![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
"I've no idea what that is." - A Pyat's Fortress Retrospective
So, that was the 23rd full episode of Pyat's Fortress.
It all started in late 2005, when I got a new digital camera. I was experimenting with the video setting while stuck in traffic. This led to the Internet sensation, "A Fine Day for Motoring," a little clip introducing my Youtube persona of "Pyat Daishusho". It was originally posted in late 2005, but I took it down a few weeks later after receiving insulting comments. Which really should not have been surprising. Good grief, look at those dewlaps wobble! And the hat! What was I thinking?
As time went on, I decided to film some video of things I was doing to make the basement more livable. This, in turn, let to me wanting to share some of the crap I'd found while cleaning. And finally... Pyat's Fortress was born.
Let us examine some of the series highlights! Narcissism, thy name is Pyat! Yes, Pyat's Fortress...
"Episode 1: In the Beginning" was posted in June of 2006. The weekly "60 to 70 second" format was abandoned immediately, in favour of longer, infrequent episodes. I eventually ditched "Of Solitude" from the title. I was able to maintain almost weekly episodes until September of that year. Since then, you're lucky to get one once a season.
"Episode 4: Record Breaker" was the first episode to venture out of "Pyat's Fortress", and dealt with my frustrated attempt to repair a blues record with glue(!)
"Episode 5: Canada Day" was the first episode to mention my own humble contributions to fandom, detailing the fate of Realms magazine. It's also packed with subliminal messages and ends with indoor fireworks!
"Episode 7: Triviality Field" was a really long episode, and the first of a four part cliffhanger series that ended with me being teleported from the Fortress by the "Underground Gods of Triviality". This one has many more views than the standard episode, attracting a lot of people looking for info about Jack Parsons, Aleister Crowley and Tom Lehrer. At 5:20, I demonstrate the "Triviality Field", marking the first use of special effects on the show.
Episode 8 introduced "Ossified T. Floresman" as a talking character, as a sort of MC or co-host. Floresman is a plastic skeleton from a doctor's office. (Filmed in the miracle of Twine-O-Vision!) Around this time my digital camera suddenly started refusing to take anything but low resolution video, and was generally getting unreliable. You can see this - the resolution is grainy and "shots" tended to be under 20 or 30 seconds long. Episode 8 also features shots of the Fortress exterior.
"Episode 11: Dragonraid" - I really like this episode, despite the typos and the grainy video and poor framing. I love the setup, incorporating the intro audio tape from the Christian Dragonraid RPG.
"Not Episode 12" was a short PSA I did to let people know I was on vacation. It features the 2nd or 3rd occurrence of me eating Vienna Sausage on camera, and is also the first appearance of Furry media on the show.
BEST. EPISODE. EVER. And it's not even Pyat's Fortress. It's the "25th Annual Ossified T. Floresman Television Spooktacular" promo spot. "Jimmy Durante and Ethel Merman singing Kate Bush, acapella!" This episode (and episode 13) were filmed with my father's digital camera, which produces a colour image strongly reminiscent of a 1970s movie camera.
"Episode 13: Druid's Delight" was the first roadtrip episode, and the first colour episode. "NOW 30% MORE INAUDIBLE!" This is what driving with me is like. Imagine listening to me talk like that for 14 hours, and you'll know what![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
sassy_fae felt like last November. I spend a lot of time lost in Peterborough, Ontario. For the first time I mention my real name, and talk about some of the books I've written.
"Episode 14: Caves of Steel" (which I won't link here) marked a switch to a new camera, which had decent video, but terrible audio. I had to use my old digital camera to record audio, and synch up the video and audio in editing. This greatly expanded the effort required for episodes, which is why they became more and more infrequent from this point onward.
"Episode 15: 4K Giants" is the most viewed episode of Pyat's Fortress. I'm not sure why this should be, though I suspect the tags attracted a lot of classic video game players.
Episodes 17 and 18 were the 2nd roadtrip videos, detailing my first visit to the Slan Shack, in November of 2006. The clip above is a sort of trailer or ad for them. Lessons learned - I'm inaudible at highway speed, highways in Michigan suck, and I look really, really fat when viewed sidelong. Also, the second instance of me singing in a car on film!
2006 ended with a special Christmas episode, and then Pyat's Fortress went on a long hiatus for several months. In 2007, there were two episodes - a message noting the reasons for the hiatus, and a Christmas greeting. I'd moved over to BlogTV.ca at the request of a friend, and did something like 40 live episodes, mostly reviews of RPGs or live chats. Ossified T. Floresman showed up a lot, and got used so much he actually broke - hence his scarcity in recent episodes.
When BlogTV.ca died (the current website with that name is a different company) I lost about 20 hours of video. I was irked and rather burned out on video blogging, so in 2008 I only managed an additional two episodes of Pyat's Fortress. Though, I did also post a few "Non-Fortress" videos, such as "Pyat and Teddog have an Adventure" and scenes from FanExpo 2008.
MY plan for 2009 is to post an episode every couple of months. You'll be seeing at least two more eps simply from the footage I recorded at Midwest Furfest, and I'm hoping to get material for more roadtrip episodes this summer and fall.
