randomencounters

REport: A Visit from Vanny!

Greetings, encounterers! As you may already know, we filmed our next musical (based on parts of FNAF: Security Breach) over the weekend! I know Gwen shared a few sneak peak images on her social medias, but here's your first complete look at the costumes/set for this project!

Filming went very smoothly, so now we're in the lovely post-production process. Though the musical won't be premiering until August 5th, Gwen's family is coming to visit that week and I'll be heading out of town for...

REport: My Terrible Job

HeyJ, everyone! Thanks for your patience waiting on an update. I hope you’re all excited to see us back in production on something FNAF-related (even though this set certainly doesn’t appear very PizzaPlex inspired… 🤔)

We haven’t explicitly said this yet, but this music video WON’T close the door entirely on other sets, story elements, or characters from Security Breach. This musical barely scratches the surface of FNAF’s newest game, so there will be TONS to come back fo...

REport: Overdue Updates

HeyJ, team! We’re back with a bit of an update… actually, a couple. As noted, some of the details are overdue, but I’m glad for the chance to keep you looped in. I know you’d probably like updates on more of FNAF‘s progress, and I assure you all, there WILL be some coming! 😅 Thank you for your continued support!

Beard Salute!
~AJ

Private Patreon Livestream Q&A

HeyJ, everybody! We haven't done something like this in a long time, but we'd like to offer an opportunity for our Patreon supporters of any tier to come participate in a live Q&A on Saturday, July 30th, starting at 5PM PT. Since this event is private, we will focus on more volatile questions than usual -- most specifically, our divide from former RE members Peter and Miss Bird, which our team and community deserves transparency about.

Since launching RE's TikTok account, we've see...

REport: Will the real Isabelle please stand up?

HeyJ, everybody! Sorry for the lack of updates lately (but I hope you all had a nice holiday here in America, too!)

This video covers a few current things going on, but just to touch back on a bit I discuss at the end, we're re-examining our analytics daily trying to determine how YouTube has changed since our big crash at the end of 2020, dropping from over a million views per musical to a couple hundred thousand or less. 

One option we're considering is refocusing videos on...

REport: Hey Gwen, Can You Fit in that Costume?

Howdy, doods! Just wanted to you give you all this REport before we head out for VidCon! While we're busy packing tonight, last night we were filming some final pickup shots so that we can send a rough cut over to NIS for approvals/notes. Here's hoping they don't want anything changed!

Also, as many of you have probably guessed, the animation of Singachu still isn't finished, and therefore won't be coming out this week. We're pretty sure this is the first time in RE history that we've e...

REport: The DANCING KING!

HeyJ, team! Welcome to the set of our upcoming music video -- you know, that top secret sponsored one we've been putting together for MONTHS for the launch of DISGAEA 6: COMPLETE EDITION! Nate caught us all rehearsing a little dance routine that takes place toward the end, and even though we were definitely rough with our timing, I think it adds a lot of unexpected fun right at the finale. ^^

This is also probably your first look at the full cast, in costume! I'm not sure we announced i...

REport: A King in our Midst!

HeyJ, crew! We were visited by ROYALTY yesterday (no, not Mr. Meowse), and thought we’d share a couple minutes with you all. 😄 We’re closing in on our shooting date, so expect an on-set update pretty soon!

Beard Salute!
~AJ

REport: Ray’s Report?

HeyJ, crew. We wanted to drop you a line (our first of our 11th year online!) to show some of our progress on the forthcoming, ever-expanding Disgaea musical!

I also got an update from our Singachu animator that she’s officially on the final shot! As long as we have no changes to make, I think we might be launching it next week. 🙂 Thanks for your patience and support and we’ll be back with new updates soon!

Beard Salute!
~AJ

REport: Help! We Don’t Know How to Merch!

HeyJ, everybody. Can we ask your opinion real quick? Our merch site is almost ready, but we’re pretty torn about which photos to use.

We have a meeting with our Disgaea partners tomorrow, by the way, and will update you where it stands sometime after.

