Progress Update: 1/21/2025

Greetings, I return to you all from the content mines with news of good progress. DerEineSchwarzeRabe has been performing with aplomb as the team's newest member, dredging up difficult-to-find information while I write the script for Project A. Also, I'm giving the new Warrens episode a final pass and should have it up on The Other Channel in the next few days. Below you will find video-specific updates:

The Foxhole Video: Ryan has finished writing all of the music for the video and now is only waiting on final instrumentation to begin mixing the last of the music. He has offered to share some of his process:

"Hi folks,

First of all thank you for the wonderful support, you’ve all played a huge part in me being here and making my career so wonderful and fulfilling. I was reflecting this morning that I’m just extremely grateful for the career I have had, so thank you.

Perhaps as you’re reading this the soundtrack might well be finished but I wanted to talk about some of the work that went into this one. This is probably the most ambitious Down the Rabbit Hole soundtrack, consisting of over 1600 bars of big orchestral music and the one I am most proud of so far.

To make the soundtrack I have worked violinist Duygu Ince to layer at some points over 60 violin parts to produce a full orchestral soundtrack (below is an image of only part of the instrumentation):

 Amazing opera singer Eleanor Westbrook has contributed vocals to the soundtrack, and singer Josh Herring has contributed vocals to a new Prisoner’s Cinema song for this episode.

This still only the beginning, and I’m really excited to make bigger and better things for Down the Rabbit Hole all made possible thanks to your support.

-Ryan"

Arcaxon in the meantime is in the process of blocking out the final animations for the video, which consist of a number of shorter explanatory clips. However, when the time comes, I may have to pull him away from his work on the Foxhole video to complete a small amount of work for Project A, which I believe may be completed first.

Project A: This has been the exclusive focus for DerEineSchwarzeRabe, our new research assistant, who has helped complete the core research for the video. While they continue to dig into promising leads which will help add detail and texture to the video, I've been free to write the script, which is already coming together well. I hope to have it finished in the next couple of weeks, though I cannot guess to its length yet. There's a significant chance that, while far less labor-intensive, it will be longer than the Foxhole video.

The Power Rangers Video: This is not currently a focus for the team, though our contact Roy has arranged other knowledgeable enthusiasts to speak with us when the time comes.

Again, thank you everyone for your support as we reorganize and redouble our efforts to make this upcoming "season" of Down the Rabbit Hole as enjoyable as we can. At this rate, I firmly believe our goal of one video every two months is achievable starting this year. I'll be seeing you all soon.

-Fredrik

P. S. YouTube has begun rolling out AI-generated "ideas" for new videos, including thumbnails, and I cannot overstate how useless they are for my channel. I'm particularly baffled by the thumbnail generated for Spoony, who the image generation algorithm has apparently interpreted as some sort of cyberpunk auto repairman. See below for a sample:

(The Battle of May Island neither occurred during the day nor during the events of the movie "Mortal Engines.")