Quality videos - no viewers...yet? (EDIT: growing thanks to this forum!)

[Sputuk]

I've just started a new FTB series of Let's Play videos:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUcEmFjICTKj9TZo84KLDDPpJfmitLdIY&feature=view_all

(The first video is NOT indictative of the usual quality - get a better flavour of what to expect in terms of editing/additional comic content from the 2nd video.)

My other Minecraft / Tekkit videos get consistently good feedback on them, but I don't seem to have the knack of getting more people to watch them - perhaps that could change with FTB?

I would welcome comments/feedback even if you decide not to subscribe and watch other videos.

 

[Xeonen]

I fell in love with the little talk boxes! The gameplay and commentary might not be first rate yet the little animations you have added definitely adds some flavor.

 

[Xaw4]

u just won your 20th sub

 

[Sputuk]

I fell in love with the little talk boxes! The gameplay and commentary might not be first rate yet the little animations you have added definitely adds some flavor.

Thanks for that feedback - I can agree as I'm not used to commentating while "playing" as I've tended to make "see what I've been up to" reflective videos previously, but with starting with FTB I'll be working to try to improve commentating while actually concentrating on playing...it's a lot harder than I gave it credit for from watching the pros videos

Hopefully you'll see improvement over the next few videos if you can bear to stick with me while I work on it.[DOUBLEPOST=1357847646][/DOUBLEPOST]

u just won your 20th sub

That's great! It's also been great seeing a few more people actually watching the videos too - it's felt a little lonely at times making videos with only a couple of people watching them, although I have had a couple of "hits" with lots (>500) of views at times.

 

[Xaw4]

thats the problem of becoming "famous" over the internet.... it's random

 

[Sputuk]

thats the problem of becoming "famous" over the internet.... it's random

Yep, there's certainly an element of that, in the same way as is necessary to be "discovered" as a band, an author, a painter etc. outside of YouTube.

That said, there are many things that can be done to increase the odds though, which I'd do more of if I were looking for "fame", but I have a day job that pays well enough and I'm more than happy with, so I'm only looking to have at least a few people seeing what I create for YouTube. Even "advertising" that I'm making FTB videos here with this thread is stretching how far I'm comfortable with active promotion.

 

[iceDave]

i know how you feel. I started my Let's play season and done couple oh HD video's put some time into it for only few views and not even a hand full of comments. Bit frustrating for all this work.

 

[Freakscar]

You won't get money out of it unless you're extremely lucky. If you do it for the views, you're doing it wrong. If you're doing it to cater the viewership, you're still doing it wrong. If you're doing it because creating movies on youtube is fun for you, you're on to something right.

Think of it this way: You may only get a handful of comments - but isn't that much better, than getting hundrets of them - whereas 95 of them are "Duh, you suck, gdiaf!" and the like? Mouth to mouth works like a charm, even more in this digitalised time and age. You're doing this (at least on the linked account) for about half a year. I've seen accounts that did not get off ground that are years old. But none of these had (at least mediocre) enough entertainment in it, to justify success at all. Keep at it. Do it because it's fun for you. Do it because you like the technical side of creating movies. Do it because you got nothing else to do. But never do it and expect to become a second DocM or Yogscast within days. There is a whole lot of luck involved when you read about the "history" of these channels.

Do you think DocM or Direwolf20 do their videos because they want to be famous? You would smell it from afar, if they were. They believe that what they do is worth filming and they obviously have fun while doing it. That should be your mark. Ignore your sub-count, it's NOT a measurement of a successful channel. And give it time.

Now, I will watch the first two videos of your LP - maybe I find a more technical suggestion to offer.

<brb>
...
<back>

Now, before I head off to work, just an undocumented list of things from the first three episodes. I will bookmark this thread and go into way more details after my shift.
1.
- hands away from the mouse while talking
- less use of "cracking"
-still images are okay, but don't let it get a habit. If something goes wrong, start over.

2.
- hands away from the mouse while talking
- adjust volume

3.
- camera shaking.. y'know..
- better volume
- sound fx and speech bubbles = cute and unique feature. Keep that.

F.

PS: Subbed.

 

[iceDave]

that i call a good post... nice answer's and a good positive / negative thingy on the end.. like it.

