HISTORY
Bean Quest
Before Scootertrix the Abridged, Getschman and Zimbauer created an abridged series called Bean Quest. This would be thier first attempt at abridging. Like Scootertrix, it was an abridgement of the television series My Little Pony Friendship is Magic. The premise was about the character Twilight having a Mexican-Library restaurant, and the world of Equestria running out of beans. It premiered on June 15, 2014 on Youtube. This would be the first video content ever produced by Scootertrix Studios.
As ridiculous as the premise was, the episode made its way onto Equestria Daily in the 998th nightly roundup. On Youtube, it got around 700 views.
Bean Quest was up for only a month or so before it was taken down by it's creators. The premise of the series was extremely restricting for creativity, many of the characters were poorly written and at times annoying, and the episode itself had very slow pacing. Only one episode was aired, and 90% of a second one was completed in editing but never released.
Despite being taken down, several of the concepts in Bean Quest were used in Scootertrix the Abridged. The Scootertrix characters of Celestia and Fluttershy for example, are exactly the same from when they were in Bean Quest. Some of Applejack and Rarity's quirks, such as using the phrase "Nibblet" and always wanting to buy a dress, made their way to Scootertrix as well. Another element that stayed was the main theme, and the opening credits are almost identical to that of Bean Quest.
All in all, Bean Quest was a learning experience for the Scootertrix team, and was a prime influence in Scootertrix the Abridged.
The episode of Bean Quest and it's unfinished sequel still exist, but are not available to the public.
Pre-Production and Production for Scootertrix the Abridged
After Bean Quest, Getschman began to do research on other abridged series, as well as research on storytelling and comedy. One of the biggest influences for Scootertrix the Abridged was another MLP abridged series called The Mentally Advanced Series. It's well constructed scenes and banter between its characters were a major influence in the structure of dialog and pacing in Scootertrix episodes. Reviews of abridged series, as well as panels and interviews with abridgers were also a huge help; and the youtuber Tommy Oliver, was the biggest influence in terms of character development and the importance of story and writing.
After doing lot's of research, Getschman began to construct the characters. Twilight and Luna would play straight man roles. Pinkie would break the fourth wall. Spike, would be a criticizer of the pony world, and draw attention to the universe's flaws. The other characters were a bit more complex.
Applejack's quirk (Thinking apples were Mangos) was originally used in a sketch Getschman wrote with the same concept.
Rarity's speech pattern, voice, and obsession with Spaghetti Noodles, were all influenced by Getschman's idea for a possible Legend of Korra abridged series. The character of Korra's mom had an amusing voice and in a scene was making noodles. Getschman loved the concept at the time and used it as rarities character.
The Bird was the hardest character to come up with. The Bean Quest version was originally this nerd type character with an annoying Urkel voice. Eventually however, Getschman settled a character's speech pattern from another sketch he wrote. The "Hello" quirk was also part of this. As for the name, the creators went by the logic of "Rainbow Dash can fly... Let's call her The Bird!".
For the music of the series, Getschman wanted to have as much original content as possible. Thus the music had to be composed by scootertrix and not taken from other sources. Thus Getschman began to make his own compositions on GarageBand.
The screenplay for episode 1 took around a month to write, and was approximately 13 pages long. This would prove to be too short, and later episodes of Scootertrix would average at around 15 pages.
The dialog was recorded at the sound facility at Santa Fe University of Art and Design.
Production on episode 1 was pretty smooth and took about a week to edit. It was completed in the early hours of October 31, 2014.
Premiere, Release, and Critical Response
Episode 1 of Scootertrix the Abridged actually premiered in a theater on October 31, 2014. For a class project, students were assigned to show 1 of their films on the big screen and have the other students critique it. Scootertrix was shown to around 100 film students.
The response from the class was overall positive with some minor complaints about long transition pauses. It was praised on the other hand, for it's comedic timing and sound quality.
On November 1, 2014, it aired on Youtube and also received a generally positive response, with only a few criticisms of some of the voice acting and the slow pacing.
Encouraged by the positive response, Getschman began work on episode 2. At this stage, he was hesitant on actually making a whole series. It would not be until episode 3, that Getschman would start have the intention of making a full series for Scootertrix the Abridged.
The Two Month Hiatus
During the summer of 2015, Scootertrix the Abridged took a two month hiatus due to not having access to the sound facilities at Santa Fe University of Art and Design.
