 |
This article was written as the script for the next Icystorm 9 video.
|
I’m Icystorm 9. I’m 17, I live in the Japanese state of Nebraska,
and I live without a mouth. I play video games and listen to pop
music. And I’m a character. I’m scripted and voiced by an adult
living in Nebraska, United States, NOT Japan, and my character is
just a vague representation of my own person.
My channel began
dedicated to complaining about Minecraft. I quickly ran out of things
to complain about, so it became Icystorm9Reviews in 2015. But I
didn’t know what types of videos I wanted to make. That was, until
I got sick in 2017. I was struck with a terrible condition that left
me bedridden for about a month. In that time, I watched a lot of
YouTube channels that inspired me. The most important one is Project
COE. I liked other long-form review channels, like LambHoot,
SomeCallMeJohnny, Todd In The Shadows, and TheDoubleAgent, but they
weren’t making the type of videos I thought were in short supply. I
wasn’t hungry for more of this. But I found Project COE’s
Saturnday reviews addicting. They were short and to the point. They
gave a brief overview of the game of the week with gameplay to
discuss their main points. And they were talking about something that
wasn’t super common to talk about: relatively obscure 90s video
games. It was a true review. Not in the sense that the episode would
go over everything about the game early. But in the sense that you
would know after a few minutes whether it was something you’d find
worth your time and money, or if it wouldn’t. It was so easy to
watch the whole playlist in just a few sittings, or at least wish I
could. It brought me a lot of comfort in the days where I couldn’t
really walk or stand or breathe. I wanted to make videos that gave
that same feeling.
Ever since I started
in 2019, the videos got more and more complex to edit. I learned a
new editing trick in each video. Things moved around more. Now, going
back to the Life of Pablo video, I find it crazy how little happens.
Things sit still for more than 3 seconds, which is unthinkable in a
modern Icystorm 9 video. But the problem is that this took a lot of
time. I remember making the Glowing Man video in a few hours, after I
got home from school, but before a 7pm Wednesday night lenten
service. For comparison, the Hurley video took upwards of ten hours
just to edit 100 seconds of footage. The Hurley video is no doubt
better than the Glowing Man video, but I don’t think it was thrice
as good. I was putting in a crazy amount of hours for little output.
I’ve written a
fair bit on my website in the interim. I’ve reviewed a dozen or
more movies, reviewed dozens more albums, and discussed more personal
subjects that mean a lot to me. But writing is not my passion.
Writing isn’t something I can sit and do for hours on end without
taking a break. It’s the video making that propels me to do it. The
reason ten hour video editing sessions are bad for me is because I
like doing them. They’re really bad for my physical health. And my
emotional health as well, according to my psychiatrist.
I’m looking for
ways to make videos that don’t take so much time. I want to make
the videos that require ten hours of editing, without taking ten
hours to make them. I’m not sure how that will play out or look
like yet. But soonr than soon, I will be uploading more good stuff.
