BIG December & 2023 Update (Patreon)

Let's get this out of the way first: this month was abysmal for uploads from me, and I apologize! Obviously there were other things going on, such as the copyright fiasco on YouTube, working on the website as well as a few other things, but that's no excuse for me to just not upload much at all. So this update post is all about what's changing for December and moving into 2023 and why things will be more consistent, hopefully better, and more collaborative again.

Since there's a whole lot of things I'm going to be listing out here, instead of just big paragraphs I'm going to do it all in more of a bullet point fashion. If you have any questions or want more clarification about any of the points, always feel free to leave a comment or message me!

1. Bringing back weekly schedules & no more "coming up" for the whole month
   1. Monthly plans were a 2022 experiment that was fine at times, but ultimately failed. I almost always got over-excited at the beginning of the month, throwing too much into the schedule and couldn’t always deliver. I’d get behind very quickly when looking at the month as a whole instead of on a more weekly, or even daily basis.
   2. Now you’ll know exactly what’s coming on what day at the start of each week (for both reactions and gaming). This doesn’t mean we still can’t discuss things coming up down the line, but I’m not going to say at the end of a month “expect all this by the end of next month” anymore.
   3. In line with point ‘a’, this will help me be a bit more focused and motivated like I used to be when I had weekly schedules before.
2. Bringing back polls for movies
   1. One movie poll per week. There’s always the possibility of me uploading reactions to other movies I choose as well, but I want to bring back the community involvement, and a more consistent movie schedule.
   2. Can always increase the number of polls per week, but since it’s been very slow on the movie-front for reactions the past few months I just wanted to start with one per week.
   3. How would everyone like the polls to be organized? In the past I’d usually pick like 10 movies I wanted to watch and that people had suggested, we’d have themed polls based on genre and release year/decade, etc. That seemed to work fine, but I wanted to hear maybe any other ideas or methods you all think would be interesting to try. These ideas can be anything from what types of polls to do, to how the movies for the polls are chosen (like a suggestion pool or something?).
3. Dropping the tv shows down to 2 at a time (the OG format)
   1. 2022 had an insane amount of shows I was interested in watching, but that also meant that movies took a bit of a back seat, and that I was balancing a lot of shows on my plate at the same time.
   2. I’d like to keep some level of variety with 2 shows, but also be able to focus more on each story and get immersed in a few instead of having to juggle so many characters and plots at the same time.
   3. This would incorporate more planning as I’d have to schedule things around when certain shows are airing live. Sometimes this would mean making sure the show I’m starting at a particular time is shorter/one season, or just watching one season of a show and pausing for a currently airing show and then getting back to season 2 afterwards.
   4. The first 2 shows will still be Severance and Andor as mentioned previously, since they’re each 1 season. First to finish will be replaced with Succession, then the other will be replaced with The Last of Us.
4. Gaming videos will be more frequent now
   1. After playing The Last of Us Part II I’ve been able to figure out a good system for recording and editing and work out any issues, so I’m more confident and comfortable moving forward.
   2. The quality will be bumped up to 4K60fps for everything.
   3. If I’m playing a long campaign game, I’ll try and alternate in some other games occasionally so that it’s not just 1 thing for months at a time.
5. Eventually want to try live-streaming some gaming on YouTube
   1. This would be for games that either don’t really work for videos, multiplayer type games, or just more special event type games.
6. In regards to reaction videos for YouTube, if I’m able to upload reactions ever again lol, I’ll make the videos shorter and prioritize the big reaction moments
   1. Instead of 35-60 minute movie reaction videos that encompass a majority of story moments, they’d be anywhere from 15-25 minute videos that really focus on the best reaction/commentary moments or the best scenes.
   2. These would be without intros and outros (see the Batman ‘89 or Who Framed Roger Rabbit reaction videos for reference) and just be all reaction footage.
   3. Yes, the videos will be shorter and may not have every scene everybody wants a reaction to, but I think they could end up being better paced and more enjoyable to watch in a regular sitting since you don’t have to set aside as much time. I know sometimes I really want to watch a reaction but then see the video is 45 minutes and just don’t have the time for that at the moment.
7. 2023 will be the year I finally start going back to the theater regularly.
   1. I know I’ve mentioned this in the past, but before 2020 I was seeing about 60 new movies a year, which dropped to like 2-4 in the theater a year from 2020-2022.
   2. I’ll make review videos of some kind for all the movies I see. Sometimes I may not feel a movie makes sense to have its own video and so I’ll combine a few movies into 1 video, but I’ll always make sure to make some sort of reference to them on the channel.
   3. Every movie I see will get a review on Letterboxd (username: BrandonLikes)
8. Going to try to make 1 non-reaction video every 2 weeks for the channel
   1. Obviously if reaction videos just aren’t working out, these would be the only videos I’m putting on the channel, but even if I can put up reactions again I’d still do this.
   2. I don’t want to set a 1/week goal yet until I know I can keep up with every 2 weeks.
9. Going to try and have more social media presence on other social media sites
   1. Currently I don’t use anything besides tiktok, but even then I just browse and don’t post, and sometimes I’d like to either share things or interact in ways beyond posting to Patreon or the YouTube community tab lol.
   2. I’ll make an instagram, reddit, and twitter (probably won’t ever use it except for emergencies lol), and then turn my tiktok into an actual posting account.
10. Discord feedback
    1. What works, what didn’t you like, what could be better?
    2. I’ll get a few mods and then open it up to the public by sharing it on the channel
11. First merch release
    1. Been working for the past little while on merch and an online shop and will be debuting it soon. Currently waiting on a few test products to make sure they look good.

That’s all that I’ve got for now (or at least all I can remember), so let me know your thoughts on any of the points and of course any suggestions. I’m very grateful for those of you who’ve supported this year, and especially the past few months, when I wasn’t providing as much content as I wanted to. I’m hoping that 2023 can be the best year for the channel(s) yet!