# Behind the Scenes of *Zelda Stole Fortnite's Best Mechanic* I wasn't really expecting to come out with [[Zelda Stole Fortnite's Best Mechanic – A Video Essay|another essay]] so soon, but here we are. 😅 I had two guiding principles coming into this project, of which I hope the most obvious is, the length. I wanted to make a video no longer than 10 minutes.[^1] Not because my family is shocked at everything I produce over 15 minutes or to please the all-mighty algorithm (which I think *prefers* long-long form videos in this space); no, I wanted to cap myself at 10 minutes to see what I could create within restraint. The second was, I wanted to explore a specific game mechanic. Video essays come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. My [[My Journey to Becoming a Map Maker – A Video Essay|first one]] was a personal reclamation journey through the filter of a specific suite of games. I love that format. I have a couple of essays in pre-production in that vein, but I watch so many essays that explore mechanics and game design, like from [Game Maker's Toolkit](https://youtube.com/watch?v=JqHcE6B4OP4) or [Razbuten](https://youtube.com/watch?v=h8J6Crxj7YE) or [Nakey Jakey](https://youtube.com/watch?v=QCYMH-lp4oM). I wanted to try my hand at this specific mechanical type of essay. The idea to explore "Where we droppin' boys?" as a mechanic hit me just four days after the publication of [[My Journey to Becoming a Map Maker – A Video Essay]]. This is what I wrote down; > Where we dropping boys? As a mechanic essay. That could be short and sweet. I guess the big angle is how TotK made that a mechanic. Then I was off to the races! I started capturing and writing over the next few days. I hit a definite roadblock with some friction in capturing PS5 footage. I could have released this essay much sooner if I wasn't so procrastinatory with getting footage. My PS5 and XSX are the only hangovers of the [[Rewiring - Preparing the Way for Tink 4K|hotswapping video cable days]]. It may not sound like a lot of trouble, but the tedium in changing out cables and capture cards to record footage off these systems really does make me not want to do it on some level. I already have a HDMI 2.1 splitter and a switch on the way to remove this barrier. Before digging too deep, let's take a look at the overall timeline of the project. ## Timeline - 7/19/24 - Idea hit - 7/20/24 - First footage (*TotK*) - 7/21/24 - Started writing - 7/29/24 - Basically done with first draft. I think all that remained was the conclusion. Squaded up with the boys for *Fortnite* capture - 7/30/24 - Supplementary G-Roll capture - 8/2/24 - *TotK* Depths footage - 8/3/24 - Finished writing. Recorded audio - 8/4/24 - I used Keynote to make the effects on "The Rush," "The Scope," and "The Agency." - 8/4/24 - Captured Thumbnail A in *Fortnite*. - 8/4/24 - Replayed and captured *TotK* Intro - 8/5/24 - Solo *Fort* footage, misc *TotK* footage, Link posing footage, made Thumbnail B with the [Boundary Break *TotK* video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WjSmC-rEnM&t=50s&pp=ygUSdG90ayBvdXQgb2YgYm91bmRz). - 8/6/24 - *TotK* sky jump footage. Video out. Under one month. Barely. Not too bad from start to finish, I think. I did make some creative cuts along the way, trying to adhere to those two guiding principles, which I think also helped this essay have a quick turnaround. Speed wasn't the goal here, but it did happen to be a nice byproduct. Now, let's dive in. ## Writing The writing process came pretty smoothly this time. Right from the get go, the big hook/angle was how *The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom* adapted the aspects of the multiplayer mechanic to single player. To keep the video within the 10 minute scope, I needed to be direct in introducing *Fortnite* and why its drop works so well. Here's my original outline; - Intro to *Fort* - Games with dives - Why the dive works - Diving in *TotK* I knew the hook out of the gate would be the fact I just started playing *Fortnite* 9 months ago. I felt that was unique. Then I explored the dive-bombing sky dive and *why* I felt the mechanic felt so good and what the two games share. The rest kind of just...flowed? The structure is straightforward. My writing here wasn't a big creative pile I had to refine and coax out of my subconscious. I knew pretty much what I wanted to explore and say about the games. It was nice. Something I noticed during the process though was a need to write like I talk. This was a video script after all. For someone trained to *not* write like I talk 90% of the time in my professional joby-job, this was a slight revelation. I caught myself editing out what might be considered "natural language." Sure, I had fun with some flowery / fun word play, like > So, of course, game designers would gravitate toward bringing this particular flight of fancy into our hands through a controller. But on the whole, I kept it straight up. In turn, this makes the narration aspect much simpler, because it just rolls off the tongue for me. Speaking of narration... ## Audio What can I say? My [[How I Edit My Podcasts|audio workflow]] is unchanged from podcast production. It's quite nice to record