# Behind the Scenes of My First Video Essay – My Journey to Becoming a Map Maker I did it: I made a video essay. That makes me a trendy YouTuber, right? I have wanted to make an essay like that for years. I've watched countless essays and have spoken to a [[MFP33 - "The Knowledge of Fire" with Brian Henken|few]] of their [[MFP20 - “A Gift to the Zelda Community” with Javed Sterritt|authors]]. The way they make me feel and offer insight, whether into game design or a person's life, has a profound effect on me. But I never *really* got the ball rolling toward making my own; just scattered notes and wisps of ideas. That changed though when I went on my first quarterly personal retreat earlier this year on April 12.[^1] One of my two goals for said quarter was "Publish a Video Essay." I outlined what I thought a project like this would take... > [!abstract]- Overall Essay Outline > Here's a rough outline of what I imagine this process to look like: > - Pick an overall topic/theme *or* pick a game as the anchor. > - I wager the topic/theme comes first, but both may be possible starting points for this type of project. > - Suss out what you want to say overall. What games/media lend themselves to the topic? What *resonates*? > - Research the topic/game > - Build out notes, compile links, data. > - Write a script > - Draft out a script of what you want to say. > - This is a phase to integrate the games required to make point/observation. > - Storyboard > - Need to have an idea of shots, scenes, etc. to make the essay. > - Capture > - Seems fairly straight forward > - Record/Edit > - Record the script and edit the video. Adjust, get new shots as need arises. > - Review/Polish > - Publish ...and tried to distill down what I thought the steps were going to be to make success a reality. In this case, success being publishing a video. I closed out the section with the following paragraph, > I mean, to me, the answer is just dedicated time per day/week toward this specific project. With a meaningful deadline. I broke the project down. Now to just chip? Unsure how else to tackle this. And chip I did. Over the course of the next few months, I wrote down ideas and moments of resonation. "Oh, that'd be a cool idea," or "maybe this would work in an essay." The very first nugget came the following day, since I was inspired to get the video made in the quarter. This is what the idea started as... > The Myth and Legend > I came to *Wind Waker* as my first real *Zelda* game. The mythos still reached me through Nintendo Power, Detstar, etc. I remember discovering the under sea kingdom of hyrule and being blown away by the legend of it all. This world stuck in time under the sea. The myth of a legendary hero in green from *OoT*. How *Wind Waker* was a perfect first *Zelda* game. Learning the myth all my own. > This could be something. And become something it did! This tidbit is still in the essay today, but it evolved in dramatic fashion over the quarter. On June 17, a connection dawned on me between the Adam Phillips' quote, that coffee zine, and this essay. I had been trying to figure out a post to share those two quotes and the draft of said post had been sitting in my drafts folder since April 17. I grabbed onto that compulsion angle and when that connection was made, the essay idea grew rapidly. Before I knew it, I had a core to the whole essay. On June 19, I wrote down what (I thought) the essay was going to be. > **It’s Maps and Myths. My map themed room as a kid. Seeing the maps and wondering what lied there. The sea map in Wind Waker. The map of Sinnoh. The exploration. Immersing and studying before playing. The Halo 2 manual and pouring over its contents. And when the map is charted, the myth and mystery fades. The game goes away. Memories fade. The myth reemerges. It's time to go back.** It did not become that![^2] But I began work in earnest. So, like I [[S6 - Pokémon Behind the Scenes|always]] do at the end of [[Behind the Scenes of the Brawl and SMYN Anniversary Special|big projects]] or the [[Max Frequency 2023 In Review (Year Four)|year]], I want to offer a peek behind the scenes and into the creative process: both to satiate any curiosity you may have and to help myself gain more insight and learn from the process. Before I dive into the creative process itself, there was one other key moment that made this video a reality: I joined my friend Brain Henken's video essayist Discord server. It's a very small group of folks giving each other feedback, ideas, and encouragement. These guys have been at it way long than I have, but I thought that since I knew Brian and wanted to make an essay, he'd let me in the group. He did and being in a tight, small, focused community gave me so much *fuel* for the project. Just being amongst others making the same type of thing egged me on to make mine. It was powerful to my creative process. I just started reading Adam Savage's *Every Tool's a Hammer* and this quote early on resonated with me and my decision to join this tiny Discord group. > [!quote] > "When we find our people, we find in them permission to explore, to exult, and to share." - Adam Savage *Every Tool's a Hammer* I joined on June 20 and under a month later my first video essay was published. Never underestimate the infectious power of collaboration and community. Now let's dive into the creation of my essay itself. ## Writing I wish I took better notes during this process. Writing the essay took shape a couple of ways. First up was writing down and looking for map-related sources of inspiration. I started with *The Wind Waker* and *Pokémon Diamond*. Then I looked at my shelves and pondered map related games, what were my favorite? This was a good brain dump of map media. Seeing it all laid out, I picked key titles that I thought I could stitch together into a narrative about maps and legends. A key game missing from that list, but crucial to the essay, was *Red Dead Redemption II*. In general, I write my stories in order. I'm not one to jump around unless I've got a case of writer's block. Same goes for this essay. I knew I wanted to start with my map-themed room, so that made for an easy starting point to leap into video games. It was that house where my dad bought that mythical fat stack of games, so that made a perfect connection for *Star Fox 64* and *Donkey Kong 64*. Looking at my flow/storyboard notes, from *DK64* I planned to jump to *Death Stranding*. I think I actually was just going to use *Death Stranding* as a visual aid for the "map is not the territory" quote and then punch to *Wind Waker*. But somewhere along the way, I wrote these two sentences down, > This flow of four games is chronological to me/my experience. > > ~~BotW? Becoming the cartographer?