ArTorr Updates: May 2023

Hello everybody! Welcome to the monthly update post! We skipped making last month's update post initially out of circumstance, as I was preparing for and then away on travel to London for Star Wars Celebration Europe at the start of the month. But then the rest of April just wouldn't let up, personally or professionally. While I'm not as busy, and have got my bearings straight now, I figured doing these posts at the very start of the month, rather than one-to-two weeks into them, warranted skipping April and resetting in May. Thus, here we are, and here's what I worked on over the last two months!

The Indiana Jones Sequels Video

I finalized the script for my next video, tentatively titled Indiana Jones and The Perilous Art of the Sequel-- all about the three Indiana Jones sequels to Raiders of the Lost Ark-- towards the end of March after writing two full drafts and a soft revision draft. It was recorded right before my trip at the start of the month, but when I returned to edit the narration almost two weeks later, I discovered that my microphone disconnected halfway through the recording. Oops. I then rerecorded it, cut the narration and began work on the audio pass of the video, where I set all the narration, music, and segue clips on the Premiere timeline. As of writing this, I'm still finishing the audio pass, but I expect to be done with it today or tomorrow, and then onto the video pass.

Here's what the timeline looks like currently...

It's been a very, very slow process, in-part because of personal circumstances that've occupied my time outside of video work, but also because of how I've approached music for this video. While the video uses musical tracks from The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, The Staff of Kings video game, and The Emperor's Tomb video game-- all of which are ignored by content ID on YouTube-- the bulk of music in this video is, of course, John Williams's brilliant scores for Temple of Doom, The Last Crusade, and Kingdom of The Crystal Skull.

To avoid copyright claims for the use of musical tracks from these movies, I've essentially had to frankenstein pieces of different tracks together throughout the video, or make frequent cuts and abridge sections of the same track; which of course takes a lot more to do than just plopping a song on the timeline and keyframing the volume levels on it. Even still, I expect to encounter some claims after the first test upload (which I do after the audio pass), but my hope is that the work to dodge these claims will be far less intensive because of the care I've put in to trick the system. We'll see!

I've really enjoyed working on this video so far, and as I've previously discussed, this video is not so much an analysis of the movies themselves as it is an analysis of the man behind them: Steven Spielberg. I hope you all enjoy it, and that it gets you properly in that Indiana Jones mood before the Dial of Destiny comes out. Please be good! 🤞

Indiana Jones and The Perilous Art of The Sequel will be out May 25th (though a delay is possible)!

The Andor Video

While being away from home or away on travel hurt progress on the Indiana Jones video, it didn't stop progress on the Andor video. Remember-- tell no one outside the Patreon!

One of the greatest things about Star Wars Celebration Europe for the time I was there was that it wound up being an invaluable resource for research on my Andor video. I attended and took notes on three different Andor-related panels during the convention, and illuminated a bit more of what I should say with the video. Since then, I've been hard at work breaking down the show's character arcs, themes, and social commentary, while also accumulating the proper research on political theory, history, and revolutions.

All of this has factored into a robust final outline, which I'm still fleshing out. Initially, my goal was to have the video written or mostly written before I finished editing the Indiana Jones video. However, after falling so far behind on the Indy video last month, my new goal is to finish the Indy video as quickly as I can, and be ready to write the first draft of the Andor video right after finishing it. As I've previously mentioned, the bulk of the pre-editing work on this video has been in outlining & researching; writing will go quick with a good outline to work off of.

Optimistically, I really don't want to be working on this video any later than June. But as this a video that has been heavily requested, my priority is to get it right rather than to get it done fast-- as nice as the latter sounds to me. 😋

That's all Folks!

As we approach the summer, and I look ahead to all the projects I aim to take on over the next few months, I feel energized and hopeful. I developed some really bad habits for my productivity and focus around the time of the Mass Effect 3 video this past fall, and it's definitely shadowed over my attitude towards video work this year. The Last of Us video was really tough for me to push out at the end, and the piling on of personal circumstances over the last few months has stifled my focus and calm anytime I've sat down to write or edit. I know you guys understand, and I so value that, but I'm also staunchly committed to personal growth and the fruits of hard work.

As it was at the start of the year, my goal for 2023 still remains releasing 8 videos this year, without making any significant compromises. Though we're behind schedule, I still envision how I can accomplish that, and how I can further refine the process that will get me there. We'll just have to see how it all plays out!

Thank you for reading, and stay tuned. Now, back to playing Jedi Survivor (which you can now watch me play on https://www.twitch.tv/artorrpresents )!