 

[Freakscar]

As I said, more indepth after work. Here goes:

-hands away from the mouse while talking
What I mean is, when you are talking in ThirdPersonView, leave the mouse alone. It may very well be my personal pet peeve, but at the very least, it's a tad bit irritating. So, when you are about to make a speech, fingers off the mouse. =)
- less use of "cracking"
That was just the first episode. In this case, "cracking" is just the word that I used as an example. Frequent use of the same expression gets repetive and, truth be told, boring. But, seems that was just the first episode.
-still images are okay, but don't let it get a habit. If something goes wrong, start over.
See above, also first episode - but the point is still valid. Instead of a bit of talking over some still images, scratch the whole thing and start again. Yes, its aggravating and more work that way - but your viewers will thank you for that. If you cannot find the time to do so this recording-day/session, then whip up a small one minute video telling so. Everyone with more braincells than a Slime will understand. The rest - should not bother you anyway.
- adjust volume
I had to turn up my volume to the max in order to hear you in episode 2 at an appropriate level. You should have a tech-setup somewhere closeby that you KNOW being able to produce acceptable video and/or sound for youtube. Remember, for a very simple example, that the conversion after the upload to YT turns all colors quite some to the darker side. Of color, not Force. Which, ingame, means: never go into a cave without torches. Noone will watch a black screen for more then a few moments. ^^ But I do not doubt that you already have something along those lines, as the further episodes are fine - maybe except for a constant tiny "dubdubdubdubdubdub" in the sound background - I suppose that's you keyboard? You should try to get rid of that (noise), too.
- sound fx and speech bubbles = cute and unique feature. Keep that.
But don't overdo it. I LOVED the one with the fire shards and "Jim" (or, for that matter: "Did anybody else hear the sqeaking?") - but, as a negative example, the Creeper afterwards was too much (for me, at least). It's really a nice idea and it's indeed funny - but it will wear off soon, if you use it too often. Better do it rarely but pointed, than often and dull. To the sound: Same thing applies. Not too many and not too "in yo face" - the camerawipe for example was WAY too loud and, imho, unnecessary. A simple fade to black (most editing programs should have one) or a blend over white is fine. Srsly, NO MORE WHOOOSH IN MAH FACE, KTHX!

Finally, some questionsuggestions: While its entertaining to watch a new MCLP once in a while, you should maybe state, where you are heading to. YOU may have a plan for the darn best FTB series in MC ever - but the viewer does not know it. So maybe take a minute in the beginning (of an episode) and talk about what you are about to do this episode. Not everything, but two or three sentences. Gives your actions a bit of a frame to see them in. In the same vibe, at the moment (I know, its always that way in MC^^) it looks not much different from vanilla MC apart from the new ores. So tell us what you plan to do - as nobody will watch a (new) vanilla MC Lets Play nowadays, everybody already has subscribed to someone for that.
One last thing, concerning the ores: Everybody watching you knows that you're using FTB - and that means, you have NEI installed (obviously, as its visible^^). Use it. Be it for a recipe you can't remember (a problem I run into on a daily basis) or.. an ore. Not saying to cheat your way through - but as a notebook or a dictionary, it's doubtful anyone will complain.

Well, thats about it for now. Keep 'em coming. =)

F.

[Edit]
Gah, nearly forgot: This is my personal opinion - but the vanilla textures aren't the most eye pleasing that are out there. I, at least, would be grateful if you used Sphax or JohnSmith. But thats my own taste. If you prefer the classic 16ers.. in the end, thats okay, too.

 

[Sputuk]

As I said, more indepth after work. Here goes:

....and then went on to provide an excellent, well thought out critique which is amazing

Seriously, that's fantastic quality feedback and I really appreciate the time you've taken, and will aim to take it all on board. Sorry it took so long to reply - the forum didn't notify me of any updates to the thread

Most of your points are things I'm already aware of and keep working on. That DARN keyboard noise is a pain...I've added padding under both the mic stand and the keyboard to try to damp it it out but the Mac keyboard is SO DARN LOUD! I can also hear my mouse scraping/clicking/banging too! Garh! I think most of the problem is trying to use a very cheap USB mic which is actually from a Wii and intended only for a Karaoke game. I have got a pro mic as next on the "to buy" list which should help). Since it's been mentioned as an issue and it's not just me it annoys now, I might also connect one of the other quieter keyboards in for when I'm recording and see if that helps too.

