Re: [videoblogging] Re: OMG I'm so excited to be here + feedback much appreciated
Listening to your video again there seems to be two basic sound problems. The most annoying (to me, at least) is the machine noise. This is typical of on-board microphones on tape camcorders, particularly where the camera is some distance from the talent and has turned up its gain to get a reasonable level of voice. As several people have already suggested, the solution to this is to separate the microphone from the camera, and get it closer to your voice so it does not need so much gain. You can do this by using a clip-on lavalier microphone, but be careful to put it where it does not rub or brush against clothing, hair or jewellery, so that you do not just replace machine noise with a different sort of noise. You could also use a directional shotgun microphone either mounted on the camcorder or (generally better) mounted on a separate stand or boom so you can get it as close as possible without being in shot. Given that you seem to like presenting in a head and shoulders close up, you could even try a desk microphone at waist level. The second sound problem seems to be the echo (reverb). This usually occurs in hard spaces where the sound bounces off walls, floor and ceiling as well as coming direct from the mouth of the speaker. Bringing the microphone closer to the voice should help this a bit, but you may also want to consider making the room more soft when recording. It is possible to buy special sound-absorbing foam from recording studio suppliers, but almost any form of fabric or soft furnishing can help reduce echoes. Experiment with your space, trying things such as a few towels or blankets draped over drying racks behind the microphone/camera, placing cushions, pillows or bean bags in corners, and recording in a room with a carpet, curtains and some soft seating. We have some much better sound engineers on this list than me, and I'm sure they will have other suggestions. The most important thing to do though is to learn to listen for this sort of thing. Get a reasonable set of closed cup headphones and listen to your recordings without looking at the pictures. Try and ignore what's being said and listen to the background and the way it sounds. After a while you will find it very easy to spot potential sound problems. I hope this helps, Frank. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
[videoblogging] Re: OMG I'm so excited to be here + feedback much appreciated
Thanks Renat and Dave, your comments are very helpful. I had no idea the audio was so bad--that was probably willful ignorance on my part, but I certainly want to address it. I actually started out with a lav mike but found it was actually worse (if you can believe it, it sounded like I was at the end of a really long tunnel). I think many of the production quality things--graphics, sound, etc.--are contingent on my being able to put a bit more cash into the site, but it's good to know where to start. In terms of my energy: recently I went back and watched the first episode of WineLibraryTV and compared it to a more recent ep, and was pretty blown away by how much the presentation had evolved. I'm hoping that as I get more comfortable I'll naturally get looser, more spontaneous, etc. Or speaking of wine, perhaps I should drink a few glasses before filming :) I really appreciate your comments and hopefully I'll be able to reflect them soon. Many thanks! Kirstin --- In videoblogging@yahoogroups.com, David Jones david.jo...@... wrote: On Mon, Nov 2, 2009 at 9:36 AM, pageflex2001 innom...@... wrote: Welcome to the gang Kristin! I am going to give constructive criticism; 1. Site layout gets 4 stars. Why? Though the interface is clean and direct, the nav buttons below the video are not consistent/on par with the rest of site's buttons. 2. Presentation's content is interesting but lacks energy and spontaneity (acting skills?). 3. Audio is terrible. Consider getting rid of the echo your first priority. It makes you sound very unprofessional. Suggestion; clip-on lavaier directional mike. 4. Video graphics and story inbetweeners need more innovation and pizzaz. Consider hiring an innovative artistic video FX artist to create the shell of your show. You can learn to do it yourself but it will take time. 5. Why use Vimeo for video hosting? Youtube has smartened up in video quality and even offering HD, plus the visitor-base with youtube is way higher than with vimeo. 