#first time watchers

[arielluva]

never drawn their movie designs before :3

[azellene]

Lol guess who watched atla (im on episode 5)

I want to draw them more just let me watch more eps wait lang

[certified-bi]

Okay all my thoughts because some people have been saying that not supporting this change is not supporting artist and creators and as an artist fuck that.

1. Audiences owe you nothing. You have to convince them to engage with your creation not the other way around. This is something both the nonprofit theatre I work with recognizes and huge companies realize. It's just part of life. There are so many talented people in the world making amazing art, videos, music, writings, and on and on, and there's only so much time in the day. I'm not saying you shouldn't know your worth, just that being flippant about how little you care about those who can't pay isn't a good move. On that note...

2. PR is everything. If you haven't made a visible effort to push patreon, channel memberships or other avenues of making money, don't be suprised that your creation that was previously accessible to those without extra cash and to those who can't support foreign subscriptions due either to conversions or because it simply doesn't work, being made private isn't popular. There's a big leap from "We want to have more artistic control" to "We can't afford to make our content accessible to most of our audience," and people are smart enough to see this. You either have to make budget cuts or give into sponsors. This isn't unique to Watcher, it's part of literally every production from broadway, to Hollywood, to YouTube. Unless you can fund it yourself or get viewers to pay(which given how many are already strapped for cash...) that's life.

Not to mention they simply do not have enough followers to make the switch to a paid only site(dropping the first epsiode only on YouTube isn't going to draw people in, they're just going to say "oh why start if I'm not going to see the rest" and not watch) especially not one that is buggy and a security risk. Even if the switch had been supported its not going to end well. The only reason services like nebula and dropout work is because of the large amount of series and creators and the fact those creators still are partly on YouTube so new people are drawn in.

3. As for the price, 6 dollars a month is a not a good starting price for only their content and that's as someone who pays for nebula. I'd be paying the same amount for a fraction of the access to others work. Actually it'd be twice as much. And before someone says "it's only a coffee-" that's for you. Not everyone has your lifestyle. And with every other patreon and subscription service that says the same thing, it all adds up and I simply don't think 60 dollars for 48 videos a year on a subscription basis where you don't get to keep the videos if your situation changes, some of which don't appeal to every viewer is a good move. If you were able to buy physical copies of your favorite series they've made that'd be different, but that's not what this is.

4. I do believe that the employees deserve a livable wage. I also did not hire them. It is not on the viewers that they hired more people than they could afford to. They can charge that much if they want to to try and balance this out. They also shouldn't be suprised if not many can or will sign up. They also don't have to be based in L.A. L.A has ridiculous costs associated with it, and quite honestly it doesn't really add much to the content. I'm not saying they need to move to the middle of nowhere Kansas. Simply that living and basing your studio in a super expensive city and then being suprised money is tight is just weird.

5. Something that occurs to me is that they might get more views if their playlists were better set up. Only some series are given playlists. It'd be easier to find all of the series and binge them if they didn't just show off their more popular shows. Honestly the only draw the streaming site has to me is that the series are actually labeled well.

Do I think the weird ass energy towards Steven is necessary? No. He's not the only one at the company and they're all adults. I actually liked grocery run and homemade, and like to see them back. The parascoial attachment to Ryan and Shane is annoying in people's criticisms, but that doesn't make them completely wrong. If you're going to brand yourself as the anti capalist underdogs you can't get away with being dismissive of your poorer fans. The dissonance is what is causing this backlash and makes you look like hypocrites. I definitely think Steven is turning into the fall guy which is fucked up, his statement and the fact dish granted is one of those shows that make people uncomfortable about wealth flexs doesn't help matters.

[hollenka99]

Me, at the start of the video, scanning the timeline to see what the sections are about: Oh hey, there's a lot of James Somerton in the second half. I can see a bunch of shots in the preview window of him casually speaking into a mic so they're probably talking over a video call. It's cool that these two video essay creators I watch are collabing like this. Bit odd that James doesn't seem to appear in the first half though.

Me, having now finished the video: I am going to kill James Somerton with my bare hands.

[ediblesedibles54]

I hate him

Murphy's Law posting didnt go well on twitter so im giving tumblr a chance hi guyss

[kimiibo]

The Grian withdrawal go crazy </333

[theghoulboysblog]

ryan spraying shane with macha out of his mouth twice in the span of a few minutes. drinking is hard. he’s trying his best 🙏

[kmesons]

my watcher world comic page is complete! this scene is taken from 1:33:20 - 1:33:55 in the nightmare time episode 1 video.

[a-lost-crow]

Rehearsal

[vaguely-concerned]

the relationship between the chantry and the mortalitasi in nevarra is SO fucking funny. the carefully politic and civil syncretism of it all. the ‘I’ll refrain from scratching your back to bloody shreds if you refrain from scratching mine :)’. left hand politely averting its eyes from whatever the fuck the right hand is doing merrily up to its elbow in entrails because it usually knows what it’s doing I guess. speak softly, and have an army of the restless dead ready to go banapants horrorshow bonkers if you don’t get to tend to them. We Receive: being able to keep doing our goth thing mostly unimpeded. You receive: us not raising the great majority to protest your unwelcome meddling. render unto the chantry what is the chantry's and unto the watchers what is theirs (or, with all possible courtesy you understand, else…)

[solargeist]

Don’t think about recently ascended Grian still not being used to his wings. Don’t think about Grian forgetting to shake the loose feathers out of his wings, or ignoring the feeling of them getting stuck together. Don’t think about his mum finding out, sitting him down, and preening his wings like a bird. Don’t think about him melting into the warm touch, loving the feeling of being cared for. Don’t think about it.

too late ! i'm gonna think abt it !!

