CyberGunk is Done
Main Series
Bonus Stuff
I think this is the happiest I’ve ever been with something that I’ve made, makes me feel good about the future of making YouTube content. Making something by yourself with no budget for the internet, obviously has a lot of limitations. But I think here, that didn’t matter and only worked to make it better. Complete creative control over content, tone, length, style, it gives it a nice counter-narrative in parts, it lets me play at the edges of what you can say, and crucially it gave me access to copyrighted footage and music. With no overheads.
It’s the most I’ve ever felt like I actually made what I wanted to make. What I had in my head largely came off, I think.
And everyone’s been super nice about it, and it’s all gone over well, which is cool too. Much better than anticipated. Not a viral hit, but a strong performer with the existing diffuse audience and a moderate growth engine for the patron base (don’t know what these words mean).
Genuinely thank you to everyone who shared it and/or reached out to say they liked it. Ideally that was because they thought the content was good, and not because they felt overwhelming pity for the character of Caleb Gamman, who seemed to be really “going thru it” in episode 5. But either way, I’ll take it.
Content Delivery Strategy for the Remainder of the Fiscal Quarter
(Still don’t know what words mean)
I am actively working on the next thing and I have a few ideas of things I want to do.
Through to the end of the year, I think I really need to focus on the content churn. Next year, things are going well enough that I can keep up with the regular website content, but not so well that I can keep up fortnightly YouTube releases.
So, short term, cranking shit out, selling out, growing the audience. In a few months, deciding how that went, adjusting the strategy. Then next year, maybe backing off the YouTube schedule a bit.
For now I think what that means is: a lot of tentpole content.
One of the things I like about doing the tentpole stuff, is it forces you into a topic and a timeframe. Which can produce some good stuff. Personally, I’m happy with the Moon Knight video, the Boba Fett video, and even the more off-the-cuff reviews that I’ve done on the website. Of course the downside is, that it doesn’t always produce good stuff. The tentpole content that I didn’t name there, I’m not that thrilled about.
And I’m not sure how to best manage that. But I think, it’s a format worth experimenting with. For a little longer. Some future options I’m considering:
- Implementing something on the website to get feedback/input from you, to see what topics my *core audience* would *engage* with.
- Doing a little off-the-cuff video for every tentpole ahead of time, for the website only. And then taking just the stuff that works and redoing it as main channel content.
- Keep doing it scattergun style, maybe moving stuff off the YouTube after the fact if I’m not so thrilled about it.
- Or… don’t do it. I think tentpoling has worked for me, moderately, a couple times. But I’m not making super accessible topical viral content, and I never will be. So maybe, for me, it’s just not worth doing.
As a bonus
There was talk in one of the YouTube comments about an OST for the series. I don’t think anyone was actually asking for it but I thought it was a good idea. Good enough to make a YouTube playlist about. Every track, in order, and I’ve included the 4 little remixes that I did throughout.
We’re gonna find out if playlist embedding works, if it doesn’t here’s the link: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrrjPYdsCSWqdVmQiMYO1BHfl4N9ZPHY9
Windows XP Remix Remix
I liked this track but I felt like it wasn’t quite building enough for my purposes, and I kept imagining it would have these arpeggios towards the end. But it didn’t. So I added them. And a supersaw and reverb and stuff. My little changes are loosely based off At Last, Sirens. Which I ended up using earlier in the video.
Ghosts 34 (Shitty Synth Remix)
This is sampled in Old Town Road and while it fit really nicely into my video, I was worried that playing the actual sample might tip my hand on that Lil Nas X story. So I did a quick and shitty MIDI reorchestration.
I Gotta Feeling (Slowed)
Throughout Nostalgia I wanted to have a bunch of nostalgia triggers, that you wouldn’t necessarily be able to place, but your subconscious might. The opening synth of this song seemed to hit the right balance of recognisable, forgotten, and not too old. And then I PaulStretched it to fuck. I layered on some synths and Valhalla reverb effects and split out the vocals and did a bunch of stuff, but you only heard the first second of it in the final video.
Devil in a New Dress Mix
Just mashing up like 4(?) Different versions of this instrumental. Did this right in the Premiere timeline.
Up Next
YouTube stuff, schedule-wise, should start back in a couple days. But it won’t. The video I’m currently cooking up is incredibly dumb and incredibly high effort. It’s an idea I came up with in high school, and I’ve failed to execute it once before because it’s just so much work. If that gives you an idea of how dumb and high-effort it is. I don’t think I’ll say more than that for now, I don’t want you to get your hopes anywhere at all.
It’s a bit of a beast and has the potential to bloat massively, but I’m hoping just 1-2 more weeks left on it. If it pushes out past that, I’ll have to come up with something to go out in the meantime.
Website content however, should be weekly for the next little bit. I’d like to get it going weekly permanently but that is currently a dream goal, not an official promise.
I’ve plenty of ideas for website content kicking around, some stuff underway. I’d like to finish off that “making of” series I was doing with an editing workflow video (though it won’t be attached to CyberGunk), I’ve got some dumb ideas in the chamber, some tentpole stuff… I’d like to get into some niche media analysis that would be a waste of time YouTube reach wise, and I’ve plenty of higher concept video ideas that would be nice to turn into something before I get on to the next big project.
So. Not really any major updates right now, just sort of dicking around with small fry content for the next little while, trying to find a groove. I don’t think that’s a phrase I normally have conversational access to. Whatever, you get what I mean. Hopefully.
Caleb Gamman,
—Caleb Gamman