The Forest - Update #11 and new video link (Patreon)

Good evening everybody. Hope you're all doing well.

Over here I've managed to push the 4th (and final) piece of this video-essay over the finish line. Once again thank you for your extraordinary patience. You've all been amazing. Here's a link to the test render.

https://youtu.be/xMLWM1iOK3E 

So these are parts 20, 21, 22 and 23 (of 24). Allowing me to render parts 2 to 23 of the whole thing. With the start and end parts to be added later. It's a bit of a shame, I would like to have done part 24, certainly. But felt I ran out of time and had to deliver something.

Here's a shot of the timeline. The full 3 hours project. With all of the individual pieces awaiting polishing as one complete render. A process that takes approximately 10 hours on my PC.

Holy heck, this last part of the project was a tough one. A real challenge from start to finish.

I purchased a GoPro camera for the purpose of filming the prop on my wall. Whilst that turned out to be an interesting way of doing it, it certainly became a case of "here's a reshoot, for the reshoot, for the reshoot".

What I would do is present the wall in different states. Building it up and down with additional printed labels and string. And then filming as many different elements as I could.

But there were innumerable times where I'd film something, then realise the wall had something on there that shouldn't be, and do it again.

Which started to become quite ironic since the core through-line of the video is the importance of planning. 

Might I also draw your attention to the numerous black marks all over the wall. These have nothing to do with the project and are purely where my dumb arse has bashed the VR controllers against the wall during Blade & Sorcery.

Oopsie.

So one that thing I figured out fairly quickly is that the GoPro camera is terrible at consistent audio quality.

Whilst my initial attempts at recording had the thing strapped to my forehead, I rapidly realised that moving closer to the wall would dramatically increase volume of my voice by simple echo. As a result, I decided to simply hold the camera still, read the script from a piece of paper. And then play it back on my machine minutes later, holding the GoPro on its mount and filming the visuals whilst looking through the viewscreen.

The pieces of the script make appearances later, scrunched up and flung at the wall in frustration.

Said method of filming - audio first, visuals second, also helped because it was very hard to tell whether the thing you're looking at is in shot. Which is why GoPros use fish-eye lenses, I suppose? It often became easier to just hold it and look at the viewscreen.

I also went on a few outings for the sake of a couple of gags. Taking the camera down to the beach on a dog walk, reading a segment of the script in the most secluded section of the beach I could find. Intentionally using the background ocean ambience.

Another part saw me wandering around a local bit of woodland that's popular with dog walkers. Carrying a biscuit tin with purpose.

I had to throw it at a tree and have it land to my left. Which took a few attempts before I realised a dogwalker was scowling at me from up a slight incline. I decided to include as an outtake. She probably thought I was some delinquent, breaking into a lockbox or something.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/2xlod2c43wxdnao/11-08.mp4?dl=0 

Another less obvious challenge with this segment of the video was the high number of 'purposeful shots'. Meaning there were far fewer opportunities to speak about something with some vague background stream footage playing for 5-15 seconds. Essentially as filler.

Instead I had to use lots of custom visuals for the thing I was talking about. Lots of moments where I used the console to snap to various specific elements and just film them. Bibles, crucifixes, effigies, etc. In order to make my point.

That sort of stuff took quite a bit of time as it was heavier than usual for this segment.

In fact, it often became a case of bunching up the issues to solve in groups during the day.

• a.) The visual effects that require After Effects work were one batch.
• b.) The simple shots that merely require looking at something in The Forest were done in a second batch.
• c.) Filming things on my wall with the studio lights was a third batch.

This led to a schedule of morning, afternoon and night. Since I had the most energy in the morning for After Effects. And it kept the light consistent at night for the wall shots.

Also, rather frustratingly I wasn't quite able to squeeze in the final segment 24.

It is still quite important to the overall thing and I worry the video will end quite abruptly at the moment. That conclusion is where I walk the audience through the importance of scoping from a software development perspective.

How critical it is to sit down and plan things, in high level form on post it notes for example, before developing them. So you don't blunder into a horrible expensive disaster involving code rework. Or where you avoid having the things you develop earlier clash horribly with the things you develop late. And where you avoid making stupid and obvious mistakes - such as the map being upside down - that you simply hope nobody is going to notice.

So the plan now? A short break. Then I'm going to start editing all of these segment as one complete whole. Reworking some of the older segments where I agree with some feedback. And generally replacing temp artwork or incomplete animated parts.

Alas, I wish I could quantify how long that'll take. But I've no clue sorry. I've never done anything this big before. But at least the video is, with the exception of the intro and summary, complete.

Let me know what you think. And thank you :)