Popular Video, Recording Actors, and Title Generator

One of my YouTube videos has suddenly become quite popular. I recorded some actors for some of my short video animations. My Random Title Generators can now generate more than a billion titles.

Popular Video

I haven't been paying much attention to how many views my videos on YouTube get. This week I got a note from YouTube that said I'd had over 18,000 views in the last month. I thought that must be wrong, so I logged in to check. It turned out that my video "Some Days ..." really took off starting in late February. It isn’t a new video. I posted a decade ago.

·          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXVwHaQcDQ8

As of yesterday, it had 21,860 views. It peaked at 1,083 views per day in early March and has varied from 400 to 700 per day since then. Yesterday it had 738 views and that seems to on an upward trend. There were only 32 likes and 7 dislikes. Most people didn’t watch the whole thing.

There doesn't seem to be many people who go on to watch my other videos though. I did get some people subscribe to me. I only need 931 more and I can get my videos monetized.

My Short Videos

I got a little work done on "The Desperation of the Wretched Senator." I rewatched it and made notes on changes I wanted to make to finish the project. But then I got busy recording actors for my other short videos, so this project stalled.

I recruited a couple of actors from the older filmmaker’s club to record voices for my short video projects. They recorded material for “The Sad Lady and the Hesitant Father-in-law,” “The Dread of the Daring Rocketeer,” and “Time Enough for the Anxious Social Media Manager.”

I learned a lot from the recording. Working with experienced actors like these two was much different from working with someone less experienced. The main takeaway for me is that each actor is different in how they work, and I need to be flexible in how I work with an actor.

Some actors don’t mind working on their own, while others prefer to have someone else to react to them. This is actually something I’m relearning. When I was making films in the late 90s and early 00s, I found the same thing, but since then I let it slip from my mind.

I had both actors record lines for the same character. I might get another actor to do some of the same characters. Already I’m unsure which to go with. My goal in this project is to gain experience, so I’m thinking I may as well create both versions. I don’t really need to pick one.

One issue I’ll need to cogitate on is that we changed social media manager from a man to a woman. The character is something of a wimp. I feel that it would work better if he were a man and not a woman.

One of the people from the Old Filmmaker’s club had some suggestions for “The Sad Lady and the Hesitant Father-in-law.” That got me to look at the relationship between the characters in a new way, which surprised me. It has me considering altering the dialogue a bit, which means I’d have to record new lines. I would have to redo all the lines. I did some processing of my voice, and I don’t remember exactly what I did. I may see if I can find an actor to record them.

Random Title Generator Update

I made some more revisions to my Random Title Generator. The two versions combined can now generate more than a billion titles. I'm working on some more ideas that will increase that.

Some of the titles I got while testing the code:

• Threatening the Ruthless Judge 
• The Animosity of the Soft-Hearted Burglar 
•  The Wisdom of the Damned Utility Room 
• The Executioner and the Wistful Trash Collector 
• Seeking the Excited Diamond Cutter 
• The Story of the Makeshift Container Terminal

·          https://dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/random-title-generator/

This post is a mirror from my main blog http://www.dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/blog

A New Writing Exercise, Animation, Trigger Warnings, and a Video

I posted a new writing exercise this week. I took a deeper look at Unreal Engine. I got into a discussion of trigger warnings. I procrastinated about a video I did.

"Time Enough for the Anxious Social Media Manager"

At our writer’s group we did a writing exercise based on this title. I recorded it a couple days later and then posted it on-line.

Albert meets with his social media manager. Derek is anxious about the new campaign.

·         https://soundcloud.com/dynamiclethargy/time-enough-for-the-anxious-social-media-manager

I've been posting my recordings to Soundcloud, but there is a limit to how much I can upload. So, I did some experimentation to see if I can post them on my website instead. It worked, but I don't think there is a high priority to start doing that.

NAWMAL, Blender and Unreal Engine

My plan was to stick to NAWMAL and Blender for my animations, but I saw a video about Unreal Engine that suggested that it was much easier to learn than Blender. I know how to do some things in Blender, but I find it hard to learn how to do the more sophisticated animation I want to do. So, I installed Unreal Engine on my computer. I had a quick look at it but didn’t try to do anything with it yet. I did download some of the free assets that they provide.

Trigger Warnings

At our script group meeting this week we talked a bit about trigger warnings. Apparently, the idea is controversial, since some writers feel that a warning can undercut the effect of their story. I felt that you need to be aware of your audience and avoid anything that would cause someone to 'drop out' of the story. I've dropped things from my films because of that, even though I felt they would have added to the story.

"The Desperation of the Wretched Senator"

I haven't done anything more with the video I did. Next week, for absolutely sure, definitively, I will get it polished off and posted.

This post is a mirror from my main blog http://www.dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/blog

The Dread of the Daring Rocketeer

I finished recording my writing exercise based on the title "The Dread of the Daring Rocketeer". I’ve posted it on SoundCloud.

Circumstances force a rocket scientist to take a risky chance. He hopes he won't regret it. https://soundcloud.com/dynamiclethargy/the-dread-of-the-daring-rocketeer

I was a bit stumped by the title, but once I started to write, the story just seemed to flow out of me.

I think the story would work well as a short video. I just need to create a video image of a rocket. I’m not sure when I can get to it. I have a couple of unfinished videos almost ready to go. I should get those done first.

 We generated the title randomly on the page: https://dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/random-title-generator/

This post is a mirror from my main blog http://www.dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/blog