IT WAS THE END... BUT THE MOMENT HAS BEEN PREPARED FOR... (Patreon)

Morning, gang! And hello to all the new Patrons who jumped aboard in the past week. Not sure what I did to encourage you all, but that has been very lovely to see. Thank you.

It has been a weird week since changing the channel name. When I announced it, the feedback was overwhelmingly positive... perhaps because people had got used to the idea that the focus was on Sanja and I, thanks to Lockdown. I mean, Gannon will be back, but Sanja isn't going anywhere either; I love the videos I've made with her, particularly the recent ones. 

When I appear on camera with people whose career is being a performer, I kind of have to find it in me to rise to their level, or I disappear. That's fine... I can do it... but it doesn't come naturally to me, whereas filming with Sanja is kind of a breeze... and I've become more and more myself on camera as we've gone along. 

Consequently, it was a really important step for me to change the name; I felt like a weight was lifted, and that I'd finally reclaimed my own channel. It's a statement that says, for better or worse... you're gonna get my stuff on there... and it was a statement I needed to make to myself. I'm already feeling inspired and eager to produce things under the new umbrella branding.

Although... since that announcement we've had our biggest ever drop in subscribers... and it absolutely plummeted after Lost Footage went up yesterday. I just this second checked, and even I was taken aback. We've lost - as of this moment - exactly 50 subscribers since yesterday afternoon. 

Perhaps the double whammy of Biffo-ness was too much. Why, what a polarising man I am!

DIS

I've got mixed feelings about the subs drop. Obviously, it's disappointing on one level. It also sort of pisses me off, which I'm not hugely proud about. I don't want to feel resentful, but we got half a dozen dislikes - the ultimate passive-aggressive statement - even before they could've watched it all the way through.  I'm assuming they just hate that it's not what they think they subscribed for. 

But at the same time... it was completely expected, and as I've said at length already, I don't really want to tailor content for views. My worth isn't tied to numbers. If it was, I wouldn't do stuff like Lost Footage; I'd be making things that weren't challenging. I wouldn't be trying to push myself creatively. I'd keep playing it safe, doing the same sort of thing over and over. I'm kind of glad I've never reached the level where I can make a living out of this, because it means I don't have to work at pleasing the maximum number of people. I'd hate being trapped like that.

Even if it isn't for everyone - which is fine, it isn't meant to be - the final Lost Footage is, I know, something special and unique, and that's all I really want to achieve. 

So, I was braced for it. I had a sneaking suspicion that we'd inherited a ton of subscribers from the Barshens/Cheapshow audience last year, and that final episode of Lost Footage is obviously not-very-Cheapshow-y. 

We've not had Gannon on the channel properly since the start of the year, for obvious reasons... and the drop in views suggested to me that a lot of people were just sticking around waiting for him to show up again. Much as I love working with him, he's a big character, and I did feel we were at risk of slipping into a rut and going through the motions (which is partly why I did Digitiser Deluxe, to keep me interested). And also, again, I at times felt like I was a guest on my own videos. 

Or maybe these people who've buggered off just thought The End was the actual end of the channel. Which would be weird right after a rebrand, but people can be very literal. I dunno. 

ONWARDS!

Aaaaanyway, good riddance to them. Fuckers. Moving forwards, the channel needs to find its audience - and you've all indicated to me that the audience is indeed out there. If all of you like what we do, then others will too. So, I think the only way to grow it is to break beyond the current bubble it's in, because we've absolutely hit a wall... and rebounded off it.

I'm not sure yet what the plan is. I know I'd like to feature people on there who aren't from the usual circles of guests that we all seem to mix in. I'm intending to reach out to people from outside the retro gaming/Barshens Venn diagram, and involve them in some way. All of it is quite tricky given current restrictions, but I need to be brave and reach into my metaphorical address book. 

Short-term, Sanja and I are going to continue the run of story time videos. I was also planning to meet up with Gannon this week, and do some filming outside... but seeing how bloody hot it's going to be, I dunno if I want to. We'll see. 

Ironically, having changed the name of the channel... I've now played The Last of Us Part 2, and I'm desperate to talk about it... so that might happen.

I'd also really like to do some interviews as well with interesting people. Such as, for instance, the monster hunters. I want to do another Digitiser Deluxe run. And I want to go on a few adventures with Sanja and film those too. Again, as soon as places open back up. And I have thought about editing some mini documentary-type videos on subjects that interest me, in the vein of those retro gaming videos I did early last year. But not about gaming, probably.

And, of course, there's the Found Footage side of the channel. I'm still toying with the idea of a run of Mr Biffo's Mysterious Hole - a Twilight Zone-style series - so that'll probably be the next thing in that spirit. But I also want to do more kind of emotional stuff in the vein of The End, but that won't happen until I know what it is I want to say. It might also be that you get short, little one-off, videos - maybe songs, with Chris JC. But we'll see. 

So, subs are down, but the future is bright. Thank you for sticking with me. Thank you for backing all this. For a channel that is, however you look at it, in decline... we've got a remarkably healthy level of backing from our core audience. And heck... how many other channels get to put on a live show? 

You're the best,

Paul