COPING MECHANISM (Patreon)

Hello gang. How are you all coping?

I think I've hit a bit of a wall with lockdown, and find myself wanting to hibernate until this is all over. I've barely been on social media in the last week or so. Haven't felt like being in front of the camera. Can't connect with my day job work...

It's odd. I mean, my mood is kind of fine, I've no real complaints, and I could happily lose myself in editing Lost Footage for the duration, but I just feel less engaged. Like some life stuff isn't as important as it was a couple of months ago. Dunno. Hard to put into words.

But anyhow... hope you all enjoyed the latest episode of Lost Footage. I'm continuing to experiment with them, and I think this one - as the first I've done which features all-new material - holds together rather splendidly...

He says, with a dubious understatement while trying not to sound too self-aggrandising, despite suspecting it might be his favourite episode he's done...

Unusually, this one sort of knackered me out. Normally, I finding editing Lost and Found Footage a breeze, like playing, but this one actually left me with the kind of brain-squash I typically only get after delivering the first draft of a script. I loved doing it, but it was just a bit more taxing than usual. If you've watched it, you'll hopefully understand why. 

Many of those of watched it think it's the best one yet. Which is nice. So do I...!!!! Also, tellingly... there are no Fiverr spokespeople involved, other than through voiceover. I wonder if that helps it hang together better as a whole?

I think, going forward, it's important for me to really start to evolve what Found Footage/Lost Footage is - as much as I can given the lack of budget I'm playing with, and given I can't get out to film anything. 

As you know, none of this series was planned, it was all very impromptu as a kind of lockdown bonus, but now that I'm getting stuck into it I'm figuring out what I want to say with it. 

I really feel I don't have anything to lose - other than subscribers and Patrons (lolololololololol) - given that the audience it has is so relatively tiny. I mean, we're talking kind of a quarter what the regular Digitiser episodes get. I sort of just drop them into a deep, dark, pit, where they're devoured by the hardcore, and ignored by the casuals. Yes - it's a hardcore/casual fans reference! I know there is an audience for it out there, I just don't know how to reach it. 

Though I may try a little harder to do so going forwards. 

But that's not a topic for here and now.

I always talked about the series as 'prog comedy' - or at least a 'concept sketch show'. To properly deliver on that I want it to be about something. Even if I leave that something open to a degree of interpretation. That's how I approached the Science episode - really trying to get it to ebb and flow like a song, or an concept album, to try to get the viewer to really experience something while they're watching. Yes... yes that was very wanky of me to say.

It might be a few weeks before the next episode (you'll have stuff from Sanja and I as normal, though). I don't want to rush these just for the sake of getting something out. I need to let it percolate a bit, start putting the pieces in place.

Anyway. That was rather a rambling collection of thoughts.

Stay safe. Stay alive. Stay good.

Paul