Hello, Patrons. It is with great reluctance that I have to inform you that May is not, in fact, "the month" as was boldly claimed, BUT that we are getting very, very close. My original target for this project was May 21st. ASTP, being such an unusual and little-covered flight, brought with it many challenges in the research and editing process, including but not limited to footage sourcing, Russian translation, and the upgrading of my editing software to a version ~7 generations newer. All of these things have slowed me down a slight amount, but I wanted to provide you all with a photo of where we are since principal editing began just two days ago. Two days into principal editing, and we're already on track to have the first 40 minutes of the film done. As I hope some of you who have been with me for a while know, the amount of preparation and organization that goes into these things, long and arduous as it can sometimes be, allows me to edit at lightning speed. This is where things really begin to pick up, and all the work we have done up to this point really pays off. So what I have to report to you is this: we are in the final, final phase. Writing is obviously done, as is narration. Everything has been sourced. Animations/CGI have been created, footage and photography have been organized, and I am now in the process of sewing it all together. With my current workflow, it took me only 7 days to edit the Apollo 8 film. I hope that really hammers home how close to the finish line we are, and while it does absolutely kill me that it will be in June, and that this 4 month project will be approximately ~2 weeks delayed, representing approximately 12.5% more time than initially expected, I do very much believe it will have been worth it, because this is a film on ASTP like no other that has ever been created.
I am giving myself a conservative target of June 9th for the Patron release. Odds are, it'll be sooner than that, but I am not in the business of repeatedly missing my own deadlines.Back to work for me, thank you all so much for your patience.
Hat in hand,
-Jackson