The Friday Update #3

Welcome to the third instalment of the Friday Update! Read on for some behind-the-scenes tales from editing and some book/video/game recommendations.

What have I been up to this week?

It's been another week of editing, editing, editing for me.

Some months, I find editing takes so long that the various elements of Premiere Pro begin to blur into one as my eyes strain from so many days in a row of staring at a screen. However, this time around, I've found myself really getting into the flow of it.

I think there's something about manipulating footage from films (there's lots of clips from boxing films such as Rocky, Raging Bull, Million Dollar Baby and Southpaw in this one) that is really interesting. Images that would usually fly past your eyes merely in service of a story suddenly become these little moving portraits or landscapes.

(The clip of Robert De Niro as Jake LaMotta leaning on the ropes in the below GIF particularly jumped out to me)

In fact, one thing that I really think comes across in this video is how much fun I've had making it. I also think it's a really good video essay (and I'm rarely that positive about my own work!) but I think the inquisitiveness and joy of the research, writing and filming parts of the process shine through in the final product.

The video's turned out to be be a tiny bit longer than I had predicted given the length of the script. I have predicted about 30 minutes but it's looking like it will be more in the region of 45. Nevertheless, there's only a few more days of editing to do and then I will get it uploaded for Early Access!

And outside of work?

As I think I wrote last week, the stress of editing generally doesn't leave much headspace for extra-curricular activities. However, it is currently the school holidays in the UK. That meant that my brother, who's a primary school teacher, was able to come and stay.

It was a bit of a flying visit as him and his partner were doing a little road trip to try and see as many family members as possible. Nevertheless, his stay luckily coincided with the British Firework Championships in Plymouth and so we went and found a good spot to watch lots of pretty explosions in the sky.

I think I've also previously mentioned that I'm currently training for a 10K race. This week has been the "peak" of my training schedule in terms of weekly mileage so I've got slightly achey legs. After an 11.5K run on Sunday, it all beings to taper off in preparation for the big day!

What have I been reading/watching/listening to?

I've got a few recommendations for things I've been enjoying this week covering a few different mediums.

Firstly, my (maybe slightly boring) history/politics book recommendation is The Town That Was Murdered by Ellen Wilkinson. I'm a member of the Left Book Club which sends members a book each month which is usually some form of theory or political commentary or history. This month's (or maybe last month's—a new one just came through the door today!) book was first published in the 1930s and is a "state of England" book similar in some regards to George Orwell's The Road to Wigan Pier. At the same time, it's a much more thorough and historicised work than ...Wigan Pier with the sense that the author is slightly more knowledgable about her subject matter than Orwell's brief (and slightly voyeuristic) visit to the north ever allowed.

It's maybe not for everyone but I'm finding it to be quite an interesting look at a place-oriented approach to understanding capitalism. In an era where economics and politics can often feel difficult to get our heads round due to their global-ness, such a way of thinking might be something it's worth going back to.

Secondly, I've been attempting to play Hollow Knight on my Switch. This recommendation comes with some reservations as I don't think I'm particularly good at this game and am currently a bit stuck. And yet, it's been a number of months since I've really got stuck into a game and, despite my shortcomings and the fact that I've not really worked out what it's "about" yet, I keep returning to Hollow Knight. So, there's obviously something captivating about it!

Finally, I want to recommend a YouTube video! I've watched a few releases by the channel People Make Games before. This week, however, they released a video about the game Roblox and how the company who own the game profit off the un/under-paid labour of largely child/adolescent developers.

I knew nothing about this game before but found the exploration of it as an ecosystem (and as a kind of economy) fascinating. The video is well worth 22 minutes of your time.

Check it out here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gXlauRB1EQ

What have I been thinking about?

It's been about a week now since the release of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report which summed up the current state of attempts to avert the worst impacts of climate change and what the present prognosis is for the planet.

As I'm sure has been the case for many people, the harsh facts reported in the news articles and features surrounding the report's publication have been knocking around my head for much of the time since.

One thing that fascinates me is the continued naivety that exists around market-based solutions. A video I was watching today by "Vlog Brother" Hank Green had much positive to say about carbon credits and similar initiatives. From recent reading (namely Jason Hickel's The Divide), however, I've become more sure than ever that such programmes becomes opportunities for more abuse and profiteering (usually at the expense of people in the Global South) which far outweighs any impact they may have on climate change.

The balance to be struck, is to find a way of moving attention away from such flawed solutions without coming across as a fatalist. Perhaps the route to that, however, is to develop a clearer idea of what I do think the solutions are so I can start arguing for those!

That brings us to the end of Friday Update #3. Let me know what you think of these; I always love a bit of feedback to make the Patreon page as interesting as it can be.

I should have uploaded a new video for you all by the next time I write one of these so enjoy that.

And, of course, thanks as ever for your generous support all!