The Nerd³ Paradox - Scene by Scene Breakdown
🕑 Added 2018-02-17 21:02:29 +0000 UTC This was my idea for a quick video. It took two weeks to make and involved over 900 people.I am terrible at what I do.
Spoilers follow.
Scene 1: The Intro.
Well, this had three wildly different versions. The first was over the top and dreadful, I was really happy with the 2nd one though, it was just a bit long. Then I came up with the title and though, fuck it, I'll do it again. Working out where to put the lines coming off the logo was fun. At one point the D was just super elongated and reminded me of the outfit from this VERY NSFW comic. In the end I went for the 3, simply because it looked the stupidest. I am a simple man.
Scene 2: GTA Online
Oh hey was that Guru Larry's voice? Yep, as well as being odd this video was also a collab! Anyway, this bit was all Matts work. He got 30 people and organised them, shot the scene and sent it to me. He even made a little timeline for everyone to follow. Bless him.

Scene 3 - Star Trek Bridge Crew
Simple enough bit. Matt got some footage and I looked up a piece of obscure history. Some takes of this had me doing a Jon impression. They did not survive the edit.
Scene 4 - Fallout 4
This bit took fucking forever. The footage was easy enough, the joke of speed runners doing mad shit really lands with that cabbage footage but dear god that layout took forever. I watched so many speed runners to see the kind of things they used and most were generic and reused. One or two had bespoke ones for each game and that looked much nicer. Also I fought for like an hour over if that logo at the top should be green or white. It probably should have been green.
Anyone notice a few Twitch regulars sitting at the bottom? Well, I needed names so opened old streams, clicked randomly and picked the first ones I recognised! :D
Scene 5 - Subnautica
That joke is stupid and I will defend it forever. Annoyingly I picked Subnautica for this, A GAME THAT DOESN'T LET YOU HAVE BLANK KEYS. They default to the word "escape". I had to make blank key slots in photoshop, overlay them and then make a fake mouse cursor, overlay that AND match that movement to the real mouse.
Wasn't really worth it was it?
Scene 6 - The Witcher 3
Ah, this was the first joke I came up with for this video. Basically built the video around it. I'm not sorry.
Scene 7 - Red Dead Redemption
Not sorry for this either. The punching sounds aren't from the game, they've been added in the edit. LOOK AT ME, EXPOSING MY SECRETS.
Scene 8 - Kerbal Space Program
This bit was originally intended to be a main video, just way more drawn out and stranger. I think it worked better here.
USELESS DETAIL CORNER: The star field is spinning gradually in the back to mess with your eyes a little. I am a monster.
Scene 9 - Cities Skylines
Bet the Americans will totally get this one.
Scene 10 - Besiege
A very dumb bit. The binary is, of course, a message, but I only recorded it once so if it's wrong... ah well.
Scene 11 - Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes
Thanks to all the people who sent voices in. I used all of them to really capture the feeling of an automatic lock in.
Scene 12 - Universe Sandbox 2
Other jokes included alien voices, an animated car and a quiet voice just saying "home." Sinister Elon worked better.
Scene 13 - PUBG
Largely a setup joke for the next bit. Spiced it up with naughty words and references to Trumps bizarre birth certificate shenanigans.
Scene 14 - Twitch
This came out super well. The twitch page is custom made to get rid of my name and add the Executive Time joke and the chat is just a screen recording from a livestream where I got chat to play this role. Brilliantly the 911 viewers was how many we had at the time so I left that in.
Had a few issues rendering this bit. Premier Pro kept failing to add random parts of it. Oh, the glamorous world of editing.
Scene 15 - Planet Coaster
This joke takes a long time to be dumb. I like it.
Scene 16 - Mario
I only remembered they'd changed the copyright warnings on YouTube this morning so had to frantically re-edit that last bit for it to work. I love that it just hangs there and stops awkwardly.
The original edit had over 20 scenes. I took out DBZ Fighterz, Star Wars Battlefront 2, Ride to Hell and a few others that didn't really work or didn't work well in the video. Maybe one day I'll release them as a... hahah, no I've already deleted them forever.
So, that was that. A fun, work heavy video with way more moving parts than I thought it would have. Shutout to Matt for most of the footage and everyone who sent shit in. Larry was great too!
I have to go now. I started writing this 45 mins ago and the video has literally just gone up. FUCK SPELLCHECK, I'M OUT.
- Dan
PS. Next week you'll get a Plays video and you'll fucking like it.
Comments
011011000110111101101100 [converted into ascii] = "lol"
Ed
What is the Sir Killalot message?
Stellar Star
I laughed so hard my cats jumped off the bed and i had a coughing fit. good shit.
Mike Jones
Not at all.
Mike Jones
I thought that would have worked better as well.
Mike Jones
Yeah I really enjoyed it. Initially I saw it was only a six minute video and was a bit disappointed, but then I thought oh if it's that short he will actually have put a lot of thought into it, and you had done! Great jokes, well put together, good stuff.
