obscurimity
YTT's Tanager
Thanks for taking the time to do this.
Also, I know this video starts off slow, I have some viewers that don't know too much about John Green, so I tried to slide a quick bio of him in while staying interesting.
I Want To Criticize You
- Thread starter unknown_user0004
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Hypersonic55
Loving YTtalk
Holy man you're points all make sense and have definitely opened my eyes. Thanks a lot for your creative criticism, it'll definitely be implemented in my new videos!I liked this a lot! Here's my critique:
I saw another review of this movie that I think might be interesting for you to watch as well - they have a pretty "bickering" style, but they're pretty good at being accessible to the camera:
- Volume is a bit iffy - if you can find a way to speak louder, I think it'll be easier for your audience to relate to you (speaking subtly can subconsciously convey deliberate "distance" from the viewer, which you want to avoid on YouTube). But if that's not possible, I'd use a compressor on the audio before you upload.
- I'd trim down the "synopsis" portion of the review - I think most people likely to be searching for this are already familiar with the story in general (or can get that information elsewhere). What they can't get elsewhere is your unique perspective on the film. So I'd do my best to trim the synopsis down to just a sentence or two.
- Around 4:35, the image overlaps your head - don't be afraid to shrink down (or if you're feeling really ambitious, do some masking so the image appears to be "behind" your head.
- The last minute or so of your review was your favorite - because you were speaking naturally. It felt like before that, you almost felt compelled to go line-by-line through the items in the movie. I think this came off as a bit unnatural (you'd see this in a print review, but YouTube is a different medium). I'd recommend that you think about how you'd describe the movie to a friend - you might not mention all the actors, and you'd spend more time focusing about the parts that really grabbed your attention, etc. This is the type of relationship YouTube viewers typically want - if you can find a way to be less formal, I think it comes off better.
Honestly, I'm looking forward to seeing more of your stuff; I'm sure it's only going to get better
Fudgedupfuzz
Weirdo
go on then criticize me
unknown_user0004
Guest
Hey man - I enjoyed this
AND NOW FOR THE HARSH CRITICISMS!- Your lighting is a bit iffy - it doesn't accentuate you from the background. That said, lighting can be a pain. An alternative would be to use a very shallow "depth-of-field" on your camera (using a low f-stop). You don't want people to get distracted and start looking at stuff other than your face
- The transition at the beginning into "He's everywhere!" caught me a bit off-guard. You transition from a candid vlog voice into a rant voice and then pretty much stay right there. I'd either transition back and forth, or possibly ease the transition in, so we see why you suddenly become so manic.
- The pacing is good, right up until the first cut-away. There's a fair bit of dead space. I know from experience that filming "dialog" with yourself can be tricky to time; I'd recommend doing a few takes, so you can find one where you pause for the off-screen line *just* long enough.
- The style of this video is pretty "absurdist" (not in a "you're absurd" sense, in the artistic movement sense). Parts of the sketches and thoughts don't really make sense if you give them much thought - which can be completely fine. But when you go into this territory, you need to make sure you don't give the audience time to "think", or they'll realize what they're hearing doesn't completely make sense. On stage, you want to give people time to laugh. But on YouTube, you generally don't want to pause for laughs (and when you do, it should be for a single *beat* - roughly the amount of time you'd devote to a *rimshot*).
- When you "transform" into John Green - since it's theoretically "still you", and not a flashback, I'd do my best to record the audio with the same device you used to record your other content. The voice-over makes it seem disjointed.
- I couldn't be entirely sure whether you were trying to sync your voice to John's lips or not (based on your retiming of his clips). I'd make a hard commitment to one or the other (either add some effects and make it clear it's narration, or write the dialog to roughly match up with the lips). Being ambiguous about it makes the audience think. And we've already talked about letting the audience think!
- Finally, I'd put boxes around your calls-to-action on the end screen, just because you want it clear that they're calls-to-action, even on mobile devices.
unknown_user0004
Guest
Would you be willing to give a general critique/advice of channel set up/looks as well as perhaps a few videos? I wouldnt mind getting one for YTtalkTV
Edit - If you cant do a few videos you could do my thumbnails video.
I'm not the best with layout reviews, but I do have some background in UI, so here are my points on the channel page. NOTE: other people, I'm not going to do channel reviews for ya. I just really like Michael :-P
- I don't like the background on the banner - dark themes tend to come off as less accessible, and while it fits with the thumbnails, it doesn't really match the theme of the forum. You likely want to try and consolidate the brand presence a bit. Obviously, you don't want to rip off YouTube's color scheme, but I think the OneChannel layout actually complements it really well. I'd look at something that involved the red/white, with the green accent color, to increase the association with the forum. And I'd probably keep the same background content, but 10% opaque against white rather than black.
- There's no intro video at the moment. I think *especially* with brand channels, the intro video is super important (since presumably, you want to cross-pollenate audiences between the channel and the forum)
- The Symph Reviews panel doesn't take up the full page at full-bleed. Right now in UI, images are everything; and having a shelf that's not complete makes the channel seem under-developed. I'd either add one more, or hide that shelf for the time being.
- A final point on thumbnails - the text is a bit small for me (which probably means it's small for others). I'd try to condense what's being said in order to just highlight a key word or two.
Back shortly with a video review.
unknown_user0004
Guest
Would you be willing to give a general critique/advice of channel set up/looks as well as perhaps a few videos? I wouldnt mind getting one for YTtalkTV
Edit - If you cant do a few videos you could do my thumbnails video.
Alrighty, video review time!
- I think the intro is exactly the right length!
