Symphonious7's BRUTAL Reviews

Status
Not open for further replies.
Symph

Symph

I'm a dude with a face and I know how to use it.
I have alot of serious opinions about what works and what doesn't work in videos. Am I saying my opinions are always right? No. But alot of people do share my views. I used to give these kinds of critiques without being asked to, and people didn't appreciate it too much. I completely quit doing it, but then I thought "hey, why not open up a thread specifically for giving these kinds of harsh critiques". So that's what this is, if your whole world is gonna be turned upside down by someone telling you your video is bad and why it is bad in their eyes, don't ask for a review here.

By no means do I dislike everything I see, some things may get purely positive reviews, I'm not saying I'm here to just dislike videos. I'm here to scrutinize them with my most critical eye and tell you the raw uncensored truth about what I think of them. If you are interested in this kind of review, then post away my friends.

Also to be clear, I will review a specific video, not your whole channel, so tell me which video you want reviewed :)

EDIT: Just read the new rules for reviewing so I guess I should say, these reviews are free but I would highly encourage you to take a look at my channel in return. Not saying you have to subscribe, would just love it if you maybe watched whatever video I have in the signature. And as for length? There is no promise on length, if I have alot to say it will be long, if I don't, it won't.

New Rule for Gaming Channels:
I do not promise to review any gaming channels anymore. Go ahead and try me, but I might just say no. The reason is, so many of your channels are exactly the same, you're talking while playing a video game, no editing, no added clips no nothing. And alot of these videos are LONG. I'm tired of sitting through 10 minutes of boring commentary with no humor, no interesting points, nothing new happening on the screen, just to say the same things.
If you are doing actual REVIEWS of games and are trying to make the visual and audio aspect fun and entertaining then I will be more likely to review you, but if you're just playing a game while you talk about things I'm not interested, I'm not gonna sit through that. So ask yourself if you think your video meets my criteria before asking, otherwise I might just say no.

I DO NOT REVIEW VIDEOS MORE THAN 7 MINUTES IN LENGTH. I END UP DREADING IT AND NOT REVIEWING FOR LONG PERIODS OF TIME.
 
I see two angles from this video. First off your fears of seeming awkward and uncomfortable are not a problem. You seem fine in this video, you're not exactly charming the pants off your viewers or anything, and some humor would help this video be more entertaining, but it serves it's purpose fine. On the other hand, the only people who would care about this video are people who would care about the questions. Sadly these questions are common knowledge for the average youtuber. This is going to get alot of "meh" responses. I don't think many people would click dislike or be like "you suck!" But they will probably just go "umm... yeah there's a thousand other videos on this same subject, and who doesn't know how to moderate comments or tag their videos?"

I think you should have mentioned that you shouldn't JUST make the tags relevant to your video, you should research what tags are popularly searched, AND relevant to your video. On my "The End of You" song I could make the tags "grass, lawn mower, trees, sky" and that would all be relevant, but who's searching that? That's why it makes more sense to make it "Original Song, Rock Music, Guitar player" and the like.

There is nothing wrong with the presentation of the video, and the content may still be relevant to some viewers, but a large portion of your viewers are gonna watch and go "uhh... DUH" And move on. All in all I'd say this one is for the brand new youtubers who know very little at all about making videos and promoting them, and if they wind up seeing this video before they see another on the same subject, you will have given them some helpful advice. But to anyone who's been doing this long enough to even be considered SOMEWHAT experienced, this will seem like obvious advice and won't be of interest to them.

I really didn't want to give you this kind of review Michael, I know you just got comfortable with talking on cam and doing this, and this is on the yttalk channel for god's sake, I would defend that channel to the death lol. But I think you were trying to give me a chance to show what these reviews would be like, and I appreciate that. Hope it doesn't discourage you at all.
 
TheMarkSquared said:
Holy lord I'm afraid :D.
Click to expand...
LMAO.. this forum doesn't appear to be like other forums I've been on for music and stuff. I was on a forum where people highly valued critiques like this and I helped alot of people grow by basically just being articulate enough and critical enough to not just see what I didn't like about something, but to know WHY I didn't like it. Some people really value those kinds of critiques, but it would appear not so much on this forum. No big deal, if anyone wants this kind of review, you know where to find me :)
 
Oh man I wish I stuck to my little text :D Nah I see where you are coming from completely, they are really obvious questions and answers for a lot of people and probably mostly needed by those who asked, I think I missed a lot in that video too and it could have been done a whole lot better in terms of presentation especially of myself but I am limited to where I record in the house and when, also I was very nervous about recording it and publishing it, I am surprised you didn't mention the bad ending :D A big issue with doing YouTube type tips is that a lot of the stuff you say wont be new to anyone especially people who have already learned how to do things which is most people but I could have added in stuff even more seasoned users could use to make it more useful and appealing to a broader audience.