~~ I think it was around this time that I also dropped the myth/legend angle, so *Pokémon* bit the dust for the essay. I gravitated toward the idea of having the games be in release order and it lining up with my own life and story. Putting *Wind Waker* after the Nintendo 64 games paved the way for this leap into my own guide writing experience. I always had an anchor on my experience with [[EGM-Issue-148-Cel-da.pdf|"Celda"]] and how my discovery of it through websites and guides. This anchor kept me from drifting too far into tangental waters. It actually helped me find the next chapter, which became about how *I* became a guide writer like those before me. This moment felt so obvious in hindsight. A fog had been lifted and the rest of the essay sort of flowed out. When it came to *Death Stranding*, I was pleasantly surprised to find most of what I wrote in "[[Returning to Death Stranding Six Months Later]]" held true and was reflective of this video essay. And since I wrote it, I happily lifted and edited my review to fit this project. Chapter 4 was a breeze because I had done the bulk of the work four years ago. Speaking of chapters, naming the video and its chapters was one of the toughest parts. I labored over them, spending days thinking about ideas. I kind of brain dumped ideas one lunch break into [[M&M Name Ideas Notebook.jpg|my little Field Notes notebook]]. A few days later, I was at a "pick or never release the video" part of the project, needing to tackle title cards and more important decisions, so I picked my favorite and didn't look back. My favorite of the bunch is "Chapter 3: A Dichotic Breakdown." I love the word play with "a psychotic breakdown" and how it represents the dichotomy I mention having with my guide work and the games I played. "Chapter 2: A Sea of Cartographers" is a close (and ironic) second. There was one chunk I forced into the essay and I'm still not sure I should have. I struggled fitting the coffee zine in for a long time. I wanted it in there so badly because it was a key piece that sparked this connection about exploring the gap. If I had spent more time writing and editing and proofing, maybe given it to more folks for editorial review, I would have scraped its inclusion or found a smoother way to integrate it. But I didn't. I felt passionate about the letter and I didn't want to get held up too much in editing. There had to be a briskness to this project or I would have spent far too much time polishing and not shipping. When sitting down to write, I'd typically start sessions rereading previous chunks to both get in the mindset and to proof those paragraphs. When the draft was all said and done, I extracted the words from my big project file, which had notes and ideas scattered throughout, and put them into a file all by themselves. Then I dumped that into a Google Doc for a select few to review. But I did just go ahead and record the audio. 😬 ## Production The production of this thing was a beast. So I'll break it down here for you by discipline, instead of the chaotic order it all took place in. I *think* that'll help make sense of it all for you? ### Audio As with any major project, it's always a good time to try new techniques, right? I wanted to give the editing process a shake up by recording the entire essay in audio only. Then I could plop the track in Final Cut Pro and mark/edit as I went with A-, B-, or G-Roll.[^3] I basically treated it like a podcast. This method worked remarkably well. I was unencumbered by having to shoot and edit in order. [^4] And I knew with a consistent audio setup, I could re-record lines and it not sound *entirely* out of place. And I did have to record lines! Any A-Roll/Talking Head shots (there were three of them) were obviously re-recorded lines. Plus, I added a paragraph or two along the way. But with my given method of using audio as the editorial bed, I could swap things in and out with ease. For recording every bit of audio, I used my trusty Shure Beta 87A with my Zoom H6 recorder. This allowed me to sync up the audio with my camera footage and make it sound like I do on my podcasts, which is how I assume most people online are familiar with my voice, if at all. And I wanted to use my microphone handheld like that as a direct homage/copycat of [this shot from DMS' Dolby Atmos video](https://youtube.com/watch?v=olaFPhZmZu0&t=255). It looks so good and practical to me. Speaking of practicality... ### Video Practical shots were the name of the game. If I could represent something physically, I wanted to. Talking head shots and game footage were not enough for me. There are so many shots throughout my film-consuming life that were practical that elevated said project. The tangible nature conveys a subconscious message of reality to the viewer. I basically wanted to [[The Vault Heist in Fast Five was Pulled Off with Practical Effects|practice what I preach]] for when it comes to film and what I enjoy so much in other's work. Biggest influence here was and is [[MFP20 - “A Gift to