"I've known [Steven] for a long time and have had the pleasure of working with him on multiple occasions; he is a talented editor and writer, and he has a discerning eye for quality. If you're looking for someone to work with, he's an incredible choice." - Razbuten
Beginning in 2023, fellow YouTuber Razbuten tapped me to edit a few of his side projects, including a trailer breakdown for The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, a companion piece to his viral ...Why Skyrim? essay examining Skyrim's remarkable sales data, and an unscripted essay discussing the merits of The Legend of Zelda's series timeline.
I was selected to bring some simple but smooth visual flourishes while creating unique graphics to help convey a story through data, which can be most plainly demonstrated in People Like Buying Skyrim. I was also trusted to work under tight budget and time constraints to follow what I like to call the Second Channel Gambit. To support a more relaxed, experimental atmosphere for the creator, these videos must match their original style while being assembled efficiently and just engaging enough to maintain viewer interest.
Among these I think my personal favorite Razbuten project I worked on was actually a Nebula exclusive video titled Let's Talk about Kirby Air Ride (I wrote this in 2013...).
For this video, Raz dug up one of his first unused video scripts and tasked me with assembling a finished version of the video with various immersion breaking cuts of modern day commentary from Raz laughing and reflecting on his past work. In addition to employing an exaggerated VHS pause/play effect to signify clear breaks between Past Raz and Present Raz, what made this video so fun to put together was capturing the light-hearted and often nonsensical video style of gaming YouTube in the early 2010s. The wizawhat content style is usually quite serious, yet earnest, so I always relish the opportunity to settle into a conversely light-hearted and silly style.
Sound on!
