In 2014, I had just wrapped a long stint of producing television for a celebrity-focused entertainment network. The Hollywood glitz machine had taken its toll, and I was ready to try something different.
One of my editors said, “There’s a job interview I think you should go on. They contacted me, but I think it’s much more your speed.”
“Really?” I asked. “What is it?”
“It’s for something called ‘the Game Theorists’?”
And that’s how it started. For the next three-ish years, I would work as an editor, animator, and later a post-production supervisor for Matt and Stephanie Patrick.
I did a lot of video work with them.
Everybody else did liquify tricks to make MatPat look happy and sad.
I put MatPat on a podium, because in 2014, I watched a lot of TED Talks, and Game Theorist seemed like the TED Talks of video game fan theories.
Matt seemed fine with it, but he asked me to Photoshop back in the light’s arm on the lectern, which I totally missed because I did it super late at night.
I made what may be the funniest animation I’ve ever done
A Maury Povich-style “YOU ARE THE FATHER!” reveal with Bowser from Super Mario Bros.
I animated a critical moment from Five Nights at Freddy’s that was never actually in the game.
I uncovered the (now scrapped) Devil storyline in Hello Neighbor.
After editing far too late into the night (pattern?), I once confused Siegward of Catarina with Patches in Dark Souls III, and MatPat got a lot of heat in the comments, and never once called me out by name. But it was me. 😀
My personal favorite was getting to remake the 1990s X-Men opening in pixel art with Game Theorist characters.
Then, in 2017, we won a Streamy for Best Editing.
I left the Theorists in 2017 to work full-time on How to ADHD, and they went on to create Food Theory, which I told MatPat in 2017 didn’t make any sense.
I am now delighted to tell you it’s my favorite Theorist channel. 🙂
I can’t end this without saying that Matt and Stephanie are – legitimately – some of the nicest people I’ve ever met in the entertainment industry, and they deserve all the happiness they can get.
And I don’t know what they’re paying their editors these days, but they all deserve a raise.
The work is intense.
Edward Newton 