Hey everyone! It’s that time again. Time to look back at the calendar we marked up and mangled! Are those teeth marks all over February???
Overall, this was the best year yet for the website, with new highs in viewers, views, views-per-day, etc. The most clicked posts of the year are not from this year, as 2021’s stop-motion tutorial took top spot by almost double the views.
Coming in second is a Magic the Gathering article from 2022, offering some fun ways to make your Commander games more fun.
The most popular posts from this year are both only a few months old. Both Magic articles including Top 10s. Something we’re considering in 2024 is turning this stuff into videos. What do you think?
Some of the older posts about utility lands have done pretty well and could use an update too! Let us know in the comments what you’d like to see!
Let’s see what happened across the months of 2023!
January
This was a pretty incredible year for us as filmmakers. We’d just seen our short documentary from 2022, ‘Noggin’ win Best Short Documentary at The Vesuvius International Film Festival, and it started the year at Vancouver’s Science World, playing daily in the Science Theatre.
Noggin has played in all sorts of small film festivals all around the world, and we’re so proud of it!
If you haven’t seen Noggin, see it here. It’s great. Thanks again to Aaron Turner for sharing your talent and story for this big little film!
In January I also built a Commander deck around Imoti, Celebrant of Bounty that looks a lot like the Mississippi River deck in Legacy and the now-banned Discover decks on Arena, and returned to Commander Challenge regularly.
February
February was very quiet in Barigord terms, but very busy on the personal side of things. As far as film stuff, we were debating taking part in the upcoming Film Race in March, and decided to go for it with a smaller group and tighter focus.
I did manage to make it to a Commander Challenge in February, and did pretty well with a deck based around Kosei, Penitent Warlord.
March
March was when the year really got started, even though Noggin’s run at Science World came to an end. We got our trophy from Vesuvius in the mail, and the packaging actually made it into our entry for the 72hr International Horror Film Race 2023.
We did well in the Film Race, using live-action stop-motion to create a creepy aesthetic with a couple of surprises! We finished Top 10!
Want to see the film? Right here:
April
While the following post is from late March, most of what happened in April was gardening. Our yard was thick with these green plants that had been there for ages. As long as I could remember.
Turns out they were a toxic invasive plant called Daphne Laurel. Totally a character name in a future Barigord Studios film project. There were a lot of the plants, and removing them opened up loads of room to garden.
May
May involved more gardening, a Commander Challenge where I played the Imoti deck from earlier, and a lot of prep. The 24hr Film Race was coming up, and we’d registered for that too.
Prepping for film contests is mostly a matter of having all the elements of film production ready to go. Actors, crew, equipment, potential locations, etc. Another big part is knowing what that can accomplish.
I wrote a film contest strategy article much later this year, but here’s a good place for it.
June
June began with the 24hr International Film Race. Again, we did well, and it wasn’t long before we knew that we were Top 10 finalists again! Right around the 3rd birthday of Barigord Studios!
Our film is right here. Special shout out to Ann c’Blanc, who we’ve been blessed to have as an actor and assistant director!
June also saw the genesis of 3 regular Barigord posts.
Barigord Gaming Weekly mostly talks about Magic the Gathering, and has appeared almost every week since.
One video game I reviewed this year dropped in May. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom released to great fanfare on May 12, and I played it from day 1. It was amazing, but not without flaws. Still, it was many reviewers’ game of the year.
This Week in Barigord Life covers things like my ice cream recipe, and the garden. It hasn’t been popular, and doesn’t appear much. Still it’s a fun outlet for that stuff if it’s worth writing about.
The Barigord Art and Film Weekender probably needs a better title, but it managed to get the point across. Appearing almost weekly, it has done okay on views, and covered a lot of activity through the rest of the year.
July
July was way more Art than Film. I spent most of it practicing my En Plein Air painting techniques. That means painting outside on location. Charlene Happy, our Barigord Studios designer and accomplished painter herself, helped me get ready to compete in the Steveston Grand Prix of Art, a popular annual outdoor painting competition.
Andrew Wade, who you’ve seen in all our films, made the first of his Fringe Theatre stops of the summer, heading to Toronto to perform his own show, Hullaboo and the End of Everything.
July also saw the Magic the Gathering world cross over into the real world, as The Lord of the Rings got an expansion, and a one-of-a-kind The One Ring card went out in a random pack like a golden ticket for the Wonka factory.
The card was found in early July, and promptly purchased by Post Malone for $2million.
In late July, I competed in the Steveston Grand Prix of Art. I didn’t place or anything, which was expected. I like painting, and I’m okay enough that I won’t embarrass myself in a competition like this one, but it’s a very very deep talent pool, full of people with established technique and perspective. I will likely enter again this year if possible.
