MSAGW Ep.10 Update

Since most of you are here for MSAGW, I wanted to focus on ep.10 with this update. It's been since-- ohmyGod April-- since ep.9, so I'm sure you're antsy for more news. I thought I'd give you a little insight into how episodes are made and explain what the holdup is. Text dump incoming!

The way we make episodes follows a typical process, but it varies wildly depending on the content, timing and inspiration. In general, an abridged episode's timetable looks something like this:

• 1) Watch multiple episodes of Wing, write jokes and ideas. (Usually happens before the previous abridged episode is completed so we can plan ahead.)
• 2) Form an outline of our episode's events to make sure it all works in the greater series.
• 3) First round of scripting. This usually involves individual scenes loosely tied together with large gaps between to be filled.
• 4) Rough draft completed by putting all these scenes together.
• 5) Second draft worked on by Blue and myself, reading through and eliminating scenes that aren't working, rewriting ones that are, etc. Typically reorganize events at this part.
• 6) Final draft completed after we're happy with it.
• 7) First rounds of recording.
• 8) Put those recordings to video, make sure that everything's working.
• 9) Inevitable rewrites and rerecordings as we find some ideas didn't work as well in practice as we thought, or get new ideas for edits.
• 10) Hardest edits saved for last once all voice recording is finished and put to video. This is the "home stretch" when I hole up in my room for a week trying to get it done.

And that's it! And with that context: ep.10 has been stuck at steps #2-5 for months.

Every episode, we want to do something unique and memorable to separate us from the original show. For ep.9, it was the flashbacks. For ep.8, it was Meilan. For ep.7, it was Skype/Discord. Etc. What we've struggled with on ep.10 is creating that something to separate us. In short, I haven't been happy with our various ideas, and we keep scrapping and rewriting whole scenes.

The "big thing" for ep.10 wasn't coming together. The opening idea to start them off in Antarctica didn't work with the visuals we had. The exact pacing of the fight between Heero and Zechs kept changing depending on what we had to write around it-- seriously, I have probably 12 pages of Heero and Zechs quipping in a vacuum while trying to make the B plot work around it.

As such, we've yet to get to step #6, which is when we give the script to our actors and set up recording times. We're far behind where we want to be, but we also don't want to rush something out, record, then scrap half of what we recorded later on. It's left the episode in limbo while Blue works on Goku Time ep.2. This is on me, and I apologize for it. I just want to do every episode justice.

As it stands now, the earliest ep.10 would be out is late November, and that depends largely on when the script is finished and our actors' availability to record. But I don't want 2020 to end with only one-and-a-half episodes of MSAGW. Work on Movie Night Mondays, the Patreon rewards and our plans to start streaming are, for now, on hold until we have an ep.10 script we love. That is my only concern until it's done. And I'll give you guys another update when it is!

We won't have any new video content in September, but stay tuned for more updates and videos in October.