YouTube Video Content

[DutchGuard]

Hello all,

I hope some of you have been seeing me on the server recently and I've been able to get reacquainted with some of you. Some things never change; you're all still wonderful, funny, talented, and welcoming.

I stopped working about a month ago, partly due to the ongoing pandemic and partly because I'm working on a dissertation. I've been a bit restless lately and started looking for some healthy procrastination. I've had a word with the admins (thank you pizza, iwan, for the encouragement), and was hoping the community might welcome me back for another round of video content. That is not to say I am trying to replace anyone or take control of our YT channel, only that I'd like to try and contribute to it again (Kobe, Lucia, and a few others have made some really great content and I certainly don't want that to stop!).

That said, I don't really know how circumstances will change for me in the near future, but I'm hoping I'll have a solid block of time to make content. The reason I stopped a while ago was because I was getting burnt out and doing videos felt like a chore after a while. My aim now is to more sustainably make videos over the long term but we'll just have to see how that goes. At the moment I'm aiming to do at least one video per month, and more if inspiration and time allows. I know this isn't a big promise, but it's one I feel confident I can deliver on.

The purpose of this thread is two-fold:

Firstly, I wanted to gauge how willing you all might be to participate in making content. I think some interviews with builders and their projects might be fun and insightful, so let me know if you're up for that! It would be a really casual interview format of no more than 20 minutes and I will send everyone the same set of questions beforehand to prepare. If you feel there are other ways in which you can help out please reply below!

Secondly, I'd love this thread to become somewhere we can discuss ideas for future videos. I still feel a little out of the loop when it comes to server activity so any suggestions would be massively appreciated. No such thing as a stupid idea, fire away! Here's some I've come up with so far:

- Builder interviews
- In depth looks at research (such as style guides, region inspiration, terraforming, agricultural tech, etc)
- Contest builds
- Build tutorials (going to need some pros involved with that one)

Disclaimer: I am not a builder on the server and don't pretend to be! My forum title is just a reflection of my forum permissions and nothing else at the moment. Sorry if that is confusing to anyone, I would struggle to reply to everyone if a mod needed to approve my posts each time.

 

[AerioOndos]

Hey!
The photo contests are coming to a close very soon so an idea might be to try recreating a scene of the books or show in stills and making them into a short video comic thing with text for the lines and then release that on the YouTube. Maybe if there’s a great contest entry that is a series of stills it could be used?

 

[lemonbear]

I would happily help out with videos as a builder who has been around a long time!

 

[otty]

Eep! Always good to see some love on channel!

I would personally love the "interview" section but in addition to that go through some projects with the builders guiding you and explaining their process. And instead maybe interviews are designed to be more personal and less about a single works?

I also always joked about making a video about "What Westerocraft builders do instead of actually building" And it's a video of all the 'dumb' stuff we do around the server. For instance, our fraternity battles, jumping around the roof of KL, *some really snide comment about some really minor detail they don't like and writing a paragraph about it*, boat races etc. Just an idea for highlighting the community aspects outside of building and contests!

 

[DutchGuard]

I would personally love the "interview" section but in addition to that go through some projects with the builders guiding you and explaining their process. And instead maybe interviews are designed to be more personal and less about a single works?

Hey otty, thanks for the suggestions! I was definitely hoping to capture more of the personalities of our builders in interviews, with maybe a quick tour of their favorite build.

 

[otty]

Hey otty, thanks for the suggestions! I was definitely hoping to capture more of the personalities of our builders in interviews, with maybe a quick tour of their favorite build.

Sorry, my communication was poor! (Is that a first?)I meant two separate segments. One with the traditional Westeroscraft Walk style but with project lead walking you through it, and one just an interview. My bad!

 

[ItsPabs]

Interviews are a great idea! I'd be happy to be interviewed if you're struggling to find people to talk to, so let me know. We never talked much Dutch, but I've always loved your old westeroscraft walk videos! Glad to see you around.

Sorry, my communication was poor! (Is that a first?)I meant two separate segments. One with the traditional Westeroscraft Walk style but with project lead walking you through it, and one just an interview. My bad!

Combining them could be cool too! Though the interview might turn more into an interview about whatever build the person is working on, rather than the person themselves. I think it could work as a nice backdrop to the interview though.

 

[DutchGuard]

I really like both ideas, but am thinking more videos the merrier! A walks video followed up with an interview (where I can ask about the build as well as stuff about the person) would make a great combo.

 

[geeberry]

fluboss gave me the intro and outro from his latest cinematic if you wish to use them in your videos

Videos - Google Drive

drive.google.com

 

[AerioOndos]

Those are so good! The intro works so well but perhaps the outro could have a music that was a little bit brighter.

 

[lemonbear]

@DutchGuard: I'll add you to our Social Media and Shaders group so we can coordinate some more video stuff!

