Progress Update: 2/10/24

Hello! I hope everyone had a comfortable holiday. I myself took an extended period with my loved ones, something that was drastically needed after the arduous production of the EVE Online video, but even so, we all have been making progress on the next Down the Rabbit Hole.

Much like the EVE video, and for much the same reasons, the subject has been made public: I've decided to talk about the siege of The Baths in Foxhole's War 106, a fight that lasted for approximately 36 hours straight. This battle is by no means the longest or most intense in Foxhole's history, but it DOES make an extremely good story, and beyond that, both the attackers and defenders frequently reminisce fondly about it. It also is quite recent, meaning that it's fresh in people's memory, which allows me the opportunity to interview people and get detailed accounts.

To that point, I have begun scheduling interviews with people either present at the battle, who had a hand in it somehow, or who fought in the war and can offer perspective, and I plan to use these recordings in the final edit of the video. What's more, I'll be including people's footage and images of both the battle itself and the preparation for it.

I'm going to level with all of you now: I'm doing this mostly for fun. It's incredibly enjoyable to write about a battle in a game with the same gravitas as a real-life battle, and something like this seems like a great palate cleanser after EVE. Sure, it's still complicated, but I can hit every beat much more easily, and the game itself is far more digestible to a wide audience. I've begun work on the script, describing the game's basics to set the stage for the intense conflict at the core of the video. Also, I decided to make a video on Foxhole because I started playing it and have been thoroughly enjoying myself, leading a project for the game's involved logistics. (For those familiar with the game, I've been making Cnutes with FMAT)

My team and I are altering our production a bit this time around; rather than make everything independently and work in phases, we'll be constructing parts of the video as we go. I've already written the intro, and I'm meeting with my team next week to coordinate all of the assets we'll need to make this real. We're breaking a bit from the typical DtRH formula by making a flashier opening with game footage and some absolutely fantastic, intense music from Ryan, who has already written much of what will inevitably be fit to the narration for the video.

We're also giving this the History Channel war documentary treatment with detailed maps showing troop movements and emplacements, of which we will make copious use. Arcaxon has already made the majority of the assets that will be used for these maps, and he's just making a few more as he waits for my narration.

I'm beseeching the Foxhole community for B-roll that they're willing to share, and my hope is to have a wide breadth of source material from which to draw.

I'm currently aiming for an hour long video, but I make no promises. The intense focus of this video will definitely keep it from ballooning the way that the EVE one did, so I think I can comfortably write off any concern over scope creep.

I'll see all of you again soon!

-Fredrik