- Again, I have to bring up the point of cohesive branding. The choice of music, and the very dark themes come off as grungy and seedy. This can be a fine style - but I don't think it reflects the open and accepting community of YTTalk. Dark themes convey mystery and distance; if I were designing a channel to complement the forum, the colors would be brighter, and the background music would be a cheerful (but not sappy) bed, as opposed to the rock.
- The back and forth between the title screen for your own voice, versus the video of the interviewee is a little odd. Presumably there's some technical limitation at the moment? It would feel more comfortable to see you delivering the questions (also, cutting back to you for reaction shots can help hide jump cuts).
- There's a bit of an imbalance between the audio - I'd do what I can to make sure your own voice *roughly* matches the interviewee. The background music needs to be a bit softer, but also, I'd probably add a bit of treble to your voice - you're using a much darker mic, which contrasts with the interviewee's comparatively bright sound.
- There are a couple of places where StraightEdge's responses are clipped - it's good to tighten, but you never want to lose consonants. In these cases, J-cuts and L-cuts can help you keep the pacing, without sacrificing the dialog.
- Sorry, I gotta mention music again - even if you stick with guitar, the pacing of the music is fairly frenetic, whereas StraightEdge's responses are laid-back. This causes a bit of a jarring contrast.
- You don't seem to react vocally to the interviewee's response - which can make things seem a bit scripted. Even just adding an "Oh, interesting." before a question can help things flow a bit more.
- It got better as things went along, but there were some pops and stuff on your mic at the beginning. A good pop filter should fix that right up
unknown_user0004
Guest
Hey man, I really liked the premise here. Now let me tear it apart :-D
- Good job right at the start - the first line set up the premise of the sketch, and I know what to expect from the rest of the video
- I *think* you're using the camera mic - which is fine, but keep in mind that camera mics tend to emphasize the high-pitched stuff. Unwrapping the package was really loud, compared to your dialog. If you use equalizer settings, you can take the treble down, which should help fix this a bit.
- The audio in general is a bit low - a compression filter should fix that right up
- I'd tighten the clips a bit more - when you move between angles, it's easy to feel like you have to show all of the movement for continuity's sake. Not so on YouTube! Just a few frames of you starting to move from the window could cut straight to the last few frames of you sitting down on the stairs. Typically on YouTube, you want to keep things pretty fast-paced (think the hip-hop montages from Requiem for a Dream, which I'll link to below)
- I'd also do some jump cutting while you're opening up the letters - just enough to indicate the action. Opening up the letter doesn't actively add anything to the story.
- "STEVE" was really loud. Problematically so - you don't want to frustrate your audience into having to tweak their volume.
- And the banana scene was long...and I was confused. You typically want to avoid long pauses unless it's a deliberate (and clear) joke, or building suspense for something.
- Asking for Paypal donations is something I'd consider a taboo. It's fine to ask for money for a charity, or for a kickstarter or something for a video project, but I wouldn't do something like that until I'd built up a sizable audience. Just my thoughts on that.
- Finally, you need an end-screen brah! If people like what they see, you want them to be able to easily subscribe and watch more
Fudgedupfuzz
Weirdo
the paypal thing was a inside joke and i really do need an endscreen/outro but im not good at graphics i think the sounds terrible as my cameras a hd flip
and thankyou for giving me things to work on
and thankyou for giving me things to work on
Michael
I Love YTtalk
Thank you Kevin, that is very similar to how the branding on the channel originally was and I think it is best to go back to its original look/feel. We are working on sorting an intro/trailer at the moment so we will have one soon hopefully.
I will definitely take your thumbnail advice on board too. I have sometimes struggled putting the title in so a phrase said in the video or the main point in brief seems best.
Alrighty, video review time!
Cheers! So...am I banned? :-P
- I think the intro is exactly the right length!
- Again, I have to bring up the point of cohesive branding. The choice of music, and the very dark themes come off as grungy and seedy. This can be a fine style - but I don't think it reflects the open and accepting community of YTTalk. Dark themes convey mystery and distance; if I were designing a channel to complement the forum, the colors would be brighter, and the background music would be a cheerful (but not sappy) bed, as opposed to the rock.
- The back and forth between the title screen for your own voice, versus the video of the interviewee is a little odd. Presumably there's some technical limitation at the moment? It would feel more comfortable to see you delivering the questions (also, cutting back to you for reaction shots can help hide jump cuts).
- There's a bit of an imbalance between the audio - I'd do what I can to make sure your own voice *roughly* matches the interviewee. The background music needs to be a bit softer, but also, I'd probably add a bit of treble to your voice - you're using a much darker mic, which contrasts with the interviewee's comparatively bright sound.
- There are a couple of places where StraightEdge's responses are clipped - it's good to tighten, but you never want to lose consonants. In these cases, J-cuts and L-cuts can help you keep the pacing, without sacrificing the dialog.
- Sorry, I gotta mention music again - even if you stick with guitar, the pacing of the music is fairly frenetic, whereas StraightEdge's responses are laid-back. This causes a bit of a jarring contrast.
- You don't seem to react vocally to the interviewee's response - which can make things seem a bit scripted. Even just adding an "Oh, interesting." before a question can help things flow a bit more.
- It got better as things went along, but there were some pops and stuff on your mic at the beginning. A good pop filter should fix that right up
Lol not at all
Thank you for this, I have been thinking the same myself with most of what you said especially the darker theme coupled with the music, I am going to change things up very soon with that.The original plan was to have them say they answers and I would be on camera reacting etc but I found it very hard due to not having an mp3 player to listen to their answers and react
I think that will be a lot easier when I get a laptop which should be soon enough so I can have it with me where I record.I am definitely going to take that all on board and thank you very much for the honest reviews
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