Speedrun Explained 59 (Update 3); Speedrun Explained 60 (Update 2)

Hey all! I've been super busy the past month or so working on a few projects, but let's just jump straight into the updates!

SPEEDRUN EXPLAINED #59

This is the SPEEDRUN EXPLAINED for the Half-Life 2 run that you voted for several months back. This video has been the main project I've been working on for quite some time now, and is the first video in awhile that's taken this long to make. I think that the last time I took this long on a video was over two years ago, which is crazy to think about. The run itself is just under 40 minutes long (the 40 minute barrier was broken during production), but it's looking like the video itself will be somewhere between 70-80 minutes long! This run has so much wild tech in it that requires rather lengthy explanations, including what I'm pretty sure are my two longest pause sections to date. I'm really happy with how everything has been coming along and I still feel as though the explanations in it are very strong. Because of how in-depth I have to go and how much pause time there is throughout the video, I had to do a lot of filming for this video. Usually when I film for videos, the pause sections will take around 2 hours tops to film in totality, with me having anywhere between 30-60 minutes of footage. For this video, I filmed most the pause sections in one day, and it took me over 5 hours to film everything with me having over 3 hours of footage to edit down to the pause sections (I really struggle memorizing some lines so I can look at the camera while saying them without looking at the script). On top of that, this video has a handful of edits that I've made that took way longer than they should have to get right, but I really wanted that I got them just right. This video reminds me a lot of several videos I've made before, namely ones from 2022 like Subnautica and BioShock. Another thing I wanted to mention was footage requests. Starting in 2022, I started requesting footage from runners to use in the pause sections. When I started doing this, videos became much easier to make as I had to rely a lot less on making animations myself, and also I felt that it helped make the videos come across more clearly. Normally, I'll have around 20 footage requests for a runner throughout all of production. The two previous records for the number of requests I had were 34 (Super Mario Odyssey) and 28 (Half-Life). This video though... I currently have requested 89 clips from the runner for all of the explanations. So yeah, I think that speaks volumes for how beefy this video is. I'm really really happy with what I have completed so far (which is around the first 20 minutes of the video), and can't wait to see how the full thing shakes out. As for when it'll be out, I'm aiming to have it uploaded publicly by around April 15th, so hoping to have it up on Patreon the week before.

SPEEDRUN EXPLAINED #60

This one hasn't had too much going on with it other than the call I had with the runner! This video is covering the Any% run of Cuphead, which is already shaking up to be a dense video as well. The reason I say that is due to how long my call with the runner was. Usually the calls for these videos where we walk through the run are around two hours in length (at most). I think the longest call I've ever had before this one was just under three hours, with only two or three calls crossing the two hour mark. The call for this Cuphead video though... it was almost six hours long. I believe the final length was right around five hours and 40 minutes? That does include bathroom breaks and me taking my dogs out at one point though, so in total it's likely closer to just over five hours! Still, it's going to be another extensive script writing process just after the one I'm currently going through. I'm beginning to think this is the year of long/dense videos for me with me also having plans for another run later in the year that's an hour long.

That's all for updates on the videos. As I've mentioned in various places, I've also been working pretty extensively on setting up my VoD channel, which is coming along smoothly and slowly turning into back-burner work that I just do around 15 minutes of work on a day. In all, I have lots of pokers in the fire, with lots of preparatory work being done that'll streamline the processes down the road. Hopefully within a few months, I'll be back into my typical workflow of around 70% working on videos, 25% streaming, and 5% side projects. But that's all for today! Looking forward to seeing what you all choose for the current Patron's Choice.