CaptainDisillusion

New Episode (Barely) Early Access

Hello friends, I have spent every waking moment of the last two weeks getting this one finished in time for today, Future Day! I'm sorry that just this once I wasn't able to bring it to you a full day in advance. Please accept this token half-hour early access. Enjoy and let me know what you think :)

Back to the Captain

The shoot went well. Here's an exclusive, super secret sneak peek at the alternate future Captain D. Please don't share... or it may irreparable damage the spacetime continuum!

As I scramble to edit this together, I must also prepare for a short but complicated exterior shoot next Saturday that will comprise the epilogue of this episode. AAARGH I HOPE IT WORKS OUT!!

The Future is Now

Prepping the set for tomorrow's shoot.

This Sucker is Electrical

Thank you all for your suggestions! But after careful consideration, deliberation and regurgitation, I've decided to scrap Halloween and instead pay homage to another date, relevant on this particular year to a particular cult sci-fi movie. Unfortunately, that means I have to post the video much earlier than expected - on October 21st. That's 11 days from now! And I've only just written it! I'm shaking my own head at myself, but...

LET'S SEE IF WE CAN PULL THIS OFF.

New Tutorial! More Green Screen Mastery

If you like long, detailed step-by-step, click by click lessons on how to do an effect well, then make it a little better, then keep perfecting it, then perfect using yet another method... then this one is for you. Learn and enjoy!

Halloween Episode?

I'm brainstorming ideas for this month. I rarely do "themed" episodes aside from a TAM special once in a while because, you know, I want my work to be TIMELESS. But I wonder if it might be fun to try a Halloween-specific presentation and feature some ghost sighting video. Viewers often send links to poltergeist, paranormal activity-type clips so it could be about one of those. Or perhaps an overview of several such videos because frankly any single one of them seems too boring to discuss on its ...

September 2015 Patreon supported

Thank you so much for the support this month!

Pronunciation Guide Poster

By request, from today's video. Feel free to share :)

New Episode Early Access

Man oh man! This was, unexpectedly, the most difficult month to get the episode finished on time. A small side job on a commercial turned into a nightmare (as sometimes happens when a client doesn't know what they want) so I've been desperately juggling working on that and on Captain D.

But now it's done and I'm anxious for you all to see it! Check it out and let me know what you think. I hope I didn't misspell any words in the graphics :/

I'd also like to take this opportunity t...

Rough Cut Completed

Since this month's video is another Quick D, it was shot vlog style, with me talking on camera throughout the whole thing. I tend to end up with an unhealthy shooting ratio when I do these. Take a look at the picture. We filmed a solid hour of footage. I then had to assemble it into about 25 minutes of ready-to-use material (all good takes of every line arranged in chronological sequence) only to whittle it down to 3 minutes 20 seconds of an actual edit. There's GOT to be a better way. I bet the...

New Tutorial!

It's quick, but it might save your life. If you are on a life support machine that's powered by the pulling of high-quality chroma keys.

Filming Tomorrow

It's a "Quick D". I'll need a weird polka-dot shirt for one joke, but we couldn't find anything at Goodwill, so I sharpied some circles onto a plain white shirt.

Have a Merry Labor Day!

Side-by-Side VFX Showcase!

[UPDATE: now open to BTS tier]

Not exactly a tutorial, but I'm posting this in the feed of tutorial-level patrons, for only YOU will have the patience to sit through something so strangely technical. It's a special version of the most recent episode: a split-screen shows the rough cut of the episode (no visual effects, reframing or color correction) next to the finished product, shot for shot. The debunking sections, where no footage was filmed, display corresponding portions o...

August 2015 Patreon supported

Thank you so much for the support this month!

Production Art: Character Portraits

These caricatures from the Million Date Challenge sign were drawn using ProCreate on the iPad (my absolute favorite painting app). I sketched and painted them there, but subsequently made a few tweaks to the Holly portrait in Photoshop.

Click attachment link to download a high resolution JPEG.

Production Art: 'Million Date Challenge' Sign

This sign hung in the background during the Million Date Challenge scenes of the Amazing Water Trick Debunk episode. Created in Photoshop and printed as a 48"x36" foam board sign.

Click attachment link to download a high resolution JPEG.

Charlie-Charlie Music Score

Here's a little backlogged treat - the soundtrack from the June "Charlie Charlie Poetry Challenge" episode. I don't recall if I mentioned this, but it's an original piece of music timed to the various beats of the video.