The moves while talking - Years ago, I was criticised for similarly moving the mouse while talking when doing profesional presentations or running training courses using Powerpoint and so I made myself stop, but in recording MC, I felt a static "head shot" in while pontificating would switch people off in the same way as black screen would, so I have actually deliberately tried to keep some movement happening to put some "life" in to the video...but I take your point. It's has certainly made me feel a little sea sick at times while having to watch it over while doing the editing, so I've probably been WAAAAAAY over doing it

Use of "cracking" - yep, I agree. REALLY hard to catch yourself repeating a word or phrase when presenting (and most people do unless working to a script) and I find it even harder when trying to concentrate on game play at the same time, but I agree, it really detracts from watching once you notice it. In that vein, you might find my earlier Tekkit series "To Er is human" video amusing as I inflicted a LOT of editing work on myself to try to force myself to stop saying "Er" so often!

Still Images - that was a one off and yep, it really doesn't make a good video. Usually, I would re-record, and I have done frequently with other videos - sometimes 2 or 3 times to get a good "take", but on that occasion, I really wanted to capture that moment of playing FTB for the very first time, and re-recording would have lost that - the lost bit was mostly staring at the side of tree while I axed my way to the top too, so I made a judgement call to stick with it, but I nearly didn't. It should certainly be a one off though

Volume - hmm, I know. Again, an issue with being a cheapskate on the mic so far I think...although, it might have been one bit I forgot to boost/apply the filters to if the later bits were OK for you? NB The volume you get is AFTER I've boosted it a lot in the editing program and then applied some filters to try to cut out the worst of the hum etc, but if I boost it any further, distortion kicks or the background "hum" the mic adds gets unbearable (and of course, the keyboard noise gets boosted too). Unfortunately, the most recent footage seems to have gotten worse audio too, although I didn't change the set up when recording. Anyhow, I think the investment in a decent mic with proper vibration isolation etc is needed to see a real improvement, which I expect to get around to ordering soon. At least the pop shield I invested in a good while back stopped the awful sibilance and pops in the first few videos, but yep, I agree, it's not good enough still.

Effects/bubbles - I'll try to only ever add those when I feel the footage naturally inspires me with something I think is funny. I probably do risk over doing it as I end up having to watch everything over and over while editing, so the temptation is there to add more and lose sight of how it works overall. I do try to watch the whole thing back at least twice after "finishing" a video before final rendering and uploading and sometimes have removed bits where it then feels "too busy", or more importantly, if it no longer feels funny to me. Sorry about the volume on the wipe - it seemed a balanced volume with the other audio on my set up so I don't know what happened there. I will have to go back and investigate what happened. In that case, I used that particular transition to tell the story of a change of location...if you notice the direction of the "whoosh" was intended to give a subconscious nudge to the viewer about where each bit was in relation to each other. I try to make wipe/transition choices which in some way support or help with the story telling, seems I didn't hit the mark in that case as it must have been too over the top. Sorry.

Giving a direction for each video - yep. Excellent point. With the FTB episodes, I really haven't had a plan in advance except to play it and see what happens and now you mention it, that does come across and I'll work on that for future recordings.

Using NEI - oh, don't worry - I do and will rely on using that A LOT as I move forward with FTB. I record and create the videos mostly for myself though and in the first couple of episodes at least, I wanted to enjoy the "what the hell!" feeling of seeing the new things in FTB while they were fresh to me. I missed catching the same experience when I recorded my Tekkit series and wish I had now. I personally quite like watching Nilesy/Martin/Toby/and even Simon in the Yogscast crew playing Tekkit when they don't get what's around them and seeing them go on that journey of learning about things, so I thought it might work for me too. Anyhow, I'm already getting much more up to speed on the extra mods in FTB, so I'll start just getting on with things now.