the Zelda Community” with Javed Sterritt|Javed Sterritt]] and his over-the-table shots in videos like in the doco *[Line by Line](https://youtube.com/watch?v=ISKWr8rI2sI&t=254)* or in *[Untangling God Of War](https://youtube.com/watch?v=yegRHiaao7U&t=274)*. I had to have over-the-table shots in my video. I don't know when my idea for the [Hyrule map Korok Seed sticky shot](https://youtube.com/watch?v=UY7wuxd5qT0&t=1403) came from, but when it arrived, I knew that was a must. I drove like 25 minutes away to an Office Depot to buy those little sticky arrows. I felt that seeing me physically mark and map the Korok Seeds I specifically hunted for the guide would add infinitely more weight to the task I undertook than just some gameplay footage of Koroks or even of my gameplay path using *Breath of the Wild*'s Hero's Path Mode. Call me bias, but I think it hits harder the way I did it. And this idea paved the way for showing off the physical map of New Hangover from *Red Dead* or the guide stacking shot that leads into me closing out Chapter 1: Sacred Text. As I wrote the script, shot ideas would pop into my mind. Instead of totally deviating from the writing task at hand, I used callouts in Obsidian to write in-line shot ideas. This kept me focused while allowing for inspiration to be tracked. Not all of these made the essay, but I found the freedom the callouts provided my creative process invaluable. It's a technique I plan to keep on using and refining. One of these involved the opening of Chapter 1: Sacred Text. During the production of the video, I was lucky enough to nab a free 20'' tube TV. So, I had to include it in the video somehow, right? This was my original shot idea, > That push in shot of the CRT on a table in front of the OLED that I have burned into my mind. > > Maybe wide stretch N64 on OLED just for shot sake. Light behind OLED. Light behind CRT? Lights on in office? Basically, I wanted to push in low on the CRT and then tilt upward to reveal the tube playing *DK64* footage with the big fat glow of the OLED behind it, showing the same gameplay. I thought that'd be super dope. And in a passion-fueled purchasing decision, I decided to justify buying a $150 gimbal for this single shot. That was a bad idea. Because I bought the gimbal, I tried to force it into other shots. But the gear was complicated and I didn't take the necessary time to research and learn how to properly use the product. I rushed into a big gear purchase, thinking it'd solve problems. It created them instead. Thankfully, I realized my mistake and was able to return the item at no financial loss. This reinforced a valuable lesson that I don't always listen to—you don't need the latest and greatest to make *the thing*. Work with what you have. Don't let gear be the excuse to not create. I tried creating the shot in my mind's eye by hand, but [[M&M_CRT and OLED Aligned.jpg|I wasn't satisfied with it]], so I went down the route you see in the video. This allowed me to maintain practicality without unwisely spending money. Another DOA shot idea was my original inception for title cards for chapters, specifically the Chapter 4 card. Originally, I wanted big, bold, punchy letters that were masked out with *Death Stranding* gameplay inside them. I had this idea from the beginning. This idea sort of boxed me in though. I didn't know what to do for the other chapters. Just throwing text up there didn't make sense and I couldn't do the punchy letters for all of them. Then I thought about adopting the idea from my journal entries. I was already showcasing my handwriting with the journal entries in the *Red Dead* section. But if four of the five overall sections were handwritten, then that'd leave the last card too far out of the loop stylistically. So I had to kill it off and go handwriting all they way. Sometimes, you have to kill your darlings. As for the creation of the handwriting, I figured I could just replicate my method from the journal—write, scan, extract. It worked super well for them, but when I wrote out the titles and scanned them, it didn't look right. It felt *off*. I didn't know how to make the handwriting appear "naturally" like [NakeyJakey does in his own *Red Dead* essay](https://youtube.com/watch?v=gcRleWwWpsY&t=120). It's been a [long time](https://youtube.com/watch?v=LKQAf1K-yUo) since I have worked with motion graphics in earnest. Instead of giving up, I decided to make it happen in a different way. I have an older iPad Pro with a first gen Apple Pencil. The handwriting and tracking are pretty slick on that piece of tech. When it occurred to me to use the pencil, the method became instantly clear to me. I would record the iPad screen, take a blank image and mark it up the pencil. I started with a black image, but quickly realized keying out black is not going to happen, so I made a green screen green 4K image and wrote over that. I'd leave the title up long enough and then erase it to write the next. I was impressed with how effective I found this technique; and how personal it came off. It was my handwriting in real-time on my essay. You can't fake that. In a way, it's actually a digital practical effect, further adhering to my staunch desire to be practical and tangible. And don't miss this (like I almost did), but this is the exact opposite of the gimbal story. I was using what I had to bring a shot/effect to life. I didn't justify some outlandish purchase of a new iPad or a Wacom tablet for a more accurate handwriting sample. I used a first-gen Apple Pencil in the markup mode inside the Photos app. I used what I had to make the idea come to life. The handwriting did start out as real time for the title cards, but they were taking too long as a shot. So I did have to speed them up. I started with [200%](https://youtube.com/watch?v=1n6-RMtmThc) and [400%](https://youtube.com/watch?v=EQEVseswuXo), but thanks to