Matt broke his knee, but who cares?  Jet Set Zero has a new cast member.  Say hi to Nick.

Well, this one didn’t get done exactly when I thought it would, but here it is none the less!  Thanks for being patient, I think these episodes are often worth the wait and this one is no exception.  Not much to say about Starting on the Right Foot other than “enjoy;” I had fun making it (and naming it) so I hope you have fun watching it.

Poverty seems antithetical to Japanese culture, but after more than two months in country the crew is beginning to find their niche just in time to leave it…

Making this episode sucked.  As you’ll notice, Episode 205 is airing almost a week late.  I think there are 4 separate and almost complete versions of this episode featuring radically different content sitting on my storage array.  The draft I had planned out with the crew a month ago disappeared somewhere around the second revision never to be seen again.  Almost none of the original footage made the episode.

Editing this show alone and on a real-time lag is a very strange experience.   After working on Jet Set Zero for almost 8 months I had thought things would be getting easier instead of harder.  And sometimes they are.  Sometimes.  Part of the trouble is that our bar has simply risen.  Watch the first episode and compare it to the current episodes.  Whether the content appeals to you more or less is up for grabs, but the show has simply changed, in part because I really had no idea what I was doing when we started.

The stress of escalating production values and a fixed number of man-hours to devote to editing is taking its tole on our punctuality.  There are theoretically enough hours in the week to get it all done, but part of the benefit of working in a team is that when things come up for the lead editor — be they personal crises, travel, multitasking lag, binge drinking, inclement weather, or even creative blocks — he or she can at least bounce things off other team members to kick start the engine of production.

I’ve had the flu to varying degrees of severity for the past month, but except for at my worst I’ve been working at about 90% efficiency.  Still, the increasing complexity of our story and the rising expectations of our viewership have pushed us to a gap between air time and real time of almost six weeks.  That gap will close over the coming two episodes, but the content of Episode 205 took place between three and seven weeks ago.  How I keep track of any of this is a mystery to me.