This morning I put in an order for a mixer and microphones, following the guidance of Andrew (no, not Andrew the YFIAS character; Andrew Camenzuli, our new Vice Plankhead of Technology). Not only will these improve the audio quality in future episodes, but also the actors’ performances.
When we recorded the pilot, we had each actor take turns sitting down in front of my laptop and reading their lines into its somewhat-passable microphone. This was far from ideal, as they weren’t able to play off one another. It was even worse for Vin, who wasn’t able to record his lines on the same day as everyone else, so he didn’t even have the ability to watch everyone else’s performances.
With these new mics, we’ll be able to set them up to cover the room, allowing the actors to stand up, move around, and get into their characters simultaneously. We’ll be micing almost as if we were shooting a movie, except without using any of the visual component. I’ll probably set up a camera as well to take footage for animation reference (and as a DVD/member extra), but we won’t have to worry about keeping the mics out of the shot.
These purchases were made possible by the generous contributions of our donors. Exorbitant amounts of thanks to each and every one of them.
Speaking of donors, I’d like to highlight one of them in particular. After putting in the first order today, I sent a mailing to all of our Plankhead members (you can get a lifetime membership by donating just $5 or more until June 15th — from our YFIAS donation page or the Plankhead.com one). In it, I mentioned that we’d been able to get two great microphones, but a third cardioid mic we’d wanted to use as a fill couldn’t fit into our budget, and that if we could only have $100 more, we’d be able to get it and improve our sound quality even more.
Lo and behold, within less than an hour, Matthew Sheahan added $150 to his donation. That was enough to buy our microphone, stand, and cable, and still have some left over to buy the cast pizza for our recording session. Mr. Sheahan, you are an epic individual.
Mr. Sheahan, by the way, operates this Discordian Quotes site, as well as the Lost Souls MUD. Check them out.
The Indie Paradox: Paying Rent Without Depending On Corporations
Large corporations have come up with a solution: go into the manufacturing business. They are now Digital Rights Manufacturing companies, creating new rights for themselves using a revolutionary new process known as “fellating lawmakers”. Their revenue stream comes from licensing these digital rights at high prices, and suing people who don’t pay. But it’s too expensive for indie artists and creators, and it doesn’t win you any friends.
Because of this situation, indie game developers are doing horrible things like experimenting with in-game advertising. I’m not saying this as a knee-jerk reaction to the horrors of annoying ads bombarding us. I’m saying this as a knee-jerk reaction to the horrors of depending on the advertising industry for revenue.
Think about it: TV series with devoted fanbases are cancelled because they don’t make enough ad revenue. Millions of websites depending on Google AdSense would go broke if their accounts were inexplicably terminated (I’ve read about this happening before but can’t find a link detailing it. Maybe I’m typing the wrong words into Goo…gle…wait a minute). And remember when GameSpot fired Jeff Gertsmann when their advertisers didn’t like his reviews? For people who call themselves indie, it’s not very indie-pendent.
The best way to be indie in any medium, be it game development, filmmaking, music, writing…hell, even running a business in general, the only party you should be depending on is individual people. Some may know them as “customers”, or “users” who “generate content” on your “social media application”, but let’s avoid such corporate-speak, as it makes baby Jesus cry and is killing America. But there’s still the problem of how exactly to make money on individual people anymore. In a world where art is hard work and people don’t seem to want to pay for it, one man will stand up to explain his opinion. That man is me. Reread the previous two sentences in a movie trailer guy voice, then click the jump-cut-continue-reading thingy:
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