Need some advice for commentary and editing?

[KeniisuYT]

I'm doing a series on Sid Meier's Civilization V which is a slower paced game that I really enjoy. I can usually keep commentary fine, but there are points of dead silence that I'd rather not cut out for the sake of losing an idea for what's happening in-game. Usually, people suggest telling stories, etc, but I can't think of anything on the top of my head like that. Any tips like how I should commentate in these dead moments would be helpful, thanks!

P.S: If I do need to start editing parts of the video out, how should I go about doing so? I don't like that it's a dead cut where it skips to another part of the video so I'm wondering: When and how I should cut the video up? Thanks again.

 

[Ampix0]

As someone who enjoys editing I think this could be fun. I dont know what or how your energy is playing the game but that will mater a lot. I have an idea, but it may not work for you and so on. But rather than that. What if you simply did the voice over after? Record -> cut -> dub -> edit -> publish. Unless it's live.

 

[Jawad Soomro]

Sometimes I am silent in my commentary, so I just edit the parts and remove the silence, I only include the clips which may keep the audience stick to the video. You don't need to commentate anything that's not in your mind, you should be yourself, if you want you can speak about things what the game is about.

 

[IAmPattyJack]

Consider live streaming instead. I would assume your videos are on the long side, so if you stream that's more expected and silence is much more ok during it.

 

[Shehzad]

With more practice you get better at consistent commentary. What I tend to do if I am making a long video is write some short notes or bullet points just so If I've got nothing on my mind to speak about in the video then I can take a peek at what I've wrote and trigger my next commentary. But what's helped me the most is just practice, the more I've done it and that's daily commentaries for me I can sit there now and just ramble about topics for 20 minutes If I have nothing planned. And that's another thing is planning, if you have trouble plan what you think your going to say so your commentary stays structured and that could be mental notes or again writing things down on a sticky note or notepad. As for editing I'd suggest cutting straight to when you start speaking about your next commentary between the dead silence to keep the pace going, this is what people call cut comms and is a really big trend on the gaming community especially for FPS commentators. Although If it's CIV I do see your issue because the gameplay is crucial and maybe people want to see your choices but that is a choice you'd have to make yourself If you want your video to be commentary based or have a lot more gameplay involved which I think you do and I think the dead silence you can get rid of with practice. Since It's CIV then I would be expecting to see your choices in game as the audience unless you want to focus on just commentating about topics but looking at your channel you want to play the game and show people this.

 

[Missilebomb]

I'd try timelapsing the slow parts with a snazzy tune in the background. It'd get the dry parts out while still allowing the viewer to see what's happening. In the case of Civ, I'd figure using music native to the nationality you are currently playing would help stitch things together nicely

 

[EasyStreet]

If you're doing one task, and nothing's really happening + you're not saying much, add a crossfade or fade to black transition. cuts out the dead space and links the two clips showing that time passed between them. It works well If you don't want to have transitions, maybe make some notes of things you want to talk about whilst recording? Just topics etc, or plans for the game, channel, whatever you want!