The Return of the Friday Update

Welcome to the first Friday Update in a couple of weeks!

For any new Patreon backers, this is my weekly(ish) update in which I tell you about what I've been up to for the previous 7 days.

Apologies that I took a brief hiatus on this, the past fortnight has been extremely hectic what with filming and editing a 52-minute video!

What have I been up to this week(s)?

The last time I wrote one of these posts, I had just finished writing the script to my latest video about Science YouTube, corporate misinformation and driverless cars. Obviously, a lot has happened since then!

The week following that post, I gave the script one final read and filmed the video. There were a few challenges which accompanied this. Firstly, I recently bought a new camera which enables me to capture much higher-quality footage. In particular, it films in 6K (fancy, I know!) which means that when I "cut in" on a shot to get a close-up (or do a slow zoom-in as I do in my most recent video), I don't lose quality on the image. It also records in something called a "RAW" format which allows me to have much better control over the colours in the final product. All this meant that there was a bit of a learning curve when it came to using the camera and then to processing the footage to get it ready for editing. There's still much more to learn, but the new camera should, as I develop the skills, enable me to make much better-looking videos than my old consumer-oriented, relatively budget camera would have been capable of.

As a side note, while I was grateful to once again be filming in my house (rather than on the beach or in a friend's shed as I did for the past two videos), I did make the decision to film this video in the middle of the night. Over the past six months or so, I've been trying to maintain a better work-life balance. I've slowly managed to convince myself that Patreon supporters and viewers would prefer me to be happy and healthy than for a video to come out a couple of days earlier. That means that the days of pulling all-nighters to get a tiny bit ahead are generally over. Nevertheless, my house is by a pretty busy road; and we only have single glazing. I therefore waived my no night-time working rule to make sure I wouldn't be picking up any traffic on the audio track.

I hit several snags during editing. This time around it was exporting that was a bit of a pain. Of all the parts of creating a video to have trouble with, this is the worst. Exporting a video can (as in the case of the latest video) take up to 10 hours so it's really frustrating to expect to wake up in the morning with a video ready to upload and to, instead, have to change some settings and try again.

All this being said, it all worked out in the end, the video came together and has been relatively well received so far. It seems to have started some really productive discussion among educational YouTubers around the ethics of sponsorships, all of which has been really heartening as I feared that making this video (as I did with the previous one) might lead to me becoming persona non grata among other creators!

And outside of work?

As those of you that have read previous editions of the Friday Update will know, the phrase "outside of work" is fairly laughable during weeks where I'm filming, editing or releasing a video. At that stage in the process, I'm full steam ahead and keen to get the video out the door as soon as possible!

Nevertheless, it was a friend's birthday last Saturday. He's a big fan of craft beer, so we went to the local Brewdog for some drinks and food. Of all the things to do with friends, eating some filling food, sipping on a nice cider and chatting away for a few hours is probably one of my favourites. And, for some reason, doing so in the daytime always feels even more fun.

I had initially planned to go on a 15 kilometre run that afternoon as part of my training for the half marathon I'm doing in December. By 3pm, however, I was at home having a nice nap on the sofa instead!

What have I been reading/watching/listening to?

The past couple of weeks I have, like seemingly everyone else, been watching Squid Game. I really enjoyed it, although the hype surrounding it made it really difficult for the show to live up to expectations!

I've also currently been re-watching a lot of The Simpsons. I'm still making my way through some fairly old episodes but I'd forgotten just how good it is as a show. It's just so sharp and quick—even though the many of the episodes I've been watching are now decades old.

I'm sure neither of those shows are ones you need my recommendation to watch; however, if I told you what I was reading, I'd very quickly give away the topic of my next video and I'd like to keep an air of mystery for another week, haha!

That brings us to the end of this week's Friday Update.

Supporters on the relevant tiers should keep an eye out over the coming week or so for the various bits of additional content relating to the most recent video, including the script to it and the commentary track.

Thanks as ever for your generous support everyone and have a great week!