Skyrim video #2 update (11/29):

If you’re reading this then you’re likely a new supporter, so welcome! Thank you for your support! I went ahead and posted the older updates I wrote for YT channel members on Patreon if that’s where you’re supporting. Some of it’s out of date at this point but seemed only fair to post them there. 

So yeah, aside from the Patreon finally getting launched, a lot of things have been moving along. The script has been done, sitting at a final word count of 71,202 (97 pages single-spaced). That’s likely to change a tiny bit as I finalize the conclusion—mostly I’m saving writing what will be said during the credits scroll depending upon how well the Patreon rollout goes. If it’s wildly-popular I don’t think having a couple lines of “thanks for the support” is gonna cut it, so I’ll hold off until I know. I like to be genuine with supporters, which was why the channel update video was unscripted. 

The original plan was to have this whole thing rolling out as I finalized the last bits of the script to maximize the time people have to figure out if they want to pledge. I didn’t want to roll it out too soon because delays on releasing the video were constant and I didn’t want people having to pledge longer than a month for early access if they didn’t want to. Now that I’m on the bulk editing phase, I have a fairly-high degree of certainty on hitting the 12/18ish release date. 

That update video turned out to be an interesting thing to produce. Because I kept getting distracted with voice work/editing as the script was being finalized, I kept pushing off writing a script for the update video. I decided then to just sit down and do it off-the-cuff after a voice session and make it more concise in editing. That’s definitely a different approach to production than I’m used to, and even though I’ve done many hours of unscripted livestreams, doing something like that was a lot more challenging. I guess the subject matter didn’t help—I was a lot more concise once I got to talking about the progress of the video.) Still, it was a fun learning experience—exposed a lot of places I can improve as a creator, which is always something that helps drive me forward. 

I’ve been going through the archives of the Skyrim live streams (which are now all public because we FINALLY have a Live tab on channel pages) and there’s a certain charm to those streams I’ve really grown to appreciate. As a result, I’ve been doing more ad-libs in this video, or just going completely off-script a couple times for the sake of something that pops up in my head as I’m doing voice recordings. I do little experiments all the time and usually I end up cutting the results in editing because I felt it didn’t work. 

The Skyrim Mage video changed my perspective when people started giving great feedback on some of the really experimental parts of that video I was kinda forced to leave in because cutting them would have been too destructive (Serion simping for Delphine was soooo close to getting cut). Things like the Benor bit in the followers section had been planned from the start, but that thing didn’t truly come together until I got to editing. That’s the nature of video production, you don’t know how well something’s gonna come out until it’s tangible, and even then, some sections can be brought to life with just the right background music (I got a ton of positive feedback on the Sims music with the magic overview section).

My point is, that project did A LOT to boost my confidence in my ability to make those experimental parts work, and as anyone who’s just starting out will tell you, getting over those confidence roadblocks is the hardest part of the process. It gets easier, but let’s just say I get why so many creatives stagnate after a point: the more you create an expectation with your audience, the harder it gets to experiment. I’m lucky that I’m still in a stage with the channel where I can experiment without alienating half my audience, and I’m gonna keep leveraging that advantage to feel out new avenues. 

With that said, the name of this second video has been “refinement.” I’m including a rough cut of the introduction just to give a sense of what I mean. That intro is one of the latest things I’ve written, voiced, and edited, and even with it missing a lot of its visual elements, it still feels stronger than most of what I’ve done, yet. As well, there’s a certain character I’ve been trying to build the Private Sessions persona into, and I think it’s finally coming across correctly in this video. Don’t let the intro scare you into thinking I’m gonna be another jaded cynical game critic with a grudge, this is still probably the most charitable and positive Skyrim video made recently (even if the Companions and Civil War almost killed me writing about). There’s just a certain level of energy I always felt was lacking from my videos that I think this video has finally gotten right. 

Intro rough cut: https://youtu.be/I2hnMrlJzzE

But going back to my original tangent: there’s some experimental stuff in here where I decided to go off script and dive into some anecdotes (I won’t spoil them, the fun is in their surprise,) and I had every intention of cutting them when it came time to edit. I put them in the rough audio cut though and, to my surprise, they seemed to fit well, so I’m gonna run with them and see how the audience reacts. If people hate it, I won’t do them anymore, but if they like it, I’ll probably do them a bit more. They’re an interesting way to spice up a video and inject more personality into a type of video that, frankly, could use all the help it can get. I can’t tell you how many analysis videos I stop watching because it just feels like a book report. I always feel like the best videos I watch have me saying “I’d want to hang out with this guy, given the chance.” That’s the sort of charm those livestreams made me feel, and so I’m trying to come up with ways of carrying that aspect into main videos. We’ll see how it goes.

Anyways, this is going super long (these are so much easier to write now that I’m not writing the script.) I’ll probably drop another update soon, but for now, it’s back to the edit grind. 

As always, I greatly appreciate the support and continued patience. We’re close, now. Video soon™.

<3 P.S.