the encouragement for [wizawhat](https://www.youtube.com/@wizawhat), I went up to [800%](https://youtube.com/watch?v=Xxsub13tgN4) with a hold on the full title. This was the right move and I only got there as swiftly as I did—if at all—because of that Discord and asking for feedback along the way. Before discussing the game capture process, I want to talk about the A-Roll and getting those shots of myself talking. Before I started filming anything, I knew I wanted all of my gameplay to be captured at a 4K resolution and at 60 frames per second (fps). I have the gear and want to take full advantage of its capabilities. That decision dictated that my A- and B-Roll needed to be 4K60 as well. I only own one camera capable of that—my iPhone 15 Pro Max. This self-imposed "limitation" kept me locked in on the real task at hand, which was filming myself talking. I didn't fuss around with my DSLR, lenses, etc. I just grabbed my phone and went to work. This greatly reduced the friction of getting in front of the camera. But this also took away the advantages and power of "big" cameras, like natural bokeh and far more manual control over how the camera takes in light. It was a trade off I had to make in order to match as much footage at the 4K60 spec. For each one of my talking head shots, I had to decide the framing and how to light myself up. The opening shot was the easiest. I sat in Eloise's room in the corner during the day while they were off at the zoo. Natural light from the windows lit me up evenly. This was the easiest shot to set up. The other two were a bit trickier. My studio is a fairly dim place. I have these eight overhead florescent-but-not-florescent LEDs, but I have zero control over the brightness. They are *too* bright. So I light up my studio with two lamps and my tiny Elgato Key Light Mini. It's far from ideal, but I was able to tweak those three sources to make my lighting needs work. My favorite of the bunch has to be the last shot, which I have dubbed the "BB shot." I have these black and yellow totes lining the back wall of the studio and knew that if I sat down in front of them, it could be the perfect backdrop for opening my discussion on *Death Stranding*. I could also incorporate my own BB statue, which just felt so cool. I also took my Hue light bulb and turned on an effect called "Opal." It just transitions between a slate of colors. I thought that'd look good. Off to my left was where I put the key light and I think the lighting worked well from that angle, except for when I started talking. I am a chronic hand talker and in all my testing for framing, since I was by myself, I didn't notice how when I spoke with my left hand, I was casting shadows all over my face. So that even lighting got totally killed by my hand. Lesson learned. For now. I am sure I will make plenty more lighting and hand-gesturing mistakes. As for the talking itself, these sections at most had three or four paragraphs to recite. This took a lot of takes, especially shot number two since that was first thing in the morning—*woof*. To help, I used my iPad off-screen to keep paragraphs in view. I did my best to not look off and read, but it is quite apparent in some shots (see shot number two). I'd love a proper teleprompter someday, but that's going to have to be a purchase way down the line. As for the *talking* itself, I think my delivery is quite good. Anytime I do "performative" reading, I always think back to my first time reading a script—which is permanently public thanks to it being [an IGN guide for killing the Crones in *The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt*](https://www.ign.com/videos/the-witcher-3-guide-how-to-defeat-the-crones). I can barely go back and listen to it. Whenever I think of this, I always think of the advice I got afterward from longtime guide guru and compatriot, Jon Ryan. > [!quote] > "I know recording and listening to yourself can be a bit weird, but make sure to have fun with it! You certainly don't need to go and re-record anything, but keep in mind that ***the more fun you have reading it, the more fun the viewer will have watching it.***" That emphasis at the end is my own, but I wanted to drive home Jon's point—having fun is key in reading lines. And I worked on that over the years, slowly getting better and better. After all, that was nine years ago. 🫠 A recent improvement on that front over the last two years though would be bedtime stories. I've been reading out loud, performative work almost nightly for the better part of 18~ months to Eloise before bed. And I have gotten so much better at it over all this time. As I memorize the books, I gain confidence and try voices or new delivery styles. Right now, I'm working on unique voices for all the animals in *The Hoppameleon*. It's a ton of fun for both of us! This whole improvement by doing stuff with your kids reminded me of [this post](https://kottke.org/24/05/strange-side-effect-of-parenting) from Edith Zimmerman over at Kottke.org. > The other day while singing to my daughter, I realized that I can, in fact, sing better than I used to. I think the sheer amount of “Wheels on the Bus” and “Row, Row, Row Your Boat” did the trick: I enjoy it more now and feel like I’m hitting more of the right notes. I’m still not “good,” but I’m not bad... The same goes for me in reading.[^5] And I love recognizing this fact. ### Gameplay I felt like we needed a heading break there. Gameplay capture was both the easiest and most cumbersome thing to tackle for this project. My [[Rewiring - Preparing the Way for Tink 4K|newly rewired setup]] gets 11 consoles straight into the RetroTINK-4K, which splits into my TV and capture solutions. The two consoles that don't feed in though; my PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X.