Well who would have thought that a video called “The Call of Cthulhu Explained” would do so well! At the time of writing it has has nearly seven and a half thousand views since posted on Halloween! Now I never put anything out expecting anyone to watch it but when they do its nice and when lots of people “watch it” it’s quite encouraging that you tapped into something that others wanted to click on. Now in a true self-deprecating style or the reality of the situation I’ve just put a video onto YouTube at the time of a public occasion that matches a certain algorithm on a topic the many search for at this time of year. And the word ‘watch’ has to be defined that the video was viewed on one device and was shown on average for about six minutes! The nice and somewhat scary part are the 31 comments and 331 likes that the video got. It was very nice to have this feedback and actually interesting to read the comments from people who took time from their browsing to encourage a creator.  I know I try to do this when I watch videos so nice to know others do too. These though are the teasing elements that will lure you into the trap.

The Same Again – But Different

This is the very simple formula for success across all platforms – people liked that so do it again just do it in the same way so it’s familiar to them but is still new.  However that’s not what I want to do! I want to be creative and do what I want! Hmmn though,  331 like say do another story video like Call of Cthulhu again. Well… It was fun to dust off the story and look at it in this way, plus there’s plenty of other mythos stories that people may need explaining. I guess it wouldn’t hurt to sell out a little bit…. So I have an unexpected success that I want to try and repeat because I want to share my enjoyment of the fun tale with people in a different way that I would want to watch myself as a fan. As I say in the video, a book is a mountain to climb and I would find a video that breaks the story down very helpful and now I know what it is about, it may just inspire me to pick up a book.

The Methods of Production

Doing the Call of Cthulhu was as efficient as it could be but whilst tools can help you make your creation, filling 22 minutes of time in a video is quite the task. Each second needing to have something happen in it like moving on screen or making a sound. As I had a rough deadline I was able to space this out over six weeks. I spent many hours photoshopping the picture generated for the story. I loved what came out for Inspector Legrasse but finding the right prompt for cultists in the swamps of New Orleans was not spot on so I had to make do sometimes. Oh to have the budget to pay artist to do this all for me. Similar were the prompts for Cthulhu but this worked for the story as the various cultures around the world would depict Cthulhu in different ways so the inconsistencies worked. One thing I did want to get correct was the size of Cthulhu. The great old one manages to squeeze out of doors opened by humans and when struck in the head by a powerful steam yacht it is dispelled. Sure. Cthulhu can flip a battleship but not when they have been disturbed in their sleep and have to chase the vermin away!

So What’s Next?

Well certainly no aggressive production schedule! In my review of the year where I lament the time I haven’t had, you’ll see where this fitted into my schedule. The Story Video or “Library use” podcast on the Call of Cthulhu was fun to do and very rewarding but I’m in no hurry to do it again because I know I have other projects I want to do. I have decided that “The Temple” will be the next one and most likely the “Hounds of Tindalos” as they are both shorter than the Call of Cthulhu and I know them quite well. “The Nameless City” is one I don’t know so would be good to add to my knowledge – same with “The Silver Key”. I could make it easy on myself and do these as audio only productions. Compliments on my narration and delivery of the explanation where nice to receive so audio only could work. But there is something rewarding in adding the visual elements that really bring the story to life. As I’m practically addicted to potential, I’m as interested as my viewers to see where this goes!