narration one its own and use it as the bed for the essay. I enjoy making videos this way. There were two lines I *probably* should have re-recorded. I didn't pronounce "species" correctly. No clue what happened. There was another flub that I think I was able to edit out. In the end, I decided to let it slide. Mostly because I didn't want to try and match cadence, rhythm, and tone again. It never *quite* matches up. I also just wanted to get the video out there. A video essay is more than my dulcet tones though. The music chosen does so much of the heavy lifting. I always try to pick thematic pieces from the games I show. I want it to match, even if I am the only one that knows. Picking music from *Fortnite* was tricky. The songs I like to play in my lobby aren't quite soft. What I did was go into my little lobby music menu and scrolled through all the tunes I have acquired. Pretty easy way to reign in the selection pool and find something that fit. The rest was from *A Short Hike* and *Tears of the Kingdom*. Man, *Zelda* music makes the job of a video essayist so easy. It hits when it needs to hit and steps back when space is needed. It makes that part of the edit so much more enjoyable. I swear my videos are as good as they are because of the music others produce. It's a part of why I make [YouTube playlists soundtracks](https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLxCxW3Sbhy5ZrUAMvZBY67HVL15BDlXNL) for the essays. It's a call back to my days as a kid picking out movie soundtracks to listen to on my CD player and as another way to highlight the artists and songs I picked. ## Video/Gameplay There we two big differences this time around. 1. No A-Roll. 2. Not all footage was native 4K60 or filmed by me. No A-Roll of me talking this time felt like direct result of targeting sub-10 minutes. That's not to say sub-10 minutes videos can't feature my face. My physical presence just didn't feel necessary for this one. Although, I did have this absurd idea to lay on a table in front of my green screen and have a fan blow my hair wildly as if I was "dropping" and then pull out to reveal the crude set up. I still like that idea. Taking the place of would be A-Roll was trailers and a little documentary footage. Everything is listed in the [[Zelda Stole Fortnite's Best Mechanic Credits|credits]], but there was so much I left on the cutting room floor. I gathered all sorts of inspiration from videos of things falling or *Fortnite*-related videos. I had saved videos of [garlic bread falling from the edge of space](https://youtube.com/watch?v=c8W-auqg024), [falcons diving at absurd speeds](https://kottke.org/24/07/peregrine-falcon-killing-a-duck-in-mid-air-1), and [Stephen A. Smith picking our drop zone](https://youtube.com/watch?v=jTy3NM0HpKk). Where trailers helped the most was filling in the gaps of my narration and gameplay by providing stylized shots I could never get on my own. The opening with *Fortnite* in particular was a life saver. That spiral dive shot from *Tears of the Kingdom*? I was reminded of it when watching my friend [["I Hate This Game" – Brian Henken|Brain's latest essay]]. This taught me that it is okay to go outside of my own capabilities in regards to game footage to help elevate my own talking points. This also lifts a burden to capture every single frame. I think taste and the situation matter, but it was a huge help to go outside of my own capture rig. Another big lesson was with [my dub clip in *Fortnite*](https://youtube.com/watch?v=kc2l_9Fdpek&t=122). As much as I'd like to say I can film a win whenever, I cannot. So, I went into my archives. But I don't have traditional archives. I'll be buying a hard drive for that next month. My archive this time around was my PS5 saved clips, which saves a 1080p WEBM video file. 🤮 That win was from April 2024. Logan and I won a duos match and getting that final kill with the sweet flank set up, roll up the hill, and auto shotgun finisher felt so good at the time that I just hit "save last 30 min of gameplay." There it sat dormant on my PS5 until this moment. I copied it to a USB drive and plopped that compressed footage into my timeline. Despite my desire for the highest quality pixels, the moment the video captured trumped any graininess. See, I also have mic/party capture turned on for my PS5 recordings. If I'm saving a clip, odds are what I/we said is worth having captured too; and my "Let's GOOOOOOO!" at the end felt like an absolute perfect fit for that moment in the script.[^2] Don't let *perceived* quality get in the way of *real* quality. ## Editing I didn't do this last time, but here is a screenshot of the final timeline! ![[240811_WWDB_Timeline.png]] I stuck with the new-to-me method of audio first, video second in Final Cut, with the little gray placeholder boxes in the middle. I really like this approach to editing. I'm finding more flexibility and freedom in it. While putting the ending stretch together, I made a connection between writing and video editing. You should have some sort of callback to the beginning. When that occurred to me, I knew I had to replicate the horizontal stack between *Fortnite* and *Tears of the Kingdom.