#where it's like I'm going back to the beginning of my excitement in dec 2020

[jaynovz]

I'm never going to be over Silverflint they're literally in my veins forever

#thoughts #this isn't a bad thing or anything it's just #unprecedented #I'm just Like This now #what else will ever be able to compare to black sails? #because for the rest of my life I'm just going to hold every single piece of media up to that and to Them #I didn't actually expect to be here forever but I feel like that's what's happening #genuinely the last month or so I have felt some type of energized refresh #where it's like I'm going back to the beginning of my excitement in dec 2020 #personal #300k words has not been enough to exorcise them so at this point I don't know if any amount will be and like that's fine #This is my thing this is my home this is where I live and it's kind of great I just didn't expect it when this started #There are hyperfixations and then there are enduring abiding special interests for the rest of forever lmao 😅 #Anyway black sails changed my life

[littlekingbergara]

PLS pls share your theories on watcher’s origin story !!

WITH PLEASURE!! sorry this took so long i was in a meeting!

i think steven lim left buzzfeed first, or at least went part-time/freelance since he moved to new york in late 2018 and then back to los angeles in 2019.

we know from watcher weekly+ episode 3 and the beginning of the future is unscripted (which, yes, obviously dramatized, but i think there's some truth to it!) that steven approached them in the spring (march-april 2019), when i assume their contracts at buzzfeed were already ending and it was time to renew and asked about the future. also, we know shane and ryan got hired at buzzfeed at the same time so it makes sense that their contracts would be up for renewal at the same time. ryan mentioned that it was important for them to keep a good relationship with buzzfeed in leaving so that's why i think it was around the time their contracts would have been up anyway.

as far as who conceptualized the company - i really think it was ryan! whenever they talk about it they give so much of the credit to him. i think he and shane may have floated the idea but it wasn't a solid "yes, we're going to do this" because neither of them had the kind of business understanding that they needed. i think shane was probably the last on board, but only because i think ryan spoke to steven first as the more business-minded of the three of them and then the two of them approached shane so they could assure him that they had things covered (since we know shane doesn't always believe in himself and his abilities, having steven and ryan, in whose abilities he wholeheartedly believes, already on board would make him more inclined to agree).

the variety article where they announced watcher (dec 2019) says "the founders have spent the last six months producing the first batch of shows," which puts production officially starting in june 2019. we know journalists are vague with time estimations but june being the official start of producing shows that are specifically For Watcher Entertainment sounds right to me. shane's instagram puts them shooting puppet history season 1 in early july 2019 and we know that that pilot was the very first watcher thing they shot from shane's audio commentary on patreon.

sophie @psychicbergara and itze @monsteraficionado pointed out that tourist trapped was filmed earlier (april 2019), but that it was also made as a way for shane and ryan to explore their dynamic outside of unsolved and not specifically For Watcher at first. (i also remember this being said but i cannot place a source. it was probably a watcher weekly and i'm not going to go back and watch 200 of them to place it but. it's part of the theory!).

we also know from making watcher that their original plan was to fund everything themselves, but realized they needed investors a little later on. since shane mentions in the same puppet history audio commentary that they needed to do everything as cheaply as possible for puppet history, which, again, started shooting in july, it's safe to assume they hadn't pitched to investors at that point. steven's hair was pink when they secured their investors, which took two meetings a week apart from each other, so i think that last investment meeting happened in august 2019!

okay. i THINK that covered everything. maybe in terms of the exact months these things happened i could be off, but i think the timeline is right.

another gem from shane's instagram is this picture from february 2020 that makes me feel like my brain is just absolutely teeming with bees because you can feel all of the love and joy and excitement a month after launch.

also: i rewatched the first making watcher episode to re-check some of my facts and see if they made any reference to timing and i legitimately started crying when ryan said "i think we might be okay" after their investment meeting. "i'm working with my best friends. we assembled the best team we could have possibly assembled, we made the best content we could have made, and we did everything the right way. i believe in us" excuse me. i have to sob.

#this got so long... i'm insane maybe. #would love to discuss! #ahtw #💌 #bergoozter