Beard Salute!
~AJ

REport: A Cast Read With No Cast?

HeyJ, team! I thought this was a little too cool not to run camera on. 😂 We don’t normally do cast reads (especially this late at night!), but since we’re sending over our full script and lyrics for approval tomorrow, I wanted to get a better sense of how it all fits and what we should edit down for the video.

There are five primary characters in this musical, by the way, so… we’re putting together five different songs! I think you’ll probably get to hear prototypes of a co...

REport: The Gwenperor's New Clothes

HeyJ, everyone. Never fear, the Gwenperor's clothes aren't imaginary -- just new.

We're working hard on this Disgaea musical, which is taking a little extra attention because it's turning out BIGGER than we'd intended (or... budgeted for...) We hope the extra effort creates some really fun results for you all, and the Disgaea community as well.

As an FYI, we still don't have a finished version of the Singachu animation -- those final scenes were a little more time-consuming than I...

REport: The ____’s Out of the Bag!

HeyJ, team! First, an apology: I didn’t cry NEARLY enough about our project delay in this video, so any apologies we made were essentially worthless. At least FAKE CRY, right? 😭

Anyway, yes, sadly, there won’t be a musical out this month after all. And to reiterate, not slamming together a replacement project was a choice based on YouTube’s system and how it can affect (or curse) latter uploads. Which I guess means we could’ve made a completely secret musical set privately fo...

REport: More Like SWINGachu, amirite? 😏

HeyJ, team! Thanks for being patient throughout another slooooow week — I think the next one will be a bit more exciting!

We have one more scene for this project still coming together (besides this live action sequence I referred to,) and I think it’ll come together great. 🙂 As for the other animations I mentioned, YES, one is our Animal Crossing Christmas song from 2020… 😂 Which lost its entire team in the home stretch, so with your support (and a bit of luck!), I’m going...

REport: What's the Deal with Poppy Playtime?

HeyJ, everyone! We promised a little explanation about our reluctance to make a Poppy Playtime musical and here it is. TL;DR, this is an old video dispute come back to haunt us, accompanied by a business track record that's strained and untrustworthy. Paired with our negative personal experience and relationships with some top members of Mob's team (which tracks with reports others have been making lately), it's seemed like a bad title to attach ourselves to. The game itself looks to be well-...

REport: Production Planning for May

HeyJ, everyone. We didn't update you last week because we weren't sure what we were working on exactly. We do now, though plans are always subject to change (especially if deadlines and due dates move). Our lunch meeting literally started with Sonic, ended with Worms, and we ultimately agreed it was time to allow for the possibility of missing a month, depending how everything ultimately lined up.

As to Poppy Playtime, we've wondered when it was time to speak up more officially, and it ...

REport: Taking a Break

HeyJ, team! We grabbed another opportunity to dive behind the scenes with you guys amidst one of our VFX shoots for Friday’s musical. Make what you will of it — it’s a weird bit, but all will be revealed Friday. 😎 Thanks for supporting the channel!

Beard Salute!
~AJ

REport: A Mildly Late REport

Greetings, encounterers! This REport was originally supposed to be posted on Thursday, that way you could see it before the "Raven Brooks" teaser came out. Alas, it slipped our minds while we were busy all day editing said teaser. Nevertheless, it's here now and contains a few tidbits of information that pertain to more than just the teaser we released today. We hope you're looking forward to the new musical, which premieres in ONE WEEK (April 29th)!

Beard Salute!

~Nate

REport: Our Bakery is OPEN!

HeyJ, everyone! We still have a few more days of filming ahead of us, but here’s a fun surprise for old school Encounterers: we’ve pulled in Emily Brown (Pac-Man the Musical, Tetris the Musical, Huniepop) for our next project! She joins a cast of other past RE actors you’ve already seen: Nathan Hall (Favorite Fiends), Jordin Overton (My Date with Captain Falcon, Alola Form For Me), and of course, Jason Wells (Sonic the Hedgehog: The Musical Movie Trailer).