6. More episodes link leads to a page that has no TV box around the latest video and the eye is confused where the latest episodes are, wanting to find the below that video but then noticing the iPhone. To tell you the truth I thought it was an ad, like in Pandora. You should use the TV box as your user interface and perhaps use the right side, where the TV dials are - right below them, for inclusion of More episodes thumbnails. Over the years of videoblogging this is what I learnt; The show to be success must have a host that is charming with great acting skills, smart and spontaneous, happy-go-round type with his own original style. All that without great zesty content is nothing to make this work, and it must be consistent in every episode. Audio must be pristine, I am not even taking about the video... And of course the show must have a very good video editor/FX artist that is not afraid to innovate. The site of the show must be designed in a user-friendly and themed approach to make it memorable to the end-user. It must contain only the things that are functional and useful, hiring a talented graphic designer/wp theme guru is a must. I hope this helps Renat Zarbailov I N N O M I N D. O R G --- In videoblogging@yahoogroups.com, Kirstin kirstinbutler@ wrote: Hi everyone, I wanted to introduce myself because I'm just joining the list. Many of your names are familiar, though, and I'm so excited to be here. I bought Secrets of Videoblogging right when it came out but it took me until this year to get up enough courage to actually start my vlog. (Yup, that means I sat on my hands for three years--pretty crazy.) In any case, I've been posting videos regularly for the last four months or so and it's great to be joining a community of other vloggers. Any feedback on my vlog and site are much appreciated. It's at: http://youdigest.com. I definitely have technical issues to work out, and I'm hoping to migrate it to digest.tv soon to strengthen the branding. I really would be grateful for thoughts, ideas, and criticism. Thanks and it's a pleasure to meet you all! Kirstin I concur with Renat, audio should be your #1 priority. You can clearly hear the DV tape noise, it's awful. I had this on my blog and got so many complaints that I went and got an old crappier SD DV camcorder that had an external mic connection and I used a cheap $30 shotgun mic and have never looked back. I happily sacrificed video quality for audio, audio was that important. Your blog page presentation is very professional and first rate, so don't touch that. I agree, being on YouTube is important, that is a huge audience you are missing out on. At least a quarter of my audience subscribe to me directly via YouTube, and many people find me via YouTube searches for
Re: [videoblogging] Re: OMG I'm so excited to be here + feedback much appreciated
It's the same for many of us - styles change, you get more comfortable, you find new things to keep you interested, you justify spending more time on it. My avatar that I use pretty much everywhere is a screenshot from one of the first to-camera videos I made back in 2005 where I was just excruciated talking to the camera, hated the sound of my voice, couldn't imagine that I would ever be like other videobloggers. I usually notice very bad audio, but it didn't register for me when I watched you. That said, there's a weird trick of the brain where good audio can make a video with mediocre visuals seem more professional, but bad audio can make the nicest looking video seem very cheap - so it's worth spending money on. A lot of people use the Rode Video Mic on their video cameras - it's about $100, I think, but gives surprisingly good mobile sound. That said, if you're doing a sit-down show, you should probably get yourself a lav mic as Renat suggested. You don't need to get a really high-end one - they're very very expensive - there are endless opinions online about what to buy and how to use them to get the best sound. It also makes all the difference if you can manually control your camera's mic input audio levels - and monitor them. Rupert http://twittervlog.tv On 6-Nov-09, at 1:22 AM, Kirstin wrote: Thanks Renat and Dave, your comments are very helpful. I had no idea the audio was so bad--that was probably willful ignorance on my part, but I certainly want to address it. I actually started out with a lav mike but found it was actually worse (if you can believe it, it sounded like I was at the end of a really long tunnel). I think many of the production quality things--graphics, sound, etc.--are contingent on my being able to put a bit more cash into the site, but it's good to know where to start. In terms of my energy: recently I went back and watched the first episode of WineLibraryTV and compared it to a more recent ep, and was pretty blown away by how much the presentation had evolved. I'm hoping that as I get more comfortable I'll naturally get looser, more spontaneous, etc. Or speaking of wine, perhaps I should drink a few glasses before filming :) I really appreciate your comments and hopefully I'll be able to reflect them soon. Many thanks! Kirstin --- In videoblogging@yahoogroups.com, David Jones david.jo...@... wrote: On Mon, Nov 2, 2009 at 9:36 AM, pageflex2001 innom...@... wrote: Welcome to the gang Kristin! I am going to give constructive criticism; 1. Site layout gets 4 stars. Why? Though the interface is clean and direct, the nav buttons below the video are not consistent/on par with the rest of site's buttons. 2. Presentation's content is interesting but lacks energy and spontaneity (acting skills?). 3. Audio is terrible. Consider getting rid of the echo your first priority. It makes you sound very unprofessional. Suggestion; clip-on lavaier directional mike. 4. Video graphics and story inbetweeners need more innovation and pizzaz. Consider hiring an innovative artistic video FX artist to create the shell of your show. You can learn to do it yourself but it will take time. 5. Why use Vimeo for video hosting? Youtube has smartened up in video quality and even offering HD, plus the visitor-base with youtube is way higher than with vimeo. 