Hey you!
My name is Thomas ‘TomSka’ Ridgewell and welcome back to Thanksday.
The series where I introduce you to the bitchin bunch behind the scenes The people you can thank or blame for
the continuation of my channels.
Today, I’d like to introduce you to the editors the masochists who sift through hours of raw footage
to produce something vaguely, just slightly watchable
Now naturally, when I was starting out I edited my videos myself
We would film onto mini-DV tapes, log and transfer them into whatever editing
software came with my computer, and hack up the footage myself.
Big up to Steve, my media studies teacher, for schooling me in the ways of Final Cut 7.
I never bothered to learn anything else and I probably never will.
I didn’t give up editorial control over my videos for a long time partly because when
you have a specific vision in your head, it feels like only you can make that a reality.
If you’re gonna put creative decisions in someone else’s hands, you need them to share that vision.
Editors control the pacing of a scene which is a huge part of comedy and usually have
the first say in which takes make it into the timeline which can completely change the
tone of a piece.
Basically It’s all about trust.
However, the real reason I stopped editing my own videos wasn’t just because I found
someone I trusted or because I got lazy.
It was because my heart broke.
The last video in my 5 year self-editing streak was Musical Suicide which came out January 2012
Because in March 2012 I lost someone very special and after that I just…
Didn’t care anymore.
I lost the drive and self-confidence needed to put together a video and say “yes, this
is good, people will want to watch this”.
Hell, I couldn’t even edit the eulogy video for the funeral and had to ask my girlfriend
at the time to do it for me.
But luckily I had made a friend at university who was a fellow YouTuber with a great sense
of comedic timing and plenty of self-confidence.
His name was Jack Howard.
He was also crashing on my couch so often that whenever I filmed a new sketch he was there to edit it.
Before long, Jack and I sealed the deal and moved in together.
He edited pretty much every video of mine for 2 years, directed and co-directed a bunch
of sketches, and even shot and edited a few vlogs.
However, as time went on and careers progressed, Jack got busier (and more expensive) and it
came time to part ways as creative collaborators.
We ended on one hell of a video though.
During my partnership with Jack and especially towards the end of our time together I played
the field with a few other friends in the hopes of finding that same spark.
Chloe Dungate, Jamie Spicer-Lewis, Ciaran O’Brien, Sammy Paul, Daniel J Layton, Tim Hautekiet,
and even myself sometimes.
Damn, I’m slutty.
It wasn’t until another University of Lincoln student began crashing on my couch that I
found my new boo.
In early 2014, a babyfaced Elliot Gough had come down to London for an interview and while
he was at my placed asked if I needed anything done.
I told him I needed a new channel background and within a few hours he’d made one.
The next day I gave him some raw footage and by the time I got home he’d edited Stupid
Soldiers almost to completion.
But then he went back to Lincoln…
But then he moved to London!
He shot and edited a series of behind-the-scenes game development vlogs for me and I offered
him a full time job shortly after.
We moved into this very office and TurboPunch Ltd came to life. YAY!
Since then Elliot has edited every single sketch; compiled every cartoon; shot and edited
almost every vlog; and even done a fair bit of graphic, web, and sound design.
And I’ve never cheated on him once.
*screaming and crying*
Elliot, no!
If I had to pick out one criticism for my time with Elliot, it would be that he’s
just too handsome and great at editing and has a fantastic attitude also big pee ness.
Is that good?
Oh, I also need to give a quick shoutout to the colourists for my sketches and vlogs.
Raw footage can look very flat and grey and ugly and it needs an experts touch to really make it pop.
That’d be Ciaran O’Brien for most of my sketches from 2012 to 2017, Max Brill for
a bunch of my 2017 sketches, Sven Brooks for my BBC comedy sketches, and Elliot Gough for
all my direct-to-camera vlogs like this one. Woooow! Editing!
I remember when I used to grade my own sketches and...
Everything was so orange and blue at the same time!
So!
I owe a huge thank you to all the people I just mentioned.
Without them, I don’t know if I’d have been able to keep doing this.
Truth be told I still struggle to find any confidence in my work until the video is completely finished.
If it were still up to me, I’d look at the raw footage, sigh heavily, and scrap every
video before it even reached the timeline so…
Thank you all so much.
TomSka out.