If you can’t do everything, delegate to a producer or a mutual in the space. Or just vent to someone.

ASK. FOR. HELP! You don’t HAVE to do everything and you SHOULDN’T. What you can’t pay in money you pay in networking, food, and community.

Make your OWN standard, do better, and repeat.

Yes!! APs are fun, yes, but they are an industry, and they are WORK. Paid or unpaid. Work comes with standards.

If your only brain, body, relationships or wallet cannot uphold the arbitrary standard of how long the work should take, that standard is bullshit. Fuck that noise.

Support Indie artists, and hug your fellow AP Producers and Performers!!

Most importantly, be gentle with yourself. Making art takes a lot of everything. If you don’t have it all, it’s not the end of you in the industry. Do your best with what you have and uplift the form and your community.

Fin.

Be PATIENT with yourself.

If your dream AP takes two years to come out, that’s fine! If you fall off the internet for six months or longer, that’s also fine. Existing while living in this system is hard, and making art within it is even harder.

And then you have to do taxes after. 15/16

Media and your success in it depends on who you know and how much money you can spend to make it. We live in a capitalist, ableist, patriarchal, racist, cisheteronormative society.

People who are affected by these systems have less resources to spend, and less to give. Be aware of that. 14/16

We can’t whip out 80+hrs of fully edited, professionally captioned Actual Play content a year, with in-person sets, costuming, lighting, and VERY expensive cameras and microphones. While paying ourselves.

We just can’t. And the point of this thread is that you don’t HAVE TO. 13/16

Big AP companies like CR and D20 are based in LA. LA is filled to the brim with artists, actors, producers, editors, and camera and sound technicians.

They have experience AND connections, with a location that was MADE to make media. Us normies don’t have that. 12/16

You cannot make Critical Role level or Dimension 20 level content without D20 level money and experience. And you cannot make that stuff fast!

Learning how to make art takes time and money. Learning how to make that art a product also takes time and money. So does marketing that product. 11/16

We all do this work, and it’s hard. We often do it with limited financial support, experience, and help.

The turnaround time between your idea and having a piece of art DOES NOT need to be 1-2 weeks like CR, or three months. Or even a year. ESPECIALLY if this isn’t your full-time job! 10/16

Making good art takes TIME, and a majority of the time, it takes money, or access to resources.

Rest is a resource!! If you are burning yourself out all of the time, you can’t make your best art or exist as your best self. 9/16

Film and TV is so developed that usually, you have AN ENTIRE TEAM doing one of these things. Getting paid. That’s why serials like Grey’s Anatomy or Abbott Elementary can have seasons coming out once a year.

For Indie media, you have… 1-10 ppl behind the scenes as crew? 8/16

This also means (optionally) submitting to festivals or to community awards like the CRIT awards!
- oftentimes you need to pay to submit to webfests
- marketing for the webfests/awards
- getting to the webfests if you can
- editing reels and staying with in the fest’s guidelines 7/16

Not even included in this, because indie artists and artists do it all of the time, but marketing!

- social media posts
- editing short form content like TikToks, IG reels, YouTube Shorts
- emails
- interacting with fans
- Exclusive paywall content like Patreon
- conventions/being in panels 6/16

I’M NOT EVEN DONE!!

Post-Production
17. Editing the audio/music/video to be cohesive (editing software is also expensive)
18. Adding SFX
19. Having accessibility tools like transcripts, captions, CWs and recap documents ready for your audience
20. Uploading big files take FOREVER. 5/16

Production
12. Planning Episodes in between recordings
13. Check in with lore keepers/dramaturgs/GMs and players
14. Checking cameras/webcams
15. Audio balancing (volume of players, different mics/quality, adding music, etc)
16. SAFETY MEETINGS. APs can have a lot of big/complicated feelings!! 4/16

6. Production meetings for Crew
7. Story planning in more depth
8. Your crew needs to make the art/sets that need to be done before shooting/recording
9. Reaching out to sponsors and funding
10. Session 0s and safety meetings!
11. MUSIC LICENSING! Music is copyrighted!

NOT DONE YET! 3/16

AP Production has a whole lot of parts! Rough outline:

Concept
1. Idea
2. Picking a tabletop system
3. General ideas on format/form/Genre

Pre-Production
4. Casting Call/Offers for cast
5. Casting call/Offers for crew (producers, lore keepers, dramaturgs, captioners, artists)

NOT DONE!! 2/16

My fictional Brujah clan vampire with no death certificate who lives in NYC is currently voting for Mamdani🫡

Thank you!! Their name is Skye Buchanan and they’re an absolute sweetheart. Playing trans teens heals my soul a whole lot 🥹