The most popular video I've created thus far (7300 views) was just some random footage of Hamilton with a tune by Junkhouse playing over it. Such is the life of an artist. ;)
It all started in late 2005, when I got a new digital camera. I was experimenting with the video setting while stuck in traffic. This led to the Internet sensation, "A Fine Day for Motoring," a little clip introducing my Youtube persona of "Pyat Daishusho". It was originally posted in late 2005, but I took it down a few weeks later after receiving insulting comments. Which really should not have been surprising. Good grief, look at those dewlaps wobble! And the hat! What was I thinking?
As time went on, I decided to film some video of things I was doing to make the basement more livable. This, in turn, let to me wanting to share some of the crap I'd found while cleaning. And finally... Pyat's Fortress was born.
Let us examine some of the series highlights! Narcissism, thy name is Pyat! Yes, Pyat's Fortress...
"Episode 1: In the Beginning" was posted in June of 2006. The weekly "60 to 70 second" format was abandoned immediately, in favour of longer, infrequent episodes. I eventually ditched "Of Solitude" from the title. I was able to maintain almost weekly episodes until September of that year. Since then, you're lucky to get one once a season.
"Episode 4: Record Breaker" was the first episode to venture out of "Pyat's Fortress", and dealt with my frustrated attempt to repair a blues record with glue(!)
"Episode 5: Canada Day" was the first episode to mention my own humble contributions to fandom, detailing the fate of Realms magazine. It's also packed with subliminal messages and ends with indoor fireworks!
"Episode 7: Triviality Field" was a really long episode, and the first of a four part cliffhanger series that ended with me being teleported from the Fortress by the "Underground Gods of Triviality". This one has many more views than the standard episode, attracting a lot of people looking for info about Jack Parsons, Aleister Crowley and Tom Lehrer. At 5:20, I demonstrate the "Triviality Field", marking the first use of special effects on the show.
Episode 8 introduced "Ossified T. Floresman" as a talking character, as a sort of MC or co-host. Floresman is a plastic skeleton from a doctor's office. (Filmed in the miracle of Twine-O-Vision!) Around this time my digital camera suddenly started refusing to take anything but low resolution video, and was generally getting unreliable. You can see this - the resolution is grainy and "shots" tended to be under 20 or 30 seconds long. Episode 8 also features shots of the Fortress exterior.
"Episode 11: Dragonraid" - I really like this episode, despite the typos and the grainy video and poor framing. I love the setup, incorporating the intro audio tape from the Christian Dragonraid RPG.
"Not Episode 12" was a short PSA I did to let people know I was on vacation. It features the 2nd or 3rd occurrence of me eating Vienna Sausage on camera, and is also the first appearance of Furry media on the show.
BEST. EPISODE. EVER. And it's not even Pyat's Fortress. It's the "25th Annual Ossified T. Floresman Television Spooktacular" promo spot. "Jimmy Durante and Ethel Merman singing Kate Bush, acapella!" This episode (and episode 13) were filmed with my father's digital camera, which produces a colour image strongly reminiscent of a 1970s movie camera.
"Episode 13: Druid's Delight" was the first roadtrip episode, and the first colour episode. "NOW 30% MORE INAUDIBLE!" This is what driving with me is like. Imagine listening to me talk like that for 14 hours, and you'll know what
sassy_fae felt like last November. I spend a lot of time lost in Peterborough, Ontario. For the first time I mention my real name, and talk about some of the books I've written. "Episode 14: Caves of Steel" (which I won't link here) marked a switch to a new camera, which had decent video, but terrible audio. I had to use my old digital camera to record audio, and synch up the video and audio in editing. This greatly expanded the effort required for episodes, which is why they became more and more infrequent from this point onward.
"Episode 15: 4K Giants" is the most viewed episode of Pyat's Fortress. I'm not sure why this should be, though I suspect the tags attracted a lot of classic video game players.
Episodes 17 and 18 were the 2nd roadtrip videos, detailing my first visit to the Slan Shack, in November of 2006. The clip above is a sort of trailer or ad for them. Lessons learned - I'm inaudible at highway speed, highways in Michigan suck, and I look really, really fat when viewed sidelong. Also, the second instance of me singing in a car on film!
2006 ended with a special Christmas episode, and then Pyat's Fortress went on a long hiatus for several months. In 2007, there were two episodes - a message noting the reasons for the hiatus, and a Christmas greeting. I'd moved over to BlogTV.ca at the request of a friend, and did something like 40 live episodes, mostly reviews of RPGs or live chats. Ossified T. Floresman showed up a lot, and got used so much he actually broke - hence his scarcity in recent episodes.
When BlogTV.ca died (the current website with that name is a different company) I lost about 20 hours of video. I was irked and rather burned out on video blogging, so in 2008 I only managed an additional two episodes of Pyat's Fortress. Though, I did also post a few "Non-Fortress" videos, such as "Pyat and Teddog have an Adventure" and scenes from FanExpo 2008.
MY plan for 2009 is to post an episode every couple of months. You'll be seeing at least two more eps simply from the footage I recorded at Midwest Furfest, and I'm hoping to get material for more roadtrip episodes this summer and fall.
The most popular video I've created thus far (7300 views) was just some random footage of Hamilton with a tune by Junkhouse playing over it. Such is the life of an artist. ;)