THE STATE OF DIGITISER TODAY (Patreon)

So, here's the thing. Two episodes into Digitiser the Show, and I'm feeling a little... I suppose "mixed" would be the word. 

I'm writing this on here because it's quite clear that not all the Digi show backers liked what they got, but I want to try to write through where I'm at, so I can attempt to make sense of it.

See, I'm well aware that there's a potential version of Digi which wouldn't have the between-segment Found Footage-y bits, and Beautiful Boys, and whatnot... and it'd probably be a lot more accessible, and less off-putting to many people. It wouldn't be quite as Digitiser-y, admittedly, but it would certainly be more welcoming (indeed, I'm sure, it would be the sort of thing some backers thought they'd be getting - and why some of them are furious when it turned out different). 

However, it's all of that madness which, for me, makes the show unique and special. I've had a few people suggest that if I turned some of my Digitiser2000 posts into short videos they'd be really popular, but... I could churn out that sort of thing in my sleep, and I don't just want to do the same type of content that everyone else is doing. 

Making a short-ish vanilla video where I just discuss the history of the Dreamcast, or Top 5 Shooters, or Let's Plays, would no doubt be more popular in a lot of ways than Digitiser The Show, but it would bore me senseless, and I would struggle to feel it had - and I mean no disrespect to other YouTubers by saying this - worth. 

I guess what I mean by that is that I'd be suppressing my natural inclinations, and everything to do with Digitiser is intended to allow free reign to those. It makes it entirely unlike anything else, because it's so personal. 

The original Digi on Teletext could - and perhaps should - have been more mainstream and sensible, and like other magazines, but it wasn't... because what would have been the point? You could get that stuff from other mags. Plus we all know what happened when Teletext tried to make it that way...

I've got a career - and I do alright in it - where I have to reign in my madder side for the sake of paying the bills, but until I rediscovered Digitiser, and let Mr Biffo out again, I was becoming creatively stifled by it in a massive way. I don't want to feel creatively stifled by my "hobby" too. 

I suppose what it boils down to is that I'm just feeling frustrated that Ep 2 hasn't done as well as ep 1. Admittedly, for what is - essentially - the second video uploaded to what is, to most people, a brand new channel, it has done pretty bloody well, and we've had plenty of subscriptions... but in four weeks time the series will be done, and with it the opportunity to grow the channel even further.

I'm divided over the fact that much of my Mr Biffo work is so Marmite. It's frustrating because I know that I'm entirely capable of making stuff that's very mainstream - and making that stuff well. But - from my point of view - that sort of thing wouldn't be as good or as funny or worthwhile as, say, putting a song about a Sex Frog in the middle of a show about old video games. The sheer fact some people are annoyed by that just makes it funnier to me.

And then, perversely and paradoxically, I also wish those people could see the show in a sort of holistic sense, and enjoy it as a whole. And yet, because they don't, I double down on the stuff they don't like. I mean, I've spent all day so far editing a 30-second clip about a Buzz Aldrin strip show for episode 4 - and so the cycle continues.

I dunno what I'm saying. I'm just trying to figure out what I do next really, and how - and if - I'm capable of building on Digitiser The Show. And whether there's any point even trying. I think this Sunday's ep is the best one of the series yet... but that's only in my eyes, and so it's probably going to prove even more divisive, because what I like about it is that it's completely mental. 

The more Found Footage evolved to my taste the fewer people watched it.

I think there's a very strong chance that I won't crowd-fund anymore Digitiser The Show. If we do it again, it'll be done most likely through Patreon and from my own pocket - the fact we got SO close to TV quality on our budget, but not quite, has meant that people are comparing it to, say, Top Gear, rather than - as they should be - most other retro gaming YouTube videos. 

I don't care if people don't like the humour or the content or the hosts, but those criticising sound, or the editing or camerawork, or any of the other technical aspects, have gotten under my skin, because I just want to grab them and shout "CAN'T YOU SEE WHAT WE'VE ACHIEVED?!? WHY CAN'T YOU SEE HOW MUCH WORK HAS GONE INTO THIS?!?"

What it boils down to is wanting to grow the audience for my work - in order to fund more of it - but not knowing if what I do will ever reach beyond the audience it already has. And knowing that I don't want to compromise it either, in order to reach a bigger audience. 

It's also problematic, I think, that my audience are all of a certain age. They don't share stuff the way kids do, and so nothing I've done in the past few years has ever gone viral (despite, at least on the surface, seeming pretty meme-able). I've got a glass ceiling right above my head, and even the audience for Digitiser2000 has remained mostly the same for the past four years.

So anyway. I dunno. That ramble was intended to try and untangle my thoughts. But that is that for now.

Paul