Game Review Vids
polycounter lvl 11
Hey PC
My brother has recently got in to video editing and game reviewing and posting his vids on youtube. I'm doing him a favor and putting them up here for all of you to watch and comment on, either within this thread or within the youtube thread. We're looking for ways to make these vids better (will be adding some 3d graphics and animation soon) and overall aesthetic and content.
What is needed? More humor? Shorter length? Less gay and more awesome? More cowbell?
Enjoy! - thanks for your time fellas.
Wii - Super Mario Galaxy - [ame]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjXpxyHGlno&feature=channel_page[/ame]
Wii - Lego Star Wars - Complete Saga - [ame]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zc4syUr_bDE&feature=channel_page[/ame]
p.s. I didn't know exactly what thread to make this post in.
My brother has recently got in to video editing and game reviewing and posting his vids on youtube. I'm doing him a favor and putting them up here for all of you to watch and comment on, either within this thread or within the youtube thread. We're looking for ways to make these vids better (will be adding some 3d graphics and animation soon) and overall aesthetic and content.
What is needed? More humor? Shorter length? Less gay and more awesome? More cowbell?
Enjoy! - thanks for your time fellas.
Wii - Super Mario Galaxy - [ame]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjXpxyHGlno&feature=channel_page[/ame]Wii - Lego Star Wars - Complete Saga - [ame]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zc4syUr_bDE&feature=channel_page[/ame]p.s. I didn't know exactly what thread to make this post in.
Replies
I don't watch a lot of game reviews, so I'm not sure if there is a format you're following or a strategy you have but it seemed like you tried to cover a lot of ground and got really in depth. I'd say 6-7min is pretty long and could probably be boiled down to 2-3. Just like demo reals I imagine you have about 30sec to sell the person on the next 30-45sec. If you find yourself going too long just trying to get through content chances are the viewers going to check out? Just a theory I don't have hard and fast facts to back it up.
Suggestions:
- Touch on the mechanics, but I'm not sure it needs to be as in depth, some of the fun especially with Nintendo games is finding out what does what and just dorking around for 10-15min. Hit the highlights, encourage playing with the controls.
- Hit a few strengths show an example, hit a few weaknesses, show an example.
- I'm not sure we need an in depth spoiler-esk retelling of the first cinematic.
I have posts on lots of forums and most people seem to agree that I discussed the story too much and didn't focus enough on the other stuff.
I'll take all of this into consideration for my next videos. Thanks for your help!
so i just watched the mario, and these are my thoughts
you need to make sure someone gets hooked to your story telling, if you dont get there attention within the first 10 seconds, people will move on.
i felt that the intro was way too long.
speaking about intro's, it is nice to have your own intro, not just from the upcoming materials.
the text you have of "zeistgeist" is just.. i mean cmon, make something fancy, create your own logo and intro, can be basic, can be just 3 seconds long, cool sound effect and your done, but that does give you your own " trade mark"
so moving on,
something that bothered me right away, was that the sound of the game, was not tweaked down while you spoke. make sure that whenever you speak, there are no disturbing hard background noises.
the way you speak.. i mean its fine at the end because you get used to it, but the first time it sounds really monotone. audio might be even more important then the video itself, so making sure this doesnt get boring is important, make the sound interresting, add some variation in tone. you do speak quite clear, so thats not a problem.
the information itself, i liked hearing some depth about mario, but it was all at a very high tempo, and non stop! there was no break, no chance to stop the talkz and move in for the gameplay and turn up the game sounds. like i said above, when you speak and the game sounds disturb the listener, this is great moment to mix your audio, stop talking, start showing the game.
the information was going quite long about how the game works, now that is great, but because there are no breaks, the listener constantly needs to pay attention to the audio
cutting some out and mixing it a bit more to keep peoples attention is key, dont make it a continuously flowing piece of information (like my post ffs)
soo, uhmm what next
the peel away stransitions XD
oh gawd, come on. make sure to use alot of hard cuts, maybe fade things in and out a bit, but not too slow.
the scene where you stand infront of a dvd collection.. i mean.. yeah..