August
The summer was a hot one, and the garden was a primary focus. My job at the time was very busy also. Somehow I managed to write the 2 most popular website posts of the year, as well enter another film contest that popped up at the last minute.
This one was a lot closer to home, being the Abbotsford 48hr Film Competition. We had a tiny group again, and I had a work shift that ate up the final 8 hours or so of the competition, and for some reason we decided to go Lego stop-motion so we could tell a bigger story.
It seemed perfectly sane at the time. Even when I submitted the film at the 35hr mark, and got a small chunk of sleep before heading into work. Andrew had just left for the airport and the Edmonton Fringe a couple hours previous.
Maybe it was. Our film was the runner up for Best Film, and I won Best Director.
That film is right here. Make sure you’ve got some popcorn!
September
In September the garden started to transition away from summer, but a lot of things held on much longer than expected. We’ve got a really cool little ecosystem going out there. We even got a visit from a photogenic hawk.
In gaming news, Sheldon Menery passed away.
Sheldon was a major part of the creation of the little side-game that some Magic the Gathering judges played with their Elder Dragon Legend cards. Some 20-25 years after Sheldon and co set down the rules for their format, now called EDH or Commander, it has become the most important and played format in all of Magic the Gathering, dominating tabletop play.
I didn’t know Sheldon personally, or ever met him, but for me, he represents the outside-the-box thinkers of the world. Even more than that, the ones who get their ideas into practice. Something I’m aiming to be.
October
Near the end of September, another film competition popped up. At this point, it had been a steady flurry of competitions, and my energy was pretty low.
The competition was Sh*ts & Giggles, by the people who brought you Run & Gun, out of our home turf of BC. This is a longer term window of competition. All year, really. But we only heard of it with a couple weeks to go, and decided to give it a shot.
I decided to both temper expectations and do something really outside-the-box, and we made ERAWEB, a film that has been tough to understand for most. While the narrative is fairly sketchy, the film was made to test the viability of filming everything backwards. People walking backwards, saying their lines syllabically backwards, etc.
I leaned hard into the oddness of being backwards, going with a black & white, almost European aesthetic and some espionage-ish action.
Making a backwards film was my version of sh*ts and giggles, and I knew it might not work, but I’m so glad we did it. We weren’t selected for screening by the competition, but I learned a lot, and have a bunch of fun new techniques in my pocket as a result.
November
October concluded and November began with the long-overdue release of some stop-motion Lego racing videos we made in 2021. The footage was mostly complete, and there was some cool sequences, but the project had some production flaws resulting from inexperience and sat in digital limbo for two years.
While it was again a terrific learning experience, the Hallowe’en Grand Prix left me feeling a bit frustrated with things like frame-rate and shot selection. I’d do it so differently now.
My favourite post of the year came in November, and hasn’t gotten much attention yet. I hope it will. It was a blast writing it.
December
In the final month of the year, there was one more film competition. The 100hr International Film Race 2023. The long one. 4 whole days and 4 hours. Almost a guarantee of double-digit sleep hours.
There were other things too, gaming and gardening and such, but this was the big finale of a year of film competitions, and we were determined to go out with a big bang.
We almost did. It would be so amazing to say were made the Top 10 for the third time, and each of the Internationals, this year, but we were just outside the Top 10.
So close.
It’s been a bit tough to take, but we still did really well. The film is going back into the editing room before we release it officially. Normally we wouldn’t do this, because I think it’s valuable to see what was actually accomplished during the hours of the contest.
However, the version we submitted for the contest is not the best the film can be, and we’d like you to see the best version this time. It won’t be long.
2024
And then there’s the new year, which is really close now.
In the coming year there’s a few plans afoot. While there are a plethora of film competitions available, I don’t know how many we’ll actually sign up for. I’d love to try Run & Gun for sure.
But it might be time for something a little less frantic, with more time to get everything right. There’s a production grant or two out there that want to help emerging filmmakers make a short series. 6 episodes.
I think that’s what I’m aiming for this year: a short series of about 6 episodes. We have a concept, and will be looking to make it happen. If you want to help, please contact barigordstudios@gmail.com.
We’ll need funding of course, but the idea is to create something that ultimately pays for itself and allows for more projects like it. Sustainable.
Thank you for reading this far. These posts get pretty wordy. If that’s for you, thank you for being my ideal audience. If not, less us know. Making these posts into videos might help a lot, and isn’t so far-fetched. Could be a big part of 2024.
A happy, healthy 2024 to you and yours. Stay safe and think sustainable. You matter.
Happy New Year!!!
