Trailer for Oughties Big Rapids Living Stuff

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The trailer for The Sims 4: Oughties Big Rapids Living Stuff is a 6-minute, 45-second video released on August 22nd of 2020 to promote the unofficial stuff pack for The Sims 4 released earlier that year by Dozerfleet Labs. It featured various elements of the game, while telling its own story ending in a eulogy for the then-recently-deceased Merre Bowmaster.

Meg meeting Merre
The trailer opens with a bored Meg; who is touring a generic, plush, soulless, generic college dorm from the Brichester University lots that come with The Sims 4: Discover University. She wants to attend college, and despairs that Brichester doesn't have more character.

She suddenly finds herself and her husband, Mike, instantly teleported to Cramer Hall at Ferris State University - in 2009! The Ghost of Big Rapids Living Spirit Past, taking the form of the late Merre Bowmaster, promises the couple a tour of Ferris and Big Rapids. Intrigued by how rugged and crude the dorms are compared the Brichester's, Meg encourages Merre to begin the tour.

A journey back in time
The trailer flashes images of the numerous new objects that are included with the pack, which include a Snakes on Plane: The Album CD stack, a Dark Knight movie poster, and many more objects - including custom signs from around town! A small sampling of the locals are also featured, including Chris Kennal, Ashley Phillips, Monica Shelly, and Aaron Stefflin. Merre then transports the couple forward to 2010, to meet Marianne Evans-Christianson, the then-manager of Mancino's.

She takes them back to 2008, to meet Hadley Mint, and then takes them to October 5th of 2006 to meet Unlisted, while they are performing at the Flying Flamingo Casino Event at the Brophy-McNerney Hall complex's lobby. Jackie Blankenship (then known as Jackie Green) makes an appearance, dancing. (Though, it's debatable if she ever danced like that at the actual event in real life.)

Being Ferris-ized
An ecstatic Meg and Mike return to their own house near Brichester, and urge Merre to spread some of her Big Rapids magic on their home. A flash screen shows Mike and Meg being transformed in Create-A-Sim into bodily forms more consistent with a Ferris student of the 2000s, and their fashion sense is transformed to reflect them wearing clothes available in the pack (and on the Ferris State Bookstore's online catalog.) Mike briefly tries on a copy of Zach Foster's Placido Polanco shirt from Blood Over Water.

Real estate
Mike and Meg then beg Merre to show them where they can reside in Big Rapids, and the residential lots in the pack are shown. North Bond Hall begins this segment of the tour. Mike notes that it's a great place "for singles," but not much use for a married couple. Merre shows them Hillcrest Oakwood Apartments, and several homes for rent around town.

Curious about the shops, Meg gets Merre to take them to Big Rapids Cinema in 2006, where they are able to watch Snakes on a Plane in theaters. Meg comments the movie was "only okay." This makes the couple hungry, so Merre shows them to 2010 Mancino's. Mike is eager to have a grinder; but Meg wants a cozy setting. Merre takes them to 2008 Szot's. While they are amused by the prospect of Szot's chili, they ultimately decide to get coffee at Biggby instead. With "Nothing Like Me" having run its course in the background, the music segues to "Ten Steps," also by Unlisted. Meg instantly falls in love with the Biggby store.

She shows her dedication to the idea of attending Ferris, by saying she wants to look at the 2021 majors catalog, and move to Big Rapids. Mike says he just wants to check out one more location before they commit. Merre lets them finish their coffee, and then they head to the Rapids Suds and Dry. Mike is convinced to give Big Rapids a chance.

The dark truth about Merre
The couple arrive at their home, and begin to revert to their pre-Merre physiques and fashion. Ready to move ASAP to Big Rapids, they turn to Merre to see if she will be joining them in 2021. However, that's when the Ghost of Big Rapids Living Spirit Past is forced to show its true colors. "Ten Steps" is abruptly interrupted by what sounds like a record scratching, showing a very sudden, whiplash-inducing change in tone.

Since Merre died on July 9th of 2020 (incorrectly listed in the video as being on the 16th,) the Ghost begins losing its grip on her appearance, and fades away. Merre herself loses the ability to walk, collapses on the floor, loses her teeth and hair, and begins to resemble her bed-ridden self from July of 2019, before fading away completely, apologizing to Meg and Mike for being unable to join them. She can't join them; because her domain while visiting others, and endeavoring with them on journeys through time and space, can only extend up to the moment of her death.