* It makes so much sense! It helps hammer home the way that Nintendo brought a multi-player focused mechanic and systems into a single player game. And with the video being on the shorter side, the callback is easier to...call back. I think it brings it all home. Now for a little confession. I *really* like my endings: both this one and the Map Maker one. I might like them too much. I know the music is doing all the heavy lifting, but man, I am super proud of how I've been able to end these essays. The idea for my skydive closer really just hit me the day I was wrapping up the project. I booted up *TotK* and checked how many Skyview Towers I had unlocked—seven. I figured that was enough for visual diversity, if I mixed up the time of day. Nintendo made my ending. I just chopped it up. I think it really encapsulates the pure joy I derive from this skydive implementation. ## The Thumbnail My thumbnail this time around started out as a straight forward idea. I wanted Link gliding down to the *Fortnite* island. Total mash up that would be visually unique, I thought. It turned into an interesting versus match of creativity and exploring new tools in YouTube. Let me just start out by saying, photo mode is a godsend for thumbnail creation. I just played a round of Fortnite and tried to fall as stylishly as possible, thinking I'd just watch the replay off Epic's servers and screenshot my way to some sort of background. Instead, I got to manipulate the angle and time of day to take a slew of shots of the island that look, I think, amazing. It was a total reminder that *Fortnite* is [[Fortnite’s Unreal Engine 5 Upgrade Reviewed with Lumen and Nanite – Digital Foundry|stupid good looking]] with Lumen and Nanite.[^3] When tapping into the thumbnail consortium (aka [Brian Henken](https://www.youtube.com/@Brian.Henken), [wizawhat](https://www.youtube.com/@wizawhat), [PostMesmeric](https://www.youtube.com/@PostMesmeric), and [Fuzduf](https://www.youtube.com/@Fuzduf)), I got the feedback I desired; made Link larger, added a stroke, etc. Then I had the idea to make the "inverse" of my original thumbnail: A version of *Fortnite* dropping into the land of Hyrule. Seemed like a silly enough idea that could executed without too much effort. Knowing Nintendo doesn't offer a full-featured photo mode, I went to the realm of YouTube for my sky high view of the legendary kingdom. I've always seen [Boundary Break](https://www.youtube.com/@BoundaryBreak) around and watched an [episode](https://youtube.com/watch?v=YjtfQoyrRRs) or two. I assumed there'd be an episode on *Tears of the Kingdom* and [I assumed right](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WjSmC-rEnM&t=50s&pp=ygUSdG90ayBvdXQgb2YgYm91bmRz). With a precautious skimming hand, I looked for just a quick overhead shot that I could use as the base. Then it was a matter of finding an angle of the Battle Bus that acceptable. The Consortium then recommended enhancing or zooming in on the castle to help convey it was Hyrule. Suddenly, I had two thumbnails, which had an even split between the folks who previewed the images. Instead of picking my favorite (the one with Link), I decided to test out YouTube's own thumbnail testing feature. Now, creators can option up three different thumbnails and gather data on what garners the all-mighty click. The default test appears to run for two weeks. Here is the test's current standing ![[240812_Thumbnail A-B Test.png]] I'm bummed my favorite isn't winning out with the people, but I found the exercise and test interesting. I don't think I'll do this sort of testing every time, but I'm happy I gave it a shot. Before moving on to the toughest part of this essay, here's a small slice of beginning and end versions of each thumbnail. ![[WWDB_Thumbnail_v1.jpg]] ![[WWDB_Thumbnail_v5.jpg]] ![[WWDB Thumbnail Version 2_v1.jpg]] ![[WWDB Thumbnail Version 2_v3.jpg]] ## Response / The Title The response to the video was not what I expected; in both a good way and a bad one. I broke 2K views in just a few days, which surprised and delighted me. I also attracted the ire of many, *many* people. Both of these results, I assume, due to my use of the word "stole" in the title. > *Zelda Stole Fortnite's Best Mechanic* I should have known it was going to become a problem for myself when some of the first comments taught me a new term—rage baiting. Apparently, the evolution of clickbait to garner and generate rage in an audience. The term is ubiquitous enough to have [a Wikipedia page](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rage-baiting). All news to me, as evident in my initial response. The negative reaction was shocking to me, even though I spent a solid decade addicted to Twitter. I thought my comparison and analogy were clear as day. I underestimated the fiery passion of keyboard warriors hiding behind the anonymity of YouTube comments. Some favorites of mine, from the negative crowd, > Lmao a fortnite kid thinking fortnite invented skydiving 💀 💀 — @El_Potato_Solo > TLDR; ur opinion is stupid and dumb and dumb and stupid pee yew it stinky lmao — @Justbcicann42069 and of course, the crème de la crème, > Genuinely one of the worst takes on video games, let alone a video essay. You have only copied the