Monkey Bread Shot Test and Introspection Pile (Patreon)

Have you heard of Monkey Bread? Would you like to watch a short test video about the mathematics of monkey bread?

1. What/why is this exist

I've started filming final shots for the Scutoid video! At least, what I hope are final shots. Everything needs to get uploaded and reviewed in VR before I ok it for the final video, and since the conversion/upload process is so long, in this case I uploaded over 2 minutes of monkey bread shots just to pick out about 12 seconds worth for the final video.

I know the shots that I want to work, but I figured while I was set up I might as well film some other shots and throw them all together. I'm planning to make a video on the mathematics of monkey bread next, so some of these shots are tests for that too (or maybe will make it into that video too).

2. On formats: flat, magic window, vr180, 360

I actually really like how this test video looks in VR180 and in magic window. It's polished enough to be publishable in those formats as is, if it weren't "below my standards" in narrative, shot variety, and narration. 

It's also kind of unpublishable because the flat view with default forward-facing window leaves most of the action out of the shot. Not that I couldn't expect anyone with the flat view to go through the effort of mousing down once and then leaving it, but I'd like the video to work without that being absolutely necessary. 

And, if I were to publish it in VR180 I'd probably take out that last moving shot, which works great for some people but causes others nausea. If you have a headset to test in, how does it work for you?

I also accidentally first uploaded it in 360, which gives us a chance to compare the 360 and VR180 formats on youtube. VR180 is not just using half a 360 sphere. YouTube does many nice things like center the video in front of you when you click, and have the video follow you when you go off-screen in magic window. This lets you recenter in magic window by kind of nudging the video around (or you can touch the screen).

3. Narrative Polishy Test vs Real Video Process

I added a narration to the test video for a couple reasons. The biggest was that I thought y'all might enjoy it, and enjoy testing my test shots more if they felt more like they were in the context of a real video, and that that'd make the test more effective. I also wanted to see myself how the shots would work more in the context of an actual video with different speed shots, cuts, narration, etc.

This also gives us a moment to reflect on my video process!

In some ways, this test video is a first draft of the mathematics of monkey bread video I'm working on next, but it's a long way from being a "real" video, despite that if I were to publish it right now it would look a lot like a "real" video.

One difference is in the narrative itself---I reference a lot of things but don't explain them or fit them into a holistic understanding. If you already know about voronoi diagrams, positive and negative curvature, and topological genus, then all you need are these hints to see why Monkey Bread is interesting. But in a real video these concepts would be mentioned in a way more natural to the uninitiated, and with more setup, explanation, and demonstration.

And besides the script, listen to the voice acting! It's an academic voiceover, removed from the subject and seen from above, not a natural stream of consciousness that carries you along inside the process.

Then there's the shots. We've got one thing happening: baking monkey bread. There's some editing, speeding up of things, and it flows pretty well, but it's still just one kind of shot in one order, and it's nothing you haven't seen before if you haven't made monkey bread. None of the math is explained through the visuals, and there's nothing but monkey bread.

In the "real" monkey bread video, I plan to draw on the bread with icing to explain the math, compare to flat sheet baking with shots of other baked goods, and probably show some other shots of paper models and other explanatory abstractions.

4. Your Weekly "Making Videos is Hard" Rant

Anyway I wrote the above section because I don't know how obvious it is to you that this "test" video is "just a test", but I was surprised by how polished and almost publishable it felt to me, and it gave me a moment of introspection. I mean, shouldn't I know better than anyone that it's just a test, and how far it is from the final video I'm envisioning?

It feels polished to me because it feels like many baking videos I've seen on youtube, or "the mathematics of..." videos I've seen, and suddenly my brain was like "Hey, I could just publish this, and people would just be happy I published something. Hey, if I made all videos like this test video, I could totally publish a video every week or two and who would even notice?"

As I obsess over constantly and write about practically every week, making my videos is hard and YouTube/internet/social media algorithms really incentivize quantity over quality. Making a video REALLY good instead of just "watchable" has diminishing returns. As far as algorithms are concerned, "watchable" is the only bar you need to pass.

And as I write about practically every week, Patreon is one of those lovely things that counteracts that pull, because here it does matter whether someone truly loves a video or merely watches it. The economics are still tricky but while I may not have the algorithms on my side, I do have you good humans, and in this case I also have support from Google to make VR180, so all together I have the time to be picky about my work.

Anyway give it a watch and tell me what you think, if any of the shots especially did or didn't work for you in VR, whether you've heard of monkey bread before, or just say hello!

Vi

P.S. Aside from monkey bread, I'm still testing other shots too. If you've been following the Pom Pom Bees story on lens, you might especially enjoy one of the latest desk shot tests. I love my bees so much.