6. More episodes link leads to a page that has no TV box around the latest video and the eye is confused where the latest episodes are, wanting to find the below that video but then noticing the iPhone. To tell you the truth I thought it was an ad, like in Pandora. You should use the TV box as your user interface and perhaps use the right side, where the TV dials are - right below them, for inclusion of More episodes thumbnails. Over the years of videoblogging this is what I learnt; The show to be success must have a host that is charming with great acting skills, smart and spontaneous, happy-go-round type with his own original style. All that without great zesty content is nothing to make this work, and it must be consistent in every episode. Audio must be pristine, I am not even taking about the video... And of course the show must have a very good video editor/ FX artist that is not afraid to innovate. The site of the show must be designed in a user-friendly and themed approach to make it memorable to the end-user. It must contain only the things that are functional and useful, hiring a talented graphic designer/wp theme guru is a must. I hope this helps Renat Zarbailov I N N O M I N D. O R G --- In videoblogging@yahoogroups.com, Kirstin kirstinbutler@ wrote: Hi everyone, I wanted to introduce myself because I'm just joining the list. Many of your names are familiar, though, and
Re: [videoblogging] Re: OMG I'm so excited to be here + feedback much appreciated
On Fri, Nov 6, 2009 at 12:51 PM, Rupert rup...@twittervlog.tv wrote: I usually notice very bad audio, but it didn't register for me when I watched you. That said, there's a weird trick of the brain where good audio can make a video with mediocre visuals seem more professional, but bad audio can make the nicest looking video seem very cheap - so it's worth spending money on. Bad audio is not always detectable on cheap desktop type PC speakers, but put a pair of good padded headphones on and you'll suddenly hear every annoying audio artifacts clear as day. It's the extra dynamic range of headphones that does the trick. A lot of people use the Rode Video Mic on their video cameras - it's about $100, I think, but gives surprisingly good mobile sound. Yes, the Rode Videomic is pretty much an industry standard. I use a cheaper Jaycar shotgun mic and still get great results. Dave.
[videoblogging] Re: OMG I'm so excited to be here + feedback much appreciated
Welcome to the gang Kristin! I am going to give constructive criticism; 1. Site layout gets 4 stars. Why? Though the interface is clean and direct, the nav buttons below the video are not consistent/on par with the rest of site's buttons. 2. Presentation's content is interesting but lacks energy and spontaneity (acting skills?). 3. Audio is terrible. Consider getting rid of the echo your first priority. It makes you sound very unprofessional. Suggestion; clip-on lavaier directional mike. 4. Video graphics and story inbetweeners need more innovation and pizzaz. Consider hiring an innovative artistic video FX artist to create the shell of your show. You can learn to do it yourself but it will take time. 5. Why use Vimeo for video hosting? Youtube has smartened up in video quality and even offering HD, plus the visitor-base with youtube is way higher than with vimeo. 6. More episodes link leads to a page that has no TV box around the latest video and the eye is confused where the latest episodes are, wanting to find the below that video but then noticing the iPhone. To tell you the truth I thought it was an ad, like in Pandora. You should use the TV box as your user interface and perhaps use the right side, where the TV dials are - right below them, for inclusion of More episodes thumbnails. Over the years of videoblogging this is what I learnt; The show to be success must have a host that is charming with great acting skills, smart and spontaneous, happy-go-round type with his own original style. All that without great zesty content is nothing to make this work, and it must be consistent in every episode. Audio must be pristine, I am not even taking about the video... And of course the show must have a very good video editor/FX artist that is not afraid to innovate. The site of the show must be designed in a user-friendly and themed approach to make it memorable to the end-user. It must contain only the things that are functional and useful, hiring a talented graphic designer/wp theme guru is a must. I hope this helps Renat Zarbailov I N N O M I N D. O R G --- In videoblogging@yahoogroups.com, Kirstin kirstinbut...@... wrote: Hi everyone, I wanted to introduce myself because I'm just joining the list. Many of your names are familiar, though, and I'm so excited to be here. I bought Secrets of Videoblogging right when it came out but it took me until this year to get up enough courage to actually start my vlog. (Yup, that means I sat on my hands for three years--pretty crazy.) In any case, I've been posting videos regularly for the last four months or so and it's great to be joining a community of other vloggers. Any feedback on my vlog and site are much appreciated. It's at: http://youdigest.com. I definitely have technical issues to work out, and I'm hoping to migrate it to digest.tv soon to strengthen the branding. I really would be grateful for thoughts, ideas, and criticism. Thanks and it's a pleasure to meet you all! Kirstin
