Rust - The Battle for Honeypot Hill - Update #6

Good morning everyone. It's been two weeks since the last segment. And here's an update on progress.

• Next 17:32 minute segment is soon ready. Entering quality assurance now. Hoping to deliver it to you this week.

• You can track progress here if you're interested.

• That will bring the video to 47 minutes. 32 minutes remaining.

Here's an overview of the timeline in Adobe Premiere. This middle segment in light blue is the one being worked on. It concerns the "planning" phase of our operation.

It contains 5 sequences which are relatively normal. Consisting of narration over cut stream footage from Rust.

But it's the middle-most segment which is the unique one. And where most of the planning is currently going. For it concerns a sort of "arts and crafts" bit.

I mentioned before that within this bungalow I've installed a wall-mounted corkboard using screws and wall plugs. I figured I'd use it for a similar thing to The Forest. But with an attempt to make the whole thing a bit more....tactile.

For on stream last week, I revealed something I'd purchased. An A0 size "silk" poster. A blown up version of the Rust map.

I then pinned it to the corkboard and placed the studio equipment around it.

The end result after some experimentation, is the ability to be much more forceful with the plan. Due to the fact that it's a squishy cork board on a solid brick wall.

I'm able to smack things off the board. Throw things onto the wall. Literally smash props against it for brief visual gags. In a manner that I hope will more interesting to look compared to the Forests stickers and string.

So to that end, I've been printing out little bits of paper.

Preparing little thumb tacs stickies:

Or alternatively just gluing them onto the pins directly.

Now I'm glad I've done this little exercise ahead of any sort of final release, because this whole process has let me encounter various snags that I need to be resolved. Please consider the footage in this next QA'ed segment to be temporary.

The first snag - the lighting.

On performing some lighting tests on the A0 poster map (with silk finish), it's pretty obvious that there's too much shine. Even with diffuse lights. Even placing them waaay back in the hallway. Even with some darker blankets to dim them.

There's just a lot of reflection going on.

I think a better approach would be to replace the map with something that doesn't have a coating.

I contacted the printing company asking if they had any alternatives. And they sent me some samples with the other type of poster coating. But as you can see there's a similar result. I think the best thing to do would be to seek matte paper before the final thing.

It's part of the list of things to order.

Additionally, whilst this in draft form, what I'm currently doing is cutting out temporary icons for things. Experimenting with different sizes to make sure things are clear enough in the test footage.

For example, all of the bits of text are having the font size scribbled on the back to let me mix and match. To identify what I need precisely in the moment. The pieces I don't need are being binned.

Those icons are then being stored on either Google Docs or photoshop files for printing. Giving me a strong idea of the precise dimensions for the finale.

Then I plan to either send these to commissioned artists to have them doodle more unique cartoon versions.

And eventually send them off for proper colour printing. For alas, I only own a cheap black and white printer for legal documents.

The next thing to discover is the list of props that I need to acquire. It's something of an strange list. For example:

• A joke moustache.

• A plastic helicopter that can be smashed.

• A print out of Cyanide's face.

• The board game "Operation".

• Some shatterable Christmas decorations.

• A broken smart phone.

• A model of a DNA chain.

• Some printed rice paper that is safe for dogs to eat.

For now, I'm having to make do with very temporary cut outs. Which give you a rough idea of what I'm planning to do.

And I really wasn't joking when I said that I wanted this to be "tactile". I mean REALLY tactile.

This is the essence of what I'm trying to delivery in this middle segment. It needs to look like a crazy man giving a briefing. It needs to come across as amusingly unhinged.

I apologise in advance then, for the absence of most of these props means that the incoming test segment will be a lesser version. But it remains a work in progress.

Additionally, some other snags.

I'm noticing that the pins idea is making lots of little holes which become progressively more unsightly as the briefing progresses. It might be a better idea to have most of the icon on blue tac. Saving the pins only for the things I need to physically smack.

The PVA glue and paper is also far too fragile. The final assets would probably be better served on solid card. Or maybe glued onto small pieces of easily worked wood? I might see if I can do that instead.

Right, so...work underway. Will try to get this segment through quality assurance. And then I'll have it with you as soon as I can. Bear with me and thank you as always for your extreme patience.