Splicepoint

What inspired you to start Splicepoint and make videos for YouTube?

A combination of factors. I always liked technology and for whatever reason really enjoyed running around the neighborhood in the 90s with our neighbors and my parents old camcorder. I used to shoot on HI-8 tapes (I still have a few). Most of the oldest stuff was "in-camera" editing where you'd rewind and tape over sections to sequence things right. When "editing" started, I was working from old capture cards and had to manually "record" the camera playback by hooking up RCA cables to a card slotted into the motherboard. Had a couple of great art teachers in high school and a school "film festival" that kept it alive (and some great friends, many who "star" in the nerf videos - who enjoyed doing it together).

What was the process like for producing the Nerf Assassination videos? Did you and your friends collaborate on details, or did you have most of the ideas? Any other behind-the-scenes details you remember?

The initial Nerf assassination video is ripped straight from the movie Shooter; the dialogue is almost one-for-one. These days, I'm not sure the Nerf Assassination videos in a local park or on a college campus would be a smart choice, given the culture around gun violence on campuses. For the Nerf videos, I used to "scout" locations and then draw a birdseye sketch of buildings with Xs and Os for myself to choreograph everything, then tell our 'actors' where to be when. Sometimes it'd be like 6 pieces of letter paper taped together, looked like a Charlie Day meme.

What was YouTube like during the late 2000s & early 2010s? What was different or similar between now and then?

YouTube used to be a lot more "home video" and way less professional & semi-professional content creator. Hard to describe, but we didn't really set out to make a "community" we just enjoyed sharing stuff that we made. It's definitely a different world now.

Do you remember what equipment you used to film and edit with?

I don't remember the model of camcorders, but we then moved on to my parents' camcorder that shot on the Mini-DV format, and ultimately digital. If I was shooting today, I think there's a lot that could be done on my DSLR or even on a stabilized iPhone. The equipment was never great. I can't remember the exact camera I used during college, but I had a terrible mini-shotgun mic mounted on the hot-shoe. Audio was always a problem. These days there are awesome solutions I would use that could improve quality. I had great editing software though. Mostly used Adobe Premier but had experience with others. People under-estimate what you can do with something as basic as iMovie; but I was actually planning to double major in film in college and ended up dropping it to a minor and finishing college a semester early. I enjoyed the post-production part more than anything, always have.

Do you still do videography as a hobby today?

I don't do much videography as a hobby anymore, but I've always been a "million hobbies" kind of person. Photography, 3D Printing, Woodworking, I have a laser cutter, ran a D&D campaign with some of my oldest friends for a while. Now that we have kids, a lot of my creative efforts go into creating things with them for fun. If I had the free time, it'd be fun to make a new Nerf video just to see how well we could do with modern tools (drones, stabilizers), a bigger "budget" (adult incomes rather than college life).

What advice would you give someone that's wanting to get into YouTube/filming/video projects?

It depends on 'why' you're making it. You're your own worst critic. Do it for yourself first, enjoy the process - the best part was awesome memories with many people I don't see regularly anymore. Everyone is a critic on the Internet, it's amazing what the reception has been, but it was never really the goal. Later on, we had a couple of different podcasts (now no longer paying to have them hosted), like a video game book club type thing with a very brief stint of Twitch live recording, and it really helped me appreciate just how much work it is for successful "content creators" to do what they do professionally. Social media, scheduling posts, interacting with your community, setting up streams, editing time, etc. It's a full-time job and then some. Creating things is just buried somewhere inside of me. I find satisfaction building a bird house in the garage, organizing my fly fishing gear, 3D printing a part I modeled in TinkerCAD that makes a buddy's coffee mug fit better under his coffee machine, etc. Looks like you're a software developer, I'm an accountant. It's nice to create/make stuff. I find immense satisfaction understanding how things work and even enjoy working on my house.

Is there hope for making the Splicepoint videos public again? I know myself and others are sad that they're no longer visible on YouTube and we'd love to watch them again.

Great question. I'll consider it; in full candor - some of it is just hard to watch your younger self and be exposed to the public. I love messages and people who reach out like this though. I can never believe the reach/effect we've had. I had a pair of brothers from Germany reach out a couple years back and it blew me away.