As for why I make the videos, they're certainly for me, and if people watch them, great. I could have done a lot more to get lots of views very easily, but would rather just see what happens and have people who want to watch see them. My main reason for starting them was as a project to give me something to focus on to get back into using a Mac after many years away as a professional development exercise (I work in IT) as more people seem to be using Macs and there's also the possibility at work that I may need to talk knowledgeably about Macs at work at some point, and in particular, video editing and media handling issues etc, so it gave a perfect subject. I also knew YouTube had taken off and I wasn't keeping up with what it could do, what the issues around using it would be etc to be able to advise people professionally. Add to that seeing so much about Minecraft in various media that I thought I'd give it a go, and to my surprise, I got hooked on it. So, I now play Minecraft for my own enjoyment, record it as a technical exercise, and then enjoy the extra creative outlet of figuring out how to edit them into something decent looking. If others enjoy the result and keep watching, bonus

I have no interest in making money from it, I like my real job too much and don't need more money - in fact, if I had things really take off, it would probably cause me problems and I'd have to stop. I do consider what people might like to see, but beyond that, it's really just for my own amusement and practice

Note - I have some footage captured already (which is taking an AGE to edit as I move things across to working on the new computer - and because Final Cut has kept crashing on the new machine which has wasted lots of time), so it may be a couple of episodes before you see me taking on board your feedback, but I certainly will.

Thanks once again. BEST. FEEDBACK. EVER. If you don't mind, I'll have to mention this in the videos?[DOUBLEPOST=1358971258][/DOUBLEPOST]

[Edit]
Gah, nearly forgot: This is my personal opinion - but the vanilla textures aren't the most eye pleasing that are out there. I, at least, would be grateful if you used Sphax or JohnSmith. But thats my own taste. If you prefer the classic 16ers.. in the end, thats okay, too.

Textures - oh, yep...I've just about settled on Sphax now. Some of the footage I have which needs editing is already now using that.

 

[Sputuk]

Having figured out how to reduce the number of times Final Cut Pro is crashing, I've finally managed to finish editing the next video and uploaded it just now. I'm hoping to solve the issues I've been having with the crashes, or else making videos will stop being fun!

 

[Freakscar]

Golly gosh, now that is an impressive reply. I'm going to do something from the "bad stuff in internet discussions" and break it a bit to reply. Not so much to pick it apart sentence by sentence (being the "bad stuff"), but to not get lost over the course of my reply. I tend to do that quite a lot. In that alley, I might cut the quotes to not exceed the board-limits.

First things first, thank you, and you're very welcome. I like your voice (srsly, thats important for me when it comes to LPs), your editing (more on that below) and the general way you play. So credit where credit is due, if it were a mere wreckage of a LP series, I would not have replied in such lengthy detail - all the more I'm glad you found it useful in one way or another.

Seriously, that's fantastic quality feedback and I really appreciate the time you've taken, and will aim to take it all on board. Sorry it took so long to reply - the forum didn't notify me of any updates to the thread

I don't mind the waiting - and you only get an update, when someone likes your messages or quotes them. When you use the "More options" button below, before you write a reply, you are presented with the options to "watch this thread" - which notificates you of any new replies via forum-alerts and, if you prefer it that way, you can have the board send you an email whenever stuff happens in this thread.

Most of your points are things I'm already aware of and keep working on. That DARN keyboard noise is a pain...I've added padding under both the mic stand and the keyboard to try to damp it it out but the Mac keyboard is SO DARN LOUD! I can also hear my mouse scraping/clicking/banging too! Garh!

I myself use a simple Sennheiser headset which serves me quite well - but when it comes to direct voice recording, I quote "Totalbiscuit", who recommended the "Samson CO1U USB" (it's on Amazon for 70something). I'd have to look for it, but another youtuber named Jesse Cox (both are kinda well known on YT for one reason or another) had another mikrophone recommendation - but I do not know the name of said item. The first of these two is on MY personal whishlist, too.

The moves while talking - Years ago, I was criticised for similarly moving the mouse while talking when doing profesional presentations or running training courses using Powerpoint and so I made myself stop, but in recording MC, I felt a static "head shot" in while pontificating would switch people off in the same way as black screen would, so I have actually deliberately tried to keep some movement happening to put some "life" in to the video...but I take your point.

Nah, as I said, I CAN be a bit nit-picky at times. So take everything I say with a grain of salt, please. Meaning it's not that bad. If you would prefer some movement, I do know that there is a plugin, making use of a second minecraft account, that moves the second character in a user-definable pattern - e.g. you could have it hover and only move in a veeery slow circular fashion, keeping the view centered on your own character. It mostly gets used when it comes to timelapse videos and may be a bit over the top just for this.

