What Came First? The Video or the Thumbnail?
👋🏻
I've been a bit distracted. My bad. From my last letter;
I've been taking my time to write a beefy blog post that's well researched and sourced. Then, thanks to a thumbnail concept I made for a friend, I was kind of inspired to take this blog post and when it is done, turn it into a video....
...I really like this idea. It fuels the desire to write. It helps said writing be heard by more people. And I get to make this thumbnail idea I really like (I'll write about that in the next letter).
That beefy blog post is clocking in at 9,500~ words and is turning into a video on the "main" channel. It's an in-depth analysis and response to the Nintendo Switch 2 reveal. I'd argue it's the most thorough I've seen, but I'm bias.
I haven't done a good job of documenting its creation here, because, well...I never thought of it as a video essay. This newsletter is really about making The Thing™ though and this certainly qualifies. I finished my red pen review this morning. I'm troubleshooting a footnote rendering error, but other than that, the words feel locked. At least, locked enough to record.
My plan from here is to record the VO and then edit the video with as light of a touch as possible. I am trying to prevent this thing from ballooning more than it already has (see the 9,500~ word count).
The idea behind a video version though was born out of a thumbnail concept and I promised to talk about it in this letter.
It started with this idea. Last month, I took a Thumbnail Masterclass that gave me a whole bunch of new ways to think about and engage with these images and titles. I have always thought about thumbnails at the end of the project, but this course said the title and thumbnail have to come first. This felt foreign to my creative process, but makes sense. To get people to watch, they have to be drawn in by the thumbnail and the title. No click, no one to watch that banger video.
So when helping Nintendo Hero refine his own thumbnail for The Extreme Highs and Lows of the Switch 2's Reveal I had the idea for this split DK thumbnail. Nintendo Hero went another (great!) way, but I couldn't get my own idea out of my head. I was writing this blog post anyway with my thoughts on the console, why not mash the two together?
I felt good about the initial concept, so I just kept on writing. Then I sat down this week to work on the thumbnail and realized that I couldn't use this concept.
I'm not as torn on the announcement as the split DK implies. It didn't feel like it matched the content in an engaging way. So I've abandoned it for a similar-ish idea.
Is the thumbnail more misleading? I am a bit worried this is too clickbait-y.
I like it. I think it is fun, but I am worried. The title I have in mind is something like "A Reasonable Reaction to Switch 2." The title is still in the works. If you have any feedback on either, please don't hesitate to reply to this email and help me! 😅
All of this makes me wonder, is the thumbnail the seed for both the creator and the audience? I feel like for the viewer it is a "yes." We all sort of judge a book by its cover/title. There are some creator's that get a de facto pass, but those vary wildly for each person.
As for the creator, I am more torn. I feel like my idea come as theses, little nuggets of "that'd be a cool topic to explore." Then I research, cook up The Thing™, and then make a thumbnail. But it should be a part of The Thing™ from the outset, not an afterthought. After all, this essay is coming to video form because of the thumbnail idea.
Until next time...
This letter is one block from the newsletter Memory Card by Max Roberts. Thoughts? Send me an email at max@maxfrequency.net.
Max is the writer and producer behind Max Frequency. cultivate and curate curiosity—both for himself and for others—by delighting in the details and growing greatness from small beginnings.
He's written a rich history and dive on the making of Naughty Dog's The Last of Us Part II, celebrated the 15th anniversary of Super Smash Bros. Brawl with the voice behind its hype, and examined how Zelda "stole" Fortnite's best mechanic.
Memory Card is a real-ish time, raw, drip feed newsletter of his creative process for telling these stories. It’s how The Thing™ gets made.
It's all powered by Max Frequency and patrons.
Wanna see The Thing™? Check it out on YouTube. Read it on The Blog.