2024's Last Video - Update

Hey Hey, it’s been a moment!

If you don’t have time to read all this here’s the TLDR.

• The Smiling Friends video has been replaced with Ping Pong the Animation, for similar reasons to why I replaced my Detroit Manga video turning into a Blade Runner video.

• The video will be over an hour long; hoping to get it out by the end of December

• It’s about 75% done, posted in the first minute of the video thus far. The video is about Ping Pong the Animation but I use Whiplash as a starting off point.

• Hoping to get it out by the end of December

Pardon the absence, I genuinely thought I had released an update at the beginning of  November, but I guess I never got around to it because I forgot. This is entirely on me and I thank you for your patience. So let’s get into what I’m working on at the moment.

• The Smiling Friends is now a Ping Pong the Animation.

  • The biggest reason for this shift is similar to my previous video to this, the Blade Runner 2049 video, initially being about the official Detroit: Become Human manga. I prioritised the thesis over the material that I was communicating with, and the same can be said with what happened with the Smiling Friends video.

  • I detailed this in my previous post, but the Smiling Friends Season 2 video was supposed to be subversive in the same vein as the first SF video. But instead of talking about absurdism and Albert Camus and poking fun at video essay making things up. The twist was gonna be a genuine discussion about art and perfectionism, and finding the joy in something you’ve seemed to grow apart from. By working on it a bit however, the video seemed to resemble that of a Max G’s Brain Dump; So whatever novelty/intrigue that attracted me to the initial script pretty much evaporated. Max’s videos, from a technical standpoint, are well crafted and I feel like my video would look like a cheap imitation.

  • Not to say that I need my videos to be ‘unique’ in any sort of sense, but that was the one-two blow that killed my enthusiasm for the script. The second aforementioned blow was that the subversiveness made the script feel sorta cheap (if that makes sense). I felt like there wasn’t much to say in the video beyond its twist so it felt shallow. Instead of being a poignant conversation, it felt after-school-program preachy. So I needed a new way to communicate these ideas about perfectionism and art in a way that felt more authentic to me.
    

• PING PONG THE ANIMATION.

  • And then somewhere along the way, as I tried massaging a script I didn’t know how to save, I revisited Ping Pong the Animation on a whim. It was a piece of work that delved into talent afterall, so I thought it’d be good for research purposes.Only then I realised one of my favourite shows basically tackled exactly what I’ve been feeling and wanting to express in a script. So I switched the script to something more straight forward and more recognisable with my work. Something more authentic to me without gimmicks. So what is Ping Pong about?

  • Ping Pong is a sports anime that questions our relationships with our hobbies / work. Whether you go into something because you’re talented or passionate, the show questions what you get out of it in the first place. As narratives instill in us that the passionate or talented improve as people by pursuing their dreams, Ping Pong sorta goes against that. It’s a show that highlights the need for loss, so much so that each main character completes their arcs by losing, and why loss and a new need for perspective may be more important than being ‘good’ or ‘talented’ at a given sport. And with that, I basically make the argument that the show says “Talent and winning is overrated.”

  • And I contrast this to how a lot of media revolves around the talented, passionate, and how ‘they’re special in a different way’ (Kung Fu Panda) or are doomed. Whether your own talents and ambitions are a character's downfall. ‘I made it but at what cost’ sorts of narratives. (Social Network, The Menu, The Bear). Or you’re either a person who's full of passion and drive but doesn't have the talent or people to let your dreams come to fruition (American Movie, I’m Thinking of Ending Things). So unless you're special in some sort of way, being ambitious seems kinda miserable.

  • But Ping Pong pushes against these narratives in a way that feels grounded with optimism. And that’s what I want to explore. I personally really resonate with this show, now more so than when I first watched it in high school, so it means a lot to me to finally talk about this show in the place where I’m at now emotionally; especially as someone who self identifies as an artist to some degree.

  • If you haven’t personally watched Ping Pong the Animation yet, I highly recommend you do! But unlike something like my Disco Elysium video, having to watch the show is unnecessary to get the video, and spoilers aren’t gonna take away too much from the experience of watching it blind. Spoilers warnings are peppered throughout the video though just incase you get the urge to watch it midway through the video.

So How’s the Progress?

• The script is nearly 10000 words and it’s over an hour long, with the video being roughly 75%-80% complete. The video will be much lighter on illustrations since I wanna go much easier on my workload, and I've been dividing my workload with art I've been making for my streams. But the visuals will be made up for it in the motion typography and me reusing the assets I’ve made for my streams.

• One unfortunate bummer is that I thought I could streamline my process by purely working in Premiere. And it was! Up until a point. I was hoping I could slowly transition my workflow by simplifying my video style, so it can better accommodate Davinci Resolve when I stop my Adobe subscription. But there are certain things that seems that I still need After Effects for, and I don't have the time to find some workarounds; leading me to get back to using After Effects. So some technical headaches and stumbling blocks have occured - but at least we're still chugging along! (Regardless, I dream a dream to get my Adobe subscription canceled one day.)

• Showing screenshots would be kinda uninteresting since it’s just shots of movies/shows/games I’m referencing, so here’s how my timeline looks, alongside the first minute of the video shown above. I use my love of Whiplash in the beginning as an ignorant late teenager, to a somewhat less ignorant adult in his late twenties to talk about stories related to talent.
  

But yeah, that’s basically what I’m working on at the moment. 

Happy holidays folks! Thanks again for the patience and support, and hope ya’ll are doing good :)