State of the Show Sept 2016

As you can all probably tell, we've decided to keep shoveling in more content.  Well it's about 50/50 in thanks to growing efficiency and your contributions.  Sincerely, thank you all.

Every extra $1 means we can be more creative in HOW to get to these pieces.  It lets us support our local small-business/range so we can have easy access to filming.  Recently it has meant pulling in not one, but two talented animators.  The first focusing on detailed Machine Guns and the latter going over the gross features of our recurring episodes.

While there are no guarantees and obviously some bugs to be worked out, it's looking like outside animation will free roughly 10-20 hours from my current average of 70+ per week.  Which is a huge deal.  I get a bit of personal time back that I can also flex into heavier episodes when necessary. 

A big goal for us with the T-shirts we just moved and the Posters we'll be doing near Christmas is to be absolutely ready to travel quickly.  We're preparing for this because we expect that once we find 1 or 2 machine guns on our wishlist, we'll likely get more offers from collectors within those circles.  Being adaptable and quick means no missed opportunities. 

Also, we have spent over $4,000 on reading material alone for this series to date.   Many books we need are rare and command prices up to $400 when we take the time to find them cheap (no we're not fools enough to pay the crazy numbers lone Amazon sellers have listed)

Finally, we have had both our recent videos (Lewis and Rolling Block) go into copyright dispute for songs recorded pre-1923.  The dispute system is a mess and we're unlikely to get paid.  YT earnings per video have been so low, I'd rather keep the songs as I think they add a LOT to the show.

Patreon took in another $200 this month, which is about the largest 1 month payout from YT we've received.  So we're covered there thanks to you all.

Turning to the cotent: humor is testing well so I think we'll keep it so long as we don't get away from the topic or let it become distracting.  We will not be sacrificing history for views or allowing more than say ~5% of the show to be "wasted" off topic. 

For those of you curious, we have sat down and planned out the major episodes for the series.  I won't be announcing them all because we're very limited by what we can even find.  If it doesn't make the show it will make the book though, so no worries.  We're going to lay hands on every damned gun no matter what. 

We have 7 episodes "greenlit" which means guns, ammo, and reference material are on hand.

We have 9 episodes "blue" which means they are lacking some element (gun, ammo, reference) that is readily available but pricey and so are awaiting their turn in the budget pool.

We have at least 41 episodes in the "yellow" or "red" range which means either an expensive component, rare book, or extremely rare firearm are needed.  This can be misleading as all MGs are currently yellow to red and likely we'd find several at a time as collectors come forward. 

Now, don't just count those up because there are several more episodes that are still in planning phases and we're not sure WHAT elements we need until I do cursory research.  These "null" episodes require material I've yet to even find and generally take up the "mystery guns" that have heresay backstories but no hard evidence.

Many episodes combine multiple firearms, like the Mauser 1889, 1890, and 1891 will be one episode, so don't think these numbers express how many firearms will be covered.  I assure you we'll be well over 100.  Also, we will be breaking up the 1917 revolvers into two distinct histories!  Each requiring multiple examples and cartridges.

Those of you still reading might wonder what we'll do on the off weeks if the animations are now out-of-house.  Well Mae believes she's now familiar enough with the software and cameras to develop her own show.  The current idea is to take some of the extras in the collection plus many loaners we've been offered that aren't WWI and put them to use.  She is thinking a max 10 minute format where she shoots historical guns of all varieties.  Very light "wikipedia grade" history along with an opinion on handling.  This is also made possible by the outsourced animation time as Mae would photograph many of the parts and help with disassembly reassembly.

There is, also, a project going on between our new animator Bruno and
part-time subtitler Alex.  They are experimenting to see if the new
models can be made interactive through a web plugin.  Stay tuned.


All right, that is a LOT to dump but I think you all deserved to know that we're not only producing episodes but trying to find ways to expand without distracting from our core goal.  Seriously, let me know how you all feel.  I'll take extra pains to keep up with the discussion on this one.