Big Changes, Small Delays

The last time you guys had to wait three months for content, it ended up being over seven hour's worth. Unfortunately, nothing about the production process for the Resident Evil video was sustainable for me. I didn't do anything EXCEPT put time into the project, and it did some injury to my mental health and the people around me for me to have pushed so hard. And in the end, it was full of errors, no better in terms of quality than anything I'd already done. It was not an *improvement*, exactly. 

However! The response these past few months has been huge, and the Patreon has grown to nearly $10,000 gross before taxes. It's been difficult to square how I seem to have hit a skill ceiling with my own work with how people continue to throw money at it. The only ethical thing, at that level of income, is to hire someone to improve the quality of the work. It is too much for one person to get this much money on Patreon for doing game videos.

So now it's two! I've hired a longtime friend, Nate Greene, who you might remember from the Atomic Pilgrimage video. He's qualified, with a background in media production and a degree in it as well. I want to emphasize that this is not a request for more money, I have already paid Nate once and can continue to do so at the current level of funding.

Some of you have sent me resumes and requests to do this kind of work for me, and I generally haven't responded, so let me explain why briefly-- one is that I was nervous to work closely with a stranger, two is that I didn't want to do it remotely, three is that I simply couldn't afford it before and now I can. A number of people have told me they'd "work for free/exposure", but that isn't a comfortable offer for anyone: you're undervaluing yourself making those offers, and also putting me in a position of exploiting you or owing you if I accepted. So I never have. But Nate lives here in Bend, now, and I trust him and his creative process, so he was the pick. I'm sorry to anyone this offends.

Trying to convert my workflow into something two people can divide has been incredibly difficult, however, and has basically cost me the entire month of October. I have been using Sony Movie Studio 13, and 11 before that, since like 2014. I have been using Windows Sound Recorder. I have been using cheap, basic software in a haphazard way for my entire Youtube career, and that's been mostly fine working alone, but Nate's suggested we move on up to Adobe Premier and that's been a learning process. In time, this collaboration is supposed to lead to a better quality output where Nate fixes the audio and helps densify the clips used in the videos. The general vibe of the videos and the script, plus the rough first draft of the video, is still mine alone. But Nate can make them better, and for the amount I'm being paid, they ought to be. This past month has been a lot of him asking "Wait, you do it HOW?", and me having to reply "Well, what's the right way then?" and we're gonna get there eventually. 

For now, it means that I'm behind on my output. I didn't want another payment to go by without explaining what I've been up to. I have a lot of projects, large and small, that are half-finished and in the first couple months after the Resident Evil video I spread my attention too thinly among them and didn't finish. Now, I'm trying to finish while also having to navigate breaking a lot of my old habits and form new ones. I'm also still doing mechanic's classes at the community college, but I've scaled back on those some because of the needs of the channel. I've also been trying to finish a novel, and put in like 50 pages the past couple months, but that's not what's owed. What's owed is, now, at least three hours of back content plus forward content. It's coming! I deeply regret not having anything concrete to show this October, not even the Deathloop video even though that's just a quick guy. The reason is that I'm trying to significantly reinvest in the production process and drag it, kicking and screaming, towards something more professional. And I'm slower with that than I'd wagered.

As always, refunds are available, I can refund the last couple months of non-output to anyone who wants it, or further back. Thanks very much for your patience and your support, I'm trying to do right by it.