To make up for the loss of two months worth of episodes, Getschman decided that for the month of October, he would make weekly episodes as well as a Halloween Special. In order to pull this off, Getschman had to write a number of scripts before school started again, in order to give him enough time to make so many episodes in such a short time frame.
By the end of the summer, Getschman was only able to finish 3 of the 6 scripts. This was not a huge set back however, as the remaining 3 scripts had significant work done on them, and he still had another month and October itself to finish them.
The October Episodes
The October episodes consisted of Episodes 10 - 14 as well as the Halloween Special.
Episode 10 had initial delays as Getschman could not get access to the sound room at the school. It wasn't until halfway through the month that he regained access to it. Episode 10 was also the first episode that would feature an original song. Originally it was going to be sung by a well known brony musician, but it didn't work out, so Getschman sang it instead. On it's release, the song would have mixed reviews from the public.
Episode 11 was very well received from the public and was a core arc episode.
Episode 12 was a bit of a risk as almost none of the main characters were in it. It had a whole host of new characters, such as the CMC, Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon, and Ms. Cheerilee. Overall, the episode was positively received.
Episode 13 was not as well received as the others, do it's pacing problems and lack of narrative. It also did not contribute much to the story arc. It was also at this point that Getschman was coming to the end of his rope with creating episode on schedule. The Halloween Special was coming up, and the day after that would be 14th episode. Luckily, youtuber AtomicCatacombs, requested if the Scootertrix team needed an editor. He was accepted and would become an important member of the Scootertrix team.
The Halloween special was the first episode co-written by Cris Galvez, the VA for Luna. It was also edited by AtomicCatacombs. Getschman would consider both, lifesavers for keeping the series on schedule. The episode itself was another risk as it did not focus on being funny, but more dramatic. It explored the feelings and frustration Luna had with Celestia and her desire for respect. The episode was received positively.
Episode 14 was yet another risk for the series, and this time it could have been much more damaging. The episode's "twist" completely changed a character's status in the universe and would affect future episodes. The risk paid off however, and would be considered the best episode of Scootertrix to date. The episode was also the first time Getschman and Mick-o-MaikeruHead would collaborate. Mick-o-MaikeruHead created impressive artwork for the backstory scenes in the episode. All in all, episode 14 brought Scootertrix to another level of quality.
The Crossover with Friendship is for Adults
The first ever abridged crossover began when Getschman saw the fourth episode of the MLP abridged series Friendship is for Adults, by TheKanterlot. getschman was extremely impressed by the character arcs and great improvement in the series's quality and wrote them a message expressing his praise. This began both channels communicating over youtube and eventually agreeing to collaborate on something.
Pre-production on the crossover begin in the summer of 2015, during Scootertrix's hiatus. Having 2 crossover episodes and 3 of the characters from each switching was one of the earliest concepts. Though the basic concept was settled early on, both sides had some difficulty in determining the plot. Early drafts saw some of the Scootertrix characters torchered or brainwashed, in order to keep it realistic with what TheKanterlot characters would do. The screenplay would take months to complete and wouldn't be done until Mid-October of the same year.
Editing and each part of the series also had some complications. On the night before the episodes were supposed to premiere, both parties were not satisfied with eachothers episodes. Thus, the premiere date was moved to the Friday of that week December 4, 2015.
The episodes received an overall positive response from the public, and gained TheKanterlot over 200 subscribers, pushing them over 1000.
The Crossover with Friendship is for Adults
The first ever abridged crossover began when Getschman saw the fourth episode of the MLP abridged series Friendship is for Adults, by TheKanterlot. getschman was extremely impressed by the character arcs and great improvement in the series's quality and wrote them a message expressing his praise. This began both channels communicating over youtube and eventually agreeing to collaborate on something.
Pre-production on the crossover begin in the summer of 2015, during Scootertrix's hiatus. Having 2 crossover episodes and 3 of the characters from each switching was one of the earliest concepts. Though the basic concept was settled early on, both sides had some difficulty in determining the plot. Early drafts saw some of the Scootertrix characters torchered or brainwashed, in order to keep it realistic with what TheKanterlot characters would do. The screenplay would take months to complete and wouldn't be done until Mid-October of the same year.
Editing and each part of the series also had some complications. On the night before the episodes were supposed to premiere, both parties were not satisfied with eachothers episodes. Thus, the premiere date was moved to the Friday of that week December 4, 2015.
The episodes received an overall positive response from the public, and gained TheKanterlot over 200 subscribers, pushing them over 1000.