These are some odd and unusual days. Trump back in office, missiles attacking Iran and the feeds all worried about World War 3 notwithstanding … it looks like a DesktopEpics Production is beating the odds and having a measure of success. Naturally, at times of crisis. You may have remembered I said things seem to loosen up for me when the world is in bad shape. 9/11 … credit score shot up unusually high. Covid … bought the house, was able to shoot Predawn. World War 3… Rkaydz is averaging is 50-75 views a day. 2800 views since starting May 6th (today is June 25th) and as of this morning 32 subscribers.

To put it in perspective, DesktopEpics forgotten YouTube channel is steady at 19 subscribers and I’m fairly certain that’s friends and family. 70 views since 2021.

Lets be real for a moment: Rkaydz is all about video games. A topic that I happen to know and love passionately. It’s not original material that people don’t know. It’s a billion dollar industry and Rkaydz is just reporting and having fun in it.

Which, of course, was all part of the plan. And it all got fleshed out this year.

But Rkaydz actually started in the late 90’s. It’s mentioned in the Season 1 episode of the Rkaydz Museum here:

In a nutshell, mid-to-late 90’s I did a video game expo / museum concept in Valley Stream New York utilizing a veterans lodge off Merrick Blvd. The idea was to do a micro-comic con but for video games. It was a different time and definitely no social media. Very few people came but it was something wonderful. Wish you could have seen it. No one took pictures (so annoyed).

Also no world crisis — so of course it failed. lol.

Flash forward to February of this year. My wife and I went to the international car show in Atlanta, Georgia. Never had we been to a car show that sucked so bad. Mostly all American cars. Nothing exotic. No concept cars so we walked out and wondered what to do next. “Oh look. There’s a video game expo happening in Augusta!” So we took the two hour trip to a veterans lodge where it was shoulder to shoulder packed with vendors, gaming folks and everyone just having a good time.

This was what Rkaydz was originally supposed to be by in the 90’s. Maybe a bunch of tweaks here and there … but the gathering was the intention.

Now, there are expos and video game events almost everywhere all the time. Personally, I can’t say I approve of the quality. These micro expos are starting to look like a hodgepodge of crap on tables. Just cluttered vendors in order to get vendor-table-fees.

So, I say to my wife … maybe it’s time to bring back Rkaydz and do it with style. I start looking into vendor spaces. Some owned by complete assholes in Dacula and Covington, GA that can kiss my ass. Some in other locations around the state that would be absolutely wonderful to work with.

But when I took a step back and looked at the trajectory, I had to remember my failure in Valley Stream, New York. How only a handful of people came through.

How I only have 71 views on DesktopEpics YouTube Channel.

So I did a hard stop on creating an Rkaydz Expo and made the decision that it was important that we get an audience first.

I needed eyeballs FIRST and then direct them to an eventual expo or event.

So, since Rkaydz was a museum motif anyway, I pitched the idea to Liam Bradbury — my man from the UK that always delivers the best soundtracks — and literally slapped together the first episode of Rkaydz in about a week with the first gaming device I had on hand: the Nintendo Switch OLED

I say “slapped together” because I had the ‘idea’ of what I wanted, but by then it was just sketches on paper.

The key thing is I wanted a classy intro and even more importantly I wanted to put the ‘entertainment’ in from ‘DesktopEpics Entertainment’.

Coincidently, the world of generative AI was improving and fuck everyone who think’s its a problem. To all you ‘AI Slop’ motherfuckers, kiss my scrumptious left nut. I am a supporter of generative AI coming from a whole world of film industry exclusion. I’ve been there. I’ve experienced it since using 16mm film. It’s expensive. There are assholes up and down the rank and file of who you need to work with you. Even during Predawn, I got fucked over so many multiple times I feel like crying when I think back on it.

Generative AI is leveling the playing field. So fuck off.

Having said that, it needs time to improve. There are things I wanted to do (like improve the effects in Predawn) but the industry isn’t there yet. Almost … just not yet.

The intro, except for two gaming consoles, is all AI.

Like anything new, you just have to dive in and work it out as you go. Ten episodes, twice a week, was built on the fly. I called it a season by episode ten because I noticed the audience building and I wanted to take time to assess and make corrections to the show.

All the pundits will tell you taking a break on your growing YouTube channel is a death sentence BUT … being that I was accustomed to not getting views int he first place, it didn’t matter to me. The most important thing to me was creating structure and consistency. I’m of the old school television where there were set numbers of episodes a season, an opening, middle and ending of a show and the concept is working.

Besides, Rkaydz wasn’t completely off-the-air. I wanted to figure out generative AI and got down on Google VEO, Higgsfield AI and Kling to try to bang out a process and a new series that provided video game news (Rkaydz Newswire)…and for better or for worse, it’s taking off.

You gotta understand: at the time of the writing of this journal entry, it is June 25th. The show started May 6th. According to Liam, based on stats he’s been calculating, the show/channel is on track to do big numbers before the end of the year and we’re just getting started. Eyeball gathering is achieving.

Even better, it’s getting me toward this place where I can bring generative AI into a DesktopEpics Production short film space the more I tinker and prototype the flow in newswire.

For the people who have an issue with AI, I simply don’t care how you feel about it. Between ChatGPT to Google VEO, I got more work accomplished by using these sources to fine tune and create ideas than I did spending thousands of dollars hiring, getting fucked over and the stress of dealing with flakey people. Things you pay for either never arrives on time or at all. People, in the big picture of things, suck ass.

Let’s be clear, I DID worked with some really great people. The cast of Predawn and  Self-Rising Flower are irreplaceable. I still work with Liam Bradbury.

But to cherry pick those few out of a tidal wave of other assholes is walking by faith and not by sight — and I’m sorry, I lost too much money and time. Never forget that cocksucker prop maker that took my money and never sent the prop weapons for Predawn. The cunt casting director that forced me to cast the film myself at the start. All the fucks that wanted to I can give a laundry list of assholes that weren’t part of Self-Rising Flower. On and on and on. Money lost and nerves fried.

If I had to shell out money to produce what I did in a month for Rkaydz, the intro alone would have been $5k conservatively: hiring the camera crew, lighting, sound, casting the actors/actresses who may or may not want to come to shoot, renting the space….and you already know I’m closer to $10k.

The intro cost me just a subscription to Kling: $60 and my iPhone.

…and an audience is growing.

So … yeah. The math is mathin’.

Edit: A few hours later …

Later in the day, I’ve been feeling I may have given the impression that I am now against working with people on future film projects. Reading this blog post, you can get that absolute feeling.

I’m just against working with assholes — and I have tactics to weed the scum out these days and a plan-b generative AI if all else fails.

As a matter of fact, there is a coming project that requires a regular cast of actors. I’m learning the generative AI can be used as a secondary tool — a handy ILM, if you will.

But working with actors, voiceover actors, sound recording, lighting is not off the table whatsoever. Humans are essential.

I just have to make sure the RIGHT humans work with me.

Yeah, you’re saying that’s always how it’s been.

You obviously don’t work in the film industry.

This is exactly why most every project hires the same people they worked with before, because you sorta-kinda have to weed them out by working with them in the first place.

Since there’s an over-abundance of fools out there, it’s a warm and fuzzy feeling I have knowing generative AI is there to fill in the deficiencies.

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