Thanks for reviewing Symph, yeah I wanted to test the waters out and see what you would say :D I dont think you were too brutal at all, just honest and thanks for that.
--- merged: May 1, 2012 8:14 AM ---
symphonious7 said:
LMAO.. this forum doesn't appear to be like other forums I've been on for music and stuff. I was on a forum where people highly valued critiques like this and I helped alot of people grow by basically just being articulate enough and critical enough to not just see what I didn't like about something, but to know WHY I didn't like it. Some people really value those kinds of critiques, but it would appear not so much on this forum. No big deal, if anyone wants this kind of review, you know where to find me :)
Click to expand...

I value them, they're what people need a lot of the time, just some people cant take constructive criticism and thats what a critique should be, tough love for them, a decent review is exactly what you have done there for me, youre not sugar coating it and saying what you think and that's a good thing :) You're hardly being nasty towards someone because of how you perceive their videos and giving them advice on how to improve.
 
Michael said:
Oh man I wish I stuck to my little text :D Nah I see where you are coming from completely, they are really obvious questions and answers for a lot of people and probably mostly needed by those who asked, I think I missed a lot in that video too and it could have been done a whole lot better in terms of presentation especially of myself but I am limited to where I record in the house and when, also I was very nervous about recording it and publishing it, I am surprised you didn't mention the bad ending :D A big issue with doing YouTube type tips is that a lot of the stuff you say wont be new to anyone especially people who have already learned how to do things which is most people but I could have added in stuff even more seasoned users could use to make it more useful and appealing to a broader audience.

Thanks for reviewing Symph, yeah I wanted to test the waters out and see what you would say :D I dont think you were too brutal at all, just honest and thanks for that.
Click to expand...
Yeah I'm not trying to be "BRUTAL" it's not like I'm out to get you in this thread or anything. I called it brutal reviews because I wanted to be clear that some people will get their feelings hurt. But this is me basically forgetting my friendships, forgetting my "encouraging" demeanor, and not censoring anything. I just say what I would think if I had no idea who you were and saw the video as a total stranger. It's just me thinking out loud what I thought about it. I know where you're coming from Michael, and I think for what you're working with and for where you are as a person who isn't even comfortable on cam you did GREAT. But that's not what this thread is about, it's about what I would think if I had no emotional attachment to you whatsoever at all. Hell I might STILL make enemies for reviews I give here, but at least in this scenario you have to ask me for it knowing fully what you're getting into. I think that by those standards I can't be faulted if someone gets p****d, you saw the title, you saw the first post, you asked for it, I gave you what you asked for, if you get p****d after that it's not my fault. That's the point of this thread hehe. You may be the only request I get we'll see.
 
lol t least your posting in the right forum. For me the thought of reviewing anything in such a forum is well nonsensical. Firstly its not a level playing field we are set apart not only by our skills but by the fact that we may not just have access to certain things. Then there is the issue that well all the things being reviewed are on very different subjects. So I find it hard to say review a vlog because well other then camera and lighting and other very obvious things I can't review a vlog because I simply hate vlogs so my review would be based on something that does not interest me. Likewise many people are decent singers but simply dont have access to decent camer gear so to say their videos lack in the video department well okay but also maybe they simply can't afford it. Then there are the film makers who use all differnt media etc. I can't expect a vloger who has no experience in that department to evaluate those things so again they are going to be evaluating on what "they" think is make good comedy or good drama but have no experience in even writing a screenplay or script. So for me reviewing on this forum is simply something that aside from the very hit me in the face obvious "bad lighting", "bad camera" or hey you "sing offkey" not much else to assess. The forum is simply too subjective. Hence the lack of need for "real reviews". I can't say to a 15 year old kid your lighting is bad, your camera angles are bad, your panning too much and make this video fit into the screen why is it surrounded by a mat when they are using the webcam handed down to them by their 19 year old brother and have no incling of even the first steps to creating something that is well laid out and planned because they did it for fun in 5 minutes after school or whatever. We have some people who have been to film school pitted against young people with absolutely no real training. When I see someone who sings on youtube who is a mother with active young kids being told her stuff is amateurish and she barely has the time to record the song and only just got a pc. Well all I can't think is "well at least its better then a still shot" . Anyhow that is why people are not really asking for reviews here. Its likely something they are proud of and they are not aspiring to be steven spielberg so its pretty hard to critique anything here so its better not to even try lol.

I learned long ago never to give advise or feedback of any kind unless someone actually wants it and requests it . As a rule if someone is not asking its because they really dont want it hehe.
 
Well... yeah UL. That's the point, I made a thread where anyone who wants a review like that requests it, and was very upfront about what it is. Not to mention, I don't really care about lighting and angles, and all the techy stuff, I don't know about that. If it's a funny video I know if I thought it was funny or not. If it's a personal vlog, I know if I felt they said anything of value and if they came across as confident or awkward and weird. If it's a music video I know if I felt the song was unique or generic, pieced together well or structured wrong, sincere or cheesy. If someone wants to know what someone honestly thinks of their video with no censoring for the sake of diplomacy, they know where to find it now, it's really no big deal if they don't.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top