Recap of Discord Chat Session with Peter & Lloyd (Patreon)

Yesterday Peter & Lloyd spent an hour on the Discord server chatting with patrons. Here is a recap of what was discussed for those of you who couldn't be there.

Peter began the session by saying "we just finished an intense two hour meeting laying out our social media strategy through September". He went on to explain that we had recently filmed 27 small clips that will be start to appear on social media in a few weeks time. [Those video clips are short reaction / discussion of a random array of matchup ideas that had been posted on our YouTube page recently]

Pete then moved on to discuss the current status of Karl Marx vs Henry Ford. He said  they had recorded the Marx lyrics last week and they are recording the Ford lyrics this week. We intend to schedule a date for filming the actual video sometime in June. Peter said "I ideally want to try to film us both on same day so we can kind of get in each others faces". Both character costumes are all organised, and we have sourced two good options for using an actual real Ford vehicle in the shoot. We intend to film the vehicle on a green screen outside the studio and then add the moving road background in editing.

In terms of Godzilla vs King Kong Peter explained it is "still an impossible mountain to climb". But, all the actual technical challenges had been overcome, so there is finally some hope things can start moving along. Godzilla is "a full functioning animated motion capture character with moving fingers, and an emotionally expressive face. Whilst King Kong had to get new colors and a new head shape, but it's all now done."

The actual Kong and Godzilla final vocals are all fully recorded. We had to track and re-track the vocals over and over but we are finally happy with them. Next week we have two days scheduled to shoot the motion capture video of the two characters. (See the photo above of Lloyd practicing in the suit) We're going to capture all the performance data like a normal ERB shoot. It will entail 2 x 10 hour days and hopefully we can get all the motion capture filming done in that time frame. Peter explained that "Jon Na has joined in on the visuals and will be helping to craft each individual shot".

Peter stated that he had found an acoustic bass (see above photo) at a garage sale recently that he was hoping to use to replicate the sound of Godzilla's roar. He said "I loaded up a leather glove with melted resin, did some rubs, but started burning through the glove fingers. Ordered some sturdier gloves, I definitely started to hear what we're trying to get. It's a super weird sound".

Peter then switched topics to explain that we had been invited "to make a sort of online class about our approach to music production. It's basically a 6-8 hour behind the scenes look at the whole writing and demo process of an ERB. We filmed it over two days, 4 cameras, got the whole process from initial idea right through to second demo". [For those of you interested in watching it, the class will be released online for the public to purchase at some point in June/July]

For the purposes of that filming they selected a matchup from a batch of ideas that had been posted on YouTube recently. The idea very much came out of left field and wasn't a match-up pairing that they had considered previously - Tom Cruise vs Evel Knievel. Peter explained that through the process of filming the class, they ended up liking the match-up more than they thought they would. 

They have even discussed the idea of actually making the battle in some form or other. Whether it be a flash in the pan type thing or an actual fully fledged ERB video. At this stage it is totally undecided. Patrons suggested it could be called a "mini-RB", rather than "a flash in the pan", which Peter liked the sound of. 

We might not do anything with Cruise vs Knievel at all. It's something we will be deciding upon in the next few weeks. Peter simply enjoyed the process of spending two full days on a matchup and having a piece of content to show for it. Much less pressure involved than spending months and months researching and rewriting. We will just see how things shake out over the next few weeks.

Peter then brought up Vincent Van Gogh vs Andy Warhol as it's a match-up he personally has come to firmly believe in. He also mentioned Conan The Barbarian vs Conan O'Brien which is a match-up that Lloyd has always loved. The issue is Lloyd isn't a fan of Gogh vs Warhol whilst Peter hates Conan vs Conan. So, both match-up ideas have remained in some form of limbo.

Peter said he had contemplated doing some form of debate on the ERB2 channel and then allowing the YouTube audience to vote for which match-up they prefer to see made - much like we did with the YouTube poll that decided Marx vs Ford. At this stage we are not sure which match-up we will focus on next (after Godzilla vs Kong and Marx vs Ford) but there are a bunch we keep looking into further. 

A patron called CrabCakes125 asked "is Red Baron vs White Death still alive?". Lloyd explained "I still like that one a lot. Just trying to put some space between that match up and Karl Marx cause they're kinda both in that German Prussian area and it would be a little much to do them back to back".

Similarly, a patron called blaisesanti queried the current feeling about Taylor Swift vs Johnny Cash. Peter explained "Swift vs Cash just cannot gain traction with us, as much as I want it to."

Patron GlenOck asked "So could the Mini-RB approach in theory bring Wonka vs Jigsaw back on the whiteboard?". Peter said "yes in theory for sure Glen. I actually keep thinking about that one. Its a good idea".

The idea of doing a US Election battle in 2024 was then brought up. Peter stated he wanted to hold off thinking about it until July 2024.

The chat session then concluded with Peter thanking everyone for their input and enthusiasm. He said there would hopefully be a video live stream sometime soon so that we can discuss things further.

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Thank you to everyone who participated live and I hope this recap was useful for those of you who were unable to attend. Talk soon. HM