This is the first episode of the most recent series of Minecraft Hardcore. Originally hosted on Peanutbuttergamer's Gameplay channel, the show was ported to the Normalboots channel, a group he is co-founder of, in order to capitalize on the group's return to collective content creation. Not much changed about how I ran the show, but it was significant all the same.
This is the first episode of my debut as producer & editor of the series. A LOT of changes went into this re-launch of the show after about a two year hiatus. This includes a new intro and logo, a new theme song, a new overlay with illustrated portrait art, and a major upgrade to the way the audio and camera perspectives are handled. I'll break those changes down as side-by-sides now:
Title intro: Chris Day, Player Intro Text: Jason Miller, song by Josiah Everhart (mixed by Amie Waters, ft. RichaadEB and Julia Henderson)
Dozens of changes happened here, but the overall approach was to create consistent, thematically enticing elements to increase production value without abandoning the intent behind the original decisions. Changing the theme song from a royalty free Kevin McLeod song to an original composition gave viewers something unique to hold on to, without moving too far from the original vibe. It also allowed us to be more intentional with the pacing of visual elements during the intro, all of which had a level of polish thrown on them that still kept to the homemade visual aesthetic, only with a *bit* more drama.
In the original series, the player portraits were clipped from screenshots from videos or social media photos, but I wanted a consistent quality of look as well as more expression to feature in the videos alongside the portraits on the overlay. The art (Amber Davis) is exceptional and I hand-picked her for her bold, cartoonish style that would give clear emotions and read even in lower video resolutions.
