Video: Before Sonus, there was... Dell??? (Patreon)

Oh boy! A video!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNEulcJrJ2I

It is amazing how quickly plans fall apart on contact with reality. I know I don't need to explain myself, but I'm kind of astonished at how much has gone wrong the last few weeks and I figured I'd just let you all know What's Up.

How It's Going

Protip for anyone thinking of quitting their job the way I did: Taking two weeks off and then going back for a week to "mop up" is not the right call. The money made sense, but it did immense psychic damage. The two weeks I was off were everything I hoped - I felt free, I felt like I was moving forward. I figured the last week would just be a brief pause before going back to that. Instead, it killed all my momentum.

It felt like I'd gotten out of prison, then got picked up on parole violation three days later. Instantly, I felt more stressed than I had even before I left in the first place. That entire week was mental hell and I'm not even sure why. It stressed me out so badly that I couldn't even get myself to think about eating on schedule, so on a couple days I decided to go to the grocery store and get deli chicken.

As a result, on my last day of work I developed food poisoning. For the next five days, I was so sick all the time that I couldn't even think. Then I got better, finally worked on some scripts... and then household stuff got in the way and prevented me from going to the studio.

How This Video Went

So, finally, two and a half weeks after my last video comes out, I go in and do a shoot - but only the A-roll. I planned this video with a brief cold-open bit (I've been really liking those on the Quick Start videos and would like to keep doing them for everything) so I needed to go back and shoot that. Turned out, there were events going on that locked down the entire part of town where my studio is for days.

While waiting for the studio to become available again, I try to edit the A-roll - only to find myself hating it. It felt fine when I was shooting it, but then during editing I'm watching and going "oh my god I look so sad and lifeless."

Fortunately, before I can commit to a reshoot, Daria convinces me to sleep on it; I do, and the next day I feel better about the footage (I ended up using it, so, everything worked out there.) But I really, really want that B-roll, and I'm not willing to wait until Wednesday (today!) for the Events to end, so I go to RePC, buy about 100 pounds of enormous props, load them up on a cart, and push it all, multiple city blocks through a pedestrian-only zone, to reach the studio. I only dumped the stuff on the pavement once!!

It then takes TWO DAYS to shoot B-roll. It turns out that what was a single paragraph in the script turned out to require a completely new set, essentially, to be built in the corner of my studio. The existing set had to be dismantled, a new one assembled, lights moved, etc. and then i had to wipe down and detail all this ancient 70s-90s stereo gear, which was profoundly filthy, then constantly move furniture and set pieces to find the right angles. Daria's back was injured, so I did this all by myself, in a dead hot studio with no AC, soaked in sweat the entire time.

It's Almost Like Filmmaking Is Hard And Normally Involves A Big Crew And Tons Of Space. Who Could Have Predicted This Would Be Difficult. Lessons learned, I guess. Some things just might be easier said than done! Who knew!

Wow

Like I've said before, it's not that I think anyone will be mad at me if I don't produce a video for a while, but I personally find it frustrating to not be able to do what I want to do, and I'm impressed at how much of a disaster My First Week Of Freedom ended up being, compared to the smooth sailing I expected. I'm sure it'll get better the further away Job is in the rearview, but still, wow.

As far as the disastrous production process: Was two days (three, arguably) of labor worth 30 seconds of footage for an intro? You Be The Judge, but I think it was.