[^6] To avoid as much HDMI-related hot-swapping as possible, I tried to capture all PlayStation related footage first and then hit everything else. Here is the list of all the gameplay I captured off my PS5, - *Firewatch* - *Gran Turismo 7* - *Castlevania: Symphony of the Night* - *Returnal* - *Hitman* - *Tales from the Borderlands* - *Death Stranding* - *Red Dead Redemption II* I had to install all but three of those specifically for this video. I didn't know I wanted or needed footage of *Hitman* and *Tales from the Borderlands* until well into the edit, so that was a hot-swap. And I needed more *RDR2* and *DS* footage, so that was another hot-swap. Not the most efficient setup or planning. I know I can't avoid moments of "oh this would be great here" or "I just need a shot like this," but, in the future, a better thought out list of potential games and moments should greatly help in the flow of things.[^7] A way to help mitigate this issue is going to be a new hard drive. In a couple months, I plan on buying a beefy 20TB external drive. This project alone was just over 300GBs. 😬 I've been capturing gameplay for over a decade and hard drive space has always haunted me. I have deleted so much footage. I used to have an [entire playthrough](https://youtube.com/watch?v=32cKygASnkw) of *Death Stranding*. That would have come in handy. Of course, the same applies for any game I worked on for a guide. I have deleted terabytes of footage that would be invaluable to production time. And I am *obsessive* about using my own footage. I don't like giving up that aspect of control. I want native quality and to control the gameplay scenarios as much as possible. When you leave it up to a downloaded YouTube video, you give up so much in the presentation of your own work. That would also entail requesting permission and crediting that feels more like a burden than just doing it myself. I almost did this with a few games, like the *Hitman* footage. I thought "I'll just download my footage from the IGN guide." It was so compressed and blocky. Instead, I reinstalled the 90GBs for a few seconds of footage. It turned out infinitely better. So I am finally going to build up my digital library/Blockbuster of my own gameplay. Combining that drive with [Backblaze](https://secure.backblaze.com/r/027223), I'll have the [[Two is One and One is None|peace of mind]] needed to save this footage. Until I run out of space someday and need more drives. 😅 Speaking of being obsessive, I did occasionally get carried away or spend too much time trying to get a hyper particular scenario. Take *Firewatch* for example, which is in the video for a total of 3.5 seconds. I spent an entire morning trying to get the Free Roam mode working. Turns out there is a bug on PlayStation where the game does not recognize a completed save, instead requiring you to complete the game under the Director's Commentary mode to unlock Free Roam. I just wanted a shot of the map in a more sunny, blue sky part of Ol' Shoshone, instead of the smokey orange saturated skies of the end game. It would have been faster to just restart the game; or even faster to just accept the final chapter as the setting for the map shot. This mode of obsession cost me so much more time and didn't benefit the video in the end.[^8][^9] It's a delicate balance to learn when to cut losses and when to keep on digging. I think more often than not, I end up losing my balance. I had a lot of fun playing the "Primary Games" for capture. This would be a couple hours of gameplay with their own hurdles of troubleshooting, but I got to reacclimate to their controls and worlds. For these games, I made little lists of what I thought I needed from each game. This would help keep me focused when playing to get what I needed. For example, I really wanted a shot of a body on my back in *Death Stranding* for its pure iconic style or how I wanted the journal in *Red Dead Redemption II*. A surprising common thread between all four of my primary games were the save files and accessing them. I am a [[How to Backup and Play Your Games and Saves on Delta for iPhone (or any Emulator)|staunch]] save file [[Preserving and Rediscovering My Game Collection|backer upper]], but each one of these games presented unique opportunities or challenges. The easiest and most thrilling was *Red Dead Redemption II*. I found out that in all my infinite guide writer wisdom that I had multiple saves before various key moments. This meant I could *go back* and redo some of those legendary hunts, like the beautiful white moose. I didn't quite remember all the steps involved in a legendary hunt, so I went to IGN and followed my own guide. I love the irony. I was good at my job. For both *Donkey Kong 64* and *The Wind Waker HD*, I had incomplete saves. I never beat *DK64* and, because I sold my original Wii *U* without means to backup, I lost my *Wind Waker HD* save. I did film the same type of shots with my GameCube save, but I made the style call to stick with the *HD* version. So I needed to hack saves in. Since my Wii U is all [[Hot, Fresh Homebrewed Consoles|brewed]] up, I just had to [learn how to load a save file](https://youtube.com/watch?v=64wST8BLuYY) on to the Wii U. It took a little work to make sure the file naming conventions were right—and I ran into multiple issues keeping my external HDD powered—but eventually got [this save data](https://gbatemp.net/download/the-legends-of-zelda-wind-waker-hd-save-100.36994/) working without a problem. On the N64 side of this scenario, I worked far too hard to try and make [this save](https://gbatemp.net/download/donkey-kong-64-u-101.24645/) work off my original cartridge before realizing the solution was right in front of me the entire time with almost zero effort required—my [[MiSTer FPGA Thoughts and Impressions – My Tool for Researching the Past|MiSTer]]. I just needed a few seconds of the 101% collectibles spinning around. I wish I thought to use that first. it would have saved me some much time and frustration. Last but not least would be *Death Stranding*. I decided now would be a good time to buy the PS5 version of the game so I could take advantage of native 4K60 and the dope ultrawide mode.