style of a video game essay and tainted it with your stupid opinion, which I believe the majority of the community would disagree with. I pray that you change from this video, and make decent videos. > > never make a video again — @andersonfought3178 Sure, I chose the apparent funny ones from the negative group. I gotta find the humor somewhere in this, right? But some of these comments were a bit biting in their execution, trying to cut to the core of me as a person and not the work itself. > "I know my opinion is garbage and i'll make this video to get more views and more subs" garbage video — @telaunbread4278 I struggled not to reply to each negative comment to argue my point and stand my ground. You can only get so far in a comments section, after all. I kept thinking "how can they not see the point I am making? How do they not understand?" But really, they never wanted to understand, the video or me as a person. I am disheartened that the vocal minority, or anyone, thinks I’d “rage bait.” That I’m some malicious person formulating mean, snarky content. The lack of critical thinking frustrates me. I have to remind myself it is just that, a vocal minority. Out of the 46 comments, 11 were out-right-negative, 12 were positive, and 10 were my own replies—a majority of which are thanking people. I have let these 11 comments suck joy out of this creation. I had the idea for the line "until *Tears of the Kingdom* stole the mechanic" very early on, deriving inspiration from the likes of *[Steal Like an Artist](https://austinkleon.com/steal/)*. That line and title, from a writer's perspective, is a great hook. Playing with a reader's expectations to pull them in and reveal an idea, hopefully in an effective and entertaining way. My essay was met by a group of people taking the word "stole" in its literal definition with the negative connotation. They read my tight, zippy five word title and immediately made an assumption about me and my work. There was and is nothing I can do to convince those viewers about me or my creative process. I wager none of them will ever read this. But I did not cave in a sacrifice my creative vision. I made the video I wanted and will continue to do so. This will not deter me from making the thing I want to make. My essays are all inspired by the countless ones I have watched from truly great creators in this space. I hope I can make something half as good as them. I will also more seriously consider the title next time. Sheesh. You better believe it has inspired a sting of ideas about other "thefts" in the game industry though.[^4] ## Performance and Stats Before I wrap up, let's gander at the stats; - Final essay file/folder size was 172.81 GB - Final video file size was 4.06 GB - Final essay word count was 1,412 - Final behind-the-scenes word count was 3,809 - After one week of being published, - 2,282 views - 2K unique views - 32.2K impressions - 91.4 watch hours - 22+ subscribers - 101 likes - 27 dislikes - 46 comments Real proud and encouraged by this one's performance. Something resonated with folks (good or bad) and resonated with the algorithm (good or bad). It means I'm on the right trail creatively. ## In Closing A week later, I'm still flying high off this creative process of video essays. Sure, the negative response knocked me down for a spell, but I haven't let it ground me. I wonder why it took me so long to make a video essay at all. I've already got a couple in pre-production that I am jazzed to write and mold into a video for you all. I'm proud that I stuck to my guiding principles for this one and was able to flex creative muscles in the sub-10 minute and game mechanic departments. It makes the world of video essays even larger and keeps the medium fresh. I can explore whatever I want to, as long as my heart is in it. Thank you all for watching and reading. I hope you enjoyed it and I'll see you in the next one. ## Inspiration I didn't specifically watch or look to these videos for this particular essay, but they all serve as great examples of effective, powerful analysis or storytelling in a tight time frame. I love each one of these videos and they, along with their creators, are powerful teachers. - [How Fortnite Exploits Your FOMO](https://youtube.com/watch?v=V1kbBcm9XRI) by Mark Brown for Game Maker's Toolkit - [A Brief Examination of Ocarina of Time’s Title Screen](https://youtube.com/watch?v=qMwoa9I5Dn0) by Razbuten - [Super Mario 3D World's 4 Step Level Design](https://youtube.com/watch?v=dBmIkEvEBtA) by Mark Brown for Game Maker's Toolkit - [Moving into my dream NYC studio](https://youtube.com/watch?v=vwphS4GTHYQ) by Jordan Studdard [^1]: Ignore that "10:01" time on YouTube. I exported that sucker right at [[240810_WWDB_Real Duration.png|10:00]]. [^2]: You have no idea how nervous I was about keeping the audio in for the "Griddy" for copyright concerns. But I *had* to keep it in there. [^3]: Which is what the replays render. As pretty as those graphics features are, I need them buttery 120 frames when I'm on the island, graphical quality be damned. Speaking of which, I has to capture all my *Fortnite* footage at 60fps and I was very sad to revert back to that. [^4]: This is a joke. Please.