August Patron Q&A - Text Edition! (Patreon)

I am typing directly from the child covered desk of Daddy O'Dwyer. The questions covered a lot of ground so thanks so much for sending them in. Let's get to it. Amir is up first...

Amir Rangnekar
This may be difficult to answer because it's looking quite long term but do you always see yourself directly producing/being involved with the production of documentaries for years (potentially decades) to come or like these next two docs coming up, can you see yourself taking a back seat eventually?

No I think I’ll always want to be involved. I enjoy the work too much. Even when it comes to the two docs that Jeremy and Esteban are editing. I’m in there helping with production and giving feedback. It’s less hands-on for sure, but I’ve no desire to step back and just manage people. Just managing projects is fun every now and again though.

Bas Vermolen
It's inherent to documentary production that you're not completely sure what you will get when filming starts. How do you deal with this? How much of the story/questions/shots are storyboarded and planned in advance, and how much do you just wing on location?

I have a general idea of where the story is, but I’m never married to it. I try to be as resceptive as possible to what people are telling me and then reassess after each interview. Sometimes the story pivots, sometimes a new narrative appears. A good example is the Horizon doc. There were so many interesting angles about studio building that I had no idea were going to come to the surface. It ended up being the pillar of the narrative. But yes, there is such a thing as planning too much, as well as too little. You have to be able to pivot when necessary. 

Dylan Murphy
When you guys announced the production classes I was head over heels. I've been a huge fan of your work for a while, even taking inspiration and trying to find my own path in documentary style filmmaking. So getting a glimpse behind the scenes has been pure delight. I'm starting small, focusing on stories around my community and highlighting small businesses who take an interest in it. I was wondering, is there any advice you could give me that you wish someone had given you at the start of your career? Pretty basic and general question, but anything would be appreciated. Thanks for all you do. Missing you on KFGD, by the way.

Nice work, I wish you the best on your professional journey. As for advice; Practice, practice, practice, practice. Make stuff quick, put it in front of an audience, repeat. Get good at your craft by making things that are bad, and then better, and eventually good. Don’t try and make your masterpiece right away. You’ll never get better that way.

Brandon K Gann
I know I read a tweet from Danny loving the DOOM: Eternal gameplay reveal, but I was hoping for a just a tiny bit more from any who want to respond: What are/were your favorite aspects of what we saw during the keynote? Personally, the Meat Hook on the Sawed Off Shotgun really has my imagination flying (pun intended) about the possibilities, plus having a sword to take on the Archvile seems like a fun time. 

The grapple hook feel like a wonderful evolution of the “push forward combat” they mastered in the first game. I like a lot of the weird gothic futurism they showed off. I loved the new music, new weapons and new enemies. It’s great to see a sequel that’s trying new things, and not just the same old game in a different world.

Johnny Lowden
Would you ever think of doing more general-industry type docs? Say a doc about the dev industry in a particular country rather than on a specific dev? It would be cool to see a doc on the burgeoning game dev industry back here in Ireland!

The plan was to do something like that eventually but my good friend Drew Scanlon started his Cloth Map project and I didn’t want to step on his toes. Actually I’m in the process of writing a pitch for a mini-series where I go to different cities and interview folks about games. Many people have tried it but I think they’ve done it a different way to the way I’d like to. Still trying to figure out how to get it to come together.

Lucy Yearwood
You’re looking svelt Danny. Good job on the diet! Keep it up! 

Thanks so much! I’ve lost 35 pounds since the Fallout doc. I cannot believe how effective the keto diet has been for me. Losing weight has been my white whale my entire life. I’m unbelievably happy as a result. Once I’ve lost some more I’m going to make a video on my personal youtube to try and encourage others to do it because it’s had a massively positive affect on my life. 

Tohir Tillyaev
Hey Danny, congrats again on expanding the O’Dwyer clan! Silly question - do you google your name from time to time, and if yes, what is the coolest and the weirdest article/blog post/etc you read?

