It's been a while since I last uploaded anything and even longer since I uploaded anything finished. Anyway, I return to you with a snippet of what could have been my last big finish. This video, as the title implies, was to be my fourth anniversary special, which would revolved around the number 4 and celebrate the fact that it was my fourth year on this site.
The plot involved 666Blackflames (a troll, who prowled the comments section of my channel and videos for many years, who's probably the closest thing that I have to an arch nemesis) resurrecting himself and vowing to destroy the shitty movie maker that tore his head off and devoured it. Blackflame's plan was to accomplish this by T.A.R.D.I.Sjacking a Timelord and going back to September 2009 and stopping 14 year old Psychomantis108 from opening his account.
I, valuing my existence, decided to try and stop him, by chasing him through time and recruiting my 2010, 2011 and 2012 versions of myself (this video was made in 2013, in case you didn't know that already...).
Despite the fact that this video looks like it was made to congratulate myself and mock Blackflames, it was actually designed to make fun of myself. 2010 Me for instance would spray bullets everywhere, 2011 me would cut a LOT of corners and 2012 me fancied himself as an action hero and had zero self awareness and the current day me (now 2013 me) would be rather dense, as demonstrated in this video.
This was my biggest scale project ever, as you can probably tell. I thought that the lipsyncing was great compared to other efforts, such as 'The Bridge has Stopped' and I felt like the quality had ramped up in terms of editing. I'm not under the illusion that it's perfect though, even at the time, this is just the few clips that I have thrown together and some post editing would have been done (hopefully).
I wrote a script and even voiced the characters (I know, Blackflames wasn't done by another voice actor, mind blowing isn't it? I'm like Mel Blanc :P), this was the first time that I'd voiced the ragdoll characters to. It also has music AND dialogue at the same time O.O and a few other nifty features, that most decent video makers do on their first try.
So... Why didn't it happen? Well, a number of reasons...
1. Windows Movie Maker: FUCK THIS SOFTWARE. No, I mean it, this software is evil. To say that it is dysfunctional would be misnomer as it is beyond that. This bloody software knows exactly what you're trying to accomplish and uses state of the art technology to fuck it up. I am NOT kidding...
The other week, I tried to process some Grand Theft Auto V footage, from my PS4 and the clips just give up for ghost, half way through and the image freezes. Didn't do that this week, of course...
This time, it saw fit as to make my image quality look like total shit. The only way that I could fix this problem is by throwing a video file into the mix or else my stop motion would look like it had been shat out, with its blurry, low res images.
2. Blackflames - So, just before this video or whilst I was working on it, I can't remember... I got a nice little message from a Mr Jeff Blackflames on my site, telling me that he loved me but it wasn't meant to be and that he couldn't see me... blah blah... His usual attention whore shit. However, he slipped up by signing up to my website, with his real email address, which was also linked to his facebook account. Ctrl C + Ctrl V = Access to Blackflame's personal Facebook wall.
I created a fake account and sent him a private message to spook him, don't remember what I said but I was hoping that the fact that I found him would discourage him from posting on my stuff and stay the hell away. It did but not for long...
Not long after I gave up and took up a new hobby, I returned to my site and noticed that he was writing on the comments section of my website, the Longest Mile. I despaired that he was still doing this shit and responded by telling him that I felt like he had taken this waaay too far. I felt sorry for him and told him to do something else with his life.
Last time I checked on him, I noticed that he was in a relationship and he seems to be happy. I'm actually quite happy for him, since he was growing a little too obsessed with our internet banter, like I did, several times.
Anyway, I felt like uploading a twenty minute video of my slamming him and turning him into a 30ft tall mutant before blowing him up with missiles and a bunch of other stuff, may not go down too well. I could have just not used Blackflames as my villain but I don't know anyone else, who could have taken his place.
3. Motivation (or lack thereof)
To be honest, I don't know what kept me going for those last few months, my friends had all left me at some point or another and I was just making videos that nobody watched to keep myself from going mad. It wasn't a pleasant time and through dropping this I found a new hobby and a good group of friends, who I still work with and cherish my every moment with them to this day.
I consider dropping video making to be the best decision of my life, since I can do so much more as a writer and I've made such great friends because of it. I am also, considerably better at it and this brings me to my overall reason...
I've moved on...
I never thought that I'd say this but I feel like I'm a bigger and better person now, I've done so much more, I feel like I am so much more and therefore, I feel like my video making days are over.
I made some great friends and have many good memories of my youtube experience but all good things, must go stagnant and then come to an end...
And there you have it, the opening of my fourth anniversary. :)
