Video-essay fiddling - Update #05

Good evening folks, hope you're all well. It's the start of the sixth week of work on this video-essay project concerning The Isle.

Sorry it's taking so long. It's proving to be something of a bugger for reasons I'll explain in a moment. Currently I'm doing the following:

• Working through the various complex After Effects sequences that dot the timeline. There are far fewer now though, but there's still quite a lot of work remaining. Most of the video is just basic game footage, but the AE animations are used to illustrate specific concepts. And average about 20 seconds each.
• I've been stuck in a major writers rut with the conclusion - the final 8 to 10 minutes. And I've been slogging it out over the weekend to try and dig myself out. I think I may have done so, having recorded the dialogue last night. But I'm still editing it together.

Here's an updated screenshot of the timeline:

So for the last week and a bit I've been continuing to work on those animated After Effects compositions. Being used to illustrate any survival genre points and how they relate to the Isle. No particular problems there.

What I'm trying to illustrate is how the Isle is making some relatively minor changes to their game, but they concern some of the core aspects of the format. Which changes things rather radically. And by extension, how this creates other problems - which some parts of their audience are attempting to fix via server rules.

Major deja vu with what happened with the DayZ Mod - an active audience that are sufficiently motivated are doing their own thing, enhancing the game, independent of what a developer wants.

What has bedevilled me though is the conclusion. I'm struggling to land it. And it's gone through multiple revisions and reworks. Consuming last weekend to try and dig myself out of a rut.

• The first ending was too granular and specific. I ended up going down a rabbit hole of details at a time when I should be summarising.
• The second ending made too many assumptions about survival game trends and proved untenable in hindsight.
• The third draft meandered a bit too much and lacked focus. Also ended too abruptly.

I think I might have it with the fourth one though, hopefully. I've recorded the dialogue last night and have been cutting it today. I'll need to review it a few times in audio form by tomorrow. I need to word it very carefully as it intentionally 'fires a shot across the bow' of two vaguely related game properties. And I don't want that to be all people remember from the essay.

What deeply worries me though is that all this might be too much effort for something that might be too niche. Or to present opinions which are too insubstantial to justify a sixth, or even seventh week of work. There are many alternate bullshittery projects that need to be done. This continues to stress me out. And it's only going to get worse as time goes on.

Either way, both for this fear and my natural desire to change pace, I plan to commit to a few bullshitteries after this one as there's lots building up on the plate. Thank you for being so patient with me.

TL;DR - Bulk of the video is edited. A relative handful of difficult After Effects comps remain. The ending is proving very challenging and I'm struggling hard to script, voice record and re-do it.