Patrick Jackson
"This was my idea for a quick video. It took two weeks to make and involved over 900 people. I am terrible at what I do. " Terribly awesome. It was a really excellent piece of work.
You my friend, are insane
Jack
Had me laughing so much thank-you it's just perfect
Tijmen Bergman
The Subnautica joke was 100% worth it
Douglas Hodgson
Explanation for the Cities Skylines one: Boris Johnson is currently the foreign secretary for the UK, he is also a witless mop-head. When he was Mayor of London, we put him on a zip wire and he got stuck up there. He recently suggested building a bridge across the English Channel to France after brexit to improve our relationship or enhance our connections or some such crap. This idea is obviously stupid. He's also a conservative and so dislikes the NHS (National Health Service) by default.
Thought this was fantastic, and I’m slightly embarrassed about how loud I laughed at the Witcher 3 clip
Craig Wright
The fallout speed run had me in stitches you perfectly captured most speed runs. I'm a big fan of Jon so I enjoyed seeing him mentioned. It's a short video but it's clear a lot of effort went into it and it's up there with my all time favourite videos.glad to see you having some fun writing jokes
jonathan steward
But the important question is: Which Star Wars Battlefront 2 did you want to include?
LukeSeawalker
Loved it, the Logan Paul joke floored me with laughter and this deserves to be the most viewed video this year!
God bless Lee. I'm kind of excited on his behalf that his name was referenced. I really didn't get the first part of the video, but I enjoyed the game bits. It is a bit "Classic Dan" - really stupid, rapid-fire content and jokes - and I love it.
I haven't seen the video yet, although looking foward to it. Do i need to watch the cloverfield paradox before i get it?
Joseph Henderson
I haven't laughed that hard in a while. Well done!
Anna Leigh Wilson
I may have done the same thing.
Matt Eden
See now this is why I give you my money.
Anna Leigh Wilson
So are my two cameos.
Anna Leigh Wilson
This was the best thing I've seen in awhile. I was having such a shitty day/week, and to have this pop up was perfect.
The binary came out fine, we can now officially call you "One Take Hardcastle" and it be true, even if just this once...
UpIsNotMemed
Would you do something like this again?
UpIsNotMemed
Happy birthday
FlamingYeti
My voice is in a NerdCubed video? That's going on the CV.
Gulag
Today was my birthday and I like to think of this video as my birthday present from Dan
Omar AlHashmi
God I loved this video, always loved these one-off sketch videos you make. Like one of my favorites of yours the video on "Infamous". Keep up the great content Dan!
Eoin Thorpe
The Elon Musk joke should have been Mars with tapping noises
CJ
Lol
Bjorn van Rijszen
Two weeks for a 6:30 minute video. Fuckin' hell. You're nothing if not dedicated.
Johnflipper5
Well matt is a shutout now
Well Read Nomad
Loved every second of it, although I think the Planet Coaster joke would have landed better for me without the laughter: the dry silence would have suited the overall tone of the video.
Scott Ryan
Loved the video, glad to be a small part in it
Rowan Mackenzie
I freaked out slightly at having my name at the bottom of your Fallout 4 bit XD
My Uni housemates are now disturbed about how loudly I laughed at that crab joke. I was rolling around on my bed in hysterics for a good three minutes. Golden.
I WAS IN IT!!!
sir killalot says lol
Shawn Lindsay
I think the Boris Johnson joke could of been just rotating an airport trying to fit it on an impossibly small island insisting it's the best place for it
lol, very funny indeed
Simon Paffett
Binary coded message is funny. I won't spoil it here though. <3
Woodchip NZ
That was glorious. Loved the Witcher 3 part, and the subtle "Fuck the NHS" bit.
Rachel Wolfe
You made a video I guess
Valthexus
This is amazing! One of the best pieces of arts yet. Most will love it... some will diss it. You dan are the original basic bitch.
Hailey Morrison
perfect. absolutely perfect.
Welf Garkisch
I literally laughed out loud. Especially liked the one about jon and logan paul.
I loved this video. I'm probably going to rewatch it alot! The humor of the video just takes me back 😀
Well, this was interesting hahaha
Whilst watching this i was trying to think of constructive criticism and the only i could think of is you don't make enough stuff like this, the timing was perfect the jokes were sublime and i think this is the best work you have ever done keep it up.
Simmonsdude
Just had me grinning throughout so well made and funny.
This is amazing. Terrific work!
Jacob
Reminded me of your old machinima videos. Loving the nostalgic style of humor.
CarrierOfTime
It was superb, MORE!
Dan, I know you really don't get much; morally or money-ily(?), but you still make these videos for us. You're amazing and this video was hilarious
MrAndyTF
Really good video, thanks for all the hard work you put into making these videos Dan, it really comes through in the quality of the content you are giving us the pleasure of viewing, very enjoyable indeed!