The couple is devastated, and then learns about her life - and those she affected. They visit her tombstone at the cemetery, to pay respects to the woman determined to change their lives - even from beyond the grave!

A eulogy
The audience is told that they can honor her memory, by giving her the good life she was denied in real life, by downloading the pack and giving that better life to her.

Unlisted's song "Carry On" plays over Merre's eulogy, with its lyrics re-contextualized from being about overcoming a breakup, to being about overcoming a loved one's death. The pack's cover art displays, and then gives way to a few legal notices that wrap the video up.

Original pitch
The initial premise for this trailer involved a post-apocalyptic wasteland, in the vein of Far Cry New Dawn, commenting on how Scamdemic policies were destroying society. A wasted future scape showed a young woman studying by a campfire, then asking her grandfather what life was like "back in the old days," when he was attending Ferris State. A dream wave effect transitioned to the pack contents. As "grandpa" finishes telling his tale, a shocked young woman stares blankly at what she's missed out on.

Scrapped Into the Future tie-in
Later, it was pitched that a bored potential Brichester student and her potential roommate are greeted by Emmet from The Sims 3: Into the Future. He would take them back to Big Rapids in the 2000s via time machine.

Real life tragedy writes the plot
Given what happened to Merre, however, a Charles Dickens-esque Christmas Carol-type plot was chosen instead. Much like the Ghost of Christmas Present from The Muppet Christmas Carol, Merre's apparition deteriorates the closer the clock gets to July 16th of 2020, past which she has no domain. Thus, she is able to sway Mike and Meg into attending Ferris, but can't join them for it.

Deleted scenes
Several scenes of the interior of Hillcrest Oakwood Apartments were shot for the trailer, but had to be cut for time. A few snippets of stock footage also had to be cut, due to game camera malfunctions or characters making random decisions that disrupted video flow.

Sound effects
Most sound effects were voice effects, edited and manipulated with Audacity to sound more mechanical. However, three sound effects were utilized from public domain and Creative Commons repositories. The record "cue" scratch effect, for example, came from this upload by Raccoonanimator to Freesound. "Missile Launch" by Kibblesbob at SoundBible was also used, as was "Daydreaming Sound" by Lisa Redfern, also at SoundBible.

These effects, like everything else in the video, were edited together using a copy of Adobe Premiere Elements 2020.

Music
Three different tracks are provided for players to add to the Alternative music station in their games, all of them off the Unlisted album She is Nectar from 2007. "Nothing Like Me" features in an ad for the pack on YouTube and Facebook, along with "Carry On" and "Ten Steps."

"Carry On" is a slower, more somber song about reflection on regret. It has that Big Rapids garage band sound that epitomizes the spirit of the time. The final song featured is "Ten Steps," an anti-suicide ballad.

Songs were approved for release in this pack by Jimmy Blankenship of Unlisted.

Editing
The entire trailer was edited together using still and video clips taken from real life and from captured in-game footage from both Dozerfleet Main (the PC tower) and Dozerfleet Console (the PS4.) These were put inside of Adobe Premiere Elements 2020. However, difficulty of the editor in managing editing time with working almost full time at a local Meijer store meant that the trailer, begun in July, would take until late August to be finalized. This is also why, although Merre died on July 9th, her death was misremembered as July 16th, leading to the incorrect date listed in the video. The editor was not given enough time to edit and mourn properly, as life in 2020 proved hectic.

Distribution
The video was finally submitted to YouTube on August 22nd of 2020, and was soon also added to the Labs blog. In 2021, a page for viewing the trailer on the Dozerfleet Studios sub-group of pages on the main Dozerfleet blog was also set up.

Reception
As of July of 2021, almost a full year since the trailer was first uploaded, it has received about 48 total views and 3 likes. Its associated game pack has, in that same time, been downloaded 48 times in its version 1.1 mode, with The Merre Edition receiving an additional 8 downloads. Most reviews were positive. In spite links coming with an attached instruction manual, few have bothered to download the manual.

In spite the massive positive feedback for this pack, its success was significantly dwarfed by that of The Sims 4: Into the Future Conversions Stuff. Though this earlier pack received far less marketing, ITF Conversions managed to garner over 1,600 downloads, simply by milking nostalgia for The Sims 3: Into the Future.