Re: [videoblogging] Re: OMG I'm so excited to be here + feedback much appreciated
On Mon, Nov 2, 2009 at 9:36 AM, pageflex2001 innom...@gmail.com wrote: Welcome to the gang Kristin! I am going to give constructive criticism; 1. Site layout gets 4 stars. Why? Though the interface is clean and direct, the nav buttons below the video are not consistent/on par with the rest of site's buttons. 2. Presentation's content is interesting but lacks energy and spontaneity (acting skills?). 3. Audio is terrible. Consider getting rid of the echo your first priority. It makes you sound very unprofessional. Suggestion; clip-on lavaier directional mike. 4. Video graphics and story inbetweeners need more innovation and pizzaz. Consider hiring an innovative artistic video FX artist to create the shell of your show. You can learn to do it yourself but it will take time. 5. Why use Vimeo for video hosting? Youtube has smartened up in video quality and even offering HD, plus the visitor-base with youtube is way higher than with vimeo. 6. More episodes link leads to a page that has no TV box around the latest video and the eye is confused where the latest episodes are, wanting to find the below that video but then noticing the iPhone. To tell you the truth I thought it was an ad, like in Pandora. You should use the TV box as your user interface and perhaps use the right side, where the TV dials are - right below them, for inclusion of More episodes thumbnails. Over the years of videoblogging this is what I learnt; The show to be success must have a host that is charming with great acting skills, smart and spontaneous, happy-go-round type with his own original style. All that without great zesty content is nothing to make this work, and it must be consistent in every episode. Audio must be pristine, I am not even taking about the video... And of course the show must have a very good video editor/FX artist that is not afraid to innovate. The site of the show must be designed in a user-friendly and themed approach to make it memorable to the end-user. It must contain only the things that are functional and useful, hiring a talented graphic designer/wp theme guru is a must. I hope this helps Renat Zarbailov I N N O M I N D. O R G --- In videoblogging@yahoogroups.com, Kirstin kirstinbut...@... wrote: Hi everyone, I wanted to introduce myself because I'm just joining the list. Many of your names are familiar, though, and I'm so excited to be here. I bought Secrets of Videoblogging right when it came out but it took me until this year to get up enough courage to actually start my vlog. (Yup, that means I sat on my hands for three years--pretty crazy.) In any case, I've been posting videos regularly for the last four months or so and it's great to be joining a community of other vloggers. Any feedback on my vlog and site are much appreciated. It's at: http://youdigest.com. I definitely have technical issues to work out, and I'm hoping to migrate it to digest.tv soon to strengthen the branding. I really would be grateful for thoughts, ideas, and criticism. Thanks and it's a pleasure to meet you all! Kirstin I concur with Renat, audio should be your #1 priority. You can clearly hear the DV tape noise, it's awful. I had this on my blog and got so many complaints that I went and got an old crappier SD DV camcorder that had an external mic connection and I used a cheap $30 shotgun mic and have never looked back. I happily sacrificed video quality for audio, audio was that important. Your blog page presentation is very professional and first rate, so don't touch that. I agree, being on YouTube is important, that is a huge audience you are missing out on. At least a quarter of my audience subscribe to me directly via YouTube, and many people find me via YouTube searches for certain keywords. Have you thought about Podcasting on iTunes?, about 25% of my viewers watch a smaller 320x240 podcast on their iPhone/iTouch/iPod etc. I also agree, more energy and spontaneity is needed. My blog for instance is unscripted, but that's definitely not for everyone! Dave www.eevblog.com
[videoblogging] Re: OMG I'm so excited to be here + feedback much appreciated
