ArTorr Monthly: December 2024

Welcome back monthly update posts! Last year I wrote these almost every month, letting you guys know what progress I had made on videos in development month-to-month. Then they became monthly update videos. Then we stopped doing them altogether, in favor of "creator diaries." After almost a year of this model, I've come to the conclusion that I greatly preferred the consistent, written communication of these monthly update posts. So, going forward, you can expect ArTorr Monthly to drop the first Monday of every new month, giving you an inside look at what's coming soon to ArTorr. Let's get into it.

The Clone Wars Video

Last month I announced two videos that would soon be coming to the channel. The first was an entirely new video about Star Wars: The Clone Wars, one that was shorter and built entirely in the editing process without a script or commentary. It's basically a creative experiment that recaptures a lot of what I love so much about the series in a very condensed runtime. I'm delighted to report that that editing process has been very fun thus far, as I've juxtaposed commentary from the creators of the show with direct quotes from characters and episodes, overlaying shots of the show's beautiful imagery and iconic moments. It's very cool and super refreshing to work on.

I did previously announce that this video would be coming in November, which sadly has come and gone. Torwards the end of November, I decided to pivot my focus to the second video I announced last month, the Rogue One video (which we'll talk about in a moment), resulting in this video moving to the temporary backburner. So the new date for this video, which I'm calling Remember The Clone Wars, is set for sometime in December. It's a pretty short video, so I feel really confident this date will stick (which doesn't always happen 🥲 ).

The Rogue One Video

The second video we announced last month was a more traditional video essay about Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. At present, the script is 90% finished, and I expect to have it finalized in the next couple days. After this, I move on to recording and editing the video. Though not as short as The Clone Wars video, this is shaping up to be the shortest video essay I've made in 4 years. Again, that's not even to say that it's all that short. I expect the video to land somewhere in the 40 - 50 minute range, with the possibility it could push beyond that or under cut that. Either way, I never felt what I wanted to say about Rogue One warranted a super long video. This is the right length, and will hopefully pack a punch in its own way.

I've loved doing the research and writing for this video so far. It's reminded me a lot of what I was able to do with the first Bad Batch video a couple years ago, where I merged the real-world legacy of American military conflicts with the characters and themes of a TV show. This video goes even deeper with real-world connections and history, something I'm very keen on doing more and more as I look ahead to potential future videos about the Star Wars franchise.

It's probably gonna come in hot, but my goal is to have this video to you before the end of December. That's two videos in December. We're going out with a bang. In the event I enter the final ten days of the month and this isn't far enough for me to ensure it will drop this month, I'll pivot back to Remember The Clone Wars and get that video out first. I'll be sure to communicate how everything comes together later this month.

YouTube Shorts

Starting this month you'll begin seeing a slow trickle of YouTube shorts directly from my channel. Going forward, this will be a medium for me to either test out ideas for future videos, or talk about media that I'm interested in, but don't necessarily want to make a full video about. For the last few weeks, I've been collaborating with a writer behind the scenes to see what this would look like and begin writing shorts, starting with a short about Netflix's Arcane. There's a high chance these shorts will hit other platforms in the future, like Instagram or TikTok, but we'll talk about that at a later date. For now, look forward to an Arcane short later this week!

ArTorr is Now on Bluesky!

For those interested in keeping up with my social media posts, I now have an account on Bluesky, a competitor to Twitter. So if you're already on there and/or want a more active feed of my random thoughts, opinions on movies/games/television, or updates on future videos, give me a follow @parkesharman.bsky.social!

ArTorr 2.0

I'll end off here with a tease for another kind of update I'll be dropping on Patreon later this week. Last month, I alluded to having a larger conversation about "future videos and future plans." This will be a conversation about long-term goals and behind the scenes changes that stretch beyond the scope of these monthly updates. To preface, nothing about the content I currently make is going to change. ArTorr has been a place for video essays and documentaries about movies, games, shows, and other forms of media since day 1, and it will stay that way until I burn this thing into the ground. But over the course of this past year, I've thought a lot about where I want this channel to go and how I can achieve these goals. As I've come to realize, it's going to take some amount of evolution to get there.

I'm going to tell you all about it later this week. It's very exciting, and significant enough in terms of what's changing that I can certifiably say we are approaching ArTorr 2.0. Tune back into Patreon or any of my social platforms later this week to hear much more about it!

That's All Folks!

That concludes the first edition of ArTorr Monthly (woo hoo)! Thank you for reading, and have a warm December!!!