Yikes, eh rarely. I’m not a big fan of the concept of celebrity at all. I google Noclip a lot to see what people are saying. I never search my name on twitter either. I’m not sure if I’ve ever found anything interesting. There was this one video a guy made called me out for somthing I said about DoTA. Weirdly enough he ran into me at GamesCom in Germany later that year which was weird. I just typed my name into the google bar and the first search term that appeared was “danny o dwyer wife” so you can see why I don’t usually indulge in this activity! Also maybe you can see why I don’t post photos of my family anywhere! :)

Sam Walton
What's next on the game list after finishing Bloodborne? 

I just started playing Elder Scrolls Online which I picked up for $5. I’m playing through Dark Souls and Dead Rising too. 

Felipe Rojo
Hey Danny, this may be a bit too early to ask but let’s give it a shot: has fatherhood changed your view or approach towards your work at all? 

Not yet, we’re deep in the trenches right now. I’m sure it will when I get back to work next month though.

Paul
Would it be possible to do mini doc on Video game box artworK in the era (80’s - 90’s) when visual designer took small touch of artistic licence? it was one main reason why I became a graphic designer. Visual designers face the challenge of balancing a game's content with enough action and entertainment to draw the eye of a passing gamer / mummy, hoping their art will convince the customer that their game is worthy of purchasing. 

Sounds like a very interesting topic for a documentary, but I can see a lot of production challenges that would make it quite expensive. Namely, a lot of that era’s designs were done by freelance graphic designers not necessarily associated with the publisher. Flying to all of these different folks would be pricey and might not provide particularly interesting interviews. They could, but with so many stories for us to choose from it would be a tough story to preference for me personally.

Tory Thompson
What is your process to preparation and pre-production before heading to film a doc? E.i. Prep for interviews, knowledge of company, do you play the game(s) ahead of time to brush up, etc. thanks Danny!

It depends on the doc but generally I try to play the game(s) as much as I can to get a deep understanding of how it all works. I do a lot of research on studio history and I mobygames a bunch of people in the credits to get an idea of the team. Some games are harder than others. Rocket League was pretty easy, for instance. I’d played hundreds of hours of that game already. FFXIV was the toughest. I played that game for a month without telling anyone. My first experience with Final Fantasy.

Shell Comics
Why oh why is 'A Tournament of Lies' dead? :(

Because there aren’t enough hours in the day and I had to cut something. Sorry!

Arkada
Congratulations on the baby!  Hope you're getting enough sleep. So.. changing the subject... as you seem to be on good terms with Sean Murray, is a No Man's Sky documentary within the realm of possibility one day? :)

We’re not filming anything in the foreseeable but it’s my hope we’ll be able to tell that story at some point in the future. I can’t say anything else right now sadly. But I’m with you, that story needs to be told - and told responsibly.

Tanya Cumpston
I would also love to watch a documentary on No Man's Sky. Another interesting subject would be the evolution of the small Indie Kickstarter game We Happy Few into a AAA game.

Agreed. Both games suffered from trailers that set expectations higher than the game they were making too. I believe Compulsion Games were acquired by Microsoft in the meantime. Not sure if we’d try and tell that one, but NMS is on my personal wish list for sure. Give me some time with that one.

Thomas Kaspersen
I was thinking about old times, and I got to think about people I've followed on the internet before. How about doing a doc on gamespot. Gamespot was one of the first sites I regularly visited. Their video content was very informative, and most importantly, incredibly funny. After Jeff Gerstmann was fired, most of the people I knew left. I didn't visit the site again for many years. I know I can just google them, but it would be very fun watching a video on what they're doing now, and how the gamespot days helped/affected their future career choices, and what relationship they have with their former co-workers today?

That website has had a profound effect on my life. Basically every life decision I made from the age of 20 onwards was in service of trying to work there. I love and respect so many people who have gone through those doors. But honestly, I don’t think there is much of a story to be told there - or at least the story people would like to hear. My time at GameSpot was creatively enjoyable but like most folks who passed through it was also littered with bad experiences in relation to how the place was managed. GameSpot was a very special website for a moment in time. But that time has long passed. I still love some of the work that comes out of there and have a lot of respect for the folks working there - but I couldn’t tell that story without talking to a lot of people who are deeply pissed off with the way that site was run. To me GameSpot is tragically missed opportunity. It was easier to love it as a fan.

