Next Topic Announcement, Action Plan, and Collector's Pin

We’re approaching four weeks since the release of the video about EVE Online, and in that time, it has accrued nearly 3,000,000 views, blowing past the next most popular release, the WingsofRedemption video, which had 2,500,000 views in the same period. Along with practically every other metric, this new video has exceeded even my most hopeful expectations.

However, there are numerous things with which I’m unsatisfied, primarily the process of production.

Over two years for a video, however complicated or long it may have been, is not something that either I or my team wish to repeat. And so, we recently sat down to see what we could change to both expedite the process and make an even better product.

Notably, I have little interest in making my videos flashier or fancier; I personally believe that the pared-down visuals are effective and have become a hallmark of the series, supporting its plain and direct rhetoric, and the modest size of production gives me the creative control I desire. When I refer to making a better product, this refers to refining the interplay between the graphics, music, script, and narration.

For my part, there are two problems that I need to address.

The first is, as peculiar as this may sound, my unhealthy work habits. Down the Rabbit Hole’s production has been marred by a manic work cycle with irregular and, in retrospect, distressingly long hours. After I moved out of my parents’ house and began living on my own, food became less and less regular. While I had previously dismissed concerns over burnout, I’ve latterly come to recognize the difficulty it presents; there are few points in the creation of a video where total focus isn’t required, and the brain needs rest much as the rest of the body does.

As such, in the interest of maintaining longevity for the series, I’m enforcing both weekends and a cutoff time for work every day. I’m going to experiment with a four-day work week to give myself space to rest after the ordeal that was the EVE video, and I’ll add another day depending on how I’m feeling. I don’t intend to quit Down the Rabbit Hole any time soon, and so I’m going to attempt to care for myself better than I have. With luck, this should make production much more regular and healthy without impacting the time to release.

The other major problem we’ve identified stemming from me is my hesitancy to act as a creative director—even though I’ve brought more people into the production, I haven’t accepted my role as readily as I should have, and so Ryan and Arc haven’t had the guidance that they require to make the series all that it can be and to work as efficiently as possible.

To enforce this, I will be scheduling meetings regularly with my crew to act more as a creative director and guide them in the direction of my vision, redoing things as necessary. I’ll also be more communicative with my research as I’m performing it so that they’re in the loop and can adjust their work accordingly. To this end, I’ll be sharing more of my script even in the early rough draft phase as well as creating an action plan at the very beginning of every video so that everyone will have work to perform at all times. All of these things will take time away from research, writing, and editing, but they are necessary and part of my job.

For Arc’s part, we need him working on assets from the moment that research begins, even if things inevitably have to be thrown out or remain unused. To keep him focused, I’ll also be meeting with him weekly to see what he’s completed and guide him more closely.

One major change in communication between myself and all of you from now on is that I won’t be sharing estimated completion dates any longer, only progress. Starting next week, I’ll be giving progress updates weekly once again as we enter full production for our next video, whose topic we have chosen:

The Battle of The Baths during War 106 in the game Foxhole, which lasted for over 36 hours.

This video will be done in the style of the duel in the Wings of Redemption video, going beat-by-beat to explore how it happened and why. Gonna level with all of you: this is basically something we’re doing for fun. I love writing scripts like this, Ryan will get a chance to flex his muscles a bit, and Arc will get to draw some cool maps for a game that he still enjoys. Also, this is a chance to return to what I believe made Down the Rabbit Hole great in the first place: indulging my hyperfixations.

As one last note, I’d like to let all of my Patrons know that we’ll be releasing a collector’s pin soon, hand-crafted by Deeribou, one of the people who helped with animation towards the end of the EVE video. These pins are gold-plated, hand-painted, and individualized with a unique signature from myself carved into each, along with a card bearing the original signature used for the carving (yes, I personally signed 100 different cards with my fountain pen); simply put, they’re not the kind of thing you pin to your backpack and take with you to school. Each will come in a box with the iconic rabbit on the front.

Given the artisanal quality of the pins, the quantity is limited to 100, but I wanted to give all of you the chance to get them first. They’re definitely pricey, but in the interest of keeping the cost to all of you as low as I can, I won’t be making any money from this; they’re being sold at the cost of production. I’ll have some photos and a page where you can purchase them in the coming days, and Patrons will have first dibs.

Thank you all for your time, and I’ll see you soon.

-Fredrik