Away Days | The Friday Update

Welcome to this week’s edition of the Friday Update, in which I give a little insight into what I’ve been up to for the past seven days.

What have I been up to this week?

First off, apologies for a recent hiatus in the Friday Update, I’ve both been snowed-under with work trying to get the next video filmed and had a bit of extra stuff going on at home that’s made filing these at the end of each week a bit tough. But, we’re back!

As I sit at my dining room table and write this, I’m preparing to film the very final parts of my upcoming video about the rise of online grifts. It’s been a lot of work to get it this far. There’s around 12 sections (more depending on how you count!) which has meant that, alongside actually having to write each section, there’s also been a huge amount of logistics involved in choosing and sourcing costume, scheduling filming and much more.

Those of you on the higher Patreon tiers will already have seen a couple of clips from the upcoming video (and, if not, do go and check them out!). I’m really pleased with how it’s all turning out. The video dives into some fairly technical economics stuff throughout but I think we’ve managed to frame everything so that it still retains a certain accessibility and fun.

One thing I’ve really enjoyed trying out this time around is using a couple of “real” sets. There are a few sections where, rather than using a green screen as we often do, I’m in a “real” location (even if both are within my own house!). This is something I’d love to do more of in the future; depending on how things are going financially, I’d love to be able to hire more locations or do some filming on-the-go.

This video is one of the most ambitious pieces I’ve made to date. As such, I’m beginning to get a little nervous about releasing it. Working on something this large and complex takes a lot of brain power and I really hope people enjoy it!

And outside of work?

I’m gonna cheat with this week’s “outside of work” section and discuss something which isn’t *hard* work, but is kind of work…

Earlier this week, I popped over to Amsterdam to meet up with some fellow Nebula creators. There’s a relatively lively sense of community among the creators who are part of Nebula but, of course, most of that takes place online. At some point quite recently, however, some of us who are based in Europe decided it would be cool to try and arrange a proper meet up.

We were fairly relaxed in what we did. We originally had lots of plans for visiting museums and going on bike rides. While we did manage a gorgeous boat trip around the canals, however, we were mostly pretty lazy and stuck to talking over food and drinks.

Being a YouTube creator can be a fairly isolating experience. The work is often pretty solitary and it’s quite rare for most creators to live near any others who do the same job. While it was only two or three days long, it was therefore really great to have the chance to meet some people I’d previously spoken to online in person and to chat about both YouTube stuff and much more.

What have I been reading/watching/listening to?

Last week, I caught the new Wes Anderson film, Asteroid City, at my local cinema.

I get the sense this one has been a little divisive. I know some friends of mine found it incredibly boring, and even some newspapers and reviewers I would usually have expected to have positive things to say about slightly more arty films have also slated it.

I think some of their criticisms are fair. It is very slow moving even for a Wes Anderson film. And, it can occasionally feel quite smug. While I don’t necessarily think it’s a film that will be at the forefront of my mind for a long time, however, I don’t think it’s one to completely avoid. As Anderson tends to do, the film’s creates a stylish sense of place for its characters to inhabit and it’s full of some brilliant gags.

There’s a lot of competition for what to watch at the cinema at the moment but, if you’re still waiting for Oppenheimer and Barbie to come out, Asteroid City is a good evening out.

That brings us to the end of this week’s edition of the Friday Update. I hope you’ve found it mildly insightful.

Thanks as ever for your generous support and I’ll look forward to updating you more next week!!