The Miscast Minute 003

I just published my new video.

I've never done a skit before but it was so fun and so dumb and I laugh everytime I watch it. Rachel and I came up with our own lines as we filmed and then I had to cobble together my bad acting in the edit. We'll do something like this again I'm sure.

Post video I've been visiting family for Christmas and during long car rides I've been working on Arcane Ugly. On the Arcane Ugly discord I've posted Familiar rules for playtesting and now I'm working on extended Mutation rules. Mutations already exist in Arcane Ugly but now I'm trying to make them to the scale I first envisioned when I started this project.

Modelling compound is something I bought originally to surface gaming tables with but I ended up also really liking it as a cheap clay alternative for sculpting big models/props. I always add in a bit of multi part filler as well to give it some extra strength and sculptability. You can make modeling compound yourself as well, there are a lot of tutorials online!

Walls and Barricades!

After dabbling with YouTube and making a couple of videos I decided to throw everything I had into making the best terrain tutorial videos I could make.

I'd just bought a new camera for photography that could also shoot video. I made a whole lighting set up and overhead camera mount out of a hodge podge of bits I found at the hardware shop.

This was all shot in my bedroom and I was too embarrassed to tell my parents that I was making YouTube videos so I used to record all the voice over in the middle of the night when the house was asleep under a blanket. I didn't write scripts at this point either, I'd just watch my video over and over and improvise lines and it'd take an eternity.

This episode was focused around EVA foam which was inspired by a friend who was heavily into cosplay and their house was always covered in chunks of it.

I wanted cool modern music and sound effects for my new YouTube series because no one else making terrain was using music I liked. Most of my budget for this new YouTube endeavor went into buying music licences. I think I spent about $100 on music for this episode and every episode after about $30-60. Now music is WAAAAY cheaper to license (thank god).

To fund all this I was working as a car detailer while also trying to make it as a graphic designer. My goal was to make YouTube videos when I didn't have any graphic design work, so that's why I was only releasing videos every month or so.

Some things that made me really happy while watching this video again is my attempt to keep my tables and cutting mats clean and my brand new very cheap knife, which is still my favourite. I also love that Nerdforge left comment which was before they blew up to be the phenomenon they are now (I wish I'd noticed it earlier haha).

My goal for this series was to be as efficient on time as possible. Short and sharp is what I'd tell myself while editing. My editing rule was "cut it to be as short as you can... and then cut it again... and then cut it again." Every second was very important to me, which is why I never did talking head introductions.

Because the reality of making things was not as cool and quick as I made things out to be, and because I'm equally as awkward and not at all concise, I thought it'd be a funny and great way to inject some personality by making very long and unedited outros. It also made it easier to talk to the camera by putting on a bit of a character–I tried to channel David Brent from the office. Now YouTube (as in the platform algorithm) hates these long outros because lots of people don't watch them and because my videos are typically short it affects my audience retention which YouTube doesn't like. If you don't stay in favour with YouTube, your videos don't get recommended to new people as much. Bit of a shame but that's part of the gig, you gotta adapt!

I loved watching this video back, it's been a couple of years since I watched it, maybe I should do another like this, I bet I could elevate the style a bit more now.

Our kitten Fae gets the Studio Spotlight this newsletter for being too damn cute. Fae is our two month old black rescue kitten who has already made an appearance in a video. The studio has become her playhouse. She loves skipping around on the mezzanine, exploring the shelving and getting into trouble.

—-

The Miscast Minute - brought to you by Trent and Rachel. Have a suggestions for what you’d like to see? Let us know!