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Today marks the 1 month anniversary since I launched the weekly show "What Happens in Starcraft". With the 4th episode having been released yesterday I decided to write this blog to take a bit of time to reflect on the first month as we head into the next.

Although the show has only been launched for a month I initially had the idea nearly 6 months ago now. My grandparents were coming to visit from South Africa for nearly 3 months and I also was about to have full time work again so I knew my Starcraft 2 playing and viewing time would be limited. Like many, I spend as much time as I can doing Starcraft related things whether it be watching a tournament or playing myself and so I wasn't looking forward to having a lot of time cut off. This is when I had the idea, I found myself wishing there was some way I could keep up with tournaments without needing to spend quite so much time. Something where I could skip over mediocre games when I was tight on time and just watch the epic ones, but without feeling as though I was behind on the tournament. Unfortunately, nothing quite existed that would be that easy. So instead of just leaving it like that I decided to attempt to remedy this and fill the void myself. But when I get to thinking about it, I have no idea what I'm doing. I've never produced a show, I've never been on camera, I've never even just spoken in front of a crowd before. But I don't want to let this idea fall through the cracks because I'm too scared or inexperienced to do it. So I thought about it and thought about it. I planned until I felt as though I would go insane and then planned some more. I considered what I would include in the show, whether I would do it live or in a VOD only format. Whether I should discuss the games in depth or whether it should be more of a brief summary. I told a friend about the show to bounce ideas off him and get some initial impressions feedback on ideas and once I felt like I'd refined the concept somewhat to a point where I had a clear goal for the show I started looking into what I would need. I needed a camera, a tripod and some lights at least. As with most purchases I hit up the internet for camera reviews and settled upon the Canon IXUS 220 HS as it seemed to be reasonable for a budget starter. Next I looked up info on lighting. I saw a recommendation for using Halogen work lights for budget lighting so I went out and bought some lights from the local hardware store. It was nearing Christmas time and I had been talking about the show with my family too and my parents said they would handle the tripod as my Christmas present. Now I was pretty much set. I employed my basic artistic skills for creating the intro. I have an inbuilt sense of wanting to do everything myself and not rely on anyone else which can be a blessing and a curse. I am willing to jump in and try something myself even if I have no idea how to do it, but that does mean what I end up with might obviously be lacking in professional flair.

Now that all the preparation has been completed all that remains is to film a pilot and launch. I hope to build up some existing interest in the show and get the first round of feedback so that the first official episode can already be an improvement. Something I've mentally dodged around up until this point is that I'm actually dead scared of talking on camera. For me this is the hardest part about starting the show, but by ignoring it and plowing ahead with preparations I've put myself in a situation of having invested money in equipment now so I need to do this. I take some notes for the pilot and setup. Sitting in front of the camera I start it rolling and nervously stutter out what I want to say. I have to retake each line a few times just to be able to say it and it takes nearly an hour to film 2 minutes of talking. I finally finish it all and transfer the footage to my PC. To my horror, but honest lack of surprise, the footage is terrible. I decide to re-film in another couple of days. 3 days later I sit down again and manage to record in 30 minutes this time. I get it on my PC and again I'm not really pleased with what I've got, but it's an improvement on the old stuff so I go ahead and edit it together. But now nerves really stick in. What if everybody hates the idea? What if I don't get any positive feedback at all? No, I'll just forget about uploading this. Only a couple of people know about my plans for the show so I'm not really letting anyone down at this point. But again, I reconsider and decide to take the plunge. I can upload it and if it is received negatively then I can always stop there.

Now a month later I am shocked at the amazing support and feedback I have received and the show is doing better than I had expected. I hope to continually improve and grow the show as each month goes by and hopefully I can soon be writing a blog to reflect on the past year of What Happens in Starcraft with 10, 20, 50 times as many viewers! All of this so far would not have continued or have been possible without you guys though, so thanks to everyone who watches the show and supports it. It's your support that has helped me to film each week as I try to work on becoming a better host of the show.