YTP: Friar’s Rubbing Wood - Fall Of Nottingham

While the society of Nottingham focuses it’s efforts on petty crooks and thieves, a greater danger lurks under the surface. Will Nottingham rise to the challenge? Or will this be it’s fall? Well, after more than a year in production, this project that started off as mere filler that evolved into our longest, most complex and challenging videos is finally complete! To say this video was taxing (pun intended) would be a major understatement! Upon receiving so much excitement from our followers for Robin Hood it soon became clear, that this project was going to have to be different. We couldn’t just be content to make a “silly“ YTP but because of how beloved the Disney classic was, we felt it was our duty to try to match the quality of the source material to the best of our ability. The story came fairly slowly to me compared to our previous big projects. Usually before production, the story comes almost instantly and from beginning to end with grey areas. However this time it was different. As some of you may remember, back in 2019 we had big plans for a “Sword In The Stone“ YTP that was intended to be a homage to everything classic Disney. But at that time, it proved too complex for what I wanted the story to be. By the time “Friar“ came along inspiration for the project had evaporated. And considering the hype from our followers, we both decided to re purpose my ambitions from “Sword“ and make “Robin Hood“ the Classic Disney homage we intended back in 2019. The original story was going to involve multiple Robin Hoods all claiming to be the real Robin, however after studying the multiple films, this avenue soon proved to not only be improbable but also a tad generic. So instead the focus came to Friar Tuck, who upon inspecting the Disney classic proved to have immense villain potential! We are very grateful to the “Church Scene“ in “Robin Hood“ because nearly every stream of dialogue for Friar in our YTP stems from that scene XD! Some of the technical challenges came from the limitations in actual footage of the characters from the film. As it may come as a shock for some to learn that each character (apart from Prince John & Sir Hiss) have very little screen time. The solution to this dilemma was to hand animate the characters frame for frame, depending what we needed them for. One example was Friar’s cannon scene. We took the footage of Geppetto striking a match on his rear behind from Pinocchio. However, it wasn’t a straightforward case. As Geppetto’s height and lankiness proved ill fitted for the Friar’s short stoutness. Nevertheless, after much guess work, three weeks and 38 frames later it was completed! The biggest challenge was how to pay respect to the legend of Robin Hood. Having been raised up on both the Disney and 1938 Robin Hoods, it would’ve been the height of impertinence to not include the original 1938 “Adventures of Robin Hood“ and who better to chose than Robin’s adversary; Sir Guy of Gisbourne played by the legendary Basil Rathbone, who is another of our Grandads favorite actors. During production, after we discovered that Sir Hiss was literally based on the Gisbourne role, decided to make these two have an intense dislike for each other. As technically they are the same character, they pretty much can’t exist in the same universe. It was very rewarding making these two interact with each other. It felt like it was meant to be. Another ambition of mine for this project was to try and apply some of the techniques that some of the masters of cinema have pioneered. One of them was the theory of Visual Literacy applied by, IMO, the greatest director of all time; Martin Scorsese, who was a major source of inspiration for this video. The scene where Friar Tuck summons the sun is done with this theory in mind. It informs the audience that Friar is fulfilling what we saw from his book in the cave before. It highlights too that unlike the people of Nottingham who are being fooled into believing he is benevolent, the act is literally the opposite. As some would see the clearly obvious religious parallels of the shot where Friar poses like the Biblical prophets of old. His silhouette unlike an angel is one of darkness instead of light. We have both been so moved by the response in the comments from you all. We are deeply moved and grateful. Due to extreme fatigue however, we will be taking a months break as we have neglected other areas of our lives to make this video possible. We hope you will understand. But rest assured, we will be back in late April with smaller YTP’s and then resume work onto the much anticipated “One James Is Not Enough“ YTP! Become a Patron: Follow us on Twitter: #YouTubePoop #RobinHood #FriarsRubbingWood #Disney THIS VIDEO IS A PARODY AND IS THEREFORE PROTECTED UNDER THE “FAIR USE“ COPYRIGHT ACT. ALL FOOTAGE USED BELONGS TO THEIR RESPECTIVE OWNERS.