Q&A: January 26th, 2022

Cameron Wright Asks
What’s your process like in creating a video? I.E, do you have a strict process of researching, writing, and editing or is it more dependent on the type of video?

The order of steps can vary depending on the project, but for the most part, I play through the game fully, then research heavily, before starting the script, narrating, organizing audio, applying footage, and adding music.

The reason for playing through the game first before researching is to experience the game by the terms the developers set for every user, rather than playing the game with all this behind the curtain knowledge at the forefront of my mind.

I used to add music after the narration, but find that I make so many changes with footage, it's faster to get the visuals done first, and then add music, and is far easier to make changes to both.

RagNoRat Asks
Is there a particular genre/series of games that you find difficult to talk about? If so, what do you think are the reasons? Besides the topic being overdone so you feel there's nothing to add, like you've mentioned with Dark Souls.

MMO's I usually stay away from, as there's just so many elements, it's easy to miss something in coverage, but I honestly can't say that's difficult, as it's a genre I've never really clicked with.

I thought driving games would be a challenge as they're a niche genre, but I actually found my most recent F1 video to be the most fun to make in quite a while. Really, I think most difficulty in tackling a subject either comes from not having a clear opinion, or interest. I've learned over the years to identify which of the two a project is after going through some really tough ones.

Control was one of those. It was a game I had loads of interest in, yet just couldn't focus the script. I had to accept that I needed to play more to organize my thoughts on it.

Kizza Lee Asks
Initial thoughts on the whole Microsoft + Activision/Blizzard thing?

I've had some long conversations about it with friends, and what I personally feel towards it is total apathy. I've heard loads of conversation from people saying that it's bad because it rewards Activision's appalling behavior or that it gives creators and customers even less choice in which franchises they want to involve themselves with per platform, but to me, both of those things are business as usual.

I don't see much point in getting worked up about Microsoft giving money to a company like Activision to acquire all of their properties, because that's the system we've got in place, same thing when it comes to big conglomerates holding the keys to some of the biggest franchises out there.

I've also seen a lot of emphasis about the amount of money, but it means nothing to me. Maybe for a company like Sony this would've been a big deal, but in Microsoft's world, 69 Billion is pocket change. 

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