[^10] And being a quasi-cross-gen release, I figured there would be a way to transfer my PS4 save to the new hardware. I was right, I just didn't realize Kojima would make it so tedious. John Linneman [calls the whole process out](https://youtube.com/watch?v=_nN4XMlzlc4&t=965) in his analysis. The gist is you need to push the save from the PS4 version of the game with no active orders, go to a special terminal, upload, then load the PS5 version of the game, and download the save. To avoid booting up my PS4 Pro itself, I installed both versions of the game on my PS5. *Death Stranding* was taking up a sizable chunk of my available SSD space. I also spent far longer than I care to admit trying to figure out which menu in which terminal I needed to open just to sync my save. It was atrocious. But man, was it worth it for the ultrawide presentation. Gosh dang! It looks so *good*. And pursuing that look worked out surprisingly well, since I also used the "cinematic camera" in *Red Dead Redemption II*, which implements its own ultrawide presentation. Rockstar does all the work for you there. It's stupid how effortless and amazing that camera looks, *while maintaining player control*. It made me want to capture hours of horse back riding just for fun. When I got to the proverbial editing bay, I felt like I had both enough footage and not enough footage. It's the nature of the beast. I'd sit down and chop away at clips and realize how much better a certain shot or gameplay scenario would be. And with my entire set up just a 90° turn to the left, the friction to get the footage I wanted was drastically reduced. This ties back to building out that digital Blockbuster of personal footage. As that collection grows, I'll have more diverse shots at my finger tips; reducing the friction even more. ### Editing Ah editing; my favorite. What a beautiful, intricate process where you see the entire project come together in real time. Editing is solving a ton of tiny problems. Those problems are just your ideas or gaps in knowledge. It all comes down to how you are going to implement those ideas by problem solving. It's a marvelous process with some of the most satisfying *ah-ha* moments I've ever experienced in creation. When you pull off that shot or effect that has only ever existed in your mind up until that point, the euphoric rush is more than enough to keep on editing and tackle the next idea. I suppose that is all creative work, when boiled down. Those journal entries, for example. I was incorporating them into my script. I had the journal. How could I bring that into the video? How could I bring the practical into the digital? I could have done the over-the-table shot, but I felt I had enough of those. My next thought was to scan them. Loading the high-res PDF into Pixelmator Pro, I removed the white color of the paper, leaving only the black ink from a long since dead Pilot G-2 07. When exporting the new PNG, it didn't take long to realize that black handwriting wasn't going to show up well over gameplay footage. Back in Pixelmator Pro, I just inverted the image and I had my digital representation of my actual journal entries. But then the shot was [too static](https://youtu.be/fDWTlplXGIE). Brian Henken suggested incorporating some movement. So I tried out every photo slideshow's best friend—Ken Burns. It [worked](https://youtu.be/boKNfdVl_Rs) shockingly well (to me, at least) and I livened up the shot of just a paragraph of text. And like I mentioned earlier, this whole effect paved the way for the handwritten title cards, another idea that had its own implementation learning curve. The editing process itself started out with a brand new Final Cut Pro library. I always start new projects with a whole new library. I think I picked up the idea from John Voorhees at MacStories or maybe David Sparks or Stephen Hackett from Mac Power Users. It was definitely someone in the Apple commentator space. Regardless, a new library guarantees no cruft. Then I bring in the assets and get to work. I wrote down the overall project/editing flow. > Write > Edit > Record Audio > Map out in FCP > Capture Game Footage > Record A/B Roll > Edit in FCP > Capture additional A/B/G roll as needed during edit > Underlay Music > Proof Segment > Repeat for all Chapters > Export > Proof Watch > Final Fixes > Re-Export > Upload I feel like that distills my process down to the major, overarching steps. It's in the nitty gritty, moment-to-moment cuts, effects, and decisions where the video comes to life. Hopefully, I've captured that over the course of this behind-the-scenes post so far. 😅 I did have one technical issue in particular I wanted to discuss. Most of my *RDR2* footage felt under saturated. I do capture footage in HDR when the effect is implemented, like most PS4/PS5 games would have. In FCP, I just apply the PQ to Rec. 709 tool and adjust form there. But no matter what I did to my *RDR2* clips, they looked off. I tweaked the saturation and some other color parameters, but I'm no professional color grader. To be clear, I didn't have this issue with any other footage captured from my PS5. This issue just further highlights my point about problem solving though. I couldn't recapture it all, so I learned about the tools I could use and implemented a solution. ## The Thumbnail The all mighty YouTube thumbnail was the last bit on my to-do list. It's sort of like a title or a closing paragraph: a thumbnail is hard to make before the totality of the project is lying there in front of you. It's like my buddy Brian said to me... > The title and thumbnail are almost always the last things I do. It's kind of hard to give the project a