Hello Interwebs! Welcome to TPM’s July news update. We’ve taken steps towards bigger things, and we’re excited to share with you. Read on for the latest…
Pre-Production Projects
Justin began work on a new short film. It’s working title is Praxor-5. I can’t tell you a lot about the story, except that it takes place on a planet which orbits a blue star.
Justin aims to play both lead characters. Yes, that’s right! He’s returning to acting (if only for this film).
This July I produced a new Sketch called “Toxic Fans Be Like…” I wrote most of the jokes months ago. It only took me a few days to toss them together into script-form.
I’ll admit I based the “toxic fan” character on myself (and toxic fans more generally). But the other guy is me as well. My behaviour depends on which media I discuss. I complain and argue the more I care about something.
No, I’m not proud of myself for occasionally perpetuating negative nerd stereotypes. I hate toxic fans more often than not! They ruin the fun for everyone (even themselves). But I aim to catch myself whenever I start to gatekeep. Sketches like this allow me to laugh at myself and serve as a reminder of how NOT to act.
Production Projects
I’ll talk more about “Toxic Fans Be Like…” in a future “Analysis” article. But, for today, I’ll give you a few behind-the-scenes tidbits about TFBL’s production.
Good news: I improved my green screen prowess for this one! I’m the first to admit that my keys for “Ross Poutine” weren’t the best. Third time will be the charm, but the second is at least an improvement.
Backlight was the added element which improved my work. It helped separate my body from the background to a noticeable degree. So it took less effort for my computer to remove me from the green.
Bad news: green-screening results in faster production time, yet more than DOUBLES the effort I expend on post-production (which takes long enough). I also messed up my incorporation of the background! I photographed the gate for this video, when I should have filmed it instead. This would have resulted in a “living” background, which would have felt less fake.
So this production process proved a learning experience: I shall only film SUPER short things with the green screen, so long as I can help it, and get moving backgrounds where applicable.
Post-Production Projects
I chipped away at those “Poker in the Pandemic” Bloopers. I, unfortunately, did not progress very far. Maybe next month…
I did, however, re-edit “The 10 Stages of Being on Hold” for TikTok. But TikTok wouldn’t let me post the video without muting it for copyright. That makes no sense because the song I used is royalty free, and I’ve used work by that composer before ON TikTok. I’m at a loss right now. But I’ll try to figure that out…
Podcast
Ryan and I filmed our Thor 4 and Stranger Things 4 Vol 2 episodes a few weeks back. The ST one was an especially difficult episode for which to prepare notes because I hadn’t yet finished the season. So I had to blitz through all 4 hours at once, between my work and our shoot. That was a packed day!
My procrastination was a double edged sword. It meant that my opinions were fresh but not necessarily thought-out. I still held my own though.
These episodes were my first experience with my new mic! Its audio quality is a notable improvement from my old Snowball. But my mouth was still too far from the mic, which resulted in less-than-ideal audio. There’s yet another lesson I learned at the expense of your listening pleasure…
Truth be told, I hadn’t time to test the new mic before our shoot, because of matters I’ll discuss at the bottom. It’s the same reason I had to push off watching Stranger Things 4.
You may have noticed that I returned to my old microphone in CU 14-15. That’s not really the case. Ryan and I filmed those episodes last month with intent to release them whenever we had no mutually-watched, recent entertainment to discuss.
Ryan and I recently filmed another “Ryan Explains” (God of War) and a lecture on Batman oversaturation. I believe I improved my use of the new microphone for these ones. Could it be even better? That remains to be seen. I definitely improved my audio-editing techniques though. So that’s been a boon to the show!
Close Up finally possesses an RSS feed, pasted to the far corners of the internet. Our reach is wider than ever, which will undoubtedly drive up listenership (we hope). You can find us most anywhere you get your favourite podcasts!
Justin kindly created new cover art for Close Up’s expansion. He, of course, based it off the original image I took for our YouTube thumbnails.
Graphic Novels
Matteo, Justin, and myself all brainstormed new concepts for The Guild of Gallantry. We also still debate how to format the books, and how to release them. Our main concern is finding artists to collaborate with us, because Matteo doesn’t have the time to draw it all, and Justin and I are sub-par artists.
Other
I’ve struggled to find the balance between TPM and my day job. Then, just as I nearly found my footing, a new crisis demanded my attention for nearly two weeks. I choose to be vague about what said crisis was. But suffice it to say things got messy and tensions ran high.
Anyway– the crisis is (mostly) resolved now. And I’m able to re-focus my attention on Thought Plane Media. So get ready for an influx of new content in August!
This has been TPM’s July news. If you have any questions about what I’ve written today, or have something you’d like to see addressed more in-depth in next month’s update, let me know in the comments. Also, if you have any ideas for future articles, or any general questions, let me know that as well. Be sure to like this article on Facebook and share if you enjoyed!
Till next time,
Joe Morin
