Behind the Scenes - #1 (Patreon)

Hello! Today we'll be pulling back the curtains on the upcoming Your Sanctuary video on the town of Onett! Our two subjects for this post are: how scripts are organized for this series, and how gameplay footage is prepared for editing. Let's get started! 

--- Scriptwriting ---

Let's kick this off with the script. Scriptwriting is essential in every video on the channel that isn't a let's play style gameplay video. Without the script, the videos simply wouldn't have any structure, and the information would need to be provided in a more haphazard manner. I like to take inspiration from documentaries when doing research and writing scripts. The prompt, entertaining manner in which information is conveyed through documentaries is what I strive to imitate and, hopefully, achieve when creating a video. I wouldn't call myself the most gifted writer, but I try my hardest and look to many sources for inspiration. 

The scripts for Your Sanctuary are organized a bit differently than the typical video on the channel, due to revolving around a rater narrow subject. For example, the videos on Buzz Buzz and Ness both focused on a single character, while taking care to avoid spoilers and too much speculative information. Before I write scripts for Your Sanctuary, I play through the most relevant portions of the game (while capturing footage) to refresh my memory on smaller details I might have forgotten. This gives me the opportunity to have the most important info in the game fresh in my mind. 

After this, I create an outline of the script, breaking things down into the most basic pieces. I find that this makes it easier to organize my thoughts, rather than writing without structure first and organizing later. Since the script is so important, I like to write a rough draft first, check for small mistakes, and then run another "pass" by researching info through official game materials, trusted websites, and through playing certain parts of the game again. The last thing I want to do is include incorrect information in my videos, so I try to do everything I can to avoid this. 

Once the script is finalized, I take a break before rereading it. It's important that I look at the script again with fresh eyes, this makes it easier to spot any mistakes I've made or anything I might have missed. Finally, this leads to the recording process. However, we'll be covering that in another post! 

--- Preparing Gameplay Footage ---

Knowing what footage to capture can be a little tricky. You don't want to waste time recording things you ultimately won't use, however, it is useful to have more footage than you need. As I mentioned in the scriptwriting portion, I usually play portions of the game I feel will be relevant to the video while capturing, which serves the dual purpose of refreshing my memory and gathering footage. Most of the time this footage will be enough, but sometimes you need a little more. After finalizing the script, I like to record footage of things I mention specifically in the script. For example, if I mention a line of dialogue in the script, I want to have footage of it so I can cut to that dialogue in the final video. With both of these recording sessions, you should have everything you need to edit your video! 

Let's talk a bit about color correction. I like to run a pass of color correction on gameplay footage before I begin the editing process, so I can focus on cutting the video and not worry about doing the color correction later. Most gameplay footage of modern games doesn't need correction, the hardware and software available now will ensure everything is correct. Older games, such as those from systems outputting standard definition video will often have small inaccuracies when captured using modern hardware. EarthBound is a great example of this. Regardless of the source of the recording, there's always the chance things were a little wonky during recording -- best to make sure by running the footage through your NLE.

Here is an example of some footage for the upcoming Your Sanctuary video imported as is into Adobe Premiere Pro, my primary NLE. At this point, the footage is raw, there have been no edits done whatsoever. It might be difficult to notice without a direct comparison, but to me the footage (as seen in the "Program" window) looks a tiny bit dull. Since we have the Color Correction workspace loaded up now, we can quickly fix this. 

We only need the basic correction tab open, the only thing we'll be doing is adjusting the white and black levels of the footage. To do this, I like to find a scene in which there is a pure black on screen, as well as a scene with pure white. Transitions are a great place to find these, as they tend to fill the screen briefly with black or white. 

I found a scene of pure black. To check the black levels in the video, we'll need to check the window labelled "Lumetri Scopes". Take note of the small, colored bars and their position in the Lumetri Scopes tab. See how they're set at 0? This is great, if a video is attempting to show a pure black, the Lumetri Scope should display the lines at 0. Looks like the black levels are perfect as is... which must mean the white levels are our culprit. 

Unfortunately, I was unable to find a scene where pure white fills the entire screen. However, I did find a small moment during the title screen animation where most of the screen fills with white -- this is perfect! Take note again of the Lumetri Scopes window, notice colored bars on hovering just below the 204 mark? These represent the white pixels. To be correct, these bars should be on the 255 mark. Time to adjust the white levels!

Here is the same scene with the white pixels adjusted to reach the 255 mark on the Lumetri Scopes tab. Big difference, right? Since this adjustment is applied to the entire video, the white and black pixel intensity is now correct. This being said, it's important to make sure the white pixels are not adjusted beyond 255 and the black pixels are not adjusted below 0. This will lead to your footage looking too bright or too dark, respectively. Now that the colors are correct, let's compare a scene!

Now that we've corrected the color, the footage is looking as it should! We can now move this into the timeline for cutting, once we're ready.

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That's all for this post, I hope you enjoyed the little peek into how these videos are made! I hope you have a wonderful day, and as always, thank you for your support! 

- Tanner