Also, if anyone else is interested in joining the group or helping out with various aspects of social media outreach (graphic design, shaders, Twitch streaming, Reddit, Planet Minecraft, etc.), please let me know! We're always happy to have more people, and it'll let us have a more coordinated approach

 

[IronGentleGiant]

- In depth looks at research (such as style guides, region inspiration, terraforming, agricultural tech, etc)

I really like this idea here and would add that maybe some bits in videos could be on what built heritage or historical architectural sites inspired some of the buildings and projects on Westeroscraft. Adding to that I read an article from 2018 or 2019 in some history magazine I used to subscribe to about a Minecraft group that partnered with English Heritage and other historic conservation/ preservation/ architectural history groups to do exact recreations of historic sites in Minecraft. I know we don't do exact recreations, but use a lot for inspiration, so I thought maybe we could provide links to tourist sites, historic conservation groups that take care of those sites, or maybe even documentaries about those historic built sites that inspired our builds in the videos.

I don't know if this is possible, but it's worth a shot, is maybe getting those historic conservation websites to share our videos on their platforms. For example get maybe some conservation organization or national heritage website to link our videos to some historic site page on their website with a video about how Castello Avio inspired @lemonbear 's creation of Tarbeck hall or how Pyle by @Luk_emAn was inspired by Framlingham Castle in England. I think this is worth a shot and potentially could increase advertisement and tourism of our server, builders, and the projects, especially during this pandemic where the tourism of historic buildings has been decimated.

 

[AerioOndos]

That's a really cool idea and I've also heard of a conservation group helping with a 1:1 recreation of the late medieval town of Torun in minecraft (vanilla though).

We have some really cool spots that are closer to 1:1 copies, like the Dun Aengus copy on Cape Kraken and the chateau in construction in the reach (I don't remember where it is)

 

[lemonbear]

Unfortunately my Tarbeck Hall castle is only partially inspired by Castello Avio and not really all that close in terms of final product.

 

[DutchGuard]

@IronGentleGiant Exactly! Great idea. This is the kind of thing I would like to interview or collaborate with on certain topics. We could set up a little test area with diagrammatic builds and discuss the particular topographic or architectural design. If anyone is up for that let me know!

 

[DutchGuard]

Okay so after some further brainstorming, test sessions, writing and general umming and arrring about what to make the new series about, I'd like to change the way I've historically made video content.

Basically I'd like to make videos by request. If someone is willing to put together a rough script, be interviewed, or just comes up with a good idea, I'll make a video on it. Reply to this thread or message me and we'll make it happen!

 

[Thamus_Knoward]

I would like to request a video where you narrate Bran's last steps after inhaling helium while sitting in a minecart rollercoaster that traces his last steps. The video could be called Bran's Big Day Out and we play either Flight of the Bumblebee underneath or the Benny Hill theme.


Edit: Jokes aside. I think narrated rollercoaster vids through our builds could actually be kinda cool. The plunge through the moondoor surely must be amazing (at first).

Also I think it's a funny twist on the concept of a westeroswalk (which is slow and leasurely). In this format you have 5 min tops to marvel at a build in your typical Dutchgard manner while you're being whisked from A to B!

Think about it this way, a big part of establishing location in the books is about characters traversing space. Something that we've very faithfully recreated. So instead of your WesterosCraftWalks-esque narration, we could probably have you read the respective section of the book too while on a rail that essentially represents the character's path on the ground.

 

[DutchGuard]

That's a super cool idea! I could do a short video on each part of a characters journey in each book. I don't want to spoil anything though, maybe I should just do journeys up until the 2nd or 3rd book? I could just put a big old disclaimer at the start of the video.

And, annoyingly, my books are back home in the US. I could just go off whats on the awoiaf wiki though.

 

[JohanKR850]

The jump through the moon door is a good idea for a 15 sec video I would watch it
To add to what Tham said about rollercoasters, i think in general shorter videos might attract more people than our long ones. Not that we shouldn't have the long WCW for in depth watchers.

 

[AttackOnMars]

I think we should make a video about end-to-end how to become a builder. I thought it could be done using a new MC account, screen capture everything like:

1. "how to figure out what builds are active right now" for your application build (look at /warp build, read through forum threads, etc.),
2. "how to figure out the style of a build" (look at the /warp building guide or whatever it's called nowadays, look at the project application on the forums, look at the floating style guide, take screenshots of existing approved houses at the build, maybe talk to the project lead, etc. while narrating the thought process of how gradients work and like how we do rafters and stuff),
3. "how to submit your application" (take nice well-lit non-shader-ed screenshots of yourself and your build, upload to flickr/imgur/dropbox, answer questionnaire sensibly, read the rules, include your image links in a sensible way, etc.),
4. "how to pass build challenges" (what kind of things to expect, why we give certain challenges, how to incorporate feedback sensibly, etc.),
5. "how to pass probation" (probie rules, how to make the most out of your probie leader/community members, how to document your probie houses, etc.)

and while it would be very practical and could pass on a lot of (I hate the term but) 'tribal knowledge' about how the server works and how we do things, it would mostly be a good opportunity to pass on the community integration aspects of becoming a builder and set realistic expectations about how much work is involved.

Happy to help any way I can. Else if. nobody is interested I may just make it myself (I just have to do some GPU switching this week to fix some frame rate issues to see if I can film with shaders on or not).