Nick Grugin
With October getting closer and closer you thought about doing anything focusing on horror games / spooky games? (Outlast,  FNAF, Eternal Darkness , etc)

Yea every year it crossed my mind but nothing sticks. Outlast would be an interesting story. FNAF too. I’d love to do something on F.E.A.R. myself. Or Resident Evil. But it just hasn’t happened yet I guess.

Wholly
Question - Not trolling, promise.  Given that many of us "normies" feel that the big gaming press is struggling with connecting with the public and the games themselves, do you have any recommended sources for opinions that differ from the K and P crowd?  Perhaps a little less "preachy" or judgmental of players and fans?  People that review and report on games more like you do documentaries, let the work tell the story rather than force a ”cultural narrative” to fit a work?  Asking for a friend.

Oh boy. I mean everyone is sensitive to certain outlets perspectives to different degrees. All I can do is recommend folks I enjoy. Giant Bomb is my go-to for most games coverage. Easy Allies do a bunch of great review work too. I’m not sure what you mean by “K and P crowd” though sorry - I must not be down with the kids any more. Is that the street drugs?

PSWii
Since no one has asked about Alanah: as someone who met her at RTX, isn’t she the best? 

She’s awesome. Funny story - we’ve actually never met. We’ve talked online over the years but we’ve never actually talked face-to-face before. I’ve been a fan of her work for a while though, and thought she had a lot of untapped potential that IGN never got around to fostering. So it was a lot of fun to let her lose on this project. Can’t wait to see it come together in Jeremy’s edit.

Basil Frank
Congrats on the baby! Only recently catching up on older Q&A so forgive me if this has been asked before but what about doing a doc on games that never got finished? Meaning Star Wars 1313, perhaps what really happened with PT and that whole situation? Why did EA eventually kill off the Command and Conquer franchise - do you remember Bioware was suppose to develop CnC Generals 2? There's even a trailer on that. I do love success stories but I often find interest in those titles that never made it. As always though, keep it up. Cheers from Cape Town, South Africa - Geniet jou dag! (That is Afrikaans for 'Enjoy your day').

The 1313 thing is one that came up during year one, but I ended up balking at it as I wasn't sure what legal situation we might find ourselves in if we “came across” any unreleased assets for that game - which I’m pretty sure are out there somewhere. Some of those stories would be really interesting. We’ve heard a lot from folks about doing a project on “failed” games and we’re definitely trying to make that happen.. Geniet jou dag to you too!

Christopher Kelly
Congratulations on the baby! It will change so much :D I've only just subscribed so I'm a newbie, this channel is absolutely fantastic!

Is there any developer you've met with or featured so far that maybe awhile after production wrapped you wished you could go back and cover a part of their company in more detail? Say you are meeting Bethesda but they hadn't allowed so much access to Fallout 76 at the time of filming, that kind of thing?

Also are there any dream companies you want to cover in the near future, or stories you just don't want to touch because of how much coverage is out there already - I guess No Man's Sky's development and reception is an obvious one on YouTube.

Welcome Christopher! When it comes to my dream companies they were always Rockstar, Valve & Bethesda. We can kick Bethesda off the list, so I’d probably add FromSoftware to that now. Though we’ve reached out and I can’t see that happening any time soon. They were very nice about it through. I’d be very interesting in doing something on NMS, as it was a game I covered a bunch at GameSpot and have filmed two docs with Hello Games over the years. Sean is a friend of mine and I think they have an interesting story to tell

As for your first question - that’s a really good one. I think our DOOM 2016 doc could have done more into level and weapon design. We barely touched on either and I think it was a big missed opportunity. I totally forgot to ask Bethesda about real-time VATS even though we’d seen it in action. I’m sure there are other questions too….there always are. Nothing else comes to mind right now though.

Thanks for your patronage, really appreciate it! These Q&As are usually in video so expect that again next month.

Graham Jenkins
I loved your NoClip profile on John Romero. Are there any plans to do more of those? Also, are you now an expert in nappy changing?

Well Esteban’s project is very profile-like but we probably won’t brand it as such. We will do more of them for sure. Just haven’t had a chance yet.

Thanks again folks. Expect some video sneak peeks real soon.

Danny