was to do something more overtly light-hearted and silly, in the vein of the Lowest Point vid. The ideal for me is if we alternate between bigger, more involved, topics… and more throwaway ones, where we can lob in the occasional Digi character, and just focus on the nonsense more.

I drew up a long list of possible subjects that we could cover in Sussex. We’ll hopefully do all of them eventually, but as I started researching them, the one which kept rising to the top wasn’t a particularly light-hearted subject. It’s another biiiig one, like the Canary Wharf video. I love when we can go somewhere, dig beneath some unusual bit of history, and then link it back to the present day. Joining those dots – so to speak.  

While also bickering and/or rolling around on the floor like a crisp packet.

I’ve been researching this topic over the past couple of weeks, having already done some preliminary work on it a few months back. I pitched it to Sanja yesterday, and she’s on the same page as me. It feels like the right one to do now, even though it risks being a touch controversial. I think I can walk a safe line though.

So anyway… that’s the one we’re going to film this weekend. I confess to feeling a bit conflicted that we’ve moved so far from where the channel started. I dunno if conflicted is the right word. Guilty? Worried that we’ll alienate all of you?

Digi has gone through so many different incarnations since we landed on YouTube, but we’ve made a commitment to follow the flow of energy, and this direction feels right. Both for us – and what gets us fired up – and clearly for the channel, which is continuing to grow. Gawd knows what any of the newcomers will make of it if they dig back into videos from four years ago… But it does feel a bit like Digi’s growing up – and evolving into a format I can continue with as I get older – while not losing what it has always been.

Still, we’re a long way from a video where Gannon and I sit at a table and play with balloons. I know there are those who miss the simple stupidity of those days, but hopefully Digi Level 2 – including the upcoming eps of that - goes some way to scratching that itch for people.

 Nonetheless, I like that we can have both, and I love that we’ve finally hit upon a format that feels so natural for us and feels in a way closer to the original spirit of Digi. Be informative, while also being stupid. Plus, I get to be a journalist again, even if we’re not talking about video games and I’m acting like an idiot. 

And, of course, we’re filming a big Supernatural World episode next month with Gannon and Ashens…

We’ve noticed a few interesting things since somehow attracting this new audience. The biggest one is the number of women subscribing and commenting, who seem to enjoy Sanja and I as a couple. That’s weird, but very welcome, given how – according to our stats – 98% or so of our audience has always been male. 

Clicking through the new subscribers is also eye-opening, considering that – even once we moved away from retrogaming - we were always very tied to the retrogamer/Barshens/Cheapshow/Ashens bubble. This is genuinely a whole new audience for us. 

Yes, a chunk of that audience is probably not going to stick around once they realise we don’t actually believe the earth is flat or the moon landings were fake, but still… it’s a stepping stone! We’ll take what we can get.

Righty. Should be some outtakes coming for the upper tiers in the next day or so. And we’ll speak to some of you on Thursday.

Paul