After completing season 2 of my soap-ish video series featuring real sims on real locations, this Fall I had to take a big step to the side. The series takes way too much time to create for a very small number of viewers. I can blame the latter on how hard it is to beat YouTube's logarithm, but I also must admit that the series' concept has become too hectic and complex. Especially in second season when I tried to squeeze in one extra story with an additional set of characters and locations. That was a huge mistake.
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| Mayor Charloman Au. C. Dougham's wife Corinne is a central character of the 3rd season's 1st episode. |
So, after a couple months of reflecting, and based on the highly valued feedback from a few viewers, I've concluded as follows:
1. Go on with the series producing one new episode per sim year played
2. Limit the number of characters by focusing on just one household per episode. There existed a similar plan back in season 1, but at some point it was ignored.
3. Making each episode a stand-alone story, meaning you no longer need to watch the full season to understand what's going on. There might of course be a few hints in previous episodes, but nothing essential. Each episode will circle around one of the 5 Councilors, but another household member might be more central regarding the story told. |
| Councilor Fanny Silverbone captured in front of the green screen at Simmerville Studio during the recording of the into. |
Finally, the secret cartel - aka Ground Up, Inc. - will still be featured, but mostly in relation to the episode's main story. The group of 5 secret members are already well introduced and will not change often as the members are there life-long. Now that Jacques Villareal is gone, they might focus less on evilness, proudly finding back to their historical courses. In the first episode you get to learn more about the group's background, as Jacques' replacement is introduced...
Well, there are also some technical fine tuning, such as smaller subtitles which I hope is quicker to read. Subtitles will be centered, although I personally think it's easier to read when it's aligned left. I did some research, not finding any of my RL national broadcaster's productions with centered subtitles, but I assume this might be different in other RL countries? Assuming most viewers live in USA, I'd be happy to learn what you are used to from TV movies etc. Anyway, I'll use centered for this season, and will adjust size and position later based on feedback.
That's all for now! I hope a narrow focus will make the episodes feel less hectic and chaotic. I will try having more scenes with less dialogues. I must confess that the series is also a documentary, occasionally even reflecting on features of the game itself, so I'm not trying to make this a perfect cinematic fiction format - I don't even use mods because I prefer displaying animations and sounds from the real game. It would take way too much time producing each episode as more cinematic, besides we must admit that sims are real poor actors - they hardly keep a mood or expression for more than a few seconds and it's very difficult forcing them to repeat a certain facial expression or physical movement for the second or third take. Besides, my population would grow extremely slowly if I were to spend even more time on the production, as I allow them to grow just one year for each episode. So - due to a small number of viewers, my main goal is to have fun creating (I will rather try to produce a few stand alone shorter videos later, with a focused plot and more cinematic approach).
I hope you will enjoy the changes for 3rd season! 1st episode will air in December - there's still time to catch up with previous seasons (6 + 5 episodes). Here is the very first episode:
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