[...] I find it even harder when trying to concentrate on game play at the same time, but I agree, it really detracts from watching once you notice it. [...]

I start talking faster and faster. Until my tongue gets lost and I start babbling nonsense. chuckles So I know where you are coming from with that. Let's say, it was nowhere near repeating as in the first video. So no more problems on that front for me. And in the end, I think it's something, one simply has to get used to - talking while playing usually is something one does not do on a regular base (unless, duh, you already ARE a routined YT-Let's Player, ofc^^), given time, I think it will become easier. And hey, do not take ME as a mark - if it were me, I'd probably be way too shy to open my mouth, thinking all the time "the internet will see and hear this, the internet will see and hear this, the inter...".

Still Images - that was a one off and yep, it really doesn't make a good video.[...]

Thank you.

Volume - [...]
Effects/bubbles - [...]

A popshield and a directional mikrophone will prolly be the solution to all the humming, keyboard and mouse sound problems - as well as the quality. The bubbles where all right in that last (1st things first) episode, so I don't think it's a big deal anymore. If it's getting out of hand.. hey, that's why we are writing here.
Hm, seems to me as if I'm canceling all my critique from the last post. Oh, and you do not have to apologize for all this - if anything, I'd like to have my post understood as critique on highest levels. Yes, there is room to get better(there always is) - but for a startup, thats quite impressive videos already. Grain of salt and all that, y'know.

Giving a direction for each video - yep. Excellent point. With the FTB episodes, I really haven't had a plan in advance except to play it and see what happens and now you mention it, that does come across and I'll work on that for future recordings.[...]

See, while I can watch the Yogscast crew, I consider them playing a comedy/sketch show. I really appreciate what they do with their presentation of mods - but their tekkit series is a bit too much for me (which totally is a matter of taste, ofc). In terms of "Where are we going? - I have NO idea but it's going to be a hell of a ride!", well, even THAT would be fine by me, telling upfront that you have simply no plan about FTB (and that this is intentional). That way I don't scratch my head wondering when you will build your first macerator or the like, but instead enjoy the tour into the unknown depths of FTB. You ARE entertaining me, I hope that point reaches you. =) So, if you'd prefer to stay blind for a bit, thats alright for me. Turning around, you could've said it in the first episodes. Planning to not have a plan at all, is a plan, too. Hope that makes sense now. *guh*

As for why I make the videos, they're certainly for me, and if people watch them, great. [...]

Heh - and there I was, wondering if you had any experience in video editing and post production (seeing the fx and all that.. it definitely did scream at me "This is not WMM at all!").. well, that riddle's solved now. I have seen way worse LPs than yours (technically speaking). I cannot help when it's down to FinalCut - I'm more of a Premiere and AE user myself.^^ Concerning the monetization, I see that we think alike. I'm really glad to hear, that you are not trying to be "the next Yogscast" or whatever Minecraft LP out there is popular these days.

Note - I have some footage captured already (which is taking an AGE to edit as I move things across to working on the new computer - and because Final Cut has kept crashing on the new machine which has wasted lots of time), so it may be a couple of episodes before you see me taking on board your feedback, but I certainly will.
Thanks once again. BEST. FEEDBACK. EVER. If you don't mind, I'll have to mention this in the videos?

Once more, you're so so so welcome. I'm really glad I could give you some pointers (even though, of course, most of them were indeed obvious and as you said, already in your notebook). And yet again, do NOT take it all too serious, I tend to write in a more agressive way than it's meant - probably because english is not my mothers tongue. I really DO like your videos, so keep at it. And take your time, having a fulltime job myself, I'd never tell you to rush them. I'm looking forward to what you come up with, next time. And, finally, thank you again for mentioning me in the last episode. I'm feeling really humbled by that - it really made my evening.

 

[Sputuk]

... And, finally, thank you again for mentioning me in the last episode. I'm feeling really humbled by that - it really made my evening.