name until I have the full picture. Before diving into this process, I think it's best you *see* the process. Here is each iteration of the essay thumbnail. ![[M&M Thumb v1.jpg]] ![[M&M Thumb v2.jpg]] ![[M&M Thumb v3.jpg]] ![[M&M Thumb v4.jpg]] ![[M&M Thumb v5.jpg]] ![[M&M Thumb v6.jpg]] ![[M&M Thumb v7.jpg]] ![[Map Essay Thumbnail.jpg]] I did know I wanted to do that thing where the thumbnail has one title and the actual video title is something else. Felt like a two for one deal. And being constrained to the tiniest dimensions, I chose "Map the Gap." I don't *love* this title, but I felt it encompassed the Philips quote and my quest to becoming a map maker. My original inspiration was something like what I [[ds_review_cover.jpg|used]] in my *Death Stranding* review. It has a good use of foreground and background that leads the eye naturally. I looked at some shots from the press site for the game and liked [these](https://www.kojimaproductions.jp/sites/default/files/2021-08/gr.deathstranding.pc_.gameshot9.jpg) [two](https://www.kojimaproductions.jp/sites/default/files/2022-03/DSDC_PC_RuinedFactory_0.jpg). All three of these pushed me toward finding some scenery in *DS* that I could use as a base for my thumbnail. Exploring around the opening terrain of the game, I found [[2407_DS Scene Essay Thumb Base.JPG|this]] huge ol' gap between mountains/hills with a [river running through it](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BNzE4YWZkOWMtOWZlNS00NzU4LTk5MDQtZjZkNDllMjM1NGI1XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTQxNzMzNDI@._V1_.jpg). Knowing this was going to be a YT thumbnail, I didn't pursue native capture and instead used the PS5 share feature to snap the shot. I refined/upscaled the imagine Pixelmator Pro, which more than met my needs for quality in the base image. I wanted to tie in the other games I played to the image. That led to using the iconic *Red Dead Redemption* font. Standard fare there. I immediately did not like the all white text, but I needed to get words on the screen to see and feel out where to go. In my head, the words played out on the Z-axis, sort of stacking toward the camera, so that was the next piece to tackle. Keeping the text flat looked wrong, so I also distorted the words to put them in the Z space as well. Hiding pieces of "Map" and "the" behind the hill further sold the illusion of depth to me. As for filling in the white space, I chose to replace it with the sky in *The Wind Waker*, further incorporating the primary games. The original was too bright, so I futzed around with color palettes and corrections to make it less harsh and more readable. Probably the most active topic in the Discord is thumbnail help and the lads came to my aid. Brian had the idea to add a blur to "Map" and "the" to illustrate that depth and sort of communicate coming into clarity. I immediately added a focus blur to the words and it leveled up the image in an instant. Wizawhat had the other big idea of masking out the sky and putting a map graphic there instead. I was hesitant at first, but I tried it. Thankfully, the Rockstar community is nuts and I found an [insanely high-res image of the New hangover map](https://www.reddit.com/r/reddeadredemption2/comments/zwwcz6/i_made_a_high_res_file_of_the_rdr2_map/). Seriously, the map comes in at 22MB and is 9000 x 7004. As [one comment](https://www.reddit.com/r/reddeadredemption2/comments/zwwcz6/comment/j1x5e3k/) said it's an "absolute unit of a map." And wizawhat was right. The map in place of the sky elevated my thumbnail from bland to dynamic. Given the sheer size of the file, I was able to scale freely and even angle it back in space without a loss in any regard. I did line up the river in the *DS* scene to feed into Flat Iron Lake, which I felt connected the two disparate elements. I was also able to sort of line up the curve of "New Hangover" with the crest of the hill and that felt good. The key to this entire process was rapid fire feedback. These guys have been making thumbnails like this way longer than me. I was able to iterate *quickly* and find my voice in its design. ## The Song I can't close out this entire deep dive without addressing the musical number. That was a late night idea/joke to overcome writer's block that became a reality. I shared it in the Discord for a laugh, but it really struck a chord (heh) with PostMesmeric. He encouraged me to go for it. I figured why not. I thought the whole bit would be funny and it'd only work if I sang the thing. All I did on the production side was use iZotope RX to separate [EVA](https://en.softonic.com/articles/who-is-suzetta-minet-big-metal-gear-solid-3-mystery-remains-unsolved)'s, I mean, Jodi Benson's voice from the instruments. Then I played the tracks in my headphones while I sang into the mic, karaoke style. Then I just lined my words up with the audio bed. This is so far from real musical production. I won't pretend or claim I mixed anything or the like. I just took what I knew how to do and applied it to a song. I think the gag works, even if it is entirely out of place in the essay. Commit to the bit. ## In Closing Phew...if you made it this far—thank you. I did not expect this behind-the-scenes to be this long. It kinda sums up one of my three revelations with the whole essay. I was and am shocked at how all consuming it was. This was all I worked on for a month. I didn't play any games, outside of capture. I didn't write other blog posts. My office looked like a whirlwind ran through it as I captured all the various A- and B- Roll. This essay invaded my life. And I'm cool with that. It was engaging and satisfying to be so honed in on a singular work. My creativity was firing on all cylinders. I experienced my brain working it out in real time. The two other revelations... How far the essay drifted from the initial concept. It's not about maps and myths in