Kirstin, Wow. Seriously. I like it. Just a copy of quickies: I tried to copy the embed code. I clicked the one on the side of the TV but it won't let me. Can't highlight it or anything. I can see the embed text but it seems to be an image. There isn't any actual text. I can't close the embed box either. The embed code from Vimeo works fine. Question, are you trying to get the domain digest.tv? I was curious so I flipped over and got a spyware warning so I backed out real quick. Otherwise, Welcome aboard and keep them coming, Gena http://outonthestoop.blogspot.com http://createvideonotebook.blogspot.com --- In videoblogging@yahoogroups.com, Kirstin kirstinbut...@... wrote: Hi everyone, I wanted to introduce myself because I'm just joining the list. Many of your names are familiar, though, and I'm so excited to be here. I bought Secrets of Videoblogging right when it came out but it took me until this year to get up enough courage to actually start my vlog. (Yup, that means I sat on my hands for three years--pretty crazy.) In any case, I've been posting videos regularly for the last four months or so and it's great to be joining a community of other vloggers. Any feedback on my vlog and site are much appreciated. It's at: http://youdigest.com. I definitely have technical issues to work out, and I'm hoping to migrate it to digest.tv soon to strengthen the branding. I really would be grateful for thoughts, ideas, and criticism. Thanks and it's a pleasure to meet you all! Kirstin
[videoblogging] Re: OMG I'm so excited to be here + feedback much appreciated
Thanks so much for taking a look, guys! Gena that's a great catch. I tested the design for browser compatibility but of course that's just to see how certain pages look, not to check the functionality of all the links. The embed link works in Safari where I usually browse, but not in Firefox when I went to check. I'll take a look at the code. Randy do you mean the vlog background or the website? The vlog/greenscreen backdrop is an AfterEffects file made up of lots of different layers, and the website itself is a mod of the TV.Elements WP theme by Jason Schuller. Rupert thanks, yes. Maintaining energy is the hardest thing for me with the delivery, since I'm not a natural presenter. I'll try putting reminders in the script for myself in between segments to keep it up. I absolutely watch Epic Fu and Rocketboom and love both, although I've been watching less over the last few months as I finally got down to work on my own vids. I think I wanted to keep myself from comparing and getting discouraged, since they're both so much further along than I am. But I feel like I could watch more objectively again now. You guys are awesome, thank you! --- In videoblogging@yahoogroups.com, Rupert rup...@... wrote: Welcome! Great to have your enthusiasm and energy. You've got a good setup there. Do you watch Epic Fu and Rocketboom? The pacing and timing is good - the only thing I could add is that you could add a bit more whizz bang energy when you switch between sections, and maybe give a taste of what you're going to cover up front. Rupert http://twittervlog.tv On 31-Oct-09, at 3:41 AM, Kirstin wrote: Hi everyone, I wanted to introduce myself because I'm just joining the list. Many of your names are familiar, though, and I'm so excited to be here. I bought Secrets of Videoblogging right when it came out but it took me until this year to get up enough courage to actually start my vlog. (Yup, that means I sat on my hands for three years--pretty crazy.) In any case, I've been posting videos regularly for the last four months or so and it's great to be joining a community of other vloggers. Any feedback on my vlog and site are much appreciated. It's at:http://youdigest.com . I definitely have technical issues to work out, and I'm hoping to migrate it to digest.tv soon to strengthen the branding. I really would be grateful for thoughts, ideas, and criticism. Thanks and it's a pleasure to meet you all! Kirstin [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
[videoblogging] Re: OMG I'm so excited to be here + feedback much appreciated
OMG! Great videoblog! http://youdigest.com/ I love everything you've done with the place. - nice branding - you're upside down! :-) - left sideabar is nicely done - good production values on the video - clear picture and good audio - fun content... --- In videoblogging@yahoogroups.com, Kirstin kirstinbut...@... wrote: Hi everyone, I wanted to introduce myself because I'm just joining the list. Many of your names are familiar, though, and I'm so excited to be here.
Re: [videoblogging] Re: OMG I'm so excited to be here + feedback much appreciated
I'd like to add to the positives Kirstin - great job, really polished. Interesting stories. Welcome to the group! Aloha, Rox On Sat, Oct 31, 2009 at 9:14 AM, Steve Garfield st...@offonatangent.comwrote: OMG! Great videoblog! http://youdigest.com/ I love everything you've done with the place. - nice branding - you're upside down! :-) - left sideabar is nicely done - good production values on the video - clear picture and good audio - fun content... --- In videoblogging@yahoogroups.com videoblogging%40yahoogroups.com, Kirstin kirstinbut...@... wrote: Hi everyone, I wanted to introduce myself because I'm just joining the list. Many of your names are familiar, though, and I'm so excited to be here. -- Roxanne Darling o ke kai means of the sea in hawaiian Join us at the reef! Mermaid videos, geeks talking, and lots more http://reef.beachwalks.tv 808-384-5554 Video -- http://www.beachwalks.tv Company -- http://www.barefeetstudios.com Twitter-- http://www.twitter.com/roxannedarling [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
