Bad news on the Dave Does Disney front

There’s been a delay in getting the remaining episodes (one on Hollywood Studios, one on some of the resorts and Downtown Disney, and one “grand finale”) out because I’ve been so busy with my actual job (by the way, have you seen the zBlog site yet?), but now the delay will go on longer because today, a mere few days after I put the finishing touches on the next two episodes, my external hard drive died without warning.

I’m pretty mad at myself, since I kept making a mental note to back up the videos, but kept putting it off. Yes, I am stupid. Feel free to point at me and laugh derisively.

Anyway, right now I can think of four options:

OPTION ONE: I can simply re-edit the remaining videos. I believe I still have all the raw footage I shot last year on other hard drives (and if not, it’s all on tapes at my parents’ house), so I could re-edit, but I spent so long editing these the first time around that I have no idea when it would get done. It would be a BIT faster if I remember everything I did last time, but it would still be a pain.

OPTION TWO: Since I’m back in Florida for a few months, I could start over COMPLETELY from scratch, shooting new, far superior footage with a more current look at Hollywood Studios and the resorts.

Reasons I might want to start over from scratch:
(1) I was already planning on doing a post-series follow-up on the things that have changed anyway, so this kills two birds with one stone.
(2) I would have to rerecord the narration anyway, and something about re-reciting my impressions from my first time at Hollywood Studios, now that I’ve been there so many times since and have a different perspective on it, feels…disingenuous, I guess? I don’t know, it’s hard to explain.
(3) There was a lot from the old versions of the videos I was never satisfied with. As I’ve mentioned, this wasn’t originally meant to be a detailed review series, but a much more casual “goofing off at theme parks” video. Since the project developed in editing, I had to settle for some really bad shots of some rides, shows, or locations because they’re the only ones I happened to have. Starting over would give me a chance

The reasons I’m reluctant to start over from scratch are:
(1) It would take EVEN LONGER than just reassembling the footage. I don’t even know when the next time I’ll be free enough to visit a Disney park is.
(2) I really don’t feel like going to all those hotels again to collect footage.
(3) I don’t like the idea of the last few episodes being a different style than the first three, even if it’s an improved style. I’m a fan of consistency.
(4) While there was stuff I wasn’t satisfied with, there were plenty of other things in the old videos that I was really proud of, things that I wouldn’t be able to recreate with new footage.

OPTION THREE: I can adapt the scripts from the remaining episodes into written blog posts. This would be the easiest solution, but also the least satisfying. As I said, I don’t like the idea of the series changing styles in the middle unless it’s clearly a “new season” or something like that, but at least you’d get to hear all the obscure jokes that I think are so hilarious even though only three of you will get them

OPTION FOUR: Pray that my hard drive will miraculously start working again, at least long enough for me to back up the files.

Anyway. I’m going to not think about it for a few days, and hopefully come back with a fresh perspective. Feel free to let me know which option you would lean towards (or if you prefer a different option altogether!)

Once again, I’m really glad so many of you like this so far, and I’m really sorry it will be so long before you see the remaining episodes.

But hey, in the meantime, you can watch Tony Goldmark’s Disney park videos, which are funnier (and have more profanity) than mine anyway!

4 thoughts on “Bad news on the Dave Does Disney front

  1. I say pray the hard drive recovers! Also we took what we thought was a dead hard drive to the geek squad at BEst Buy and they were able to recover the data from it. In any case the joy is in the PROCESS, right?? the product is just icing! (it may take several repetitions to settle that thought<3) Godspeed to ya, David!!

  2. Are you sure the hard drive is actually dead, or could it just be a connection issue? You could take off the casing and get one of those USB cables that connects directly to the hard drive power and data connection and see if you can get the data off that way. The Geek squad idea is not bad too, or some other place that deals with that. Hope you can recover it.

    • I’m willing to try anything (well, anything inexpensive), but my roommate who knows far more about computer hardware than I do is not optimistic.

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