Absolutely no problem. While I've had a number of supportive comments over the months for the vanilla minecraft videos and later, the tekkit ones, someone taking the time to provide such detailed and considered feedback really shows how carefully they've watched and that they've felt it engaging enough to be worth giving the feedback. That really means a lot more than getting a lot of views but no one commenting.

 

[Sputuk]

Phew - after a lot of pain fighting the video editing software crashing, figuring out how to turn hours of footage into something much shorter but hopefully entertaining, ep. 7 is finally uploaded!

As always, comments and feedback welcome.

 

[grindle2000]

Great Videos (just subscribed) also make sure to take all your string plant (cant remember the name) if you only take the top half it take forever to grow but a replanted one take alot less.

 

[Freakscar]

string plant (cant remember the name)

There's two, actually. The one you are talking about is "Flax" from RP2, which indeed grows 2 blocks tall and only needs the top part to be harvested. The other one being the weirdly named "Henequen", usually better known as agave. The leaves of that plant give twine, that can be crafted into strings.

figuring out how to turn hours of footage into something much shorter

Ah yes, the problems of time stretching and squeezing. I could sing along with that. *heh* And, did you tweak your setup a bit again? No humming, no keyboard/mouse sounds - but a tad of a metallic sound in your voice this time around. Seems like we're on to something there. *chuckles* Anyway - t'was a fun episode - after that much mining it was a nice change to do something else. Can't wait for the creeper-protected diamond rush, though. ^^

 

[Sputuk]

Great Videos (just subscribed) also make sure to take all your string plant (cant remember the name) if you only take the top half it take forever to grow but a replanted one take alot less.

Thanks for the subscription, I hope you keep watching and enjoying

Yep, I realised that about the flax plants as I went along. With being so speeded up, it's probably impossible to spot, but I was trying both ways, and later on, I was doing more of the complete digging up and replanting as it felt like the others were very slow to re-grow in comparison. Glad my gut feeling was right I've used flax a little while playing Tekkit, but I never needed to really farm it so I hadn't looked into it's game mechanics in any detail before.

 

[Sputuk]

...And, did you tweak your setup a bit again? No humming, no keyboard/mouse sounds - but a tad of a metallic sound in your voice this time around. Seems like we're on to something there. *chuckles*...

Yep, since I had your feedback as a guide and I hadn't completed the editing for this episode, I applied different audio filtering to reduce the low frequency hum. I hadn't noticed that particular issue previously as I was playing the audio through my 5.1 movie surround sound set up in the room but as the audio is only stereo, the sub woofer wasn't kicking in, so it was effectively acting to filter the low frequencies out for me.

On the new iMac, I'm now connected to a more traditional 2.1 computer speaker set up and the little sub-woofer in that kicks in the boost the bass even with stereo, which made what you were talking about really apparent. So, I'd been inadvertently making it worse in the old set up too, as for me, boosting the low frequencies was making my voice sound "fuller". It's a pain to arrive at a filter without affecting my voice badly though, and hence why it now sounds a little "metallic" as that's what happens when you cut off the lower frequencies. It's also suffering because I try to apply a "notch filter" (nothing to do with Mojang's Notch ) to reduce a mid range pitched hiss around 4800kHz that the cheap mike brings, so now my vocal is getting mangled every which way...but I think it's as good as it can get until I get a better mike - which is now on order I won't get that for over a week though as I'll be at a conference this week for work.

...Anyway - t'was a fun episode - after that much mining it was a nice change to do something else. Can't wait for the creeper-protected diamond rush, though. ^^

Editing that episode now. There's a lot of footage to sift through again to decide which bits help tell the story without getting boring, but hope to get it done this weekend.

 

[Freakscar]

Yep, since I had your feedback as a guide and I hadn't completed the editing for this episode, I applied different audio filtering to reduce the low frequency hum. [...]

Ah well, it ain't bad - if I hadn't "listened" for something like this, I would not have noticed at all. And finally, there's only so much one can do to finetune the final output - a tree is a tree, even if you rewrite all dictionaries to call it "stone". Again, highest level of critique. No worries. I have heard WAY worse sound in LPs. It's new, that may be why it sounded a bit strange - after a few minutes, it was barely noticeable. =)

Editing that episode now. There's a lot of footage to sift through again to decide which bits help tell the story without getting boring, but hope to get it done this weekend.

Glad to hear that.^^