Bad Advice For Making Videos

Hey folks, welcome to the Summer Of Slug!

On this non-Friday, we're breaking the fourth wall! For years I've received questions on how I make certain aspects of my videos; hopefully this video will help to answer those questions!

The original music in these videos can be found for free on my Bandcamp page:

I created the photography, stop motion animation, and music in this video. Original artwork by Brett Halland. Thanks for watching!

[RRSlugger]

For years now, I’ve received questions on how I create videos for this channel; hopefully, this video will help answer some of those questions!

We are officially into the second half of The Summer Of Slug! Unfortunately, and predictably, time is running out faster than my ideas for videos, so I’m having to make some tough decisions on which to prioritize for the rest of the month. I was just at The LEGO Store picking up some DreamZzz sets, so I will likely want to give them a bit of the spotlight soon. Whether that means this Friday or not, we’ll just have to see!

[WHBricks]

The fact that there are no midroll ads just because you want the videos to feel seamless really shows your dedication to the craft. Respect.

[ShallowVA]

“Disconnect it from the internet” is so true. I spent a whole day once trying to figure out why my mic suddenly wasn’t working anymore after a windows update. Not fun.

[Mythicalmonster]

Slugger, there's a person that walks through Ottawa singing "iiiit's the summer of slug!" at least once a day.

That person is me, and I cannot get this theme song out of my head.

Oh, great content, too! The Scorpion palace was high on the 'wish list' 20 years ago; thanks to you, I feel like I've built it vicariously.

[PurpleBrickfilms]

Now whenever I watch one of your videos all I’ll be able to do is imagine a slug holding out a sheet of paper speaking into a microphone

[mauricio.mc]

DUDE... How do you exist?!?! You have been my favorite on the platform for several months now but this puts the icing on the cake... I am blown away. Thank you for making quality videos. This really inspires me to not just make videos in general but to accomplish my work with excellence. Thank you R. R. Slugger... keep doing you!

[StudframeAnimations]

It shows that you work in music. Often the audio of starting Youtubers is overlooked. Yours was great from the start.😁

[trev]

Never occurred to me to keep my DAW offline once it was optimized for my workflow, but it's a brilliant suggestion.

[TheHylianBatman]

As somebody who has a film minor, you're right, all this advice is terrible!
All jokes aside, I loved this video so much. The production side of things is my cup of tea, I love hearing about it and seeing it done.
I have to talk about the music. The music is one of the things that really makes you stand out, and now I see why: you're not adding background noise to a YouTube video, you're scoring a short documentary. Scoring it with pre-existing tracks, sure, but still. You're putting definitive work into making the music gel. That's only work that pros do. Or music teachers, apparently!
As someone who knows next to nothing about music, I have to respect the insane levels of work that you put in on it. It might not seem insane to you, but you compose and record your own tracks, arrange them to spoken word narration, and add them to a video. I could never.
People, including myself, call your videos polished, but clearly, that's an understatement! You bring that musical perfectionism to YouTube! You put in the work to make sure every single video is up to your very high standards, and so you feel proud, we enjoy it more, Google gets more money, everybody wins!
I know you love music. I know that's your calling in life. But I still want to say this: you've definitely got the chops to survive in the (documentary) film making world. You could pitch a feature to somebody, I'm sure somebody would see the hard work you do and give you a budget.
As it stands, I'm glad that this channel, which is just a hobby, still gets treated to the same standards as your line of work; it elevates the final product.
If I may give you just one piece of advice: try three-point lighting. It'd just be one more light, and it could eliminate shadows. Your photos already look phenomenal, but there could be potential for them to look even better!
Of course, you'd know better than I; I don't know much about photography.

[SeaforgedArtifacts]

Thanks for the reminder. We started by making these videos for ourselves, we should continue to do so.

[nbnR]

You gotta stop teasing me with the Insectoids b-roll, i loved that theme as a kid 😅

[bourbonbobo]

You've encouraged me to put some effort into a project I'm planning, thank you!

[the-NITRON]

Honestly, I was using my own phone mounted on a phone holder connected to a tripod, or at least what I used to do for the last two Moc reviews I did many years ago.

But I gotta remember to switch to a proper camera once I revived the series.

[Indianadixon]

Slugger I think your content is 10/10. It’s really cool to see your process! The love and care you put into these videos is obvious!

[BatteryPoweredBricks]

Great video! Im on Davinci Resolve 17 as well, im terrified of updating 😂. If it ain't broke dont fix it!

[nicolasdecroce]

I was in my local target this morning celebrating the august releases by purchasing all available star wars battlepacks to army build (jk I bought only two, I feel bad for kids who lose out to adults who buy the stores entire stock within a few days)

[evilscientistrecords]

"once you have a setup that works, disconnect it from the internet" YES

[docnecrotic]

Behind the scenes videos are always fun. Everyone does work differently, but there's no shame in sharing so others can remix ideas and make them their own.

[armorelarmadura]

Awesome to see the shoutout to Nick, those lego retrospectives really were something special!

[jamesmiller]

I cannot express how much joy the summer of slug theme song gives me