It does take Grian awhile to get used to his new wings, plus the recovery of them ripping out his back.

Sometimes he flutters them for no reason, just bc its a new sensation, a new limb, its a weird thing ! He has to do daily wing exercises/stretches to get used to controlling them. They twitch in his sleep sometimes.

She does preen his wings and shows him how to do it, much like a mother shows Her kid how to brush their teeth or hair, everyones gotta learn somewhere.

She sticks the old fallen feathers in his hair

Sometimes Grian does lean into the affection, most of the time he'll be upset abt being treated like a kid, but sometimes its nice to be praised for your efforts or just taken care of, like having someone brush your hair. He's like a feral cat that only occasionally accepts pets haha

[lumiereswig]

I'm still seeing a lot of angry takes in the tags about how excessive Watcher's current costs are and how all fans really want, apparently, is "just shane and ryan sitting in a basement" back again. While I do think Watcher is probably spending over budget and that's a real issue, a lot of the takes I'm seeing show a fundamental misunderstanding of how video production works and where costs actually lie. So a few quick things that I just keep seeing that are bothering me:

It was never just Shane and Ryan in a basement. BFU did a great job selling that conceit and making sure you never saw anyone beyond them and maybe TJ, but they absolutely had other crew members with them on ghost hunts and they didn't do all the work on BFU themselves. This Q&A from Season 2 lists 36 people on staff for Buzzfeed Unsolved. It's fair to make arguments that Watcher may or may not need 25 people, but those arguments should not be coming from a place of "before it was just Shane and Ryan and nobody else."

If you don't know how many people are needed to make a professional video from a TV/film standpoint, you will not have a reasonable grasp of why Watcher wants to keep 25 people on staff. Sure, some YouTubers get by with a ring light and a contracted editor. The Watcher team have stated repeatedly that they do not want to work as just YouTubers and see themselves more as a production studio—so why do people keep referencing the YouTube model to understand their business? This is like asking the local shake shop why it doesn't function like the kids' lemonade stand down the block. The item category is similar but they're not trying for the same products or process.

The "gold dusted food" is not the big budget sink you think it is. On most TV shows I've worked on it's normal to partner with businesses that are shown onscreen and work out a deal where the price of the product (in this case the gold food) is reduced or eliminated in exchange for the free publicity. Watcher very likely made a deal with every restaurant it worked with to make the Korea trip affordable for the company. The real budget spends are on things you're probably not seeing but that still matter: camera and lighting equipment is expensive, insurance for that equipment is expensive, business overhead and paying your staff are expensive. So again—it's fine to critique Watcher for the streaming plan and the perceived budgetary issues, but go into this knowing the costs might not be coming from the things you see onscreen.

My source is that I work in TV and film and actually have a clue on how the industry functions. Again, 36 people worked on Unsolved (and those were the people mention in Season 2—who knows how big the team blew up past that in later seasons). Entertainment work is real work, and demands decent equipment, competent staff, and the same types of business and budget problems you'd find in any other business (overhead, staffing, etc.). Feel free to critique Watcher's business model, but first try to understand where that model is coming from and what goals it's attempting to serve.

[0xeyedaisy]

Random stuff

[monsteraficionado]

Too Many Spirits in Space

[tasty-littl-snack]

I love you Ghost Files, I love you Watcher I love you Ryan Bergara for coming up with a show and gathering the best people you can to make this a reality I love you Mark Celestino for being the best camera man and catching the moments and cinematography to combine the creepy vibe of an indie movie with the humor of the ghoul brothers, I love you theme song crediting all the people responsible for making this show. Love you creepy intro music and the outro playing a bit in the end to signal the end of the episode, I love you everyone who make this show as good as it is even if you keep the very good illusion that it takes only Ryan and Shane and maybe a cameraman to make this show (it doesn't! I see you Sam Young and Lizzie Lockhard for taking the best bits of the ep and making it watchable, I also see you editors and people watching the footage from the static cams to pick the best moments). Love every single person who added their effort into making this show from nothing, and keeping it fresh for third year in a row! Love changing up things for enrichment while keeping the gist of it. I love you Watcher TV for allowing me to support the production of this show and being able to watch it on bigger screen than a laptop without ads. I also like that this gives us more opportunities for bonus content than ever before. You can really see that this show is made with everything they got and every detail is there for a reason. Love to see it truly honestly this post is written after watching the first episode of season three but I think it's true for every ep and every season that comes after it.

It might be a "big unbankable bitch" but you can really see why it takes a year for them to make it, and this episode made me feel like I was watching this show for the first time again. And that's not an easy feature of a show made for years and into it's third season. Truly I love this show a lot.

[thatonegeekygirl]

Murder On the Puppet History Set

or

Ryan Tries to Solve a Confounding Crime While Estranged Producer Shane Madej and The Prof Hang Out and Are Entirely Unhelpful