Published: August 20th 2018, 8:27:04 pm
So after we started the hiatus, we did some minor renovations around the house. We also spent a week deep cleaning, mostly because the house was never cleaned when we moved in (thanks, old owners!) and we've been too busy working or too exhausted to actually bother doing it ourselves.
Once that was completed, we moved on to further studio renovations. A roommate moved out a few months ago and I had started converting the extra room into a studio, but never finished because we had extra pieces of furniture that sat in there for a few months. I have sciatica and a knee injury, so that sort of labor can be difficult, especially after long days of sitting in a computer chair writing or editing. But thankfully we got all the furniture cleaned out and the walls lined with soundproofing foam. With the furniture gone we can more effectively rig up lighting that will allow us to be more consistent and less setup.
Once that was done, we had to address our current equipment, which left much to be desired--previously, we were using a Studio Projects C1 microphone, which is really a mic meant for voiceover projects and not quite appropriate for on-camera, but it worked. Using it required a very specific kind of physicality, as well as a need to constantly edit and re-edit it out of shot if Martin ever moved. Some of you may have noticed we started experimenting with a lapel mic recently, and that's given us some flexibility, but the sound wasn't great (because the room wasn't soundproofed) and it would frequently adjust it's own volume when things would get quiet, leading to frequent blowouts that would require multiple retakes and safeties "just in case". Our preamp was also having issues--the audio would randomly cut in and out, which sometimes lead to lost footage. But we were working too much to diagnose the problem properly.
So! We have since invested in a new Sennheiser shotgun mic, as well as a nice new DSLR camera that will allow us to raise our audio/visual standards. We can also now have multi-angle shots for new projects we are workshopping, namely a card-opening series that we've been trying to get off the ground since December but just havent had the time, momentum or energy to really consider how we wanted to pull it off, let alone comparison shop for new equipment that wasnt just a side-step. We needed a new travel mic for auditions and want to start getting more into streaming as well, so I picked up a Yeti condenser mic too.
On top of all that, Martin and I took some time to melt into the couch and take a couple day trips. We were lucky enough to get a free overnight trip to Vegas, and we went camping on the beach with our pooch one night for my birthday (since I wouldn't be in town to celebrate with him). Shortly after, I left the state to appear at a convention in Times Square, and now I'm in Michigan visiting one of my oldest friends till the end of the week to celebrate our (relatively close) birthdays. Martin just completed a 12-hour Yakuza 0 stream yesterday, and has streamed just about every week of the hiatus.
YGOTAS is on track to release soon, and Martin let me know that he's plugging away at new GX videos. We've also approved the look of the card series and are going to be moving forward on that soon, so long as we can pace ourselves properly.
I will be home around the 26th and will, by this point, most likely be sending out Patron emails in early September, once this month's pledges clear, just for the sake of consolidating time. I've gotten a lot busier since we started this Patreon three years ago, so it's been more difficult for me to keep up with it lately. I apologize--but I'm really determined to finish this draft of my novel before the end of the month so that's where most of my excess energy has been going lately. I'm hoping to start submitting to literary agents sometime in Oct/Nov, where I'll hopefully find a publisher who's interested. I'm also going to be focusing on retooling my voiceover demos and seeing out new voiceover representation once my episodes of FLCL start airing in September.
Whoa. That was quite a wall of text. But I wanted to let everyone know that we haven't forgotten about you and that things are chugging along behind the scenes. We'll start getting new content out to you ASAP!
As always, thank you for your support!