De-aged Derek angst can't be that bad right? Yeah. Yep....

It’s (only) been a year.

Yes, it has really been a year since the first video(well, of the ARG) on the CH/SS channel. And it’s been a wonderful year. I’d say one of the best. I look back to when I first watched MarbleHornets back in 2013 and I remember thinking to myself as I watch the videos on Totheark’s channel: “Holy shit. I want to make this.” It was an obsession, from that point. I loved the VHS effects, I loved the warped quality of the videos, the creepiness. 

Fun fact. The channel CH/SS currently sits on was created on June 1, 2013, when I got into the MH series. Cringey as it may be, I used it to post two videos: each poorly edited and put together, trying to be as creepy as I could possible imagine. To say the least, nothing came of it and I soon deleted both videos. I don’t have the videos and I don’t remember what it was about either. I lost track of it. I couldn’t really bring myself to delete the channel though. The “cryptic” name: “EleventhSymbol”, which still hangs as a the url even through my efforts to change it, became my gamertag. I resigned myself to never be able to create something on such a grand and inspiring scale as MH.

Flash to 2014, and MH ends, and I was glad that I was there to catch it. It was fitting, albeit I only started nearly at the end of the series. I didn’t have any time to watch the rest, only the beginning and the end; the middle I guessed to be a wild chase from start to finished. Flash again to 2015, and CL44 kicks off. I join the forums, and I find what I had been looking for: the Night Mind explained videos. I was immediately enraptured. Only after four videos I knew what had gone on during the duration of MH, that it wasn’t all it seemed to be. I watched video after video, post after post, because I simply could not get enough. That’s when I started CH/SS.

Well, its precursor, at least. On the THAC forums, there were a bunch more users sharing their series, slender-series, cryptic channels, and I was introduced to the much larger scale of ARGs, such as Cave of Shadows, Arkn mythos, what-not. Night Mind and his videos of Dark Media inspired me, and I was suddenly caught in this media-based “renaissance”.  And that rekindled a flame that had sort-of died two years ago. I scrambled my camera, took a few shots, jotted stuff down and reformatted the channel and slapped it on; just like an ARG, just like MH. Granted, I did promote it on the forums, and it did garner some attention. But almost immediately after posting I knew that I messed up. I had no story. I didn’t even have an antagonist. It was just about me and some weird stuff was happening and I find footage of it on the actual channel itself and it led nowhere. A dead end. After dragging it along for a while, I stopped around December. I resigned myself, again, to a failure. It was ultimately myself that brought it upon myself, a fleeting, hastily put together concept that ultimately had no end. 

Another funny story. The first actual CH/SS video was entirely made on the spot. I got sony vegas and figured out the chroma key function on the software, and I tried it out. I looked online for VHS green screen stuff, and found one. I slapped it in and chroma keyed out the green. It was good. I found some footage of the building demolition, and I thought of something cryptic and ominous to say, let’s say, two coupled phrases. It’ll be overlaid on a demolition, maybe something about “rising from the ashes”. Yeah. That’ll do. It should have a logo, it sounds like a company advert. CH/SS? Sure. Whatever, it’s just a test. I added a tone and a shape on the logo, and I added the slogan. I looked good, but from what I learned from my past mistakes was that I was too keen into rushing into it. I made a few more stylized “adverts” and I wrote a basic script. And I waited. For a while.

I decide to upload it to CH/SS. After I uploaded it and the forums showed support. It looked cool, some people said. But not much came of it. Still, I pressed on. I had sixteen when I started, those from the previous series. But as I posted each, there was a gradual increase. Much more than I had anticipated. I got more excited. I wrote more script. I decided to add characters, I formulated a real life reason and motive behind the channel. 16 turned to 20, 20 turned to 40. I could not from the life of me know where this had come from. For once, I felt motivated to keep on, to continue the story. The fact that I had 40 odd people watching me make the next thing drove me to create. 

You probably know the rest. Another funny thing. April 20th, 2016. I had 65 subscribers. I actually had another small channel, and Lego stop-motion channel that had been active way longer than the CH/SS channel. It kinda stopped growing at 66. I was one more subscriber away from matching this current record, it was the most I’ve ever gotten. I even scheduled a video to come out that evening. And on the morning, at around noon, I checked my subscriptions, and one thing caught my eye. Naturally, I would’ve ignored it. But this time I couldn’t. It was a phrase so familiar. I scroll back up and I see the word “CH/SS” on a video thumbnail by Night Mind. I look back, and I laugh at my confusion and bewilderment. I check my channel, surely enough, it had gained 400 subscribers. I could not believe my eyes. It was of my channel. Somehow, it was. I checked again an hour later and it had increased by 200. It was an astounding feeling. 

I cannot for the life of me believe that had happened. Apparently, a few were interested to promote this channel, few calling it their favorite, and advocating it to be reviewed. And after a few more months, a reddit and some discord servers, many other videos and codes, and a twitter account, here I am. I was actually planning to write something more concise, but I just couldn’t stop myself. This has been my dream. Of course, it’s not over, but when I look back, there have many times where I had given up, but many more times where I had climbed back, somehow. I could’ve just stopped and be done with it. 

Never be done with it. Of all the years, 2015 and 2016 has been the new age of ARGs. And I have seen many come and go. Many of the series that were created around the same time as mine are gone. Lack of drive, lack of enthusiasm, lack of proper motivation. I wish some of those channels had stayed. I wanted to see how they came about. A story left unfinished is one painful story, to say the least. 

It’s only been a year. But I want to say this to all the fellow creators out there, although this might sound a bit cheesy. You could be creating an ARG, or a gaming channel, or a commentary, whatever. It may be a long time before something comes of it. You will have to wait. But don’t give up. Many people just stop and say it’s not worth it, but if you enjoy making your videos, it will be worth it. Even if you have only a handful of others to share it with, if you enjoy it, it’s worth. Before Night Mind’s exposure, I had a a decent amount. Nothing worth noting, but I enjoyed it. Every single last bit of it. The gratifying feeling you have after you post a video and knowing people enjoy is worth it. Even if NM had never made that video, I still would’ve been happy. I’d keep on doing this until my story was finished.

Okay, enough with the cheesy bits, I’ve going on for quite a while. It’s been a year, full of twists and turns, ups and downs. I’ve been through quite a lot of creative blocks, pressuring time-restraints and sudden lack of motivation. But it’s only been a year. CH/SS won’t go for a decade, but it won’t be too short either. I just wanted to mark this milestone, somehow. I’m nearing 2,000 subs (if you count a difference of 70 to be small), and I will make sure I will not let those ~2,000 subs down. 

Somehow, I think I might, although I will try everything in my best interest to postpone that eventuality. Well, the future is still there, and it’s only been a year.

Here’s to another one.