I had the impression that most of it was bullshit propaganda from a repressive government that was designed to keep the population constantly off-balance and fearful.
There’s no normalcy engine, it’s actually something else (probably surveillance equipment) and they want to frighten people away from messing with it. Making silly changes to the alphabet keeps people off-balance and teaches unquestioning obedience. Etc.
I thought some of it was inspired by current US political propaganda much of which is silly but is accepted by a large minority.
Although I suppose if you were doing that it would be about British politics.
I’ll join in the general praise for the series, and add that I’ve subscribed to your channel and look forward to wasting lots of time with you in coming weeks and months.
I was wondering about that, because it seemed to me that it would have been quite expensive to have shot all of it yourself. If you don’t mind me asking, how much of the live-action footage (excluding stills and graphics) would you estimate is stock vs. original?
It varies by episode, but mostly, it’s stock footage.
In the Slaughtercester Sauce episode, I had to make all of the sauce bottles and shoot them being handled. In the Slaughtermouth episode, only the bit with the paper that says ‘goodbye to us’ is my footage.
Nearly everything else is stock - often, I crop it very hard, and this dramatically changes the context, or I juxtapose two completely unrelated pieces (a woman running away, a man raising a rifle) to tell a story.
Those were a hoot! To American eyes there is a “maybe this is real” vibe to the first couple you watch.
I’ve been hosting a monthly outdoor movie night through the pandemic and the short subject is usually an unintentionally funny educational film from the ‘50s or ‘60s. My wife and about six other attendees are from the UK. With @Mangetout ’s permission I’d love to see the reaction a Slaughter Valley short would get from a mixed crowd.
That certainly makes it easier to understand how you achieved such good production values on what I assume is a fairly low budget. I’m extremely impressed, and not a little jealous of your cleverness and creativity.
Are there more Slaughter Valley episodes in the offing?
Very well done video shorts. They reminded me of a British video version of the “Welcome to Night Vale” podcast I used to listen to. Looking forward to watching the scambaiting videos now when I have more time. I think I have a new favorite YouTube channel…
I am afraid though, having watched the entire “Slaughter Valley” video series, that I will now die in seven days
I also just watched the eating 3 meals for one pound video. Damn, things at Tesco are cheap! I thought shopping in America things were pretty cheap compared with European supermarkets, but to get a discounted loaf of bread for 20p? And salmon pate for 40p (or whatever the price was)? You sure got a lot of groceries for one quid. I lived in Hungary for 5 years and every time I came back to the States, I felt like everything was so much cheaper here at the grocery, but I was mostly thinking of animal protein items. They were at least double the price out there. A loaf of cheap industrial white bread is something typically like 2 bucks out here, maybe a dollar if you shop at the dollar store, but I saw in your video there were regularly priced loaves going at under 50p (about 63 cents US).
I quite enjoyed that! It reminded me of the Scarfolk Council videos on YouTube, and I also got the Peter Serafinowicz-type of vibe from this as well. Subscribing!
Just my opinion, but I’d prefer to just see more PSAs. It’s like we’re seeing this strange world through small windows which show an incomplete picture and possibly not even a completely honest one.
Fleshing out the backdrop removes the mystery and intrigue.
Where and what is this valley? What is the purpose of these videos? Are the things they describe real?
When you try to explain it all, either it falls apart due to internal contradictions, or it becomes mundane.
Yeah, I’ve got one more lined up for this week - I’m easing back the schedule from weekly though, to make space for other content, and to allow new ideas to develop
The fun thing about Slaughter Valley is that there can be no contradictions - because we can never be sure whether anything told to us by the authorities, in any of the broadcasts, is truth, or just a convenient lie - or indeed whether there is no contradiction because of the fluid nature of reality in the valley.
If the videos leave you with more questions than they answer, this is normal.
Very much enjoyed Mangetout’s videos, though I have a number to go. I’m not much on the Slaughter Valley ones, but I’ve been enjoying and concentrating on the “scambusting” ones, and they have been very informative. And I’ll add my admiration of your voice–it is very good; a narrator’s voice, clear and understandable. And I say that as one who has done professional voice work.
Thanks for posting the link, OP. And thank you to Mangetout, who has such an entertaining and informative YouTube channel.
