The Forest - Update #8 and new video link

Good afternoon everybody. Hope you're all doing well on the run up to Christmas.

I've finished another chunk of this video-essay project for The Forest. Thank you for being so very patient with me. The rendered links can be found below for parts 1 and 2.

The eventual plan is to combine it all into a single video. So apologies for the (potentially jarring) transition between the two. I've not yet balanced the audio across the entire project.

Part 1 - 1 hour: https://youtu.be/FbNTfCJQkdg 

Part 2 - 45 minutes: https://youtu.be/LWo2taF66Gk 

Also Youtube has flagged this video as "18+". I'm not entirely sure why. It's almost certainly a bot thing. But if you have trouble viewing this video I'll put a dropbox link here. Sorry for the inconvenience.  

So here's a shot of the current timeline.

Certainly approaching the home stretch now. With section 20 in my script named "the drop", Which is really where I start revealing what the video is properly about. Very much looking forward to it.

On this video though, it's divided up into three distinct forms:

Segment 14 - "Beware of Scale" standalone point:

So as you might have noticed, this segment is something of a major deviation from the rest of the format - if you'll forgive the indulgence on my part. That's because this part is its own small video-essay that I've been considering for a while. And I have truncated it somewhat to place it here.

Essentially I talk about a narrative gripe that I have concerning how films and games are sometimes written. Where the boundaries and limitations setup by a fictional premise are treated as flexible. So that things can be made so big and epic that they just don't fit anymore. Using the gargantuan film/game environments from Underwater (2020) and Valley (2016) as examples.

I was considering going further. Talking about how, on the extreme end of the spectrum, you have fictional settings with recurring stories ignoring limitations leading to sort of "fictional slurry" where anything can happen. Allowing for some incredibly lazy writing.

But for the sake of brevity I kept it relatively short. To focus purely on a warning for those writing fiction in the future.

Segment 15, 16 and 18 - Story walkthrough again:

So these segments are a little tricky to talk about. As I'm essentially setting up something in parts 20 to 24.

This is essentially what most of the video is, as defined by those little yellow pieces of text. Which will eventually be replaced by a proper composition.

Essentially I'm telling the story as it's unfolding - speculating on where it's going based on the clues. Intentionally trying to lead the audience into the headspace that I was in by the time the game ended.

In these segments I introduce the heavy presence of the Christian missionaries, the strange metal doors and the unknown purpose of the Sahara corporation. With some gags sprinkled in here and there.

This should all make much more sense at the end :)

Segment 17 - Point about mystery stories:

This segment is a follow up to the prior parts talking about the games strange logic. In that sometimes you find that stuff with such lack of forethought that it's confusing from a narrative perspective.

The submerged books being an example. As you can't tell if the developers are being serious or whether they're winking at the audience, when you find intact books in a wet cave environment. That look no more than a few days old.

Normally this stuff doesn't matter. But an important facet of mystery stories is being given clues and playing with them in your head. So what happens when the clues you're given clearly do not make sense?

In this segment there's also a cartoon that I need to properly animate. And I might speak with BewBewDingo to find out if she's interested in making a few more custom puppets. For the moment I've simply used some static images, and have generated keyframes from the audio track. A simple animation method. But it's not very sexy, you know? Definitely want to go back and polish this.

Segment 19 - Unfinished Finale:

So this last part is actually hella difficult. To the point that I felt it prudent to leave it to one side for the moment to finish everything else.

Its pacing is dramatically different to the rest of the video. With moment-to-moment cuts being dictated entirely by the livestream. Rather than the script. Meaning that I'll need to carefully quality assure it with multiple long rewatches.

Also there's a pretty complicated boss fight from an editing point of view.

Have a listen to this piece of music. It's a bit bombastic. Rhythmic in nature. With a clearly defined tempo. But now imagine what it would sound like with several dozen quick cuts. It would sound like a bit of a nightmare. But those quick cuts would be necessary to keep the boss fight flowing.

Therefore it might actually be prudent for me to simple cut the visuals to no audio whatsoever, apart from my voice. And then just re-do all the game audio in post.

And the finale segment has a few moments like that. So its  a little complicated.

The plan now:

• The priority is to finish this last segment and slot it into part 2. Then provide you with a new link. 
• Let me know if you spot anything weird in this segment. As I might be able to fix it at the same time :)
• I might even try to render the whole video to see how it seems. If it's good I can provide you that link instead.
• Once that's done, a short break, then onwards to video completion. As parts 20 to 24 await.

Have a lovely Christmas everyone :) Let me know what you think of part 2. Thank you again for your extraordinary patience. And have a wonderful new year if I missed the update before then!