New Series, New Video, New Update! (Paper Mario TTYD Post-Mortem)

The wait is finally over, at long last I get to talk a bit more about the series that behind the scenes I'm calling "Chewing Scenery!"  First, the obvious: This video is late, so I'll be playing catch-up to my March plans with the next handful of videos.  It took longer because I tried a few new things, and the COVID-19 pandemic threw me off a bit both physically and mentally.  I'm fortunate that everybody in my household works in an "essential" field, so thankfully we're okay on that front as of now, but that didn't stop the last couple weeks from taking their toll on my workflow.  If the worst thing that happens is that I was tired and distracted for a couple weeks, I'll absolutely be counting my blessings.

But we don't want to hear about the real world, let's hear about this video game video!

1. New Set (Finally!)

     This set was already teased at the very end of the Catherine video, but I rearranged it to the original style I'd wanted, and BOY am I happy with the results!  Once I toyed around with the angling and lighting, it came out better than I could've hoped, and I'm planning on shooting more live clips going forward now that I have a much more intuitive set established.  Hopefully these more frequent live bits will be worth it for you!

2. New Recording Style!

     If you're ever going to experiment, there's no better time than with the launch of a new series!  I finally tried delivering my lines while standing for this video since moving the set around gave me more room.  I knew it'd be a huge leap, but even still I'm shocked at how natural the delivery felt by comparison.  I think it really shows in the video, even though I kept myself in the upper portion of my vocal range to stay in tune with what you'd usually expect.  Over the next few videos, I'll be testing out delivery with my lower, more natural speaking range - I did it a bit in this video, and you can easily hear how much my lines improved when I did.  My usual "YouTube" voice is higher than I pretty much ever speak, and that sometimes leads to forced lines, frequent retakes, and sometimes a hoarse throat - jumping myself back down will make things easier and likely sound more natural for viewers going forward!

3. New Series, duh!

     I felt pretty solid coming into this script, and altogether the editing process didn't take much longer than I expected, when I had the mental energy to sit down and properly work on it at least.  Some of that inertia was likely due to it being such a new endeavor from previous projects - diving into a specific area, level, or scene from a game in detail like this required a different touch throughout the entire process, and different use of my editing skills.  Even still I had to reuse some clips to get my point across, so I'll be learning from that going forward!

What is "Chewing Scenery?"

     This idea is the direct opposite of what much of my 2019 was: After making larger videos that each discussed several games - Tetris sequels, the entire Pokemon mini console, etc. - I realized that I'd stretched out a bit too much, and these videos weren't as easy to produce with the speed and quality that I'd have liked.  So I thought up this series here, a series where I can dive into detail about a particular area, level, or scene from a game!  By crunching myself down and focusing on what makes one specific place so effective, so beloved, or even so bad in some cases, I can produce the same level of analysis and entertainment that you've come to expect from me, while optimizing my workflow.  

     In short, it's a series that allows me to bring you more videos, on more topics, more frequently, and it's a fun one to make!  I gained so much respect for Rogueport from a design standpoint that I never would have if I wasn't focusing every tiny detail, and I've already noticed handfuls of other details in the next few areas I'll be discussing in the coming videos - some of these games I've played a dozen times over, and thanks to Chewing Scenery I'm noticing new things!

     But the best part, to me, is that it's a series that has infinite potential.  If you, like yes you, the person reading this right now, have a suggestion for an area, level, or what have you, let me know!  I want this series to truly be a conversation, or a conversation-starter.  I haven't often seen creators covering specific levels or areas, and I've noticed when talking to friends about the idea that they always have suggestions for what to do next.  Knowing that fuels me, it makes me want to get right back to work to discuss the best areas from every corner of gaming!  I'm hoping, now that I'm behind my schedule by a few weeks, that starting in May-ish, I'll run a monthly poll for what Chewing Scenery come next, working in Patron and fan suggestions with my own personal ones.  I want to give you a few more episodes first, just to get an idea of what other ways I'd like to explore levels and locales with this series, so stay tuned over the coming month-plus, I truly think you'll love it!

Stay Golden!