Half Life: Alyx - Jeff - Update #2

Just to check in and say that the initial cutting phase for Half Life: Alyx has gone very well. I'm very confident I can make an entertaining video.

The process went something like this. It's that old sculptures joke: 'you just chip away at everything that doesn't look like an elephant'.

• I chipped away at the 3 hour long VOD to leave about 1 hour and 30 minutes related to the relevant chapter.

• Tighter cutting gave me about 40 minutes of useful clips related to the Jeff encounter.

• Much tighter cutting took it down to about 30 minutes. Removing all the duplicate actions or moments that didn't lead anywhere interesting.

• Refining cutting took it down to 26 minutes and 20 seconds where it takes its near final form.

What's left is now a single large Adobe Premiere sequence, made up of hundreds of cuts. That looks like this when you zoom in. Lots of little clips putting emphasis on continuity between shots. Sometimes shuffled around a little to remove the dead air when nothing is happening. Whilst being careful not to overtighten it.

Let me draw your attention to the occasional little gaps in the microphone layer or times where the game audio layer is stretched out across multiple clips (not visible in that picture sorry). I have a habit of manipulating the audio relative to the visuals, to ensure it's smooth to watch rather than a 100% rendition of how things went down.

Maybe the monster roars just as I speak softly, so I shimmy my voice 2 seconds later. Maybe the music has a long drawn out note that cuts horribly and would be more appropriate to continue humming into the next scene. My objective is to try and make it smooth to view, rather than let the cuts dictate how it sounds.

Thus far the project has benefited from a major advantage - it's a single level from a single livestream.

This drastically simplifies the process from Adobe Premiere's perspective. Gang Beasts was similar ages ago. For instead of having to access 30-50 individual streams, the program only has to cache a single .mp4 file. Meaning that previewing and tweaking the footage is almost instantaneous. Hence the extremely speedy cutting.

It's also important that I try to get the cut finalised now. Because once I start exporting everything into Adobe After Effects, everything will slow down. It'll be harder to make broad changes.

Additionally, I'm spotting lots of interesting little opportunities for creative flourishes. Moments where I could add a bit of foley for the fun of it.

For example, playing as Alyx, I keep doing lots of little gestures and actions the game developers didn't account for. Such as wiping my hand on glass, slamming my fist into a metal grating, open metal sliders on rollers. But the game by default has no sound for these actions. Many of which are very edge-case. Therefore I might add it myself if there's time. Basically run about my home with a microphone, recording similar actions with props, etc.

See if anybody notices in the Youtube comments :)

Additionally, there's something that's bugging me. There's a segment of the middle part of the video that takes place in a wide open area. It's rather memorable for me personally, because it's where I had a moment of intense immersion.

Crashed down on my knees, in real life and in game. Overwhelmed by the intensity of it all on a hot summer day, gazing at the sunset with my air conditioning blowing cool wind in my face like an evening breeze.

But the track that's playing is this one right here.

It's haunting and evocative. But it has these long, flowing notes that hold for ages. And as you can probably imagine it sounds horribly obvious when cut. Music vexes me as an editor. Because it skips each time you cut visuals.

Therefore if might just entirely rescore the entire sequence.

Keeping the visuals, keeping my voice. But muting the game. Then I'll have the song playing uninterrupted on another layer, downloaded separately. Then go into Half Life:Alyx and literally mimic my past actions. Touch for touch, step by step. A bit of overediting yes. But at least then the song won't sound like ass. And if I do I correctly, nobody will notice.

One final thing. I'm about to try moving out this weekend. The internet is going to be disabled at this flat.

It should be reactivated just fine in my new place. But if something goes wrong and you don't hear for me in a few days, then that's why. Hopefully any issues will be resolved quickly. I'll continue working on this in the background. The editing doesn't require the internet.

If anybody asks where I am, please make something up.

Tell people I divided by zero and exploded. The HMRC arrested me for listing all my fishing gear as business expenses. I travelled back in time to kill the inventor of vacuum sealed packaging, etc.

Thanks all.