Don't Fear, the ATF is Here!

So, I produced two videos, both of them making fun of the ATF. As no big surprise, I'm not a big fan of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tabacco, and Firearms. Aside from being the enforcers of no fun and being able to change the interpretation of laws without any transparency, they have had their fair share of screwing people over. I could probably go on and write a book as to why the ATF is terrible, but many people already have and I would love to talk more about the technicals of the videos.

If you are familiar with firearm-related meme culture, you would know the first short video (and the character of Agent Parker) is directly ripped from a popular meme. Someone photoshopped an ATF hat onto Peter Parker, from the 60s animated run of Spiderman, while reading a book. The book would read "Shall Not Infringe," referencing the Second Amendment, with Agent replying, "I wish I can read." The dorky appearance, paired with his ignorance and lack of intelligence, has cemented this as the icon of the ATF. It's something I want to emulate with the character, with a bit of Mr. Roger's thrown in there. I do plan to use the character in future videos and hope to expand.

These are the first two videos that I released using my new Canon Rebel 7 camera. Well, technically, I did use it to film the shots for The Rescue, but I had those shots to be rotoscoped and animated. This was my real first test with the camera as I had to ensure my settings were right so my footage looked good. Despite being a one-man crew, I did a decent job.

One of the major issues shooting outdoors during the PSA video was the cloudy skies. I had my camera set for whenever I was under cloud cover, but when the clouds moved and the sun shined, this over-exposed me, and the footage look too bright. So, some takes I had to remove because of over-exposed footage.

It was also quite windy that day too. Even lavalier mic, you could hear the wind breezing through the mic. Speaking of mic and audio, it wasn't that great. For audio, I use a lavalier mic that is hooked up to my phone. The problem lays in with the connection since in order for it to be used in my phone, I have to use a USB-to-USB Micro adaptor, and the flaw with this system is it creates a lot of wiggle. The wiggle can distort the audio and in fact, the audio does change in quality. The only saving grace with this that I am aiming for a more retro style that is in line with the 80s/90s style of PSAs. And in that front, it does succeed. However, if I want to make a more "professional" video down the road, I need a better audio setup. Though, perhaps, I should go with the more retro aesthetic for the time being.

That being said, I did enjoy making these videos. These videos did see some success, compared to my other recent works, achieving about 800 views together and a small increase in my subscribers. I hope to make more ATF PSA videos (especially considering firearms have become a contentious issue again). I learned more about my camera and equipment, which I'll apply those lessons to future videos. As far as my next project goes, I will be working on another animated short. Hopefully, I'll be able to push that out in two weeks.

I hope you all have a pleasant day.