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atopfourthwall · 8 years ago

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State of the Wall: 3-28-17

Lots to talk about this time, so click through to see what’s in store for many of my projects in the coming couple of months!

Schedule of Upcoming Episodes 4/3 – Godzilla: Kingdom of Monsters #4 4/10 – PATREON: Iron Man: The Animated Series: The Wedding of Iron Man 4/17 – Athena #3 4/24 – PATREON: Batman: The Dark Knight #1-3 5/1 – Patreon Viewers’ Choice Event Comics Month 5/8 – Crisis on Infinite Earths 5/15 – Secret Wars (1984) 5/22 – The Infinity Gauntlet 5/29 – Flashpoint

You will notice that for May 1st, we will be having a Patreon Viewers’ Choice! Here’s how it works – for Event Comics Month, I held a poll for what event comics would be covered during that period. Since it was a pretty big success (and because May has five weeks in it), at the end of Athena #3, I will provide a link to a Patreon poll where patrons can vote between three comics that will be reviewed that week. Because it’s been a while since I spotlighted any, they will most likely be PSA Hell subjects. Anyone who contributes at any level to the Patreon can vote in them, but it will be limited only to those patrons. They’ll have a week to vote, then I’ll announce the winner. I’d love to do more like this and we’ll see how it goes with this.

Otherwise, as always, the schedule is subject to change at any time due to unforeseen circumstances, illnesses, or just the material not providing anything to work with for a humorous review.

Platform Changes? The recent scare concerning my youtube channel is, for the moment, resolved. If you haven’t heard about this, you can read up on it HERE. Needless to say, it is over. However, there are still other issues that need to be dealt with. I have recently been informed that Screenwave’s partnership with the JW Player is coming to an end due to the costs of maintaining it. They’ll still remain as you my youtube MCN, at the very least (certainly appreciated after they were instrumental in getting my channel back up).

So what does that mean for the site? Well, that’s uncertain. I’ve contacted the JW Player to see if I can remain and I’d certainly like to – replacing the embed codes around here for a THIRD time would not be fun, especially since we still have occasional hiccups in that department from either lost videos from others or just ones where the embed code has not been replaced. That being said, I do understand the problems people have had with the player. I have not experienced the ad that many have (the still image that seems to prevent the video from ever playing), but I know people DO want to support the site and my work, which is why the youtube versions are so invaluable.

They’ve been helpful in another way – simply put, I make more money on youtube than I do on the Screenwave player. Part of this is sheer volume – more people watch it on youtube, so of course I get revenue there. It’s also partially because people are watching them ON YOUTUBE ITSELF vs. having the videos embedded – ads played through embeds (assuming they play at all) simply don’t pay out the same as when they’re watched on youtube. I have the advantage that with the Screenwave player on this site, there are no competing ads to deal with, so I get a larger revenue share than I do from the embeds on, say, Channel Awesome.

However, if the player DOES have to change yet again, we’re in a bit of a dilemma. I had the previous Screenwave player up and running while Blip was still in operation for a few more months, but I don’t really have yet another player entirely lined up yet. Here’s the issue we have: what player to embed if I have to change over to another? –DailyMotion: Unfortunately, DailyMotion has similar issues to youtube – they have their own ContentID system. However, their support system for dealing with copyrighted material is even less functional than youtube’s, if you can believe that. What’s more, there is a limit on how many videos one is allowed to upload per day, meaning it would take quite a while to get my backlog onto DailyMotion. –Vid.Me: Because of its growing popularity, I HAVE set up a Vid.Me account and have begun uploading videos to it. However, those videos are currently unlisted for a very good reason – the same reason why I am reluctant to use it as a new player on the site – Vid.Me does not have ads. The system is entirely tip-based. If it is a superior player to the JW Player, then more people will be able to watch videos on my site directly… but that would also mean less revenue overall. It IS an option, possibly the best option especially since they pride themselves for the ability to actually speak to humans when dealing with copyright matters (plus no ContentID system, AFAIK). –Amazon: Amazon actually started pushing out their own video distribution system a year or two ago. Some of the other video producers on Channel Awesome gave it a shot at the time, buuuut were mostly unimpressed, especially since the videos required a hardcoded subtitle system for the hearing impaired. It’s not a bad thing to have that, but it’s time-consuming to create that, especially since Amazon used a proprietary format. It’s recent enough that I don’t really know how useful it’d really be, or if it’d be a paid service for people and I prefer my videos be free for anyone to watch. –Vimeo: Vimeo IS a possibility. It’s a fairly solid platform, although like with Vid.Me it doesn’t really have ad-based content. In fact, from what I understand, you have to pay THEM to put ads on the videos and I don’t actually know how profitable that is. It still has its own ContentID system, it’s just a bit more lenient and, like Vid.Me, you can actually resolve it by talking to human beings. –Just Embed the Youtube Videos: This option… has its problems. Like I said above, embedded youtube videos don’t earn as much money as one does by just watching on youtube’s site. And frankly, if they’re embedded already, there’s no reason to GO to youtube to watch them. In addition, as we saw with the suspension of my channel, it’s nice to have a backup video player on hand so that people CAN watch stuff (for the most part, since many still had problems watching them) if something happens. Still, I’m open to anything.

