BLOG: THE FUTURE OF EVERYTHING

Morning, all.

I’ve been slapped about with both a simultaneous upset stomach and a weird cold thing this week – everything bar the snot - so that’s been fun. Coughing at both ends!

Sorry.

Feeling very washed out now, so… inevitably… I’m going to postpone tonight’s Biffo’s Brain again. Huge apologies – this one has been a bugger to schedule, but hopefully I’ll be up to speed again next week.

We ended up not filming the new segment for Digi Level 2 Ep 5 – featuring actual living animals! – that we had scheduled, and have now pushed that to next week. There’ll be another brief hiatus of main Level 2 eps after Ep 4 goes out this Sunday, as the final two episodes do require a fair bit of additional filming.

It’s partly because some of the footage was unusable due to either being out of focus, or – in one case - because somebody tripped over the camera power cable.

But also, it’s a good opportunity to just play around with the format. I’m starting to get a touch of ‘bunker fever’ when I’m editing, and I’m looking forward to opening the show up a bit and stretching the format.

IN OTHER NEWS…

I’ll be standing in for Eli on Cheapshow in a few weeks, as he’s off doing something else. I enjoy doing them, though always dread the reaction from the CS hardcore. We’re also going to be doing a live stream with Cheapshow in May – it’s not their traditional Urinevision show, but something new. I’m very much looking forward to that, as they’re always fun.

I’ve been asked to do a talk at the Electromagnetic Field Festival in the summer, held in the grounds of Eastnor Castle. I think they want me to talk teletext, as it’s the 50th anniversary. Dunno if you’re aware of it, but it’s basically a big nerd fest for “hackers, artists, geeks, crafters, scientists and engineers”. I know Violet Berlin loves it.

I fear tickets for this year are already sold out, but if you do happen to be going… I might see you there. They seem to put the talks online though, so you should still get to see it… if I end up doing it. https://www.emfcamp.org

That should be one of at least two chances to see me in person this year, as I’m also likely going to be a guest at the Block Party 50th anniversary celebration in the autumn (Sanja’s also been invited to be a guest, so that should be fun).

It’s always nice to be asked (more on that below…).

IN OTHER OTHER NEWS

We’re continuing to discuss our plans for the rest of the year. Most of this you know, but the rough plan is as follows:

·  Finish the final episodes of Digi Level 2.

·  Get back to doing some videos on the poor neglected main Digitiser channel.

·  Get back to doing BYAMPOD.

·  Send out the Kickstarter rewards.

·  Keep doing vids for the main channel.

·  Start editing Digi Level 2 Presents: Drong’s Challenge.

·  The next big project.

Also amid all this, Sanja will be doing the assembly edit of the Digi Live shows from 2021 and 2023. We don’t yet know how or when we’ll be sharing them, but we’ll keep you posted.

In terms of our next ‘big’ thing… we’ve not made a final decision yet on what it’ll be. I want to do a Digi Level 3… but… I need to be able to manage it.

I shall explain!

This isn’t a whinge… but the dilemma we have is this: the last two months have been exhausting. Because I don’t earn as much money as I used to – thanks to the contraction of the TV industry - I have to work more these days to keep our heads above water. It’s fine. We’ve found our path.

However, neither can I afford to scrimp on the time I devote to Digi Level 2, because I want those eps to be as good as they possibly can be.

What has been happening is me taking the time to get those episodes into the shape that they deserve… and then working myself to the point of exhaustion on day job stuff in-between. I’m not really getting a break, because I’m keen to be done with Digi Level 2 so I can look back on a job well done, take my foot off the gas for a bit, and start planning for what's next. 

Sanja taking over the assembly cut editing has made a huge difference, but I honestly couldn’t do this schedule again. It’s killer. With every episode I finish, and every script I complete, I’m left feeling more and more drained.

Which means – if we were to do Digi Level 3 - we need to be able to afford for me to take some time off day job stuff to just focus on the editing and animation and all that. But… I don’t know if we’d be able to raise enough through crowdfunding for me to do that in addition to paying for something with comparable production values.

The reaction to those who’ve seen Digi Level 2 has been great, but it’s pretty evident that it’s not as ‘buzzy’ as Digitiser The Show was all those years ago. I don’t know if we could raise the same amount of money again, and the thought of trying – and then being locked into delivering something that isn’t adequately funded – makes me nervous.

It's a dilemma. I know many of you were hoping for a book to be our next crowdfunding project… but… I’m just not feeling that yet. It might change, but right now I want to film something ambitious again.

So, I dunno.

RELATED

Related to this, since my upper tiers blog post last month in which I talked about being on the ‘outside’, and inner circles, and all that, Sanja and I have been talking a lot about community.

We don’t really feel like we fit in anywhere in the retro gaming community – yes, we are acquainted with most of the key players – but we’re still sort of our own thing, as Digitiser always was. I guess we're just too idiosyncratic to fit into any box, so we remain forever on the fringes.

We don’t generally get asked to collab with anyone, we don’t get asked to do things with other YouTubers. Yes, they’ll ask to be involved with what we’re doing, and drop everything if we ask them to be involved with what we're doing, but it does sort of feel like they don’t want us – or me – anywhere near their own stuff!

We’ve had next to no support from our supposed peers, which could’ve helped boost the show’s visibility. I mean, it's fine. Whatever. As always, Digi’s like this weird gremlin creature in the corner that nobody remembers inviting to the party. Yes, the noises it makes are funny, and oh how everyone laughs when it urinates on the stereo, but you wouldn’t want it in your own house.

But… when we’ve gotten together with you all at the various Digi Lives, we always felt like we were a part of something. The comments I got on that blog post were all incredibly insightful, and I’ve not stopped thinking about them. We want to find a way to nurture that sense of belonging.

Not sure where I’m going with this yet, but I’m keen for anything we do in the future to avoid feeling ‘cliquey’. I want it to reflect the community we feel we DO belong to, and which HAS supported us through thick and thin. We don’t know how yet, but both mine and Sanja have set our brains the task of finding a way.

I’ll leave you with this quote I read in a recent interview with Gregg Turkington (who you may know from On Cinema and as Neil Hamburger), which sums up my feelings about all that we do, and how we do it:

“I’ve had a lot of people come up to me after shows and say the stuff I’ve done, whether it’s Neil Hamburger or On Cinema, really helped them get through hard times. It was really nice to hear that, and they would be emotional about it. I realized they had a deep relationship with this stuff while they were going through trauma. It meant a lot to them, and they really wanted to tell me. And that is just so rewarding.

“Over the years, there have been various things in my life going on that weren’t always the best. Art has always been a refuge for me, and humor is definitely a big part of that. But I don’t mind if people don’t like what I do. In fact, I expect it. But when somebody does like it and they relate to it on that level and it actually means something to them, that’s as exciting as it gets to me. It makes me feel like everything is extra worthwhile, even if that wasn’t the intention when I made it.

“I’m just trying to reach people that would like this work, knowing that they’re a small group, and not being adequately catered to. I know how much it means to me when I find something and it really speaks to me, even if it speaks to no-one else.

“It’s really about the chemistry in your brain being activated by this stuff and the good feelings you suddenly have because somebody has created something that tickles you in the right way.”