Progress Update: October 2025

Greetings all,

This one has a few major announcements.

The first is that we have unfortunately had to part ways with Arcaxon, who has been doing graphic design and animation for Down the Rabbit Hole for the past seven years. The team wishes him well on his future endeavors.

Arcaxon was able to finish the first half of the animation for the Foxhole video, but we're currently searching for someone to help complete the rest of the animation. I'll be tapping into my web of contacts, but I also would welcome anyone with a portfolio to share their work if they're interested in taking up the mantle.

This month, I took a trip to the UK to visit a few friends, including the composer for Down the Rabbit Hole, Ryan, and while I was there mostly on vacation, we did make a visit to a museum with whom we have now made plans to collaborate. While it's still too early to name them, part of that cooperation would involve them tapping into their archives and providing obscure information and archival footage for a Down the Rabbit Hole video.

Should this collaboration fall through, we still have plenty of other topics to fill that gap.

There's a lot else that's gotten done this month with other collaborators, but I'm not at liberty to speak about those yet. They'll be made public just as soon as possible, though it could take some time.

There has been a major change in our priorities with videos currently in production. As mentioned in the previous progress update, Project E has taken a backseat to Projects C and D. Project D is a historical topic and Project C is a modern internet topic, and given that we were hoping for our next video to be historical, we had originally decided to prioritize Project D. However, I have quickly realized that it's going to take a LOT more legwork and reading to do Project D properly, whereas research for Project C will likely be done in the next week or two (thanks to some information gathering by DESR). After some internal discussion, we decided that, while we would rather have a historical topic for our next video, it's more important to us that we have another video out by the end of the year, and so we're shifting our focus to Project C and saving Project D for later.

However, Project D has had a lot of progress made. One of the biggest is that I now have a very large pile of books to read through for it, and I have started chipping away at it; much of my winter will likely entail sitting and reading at a windowsill with a cup of tea in hand, which is a bit ironic given the subject matter...

Ryan has also made progress on a model, but we can't say too much about it without spoiling the topic.

We have made contact with another museum who deals directly with one of the major elements of Project D, and we may be able to work with them to some extent.

I've also managed to rope in another expert to be interviewed for Project C, who will hopefully be able to provide some much-needed context.

We also have discussed with one of our potential sponsors, and one of them has agreed to have theirs in Project C. Our intermediary is currently drafting a contract, but should all go well, this will mark the first sponsorship in a Down the Rabbit Hole video ever. This isn't a decision I make lightly, and when I eventually can share what the sponsorship is, I doubt there will be terribly many objections; they have never sponsored any other video, and in fact I don't think they've ever advertised at all. As I mentioned last month, it's for something that I truly enjoy and can personally wholeheartedly endorse, and so I do not feel that I am compromising myself or my name by engaging in this sponsorship, something that has kept me from taking a sponsorship before.

The day that we planned to meet about the Power Rangers video unfortunately fell through due to me falling ill on my way back from the UK, but we're currently planning another meeting.

Also, DESR has completed the subtitles for the Austrian Wine Poisoning video and they have now been added. They continue their gradual march through the backlog with the EVE video.

Ryan is nearly finished editing the next Warrens episode, which he estimates will be complete the first week of November. This is a very long one, clocking in at over three hours, so enjoy watching Ryan gradually lose his mind.

Thank you everyone for your continued support, and I'll see you again next month.

-Fredrik

Project Breakdowns:

Project C:

• Now the primary production focus

• Research has made significant progress, estimated to be finished within the next two weeks

• Two experts have agreed to be interviewed

Project D:

• Many books have arrived, research has begun

• Put on hold in favor of Project C

Project E:

• Research has begun but is currently on hold in place of other projects

Foxhole:

• Script completed

• Music completed

• B-roll collected

• First half of animation completed

• Currently on hold, awaiting a new graphic designer/animator

Power Rangers:

• Scheduling initial discussion with research contacts