BTS - Crash 4 Review (140) (Patreon)

G'day quantum mates, welcome back to more Behind the Scenes goodness, checking out the Crash 4 review. A milestone episode for the channel. This was like most episodes this year a relatively simple project to get done but there are still lots of cool things to talk about... so let's dive in!

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Crash 4 vs. Hawktober 4!
The original plans for September and October was to introduce the annual Hawktober special with the Apocalypse episode, then the THPS 1+2 Remake and then the planned O2 content. However the release of Crash 4 in October threw a major spanner into the works, meaning those 2 videos had to be done prior to October. That left me in a weird spot of what needs to take priority: Crash Bandicoot; the thing that got the channel off the ground OR Tony Hawk related content, which has been responsible for the channel's growth. So the original plan was to get Hawktober out of the way and save the Crash episode for a Halloween-November release. But coming off of the huge success of the THPS remake episode in September, the numbers in October took a nosedive so I decided that Crash needed to go up ASAP and figured out a way that BOTH could be released within October.

Artwork & Logos:
I knew that I wanted some cool artwork for the episode thumbnail and logo, given that we've covered everything Crash on the channel. This is a major game to be covering. Hilariously a LOT of other people had the same idea but whatever.
Since the game's announcement, there was a large influx of Crash artists on Twitter popping up in my feed so I started engaging and sharing all the stuff I really REALLY liked so that I could come back to it later and decide who I wanted to work with. Ultimately decided to work with Mark who watches the channel. I always prefer working with people who know me and the channel, as they're far more likely to create something the audience will resonate with. Plus they often know me better than I do so I can give them free reign and trust I'll get quality back.

Here you can see my original idea (I was going to be on the LEFT) and how Mark took that and just made up such an amazing piece of artwork for the thumbnail. At the time I hadn't gottenmy hands on the game yet, so I was glad once I started playing that I made the right choice of mask for the thumbnail. Thankfully this character was present in game from the very beginning.

Here is the FINISHED thumbnail artwork!

The big concern for me was getting the logo/title screen created as the original game logo is so boring and basic, it's tough to make it look good. But I whipped it together very quickly and using some of the art elements from Mark, it ultimately ended up being one of my all time favourite and proudest logos I've made for the channel!

Pre-Production:
I was fortunate enough to get an early review code for the game thanks to Activision! So I was playing the game September 29th which was quite mind blowing for me honestly and I knew that had to be the introduction for the video. "12 year old Square Eyed Jak would never believe it back when Mind Over Mutant released" type deal. So yeah, very special video for me. Given the original plan was to make the episode at the end of October, to took my time and just focussed on enjoying the game at my own pace, which is something I've failed to do with all of the other Crash and Spyro remakes in recent years. So I had a lot of fun with the game! When I realised the episode needed to be done BEFORE Hawktober, it quickly turned into a rush job to get the video made but surprisingly, everything just fell into place quite well if I'm being honest. 

Writing the script was done in a mere 3-4 hours in a single sitting which was a shock to the system. I wasn't worried about video length or anything so I just wrote until I was satisfied that I got my points across, which I feel like I did better than normal. A lot of people argued when the video went up that I was forced to say a lot of nice things which is funny. Full transparency here: I was given ZERO instructions on what to say in the review! So people don't know what they're talking about.

Completing the Episode:
The video wasn't just quick to write, the entire project was a breeze. The day after writing the script, everything was filmed with no major dramas. As for editing, a 30 minute video will usually take me about 3-4 days to get done (about 10 minutes of the video being completed each day.) But I somehow managed to whip it together in a matter of 2 days because I was just having so much cutting up the game. It makes the entire process so much more enjoyable when the topic is fun to edit. Every Level Ranked is one more people wouldn't expect and Crash 4 was another delight. I dunno, it was just fun for me to be cutting a NEW Crash Bandicoot game for a change, listening to the soundtrack and smashing out with little resistance. That made the entire thing so much more chill to then transition back into Hawktober work earlier than expected, which ultimately got finished up quickly as a result!

Video Performance:
Here is something you might not expect... Crash Bandicoot content doesn't do that great for me! Now I can't complain, it's still one of my better things of course. But next to other channel's, my Crash content underperforms for the size of the Square Eyed Jak channel, without a doubt in my mind. And next to the THPS 1+2 episode, it shows me that Pro Skater content has grown to be bigger for the channel than Crash which is weird, but still very special. It's just interesting for me to see that. And overtime, I'm sure the video will be a pillar for the channel like all of the other Crash content.

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That's a WRAP!
Well that does it people, sorry about the lack of visual content on this post but like I said at the top. It was another simple episode to get done and the time flew by so quickly, there is hardly any drama to discuss. But I'm so stoked with how far the channel has come since the original Crash series review in 2014-2015 and this episode was a real culmination of all that work for me, so I'm glad things ran smoothly for a change! 😁

Anyway, if you have further questions, please let me know with a comment and I'll be sure to answer. And stay tuned for a full Hawktober 2020 BTS blog in the coming weeks. Until then, thanks for reading and I hope you have a great fucking day, cheers guys!