games. It became far more personal. It's a mishmash of my love of maps (duh), but also, my story as a guide writer and my journey to carve out my own path and identity in my writing. The essays that always hit home have a personal undertone, that thread that ties you to the writer/narrator/creator/subject. Leaning into my personal story made this essay what it is. The last revelation I didn't realize until I was deep in the writing process of this post. My essay was my way to reclaim *Red Dead Redemption II* from the clutches of that dichotomy from guides in my mind. I've stuck a flag in the ground and said "No more. This is mine," for what is an exceedingly rare game and experience. It's not an attempt to rewrite history, far from it! In fact, it chronicles my history in a public manner. All I am doing is taking back the joy and memories, while leaving the crippling sense of work behind. And that's it, that's the entire creation process behind this sucker. Maybe this idea of rich, in-depth behind-the-scenes calls for smaller posts or letters, like Craig Mod's *Nightingalingale — 21 Days; A Diary of Book-Making* newsletter, which has been going on now for 250+ entries and, uh, years. I'll put a pin in that. Would make writing these posts easier. 😅 I will be making more essays. I loved this process too much. I am actively working on a much shorter one right now, with a beefy one in the wings, pre-production, mulling over stage. Now with this behemoth of an article behind me, I suspect essay number two won't be *too* far off. Thank you for watching and reading. Until next time, adios. ## One More Thing... Okay; one more thing. Here are stats, a timeline, and a bullet list of tidbits that I wrote down, but don't know how to nestle into the rest of this *waves hands* thing. ### Stats - Final essay file/folder size was 321.34 GB - Final essay word count was 5,942 - Final behind-the-scenes word count was 8,692 - After one week of being published, - 671 views - 526 unique views - 17.2K impressions - 54.8 watch hours - 17+ subscribers, which pushed me over 500 - 44 likes - 2 dislikes - 6 comments ### Timeline This is as accurate of a timeline as I could whip up from messages, file dates, etc. - April 12 - I want to publish an essay this quarter - April 13 - Myth and Legend idea written down - April 17 - Adam Phillips and Deep coffee zine quotes written down - June 17 - Connection between Myth and Legend idea made with Phillips and Coffee quotes - June 19 - Anchor paragraph and idea written down - June 20 - Joined Discord group - June 22 - Found footage of Adams' quote - June 23 - Bought *DS Director's Cut* - June 25 - Bought the sticky arrows at Office Depot - June 30 - Detstar Wayback Tour - July 1 - FCP library was made - July 3-5 - *RDR2* Footage - July 5 - Shot Prologue Intro in Chair - *Death Stranding* - *Star Fox 64* - *BotW* - July 6 - Dk64 - *Wind Waker* - July 10 - Green screen handwriting - July 11 - Map sticky shot - July 15 - Published Map the Gap ### Tidbits - The Credits were straight ripped from *The Bear*. I love love love seeing Christopher Storer's name stay put and the titles be the thing to change, especially on the really, really good episodes. I'm not saying I am Christopher Storer, but I do think my video was deserving of those types of credits. - Overall/general video inspiration - [Moving to Dream NYC Studio](https://youtube.com/watch?v=vwphS4GTHYQ) - Jordan Studdard - [A map for my inner child](https://youtube.com/watch?v=cKEkBgPU-1M) - Jordan Studdard - Any [Casey Neistat](https://www.youtube.com/@casey) video - [Good Blood](https://www.youtube.com/@GoodBloodGames) and those over desk shots - [MLiG](https://www.youtube.com/@mylifeingaming) - [NakeyJakey RDR2 v2](https://youtube.com/watch?v=gcRleWwWpsY) - *[The Bear](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bear_(TV_series))* - [That Headphone Guy DMS](https://youtube.com/watch?v=olaFPhZmZu0&t=255) - Overall video inspiration principles/goals/markers for good solid work - Practical whenever I could - Real gameplay, off real hardware, played by me, when I could - Go for it [^1]: It was slightly delayed from the end of March. [^2]: But I do think there are some nuggets in that idea I may come back to some day. [^3]: A-Roll = Primary Footage (usually of the person speaking). B-Roll = Secondary footage (of the thing being discussed). G-Roll = Game footage, a term coined by My Life in Gaming, as far as I know. It's where I learned the term. I embrace it. [^4]: Funny that I write in order, but do not necessarily edit video in order. [^5]: And singing too. never doubt the performative powers of *Wheels on the Bus* and *Row, Row, Row Your Boat.* [^6]: I should look into a HDMI 2.1 switcher to feed everything into one HDMI port on my TV, but then I'd have to give up the console specific color calibration I've done for the PS5 and XSX. [^7]: Which is exactly what led to me getting footage of the exploding railroad tracks from *Red Dead*. I was cutting from an explosion in *Breath of the Wild* to footage of *Red Dead* and I thought having an explosion tie them together would be smart and slick. Thankfully, there's a whole mission dedicated to a big ol' explosion, so I went back and replayed that just for that 11 second shot. [^8]: I tried to do a similar thing with *Cap'n Crunch's Crunchling Adventure*. I tried installing it both on my iMac and on my MiSTer. I spent too much time in pursuit of gameplay, when I the commercial I landed on worked just as well for the point I was making. [^9]: The shot I use is also why I mention *Firewatch* spoilers at the start of the video, since it shows the whole "EVAC POINT!" handwriting, and you know, the sky is on fire. [^10]: Said mode is the only way to get a mostly stable 60 fps with the higher quality assets. A huge thanks, as always, to [Digital Foundry](https://youtube.com/watch?v=_nN4XMlzlc4&t=520).