Laidback Log
Video Production is something I’ve been doing for almost fifteen years now. I still remember one of the YouTube channels that got me into video creation. FreddieW, renamed to rocketjump, hosted all sorts of crazy fun videos. Aimbot is an amazing short video with a mix of humor, action, and great VFX work. There are some other classic gems on his channel that I highly recommend watching. While I’ve been interested in Video editing I think I need to get an obsessive focus in order to improve from here.
After seeing those videos, I wanted to understand how it all worked. Luckily FreddieW was cool enough to do process walkthroughs on his secondary channel BrandonJLa, previously FreddieW2. After watching some of his tutorials on After Effects, I also went to videocopilot.net to learn there.
Obsessive Focus Leads to Tutorial Paralysis
The problem with my learning process was multifaceted. First of all, I jumped straight into learning virtual effects. Creating good cinematic videos is a pipeline process that includes planning, shooting, editing, and virtual effects. Next, I have the problem of what they call tutorial paralasys. As stated in my last blog, if I feel like I don’t fully understand something it’s hard for me to take action. My last issue was that film making is ultimately a collaborative process. In high school I was socially awkward I’m sure few people knew of my interest in filmmaking.
One Last Tutorial
Although I was just talking about tutorial paralysis I watched a couple of tutorials before making my latest short videos.
It turns out that you can do this kind of edits in Davinci Resolve, but I decided to use After Effects because of my familiarity with the program. After pouring through the footage I’ve realized that this is the last video I can make from my experience at the Tokyo Underground Meet. I was overall disappointed in the way my footage turned out, but you can only do your best.
After stabilizing my shots similar to the tutorial I added a couple of elements that were original to me. Mainly the masking of the wing and the keyframe animation emphasizing the element. I chose the Drake Song Nonstop to be the backing track. I always choose a song before I do an edit because I like cut to the music like Edgar Wright. Meaning that I gain an obsessive focus on cutting and adding effects to the beat.
There wasn’t much success with this reel. It’s always cutting to spend so much time and effort on a project and to get no goodie at the end of the rainbow. But I always have to remind myself it’s the process that I enjoy anyway. As I learned climbing to Diamond in Apex Legends, things were the same, but I enjoyed the process. I enjoyed shooting cars and editing to music so why not just edit for the sake of it?
Obsessive Focus on Short Form Content Statistics
Tik Tok
Plays: 942
Likes: 68
Total Play Time 51 Minutes
Average Watch Time 2.9 seconds
Instagram
Plays: 505
Likes: 30
Comments: 2
Watch Time: 40Mins
Average Watch Time: 6 Seconds
YouTube Shorts
Views: 55
Likes: 2
Watch Time: 20 Minutes
Average Watch Time: 9 seconds
Music Remix
As a result of talking to my friend Dave, I got inspired to listen to different kinds of music again. We were talking about punk rock bands and he sent me some music suggestions. After using the curated playlists on Spotify, I jumped onto YouTube music and listened to one of my old favorite tracks. Feel Good Inc. by the Gorillaz is about Drug Addiction. Like another song I’ve made a remix to, songs about drug addiction hit harder.
The lyrics about a windmill that goes on forever relate to other aspects of life as well. My philosophy about life, the spiritual views I carry, as well as the neverending cycle of work.
Love forever love is free let’s turn forever you and me
Feel Good Inc.
Production Notes
While I’m not going to do a detailed breakdown as the audience and demand isn’t there I’ll speak a little about my production process. It took about 14 hours to make this remix over two days. After work my obsessive focus kicked in.
After reading some books about mixing and production I realized a lot of my tracks were starting to sound the same. To circumvent the sameish sounds I added some different effects to my effects chain and used different VSTs to make the soundscape. When I was remixing the track I was thinking about quantizing the original drum track. But having a real drummer gives an unmistakable human groove that fit really well into a DnB track.
Working with guitars and real sounds isn’t something I do often, but it gives songs an organic soundscape.
DrumStep Drop
Even when working with these sounds I found a place where I could stick a future bassy dubstep section. I had a lot of fun modulating and working with growls on this section. One of the juiciest moments of the track comes after a growl. I felt as if the track needed a little bit of oomph there. I took a screaming sample and modulated the bass with a scream to get this magically horrifying angry sound.
Aren’t You Angry with the world? I get the sense that you have this repressed anger.
DaveDeparted
During my deep intellectual conversations with Dave, he asked me if I was angry with the world. While I like to be nice and kind to people, yes I am angry at the world. I’m angry for having eczema, I’m mad that there is no proper directions or instructions for life. The last thing is I’m fucking sick of being a loser. I don’t know why some people win and some don’t. . .to me the world seems to be this weird wishy-washy place where someone like Logan Paul continues to stack dubs while I’m facing nothing but Ls. . . Don’t I work hard too?
I Used the Anger
Anger is one of those emotions that when channeled well can lead to creative expression as well. I think of all the punk rock bands like Rise Against, Greenday, and Rage Against the Machine. Even T.V. shows and fiction can use this anger to craft new worlds. Mr. Robot, Cyberpunk, the Matrix, and Black Mirror all use this angst to create new narratives. Furthermore, we can even look into a kid’s show Avatar to illustrate this point. Anger is like a different color on the canvas, or to Ang like learning how to firebend.
While I’ve used this anger to fuel my dubstep wub wubs, I’ve also been looking forward to playing punk rock again. It would be fun to return to my roots of music and pick up an electric guitar. While I’m not Johnny Silverhand, I can still play some power chords and testify against the things I’m angry about.
Ending on a Lighthearted Note
I started streaming again. I don’t think that I’ll ever make it as a streamer. To clarify I don’t believe I posses the necessary personality traits to be an entertaining streamer. For example, some of the most popular streamers are either in the top .1% of players or are extremely funny, opinionated, well-spoken, or attractive. In 2024 I’m trying to get away from this defeatest attitude however. Like the other tings I’m trying to work on, the most important thing to do is just start.
I started streaming again and now more than ever I feel lost. There are so many more things to learn about OBS, streaming tools, and the stream META than when I started live streaming ten years ago. I still remember when there were less than 15 streams live in the creative section. Nonetheless, the only direction to go is up and I’m excited to relearn everything there is about streaming.
Much Love ❤️,
LaidbackMarco
TO DO LIST
- Keep better track and record of finances
- Design Shirts, Clothes, Sweaters, and Products for the brand
- Make a diagram of LaidbackLifestyle funnels and web
- Redesign website to integrate product sales
- Cleanup YouTube channels, linking, and tags
- Send Ophelia, Monstercat, and Other Labels a Demo. . .how do I put together a demo and press kit?
- Visualizer for “Lost at Sea”
- Vertical Visualizer
- Visualizer for “Feel Good Inc.” Drumstep Remix
- Upload any Video To LaidbackGaming
- Finish Editing Yokohama Photos and Post Them Online
- Make a reel with trending audio of before and after edits
- Draw anime characters on them for laidbackanime
- Create Shortform Content from Nissan Global HQ
- How to Make Music Video DAW
- A7III Review
- Make some Art
