So, Greetings From Riverside, GFR, yeah.
Figured it's time to fess up to a few things about Riverside. I know a lot of folks were wondering why we ever stopped that show. Well for you newcomers, let me tell you a story.
When we first started the show, we actually got a really mixed review on it. We were getting about 50% likes, and 50% dislikes. Not a big deal, we've pushed through videos like that, but what hit us was the fact that we weren't getting enough views on the episodes.
With the way we had to film that show back then, it took months of work to get one episode out. Filming it required first: Playing through the campaign level 4 times with hopefully the same zombie-spawning-scheme. And in those 4 playthoughs, we had to get a total of 5-8 people together to work on it. All that work took about 3-4 days, but the killers were editing and voice acting.
Voice acting took an extremely long time. We wanted to film with higher quality mics, so we had to do it individually. This meant that I couldn't critique the lines before they were sent to me, so it took 2-3 days just to get a few lines done, and if you watched the show, there were plenty more than just a few lines.
As for editing, with this show I had to use a cropping effect, due to the fact that we were filming it on a console. This was a big sacrifice to the film quality, but we were willing to take it. The unfortunate part about this was that the cropping effect wasn't found in the editing system I was used to. So I had to learn an entirely new editing system before production of this show could continue. And let me tell you, that system was not nearly as efficient as the one we normally use. Both memory-wise, and sanity-wise, it was draining. Editing took several weeks.
Needless to say, we had to put a lot of work into making an episode of GFR, and the fact that we weren't getting enough views made it not worthwhile, so the show was cancelled.
Now here's the good part. Greetings From Riverside is back on the table. We have many more efficient ways to fix a lot of the problems we were facing, main one being voice acting. We now have the technology to record our voices with multiple people online, so we can actively film and critique one another, allowing us to get more accurate and believable dialogue.
Editing might be spared as well. The cropping effect was needed in our first attempt at the show because we were filming on a console, and thusly couldn't get rid of the HUD, now we're doing some testing on steam, to see if we can potentially film it from my computer.
If both go well, making this series is much more doable, and it might work out.
Again, nothing is confirmed, but we're trying guys. We loved GFR, and we hope we can bring it back.
-Cameron (Kenburn)