My inspiration for the style of composition was 60% Alan Silvestri, 40% Danny Elfman.

I'm by no means a professional musician, merely a dabbler, so it was quite a... challenge? to put this together. I used the Propellerhead Reason Orkester Sound...

New Episode Early Access Pass

Hello, patrons! Like no other video before, this one was ONLY possible through your support. (Mainly because the entire month's pledges, plus a little extra out of pocket went into its creation.)

It was quite challenging to make, but I'm extremely proud of the final product. So please sit back and enjoy these NINE MINUTES of whimsical skepticism!

(The video will publish for the rest of humanity on Friday, Aug 28th.)

Done!

The video is finished! Uploading now, will be up for you patrons shortly.

Aaaaah! I can't believe this unending project is actually finally completed :)

Production Blog: Grading Complete

Well that was torturous. The greenscreen effects were not as easy to do as I hoped, but after staying up 'till 2AM for a few nights, I got them all done. Today I graded (color-corrected) the episode to give it its final, polished look.

But that's just picture. Now it's time to work on the sound. I've already set up the ProTools session and cleaned up all of the dialogue. I have to do tiny bits of ADR in a couple of spots. Then it's all about placing and adjusting tons of sound effec...

Production Blog: VFX Progress

For the past week, I've been digging visual effects tunnels on the episode. There are so many shots. I've mostly ordered them from toughest to easiest. The image shows the current edit of the episode. Yellow clips are completed VFX sequences. Purple clips will not need any effects. That leaves the green sections to be done. They are (appropriately) greenscreen scenes with Lauren's floating head, so it's VFX all the way. But much of it is just the same two angle-reverse-angle shots, so it's a mat...

Production Blog: Rough Cut

In the last 2 days I turned 1 hr 40 mins of footage into an 8-minute rough cut of the episode.

This is simply an edit that decides all the performance takes and timing. Sort of a backbone for the video. There are no effects and everything is very raw and mismatched. But it's a good early indicator of what works and what doesn't. The decisions I make here will affect how the completed video will feel despite all the bells and whistles of the finishing process.

I usua...

Production Blog: Filming Complete

So the plan was to shoot Saturday and Sunday, but for various reasons on Saturday we decided to push ourselves and finish filming everything! It was exhausting, but I'm proud to say we completed the plan by 11PM. I used Sunday to physically and psychologically recover.

Here's a photo of Lauren in full makeup/wardrobe as Holly in human form.

She hates contact lenses. HATES them. Cried while putting them in and taking them out.

But I don't care. Worth...

Production Blog: Shoot Day 1

Okay, the stage is set, the make up is applied, the crew is ready. It's time to film!

I hope I survive this.

Production Blog: Wardrobe, Props, Crew

After a lengthy process of brainstorming, searching for and trying different outfits and accessories, we finally settled on a full body look for Holly. The only thing missing is a hideous scar along the entire circumference of her neck, which will be added on the day of filming.

I designed a large "Million Date Challenge" sign and will go to the print shop to get it printed and mounted on foam board. This will hang on a wall during one part of the episode.

A purple ...

July 2015 Patreon supported

Thank you so much for the support this month!

Production Blog: The Woes of Prepro

Having to put on my producer's hat now to plan and make arrangements for the shoot. We're purchasing some items for the unusual needs of this episode, (such as making the room temporarily look like a game show set) so most of your generous donations this month are helping with that.

Since I wrote the script in 'Final Draft' , I was able to use its little-known free companion app 'Final Draft Tagger' to mark the various props, visual effects and other elements in the script so as not...

Production Blog: Script Completed

It's midnight and I'm very excited. I've finally finished the script for next month's episode which happens to be unusually complex. It marks the return of Holly, a character that's only appeared once in the past, but made a big splash.

I won't bore you with the line-by-line details of the entire 9 pages, but here is Final Draft's condensed scene view which gives a pretty clear summary of the entire episode's plot. The subject video being debunked is this classic: 2015-07-30 04:21:21 +0000 UTC View Post

Behind the Scenes: Recreating Mickey with VFX

Here's a detailed look at the visual effects pipeline we had to tackle to make "Mickey Mouse" visit Captain D.

In case you missed it, this was featured in the 'Disneyland Ghost DEBUNK' episode: https://youtu.be/XE1OmvERQek

New Episode Early Access Pass

Trying to expand into that lucrative ADD sufferers demographic. This will be the new style for Quick D videos. Let me know what you think!