U-Force Production Continues (07/30/21 - 08/03/21) (Patreon)

Friday (07/30/21) - Koosh!

Today I filmed the section about Koosh. I ended up making significant changes. Originally, this section was about 1 minute long. It explained the origins of Koosh, other Koosh products, etc. I thought it was interesting. However, after watching it during edits, I felt it was too long. 

If you are wondering why Koosh is even in this video, I'll fill you in. Dave Capper, the inventor of the U-Force, helped start the Koosh company. It was a huge success for him. Here is what he told me during our interview.

"A friend of mine came to visit and he showed me a product he was working on. Mark Button, who I'd met at Mattel who's still one of my best friends. And he had a rubber band ball. It was designed by Scott Stillinger. And he basically approached it from engineering. He was trying to teach his child, Dugger, how to catch and found that Nerf balls were too light and softballs were too intimidating. So he thought, what if we had something that could absorb energy? 

And I thought, you know what? I want to help start a company. So I was lucky enough that he and Scott let me come in and we started working on this rubber band ball that turned into a special line called Koosh.

But it was so tactical and so friendly that by calling it Koosh and putting it in displays that looked like you could almost anticipate to catch and the tagline was, "easy to catch and hard to put down," it became discovered by all ages for different reasons."

I ended up cutting this part because it's not very relevant to the U-Force story. However, I do give a brief mention of Koosh and how it was successful for Dave Capper. 

By the way, it took me about 25 tries to get this shot of me throwing Koosh balls onto the table. I kept overthrowing them! 

Saturday (07/31/21) - Goodbye July

GREAT progress today. Shawn (JPB) started working on some of the art for the episode. I try not to rely on illustrations as much anymore, but sometimes you just can't find a visual for what you are talking about. I'm hoping I can finish Part 1 by Monday or Tuesday.

I also took half the day today to record the latest commentary for Patreon! If you are a part of the Grad Assistant or Professor tier, check it out. This month, I watched my very first episode. It was a good mixture of roasting myself and giving some behind-the-scenes info.

Sunday (08/01/21) - Interruptions

I had some personal stuff come up that interrupted my day. Nothing bad or anything, just life in general. However, I was able to get more b-roll done. I love filming video games playing on old TVs. I got some great shots of Rad Racer!

Tomorrow is a big day: I have to work in After Effects. Wish me luck!

Monday (08/02/21) - Cracking Open the U-Force

Here is what makes the U-Force tick: infrared emitters and detectors. The U-Force has 9 pairs of them!

I actually found this rather odd. It doesn't seem to have emitters/detectors where it should. I assumed the U-Force would have 10 of them (5 on each panel). I wonder why there are only 9? The manual says there are 8, but that is clearly wrong.

Anyways, today I opened up the U-Force and got footage of the insides. However, the biggest task today was creating effects. In this section I am editing, I explain how the U-Force works. There isn't a great way to visually show that without adding effects. Admittedly, I'm not very good with After Effects, but I found some tutorials to follow along and I think I came up with something that works well. Slow progress, but I'm happy with the results. I think I can finish Part 1 tomorrow.

Tuesday (08/03/21) - PART 1 IS DONE!

Part 1 is finally done! Today I finished up the final edits, added background music, and made some minor adjustments for pacing.

You might be wondering why editing this part was so time-consuming. The biggest reason is that I explain how the U-Force works in this section. That means ALOT of b-roll and After Effects work. 

Another major reason is because of all the new information. There are no visuals to show some of this stuff (closed-door meetings, conversations, etc.). So I have to come up with ways to show what is happening.

I expect Part 2 and 3 to be much easier to edit.

Anyways, it is Friday for me! I'll probably be checking out the new season of Apex Legends this weekend. Take care and see you on the next blog!

- Norm