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I hope you don't mind a little creative soul searching disguised as a newsletter.
It's been seven months since I last published a video. I can't seem to find, fabricate, or defend the time necessary to get one across the finish line. It feels like things pop up and take precedence. I feel it all sinking beneath me as I tread the waters of my own creativity.
Maybe I am too rigid or particular. Maybe my editing ambitions are too high. Perhaps I need to be fast and loose; to just make make make.
Or maybe I am in a season of life where I don't have the time for writing, recording, and editing. Maybe all I have is time for one thing. I have many ideas for video essays. Perhaps, I need to drop the "video" part and write write write. What's more important? The video presentation or the sharing of the idea? It feels like a sort of madness to have all these thoughts swirling and trapped inside my brain with the only key being making a video.
This train of though got me thinking about Scott the Woz and his Scott's Stash channel. A proper episode of Scott the Woz takes quite a while to produce. Scott's Stash, while still well produced and edited, is a much faster way for Scott and his team to get videos out, try ideas, and make make make. I'm not implying I am Scott Wozniak levels of production here, but I am saying that I might need to make smaller "stash" projects instead of each thing being a "Woz" caliber deal.
I've been reading the (so far) excellent Is A River Alive? by Robert Macfarlane and there's this passage early on in a cloud-forest (such a sick name) of Ecuador. Night has settled and these stumps begin to glow. A fungal hyphae grows inside the wood as the trees die and in the darkness it shines.
"'If fungi were to speak,' says Giuliana, 'they would tell us what they show us, which is that really the death of an organism is the beginning of countless others; that there is no end to life, just a constantly shifting substrate.'"
I think this incarnation of video essays is like those stumps. While they may be dying in this particular season, it doesn't mean there isn't life growing—maybe even flourishing. I may have to turn the lights off to see it though.
I'm starting to think these ideas in my note aren't videos after all, but just essays. I'll leave you all with a quote (and book) from Craig Mod;
"Things become other things."
Until next time...
Memory Card Newsletter
This letter is one block from the newsletter Memory Card by Max Roberts. Thoughts? Send me an email at [email protected].
Max is the writer and producer behind Max Frequency, a place where he cultivates and curates curiosity—both for himself and for others—by delighting in the details and growing greatness from small beginnings.
He's written a rich history and dive on the making of Naughty Dog's The Last of Us Part II, celebrated the 15th anniversary of Super Smash Bros. Brawl with the voice behind its hype, and examined how Zelda "stole" Fortnite's best mechanic.
Memory Card is a real-ish time, raw, drip feed newsletter of his creative process for telling these stories. It’s how The Thing™ gets made. You can sign up below. (Look down)
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