So there we go. I’m eager to hear people’s feedback, although hopefully there won’t be any need to change anything. We’ll see, though.

History of Power Ranger Rangers It sadly feels like, despite my continual attempts to highlight these update posts whenever possible, encouraging people to visit the site, people will often miss that, indeed, they exist and often have the information they’re looking for. That information usually being “When’s the next History of Power Rangers coming?” And, of course, thanks to Patreon you HAVE that answer again… and perhaps even more to come, but that’ll be discussed below in the Patreon section.

In any event, Dino Charge is coming, as I stated in the last State of the Wall post. No, I still have not watched any more than last time. I’ll be doing that in April. No, I have not watched any of Ninja Steel and it’s likely I won’t be until it comes time to do that one. If you wanted my opinions on the movie, I did a Midnight Screenings video for Brad Jones on it, which you can find on my site by searching for it or searching his own site or youtube page.

Otherwise, of course, the current schedule: DinoCharge: April 27th Ninja Steel: N/A

In case you missed it, I did put up revised versions of the Turbo videos on youtube, which you can find HERE and HERE. In Space is taking a back seat for a while until I can figure out how to keep in the “Under Pressure” montage. Best guess right now is to make a cover, but we’ll see how things go.

T-Shirts Sorry to say that the Comicron Crew shirt did not get enough sales to justify keeping it around on Shark Robot. As a reminder, shirts require 20 pre-orders in order to remain on their site permanently. That being said, this one was partially my fault – giving it three colors meant it was technically three different shirts, so it spread the potential preorder sales in too many directions. Still, combined they wouldn’t have added up to 20 anyway.

I’m going to continue with the shirt idea – patrons will be able to vote on the next shirt among five options every few months and hopefully next time around we’ll get a keeper. As a reminder, though, the I am a Man shirt is still available HERE and those who DID preorder the Comicron Crew shirts will get them.

Patreon The Patreon is getting a few revisions! For starters, I’m going to be ending the $30 “Video Promotion” pledge. In recent times, few have taken advantage of it (either because of squatters in the spot or simple noninterest). The pledge will disappear at the end of March. I am of course open to suggestions for other pledge perks that could be done.

The bigger news is this – the milestones have been reorganized! I had originally placed the tiers much higher due to the fact that when I originally began the Patreon, I grouped them all so closely together that they all got fulfilled quickly. SO quickly, in fact, that I am still struggling to fulfill them two years later (some, like the additional Longbox videos, were easier – the AT4W Episode Guide not so much). It was also hoped that it would encourage more people to contribute to it and hopefully reach some loftier goals.

Unfortunately, it has not proven so – possibly BECAUSE they’re so much higher. As such, here are the new milestone levels, and definitely more likely to be achieved than going as high as $6000.

$3500: A Let’s Play of Star Trek: Elite Force II will be made and on a schedule. $4000: Other “History of…” videos will be produced, in particular focusing on other American tokusatsu works like Beetleborgs, VR Troopers, Mystic Knights of Tir Na Nog, etc. $5000: Both a 90s Kid and a Harvey Finevoice show will be produced, though due to the workload of other projects, will NOT be on a schedule.

