Divinity: Original Sin 2 - Update #2

Good evening folks. Another week, another update on editing. To bring the unfamiliar up to speed:

I'm currently hoping to make Divinity Bullshittery part 3, but have been somewhat dissatisfied with the structure of prior chapters. This is because Divinity is a story game, with lots of narrative and it's difficult to keep comedy flowing when so much needs to be explained.

The proposed solution? More pre-production. Going through the livestreams in order to better plan a video structure that maximises comedic moments and minimises unnecessary exposition.

On that front, my progress:

• I've carefully scrubbed about 10 hours of live-stream footage. From Fort Joy to the near start of Chapter 2.
• I've made more than a hundred notes, highlighting specific sections of the livestreams as: Comedy or narrative. With some miscellaneous notes for other things.
• I've plotted a proposed structure. And have mass exported those clips onto the timeline.
• I'm now in the process of trimming the footage to get a video that plays from start to finish.

To visually explain my challenges.

This is a diagram showing some of the major locations visited during Chapter 1 of Divinity 2: Original Sin. Each one with (potentially) their own narrative setups and revelations.

Now if I were to follow the timeline linearly, it would end up looking something like this below. Because the party ended up doing precisely what parties do. Submitting ourselves to whatever distraction crossed our path. Or whatever trouble we ended up getting into.

As you can no doubt tell, that's unworkable as a video structure. It's a total mess. 

Therefore having taken copious notes on what happened where - I've decided to restructure it to show what is absolutely important. Importing only the most useful comedic moments from that which is not:

Now this approach is not without risks. The notable two being the removal of Gareth and Wendigo. Characters who will make repeated appearances in the rest of the series. The former being the leader of the allied faction you roam with. And the latter being that mysterious old woman who blew up the boat.

I'm hesitating a little on Wendigo, because she does become funnier later. A sort of Austin Powers recurring gag where she's repeatedly slain, only to turn up in the next scene to everyone's bewilderment.

The trouble there is that it's right at the start of the video and it's not overtly funny. And editing wisdom tells me that it's critical to start strong. Or in this case, start funny. I'll ponder the problem some more.

Now since I've colour coded each of the relevant segments with my pre-production notes, I can tell you that comedic moments have been marked purple. And narrative moments have been marked green. With that in mind, have a look at the current timeline:

Now that is a much stronger start, in my opinion. A firmer grip on what matters. The comedy. With any narrative being imported later if it becomes clear more is required to tell what's going on.

And you can even spot the progress of my trimming in the first third there.

I'm not yet at the stage where I can go thumbs up or thumbs down. But I will certainly have an answer by the end of the week as the complete video starts forming.

It is however looking to be mechanically complicated, as predicted. With cinematics to mark the transition from Chapter 1 to 2, necessitating voicework and lots of commissioned art. But hopefully a stronger video than the two that came before by revising the process.

Proof will need to be in the pudding. Hopefully I can make it decent.

Progress continues. I hope you're having a lovely week.