Thanks for helping us ha...

REport: Nice ‘Stache, Dude!

HeyJ, team. It’s been an intense week, ending in an intense night (that went HOURS over schedule and still lost full scenes and recording sessions… 😣) Not exactly the plan we shot for, but the cast did an amazing job and were crazy good sports about it all. We’ll need to pick up the pieces once Easter is over (happy Easter, btw!) and probably pull some crazy strings to finish this… I think this video will be a good learning experience for me to remember some ideas are still out of ...

REport: Bird’s the Word

Or is it? Sorry, I’m not honestly sure at this stage… It’s been another nightmare week in another nightmare month of changes, cancellations, and scheduling problems, and it’s ONLY ONE WEEK IN! 🤯 Nothing sucks the fun out of YouTube like its own algorithmic demands… 😅 We’ll figure out our plan somehow — and, hey, look at that cool bird costume coming together! I bet we can make something pretty cool with that, right? 😁 Thanks for staying patient and always encouraging us...

REport: Your Annual Seasonal Weirdness

HeyJ, crew! Here's what's happening at RE today! Never fear, for all the ambiguity, we'll get into the upcoming musical later in the video, too. Thanks for being part of our goofy projects!

Beard Salute!
~AJ

REport: The Engineer Edit!

HeyJ, crew! Here’s a more in-depth view of the musical hitting YouTube this Friday. We hope it’s a fun ride and that you’re all looking forward to seeing the newest characters in action. 🙂 Catch you on Discord Friday!

Beard Salute!
~AJ

REport: Welcome to the 2Fort!

HeyJ, team! Or should I say… Team Fortress 2… 😏 Now that the news has been broken wide outside of Patreon, we’re excited to tell you a bit more about our cast, the premise (this one stars the Engineer!), and a couple other things still under construction behind the scenes! We’ll show off a bit of footage (and music!) in the next REport… 😁 Thanks for making this video possible!

Beard Salute!
~AJ

REport: No More Monkeying Around!

HeyJ, everyone! Here's a new update -- we've changed ideas again and are pushing forward on something COMPLETELY different. I feel like that happens a lot around here... The whiplash is real, but at least it's a series we think deserves a little 10 year love from RE, and certainly our community might enjoy. Thanks for making it all possible (and stay tuned for more news about that, er, interesting costume...)

Beard Salute!
~AJ

REport: The Long-Awaited Update

It's been a hot minute, but we've finally got an update on what's been happening behind the scenes (in summary: plenty, but all of it far from concrete or even actionable). We're disappointed by slow progress and are sure you are, too, but thanks for your patience and we're hopeful that something will still click together in the coming days. I don't think we've "missed" a month on RE since 2017, and we'd prefer to keep that record going. Thanks for continuing to offer your support amidst an i...

REport: So About That Musical…

HeyJ, everyone! Here’s an update on our work (and my recent, numerous failures!)

Thanks for sticking with us and stay tuned for updates!

Beard Salute!
~AJ

REport: The Challenge is ON!

HeyJ, everyone! Here's a short update for you of some new nonsense coming soon to Random Encounters!

We've got another REport heading your way tomorrow about the more *musical* stuff taking place here, so stay tuned and thanks for supporting Random Encounters!

Beard Salute!
~AJ

REport: A Hodgepodge REport!

HeyJ guys, I kinda didn't plan this one out very well. But in true REport/AJ fashion, we rambled our way into a kindof legit REport. We'll think through a better update for you later this week! BTW, for Card-Carrying Encounterers, your cards have been shipped finally!

Beard Salute!
~AJ

REport: Meanwhile, Back in Los Angeles…

Oof! I forgot to upload this all week! 😭 Please don’t be mad at me! I swear, there wasn’t much to update you all on, and the teases for our next musical are still completely accurate/relevant! In fact, we can probably share something else cool about it in a few days. 🙂 Thanks for supporting Random Encounters and enjoy the beautiful SoCal weather! 😉

Beard Salute!
~AJ