So yeah, hopefully with the rearrangement of those goals as being a lot closer to where we are now, it will encourage people to get there.

As a reminder, ONLY those who pledge at the $10 level are given a spot in the end credits. You can of course give more than $10, but you have to specifically select THAT perk to get it. Those in the $20 pledge slot for a DVD and badge are NOT given the name in the end credits.

Let’s Play Pokémon Omicron The next Pokémon Omicron stream is scheduled for Monday, May 8th at 7 PM Central time! The current plan is stop playing the game after the Elite 4 (or, at least, the conclusion of the main storyline of the game). I know many would like me to do the post-game quests, but frankly this Let’s Play has gone on for far too long already and the end is finally in sight, with the last stream managing to get us the seventh badge. I’d be happy to return to the game someday, but I have hopes for more gaming content on the site and having an unfinished Let’s Play hanging over things is kind of irritating.

As it happens, I’ve been working hard in getting more videos pumped out for it! I’m hoping we can continue at a good pace, releasing several per week so we can finally be caught up, especially since at the time of this posting the episodes next coming out are from a stream done last year. Obviously we still have some catching up to do with the amount of footage I have.

My Twitch channel is HERE!

The Deathmate Problem As I have mentioned in the PO Unboxing videos and at conventions, I have many copies of Deathmate and I’d like to finally get around to reviewing them. For those unaware, Deathmate is the infamous crossover between Image and Valiant that likely is responsible for the beginning of the end of Valiant Comics. It’s been heavily requested by viewers before, with some speculating I’m saving it for a major episode… but nah, that’s not the case. I can tell you it’s not going to be this year, because I had INTENDED to review them as the first thing in January 2018. However, I’ve run into a few problems with that.

Firstly, Deathmate has a total of six issues, including prologue and epilogue. However, each issue has multiple stories within it – meaning if I were to do two issues per week, I’d actually be reviewing quite a few stories at once… aaaand let’s face it, with how generic a lot of early Image books were, there’s a reason we’ve mostly focused on Youngblood-related stuff. That means we’d be covering a crossover between a lot of characters that neither I nor the viewers are necessarily familiar with. Basically it’d be three weeks in a row of “I don’t know who these people are.” So that brings us to the next question: would people prefer we wait for Deathmate until we’ve met some more Image or Valiant characters? And finally: would people prefer we have all of Deathmate in a big three-week period or, like some other miniseries I’ve done, be spread out over however long it takes?

Longbox of the Damned As I mentioned last time, the storyline for AT4W has taken FAR LONGER than it should have. There are still many segments left and I’m hoping to finally get those out of the way in the coming months. However, that runs right into the issue of all my other projects I’m working on. Pokémon Omicron is fine – it’s not on any set schedule, so it can be put on the backburner if it needs to. However, the summer Longbox videos have become their own thing, necessitating a lot of time in planning, filming, and editing – especially if I do intend to stick to the daily schedule. As we saw last year with the Twilight Zone comics, it’s proven very difficult to get those videos out as planned.

As such, I am open to the idea that this year, we may just have to skip the Midsummer’s Nightmare and use its theme for next year. An alternative idea I had was maybe less videos, but more content – covering multiple things in a single video and spread them out over a week, or weekly over the course of a month or so. I’ d love to hear some thoughts on this, since I certainly want to do the summer videos, but it’s very stressful on top of everything else going on.

Conventions Animinneapolis – Once again, for any of you Minnesota locals who want to meet me, I’ll be at Animinneapolis at the Hyatt Regency Minneapolis in, well, Minneapolis on May 26-28!

EDIT: Sadly, Wausaubicon has been cancelled, so I will not be making an appearance there.

Anime Midwest – I’ll of course be at Anime Midwest again at the Hyatt Regency O’Hare in Rosemont, Illinois on July 7-9!

I’ve gotten confirmation that I will NOT be attending Too Many Games this year. This doesn’t mean I won’t attend in future years, just that they want to rotate out some people to make sure the experience is fresh for attendees and not ALWAYS the same people every year. Expect some more con announcements for the rest of the year!

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