Remember - 5YL Scratched Music Video (Patreon)

Remember - 5YL Scratched Music Video

PLEASE DO NOT SHARE THIS LINK Hey folks, Kuro here! I did actually complete the music video, which you can now watch! But I decided against releasing it as I was not proud of the final result, and I didn’t want to do a ton of promotion for something I’m not as happy with as I would’ve liked. The Episode Version is pretty solid, but there were a lot of hurdles that chipped away at the Full Version. For the first month or so of development, Jakeneutron, who made the Episode Version, was set to compose the Full Version as well. For weeks I was holding out hopes for this to happen, but his schedule prevented him from committing to it. That’s something I’m very familiar with, so while it was disappointing, I understood. Though waiting on this for weeks only to bear no fruit did put us very behind in making this happen. Fortunately, Noxi was willing to sub in, and he did a pretty great job. There were some changes and rearrangements I would’ve liked to make, but given the time crunch, I took it as-is. Next was replacing the guitarist, which was originally Longestsoloever’s role, who did work on the Episode Version. Instead, Ivan, who already worked with us on some other tracks, subbed in as well. Though likewise, we weren’t able to dive as deep into the details as I hoped. But at this point, we at least had a track. Next on the list was to record Elsie. The plan was to record her in a session with myself & Kellen, but in the same spirit, she was fairly busy as well. She was not available to record until three days before our intended release. She just got back from a convention, and already had a session that day, so my time with her was extremely limited. She recorded the Episode Version first, then the Full. The performance was mostly there, but as the pattern continues, there was room for improvement that we just didn’t have the time to make. “Remember” has a very awkward melody for those unfamiliar with the song, so while I’m sure she gave it her all within her availability, it would’ve been beneficial had we had the time to really nail the song. The next step was the mixing and mastering. Noxi gave it a shot at first, but admitted to troubles mastering vocals, as he primarily works in instrumental tracks. I spent some time hunting down a replacement mixer, and found Water Nuzzo. He informed me that there were problems with some of Elsie’s recordings, such as peaking and timing, and strongly suggested for us to re-record her. When I broke the news that this wasn’t an option, he did the best he could, but claimed there were too many issues with the files for it to be what we were looking for. The night before, I ended up finishing the music video, and gave it a watch. The music video was made for Elsie’s personal YouTube Channel to help promote it. So despite all the setbacks, I spent many hours creating all the additional art to try to make it as appealing as I could. But similar to everything else, I couldn’t work on the music video as long as I would’ve liked, but got something done. I sat down to watch it, and while entertained, I was unimpressed. There were setbacks, rushed jobs, and compromises every step of the way, resulting in a track that has many errors. Even if you were unaware of those errors, I imagine it’s easy to hear that something is “off”. Everything could’ve used more polish. The final nail in the coffin was the upload itself. I had sent the link to Elsie just in time, and even got a response from her about the upload. But when the time came, I didn’t see it on her channel. I imagine she either forgot, or there may have been yet another problem with the file I sent her. I’m not sure why it never got uploaded to her channel. But at this point, I was incredibly discouraged and just let it die. It really seemed like everything was working against this track happening how I imagined. I didn’t have the energy to care about this anymore. This whole project was an ambitious learning curve. I don’t regret trying, because if it all worked out, this would’ve been great! I always wanted to produce a track like this from scratch, and now I have. But nobody’s first track is perfect. Though I can’t listen or watch this without being reminded of all the shortcuts and time lost it took to make this. Part of me still wanted to put it out myself since we still paid for all the work that went into it, but I just can’t bring myself to do it. I’m thrilled with the success and achievements we do have. The Motion Comic itself is one of my proudest works, and with And Beyond, Drawing with Kuro, and some great seeds planted for the future, I’m okay with letting this go. But this is a great reminder that with every achievement, it doesn’t negate the possibility of failure. Not everything’s going to work out the way you want it to. And that’s okay. Until next time, Keep it Fizzy!