couple things to point out
you are quite far from the camera, and specialy, because you move yourself into the picture, i want to be able to connect, see the person, who !@# has been talking all this time, and now its just a puppet in the background.
second, there are no interresting things going on in those shots, just a simple background, some dvds, jada jada, put up some posters, make it look like some gaming room, put down a coutch, tv, consols, i duno. it doesnt look like a real hardcore gamer is telling me something.
pfff ohyea, the window, ffs, it brings in a compleet white blur in the picture.
keep an eye on light! it is totaly, global bright and painful. set up some lights yourself, make the scene look interresting by putting you into the biggest light source, aim some at the wall to highlight something ect. (look at how other tv shows do this)
what also bothered me a bit, was the way the audio was recorded, it might be better to hold up a microphone (put a card around it with your logo)
uhmm
shit this is getting long..
the end shot, think things through!, at the left, you are leaning forward, at the right, you are leaning backwards, yeah that is not going to add up if you look as if the person next to you is in the same position. also, how is it possible that that cut in the picture is so visable?
use a tripod, cut the scene clean in half, 50 pixel feather is enough, and it should not be there.
and yeah also here is a text with subcribe over it, but because its a daylight bright scene with alot of yellow tints in it, a yellow text will not work.
create an end scene, just like an intro, and look for some fancy fonts to use.
yeah.. lets keep it at this for now,
hope its usefull in some way.
all this sounds pretty hars, but no disrespect, keep working on it
the overal is cool man!
yeah and it may be nice to change platform.. i dont consider the wii as a gaming platform, its more fun then hardcore (good to keep in mind, for what kind of gamers are you making reviews?)
lookn through the second vid, you also have a scene with yourself in it,
your face has like one emotion, its really weird to watch someone with no change in it, no eyebrowz that move around ect. takes away a bit of energy, the more excited you come over about reviewing the game, the more excited the gamer will be about playing it, (well i duno about lego star wars but still)
it might be a good practise, to watch a bit of a movie/ serie, and see how they do these things.
how do they cut video fragments, take a look at this for 5 min and move on,
how do they mix the sounds, again focus on this for 5 min and move on,
how do they build up things to keep the viewers attention
how do they build up the sets where people talk
these people have studied this for ages,
so make a small checklist of things, see how they do it, reproduce things and add your own flava,
maybe some discoverychannel might work for story telling
One problem is that the two games I've reviewed so far are really good games. I have one coming up where I'm reviewing a game that is just terrible, so I think I'll be able to add a little more humor, and thus have some more creative ways to work myself into the video.
Thoughts on that?
it may not add something to the game play, but it is very important to be able to connect to the person that is talking.
imagine ray mears show without a shot of him being shown in the episode, that would really be weird for the viewer.
so my advice would be to really keep them, but to think trough what you will talk about in those shots, make sure it makes sense.
say, you put in a couple lines where you talk about how you feel about the game play for instance, "yeah i think it cool because of bablabla, but, this and that"
then you put in something personal, and you can perfectly use you in the footage
editz,
for reviewing a bad game, you can also use your personal oppinion,
you can just be straight and say its crap on a funny level, or be more serieus and try to avoid pissing of a group of people, while this may cause you to lose funny points, and lose character,
mostly its the best thing is to find a middle way..
same is when you have a conversation with people, try and feel what you can or cannot say,
what will be funny, what will hunt me for the rest of time?
some shows run about burning things into the ground wich are funny if it also happens to everything, not just say only my favorite game. make sure that what you say is backed up with good material, or experience.
Fun stuff none the less.
but presentation wise its all the same, if you choose one direction, or if you try and please them all because
you do need to keep people entertained, you do need to provide them with information, you do need to be funny and show some energy, you do need to be serious if you want to be taken serious,
weigh all these factors, see when you can apply these best,
doing this, and studying this is the only thing that will help you,
watch some series, see when they want you to focus, see when they want you to laugh,
see when they use parts to keep your attention and make it loop all over again.
didnt feel like leaving a comment on youtube, so here goes
( i did read you didnt master AFX but still )
some things dont make sense,
you still look forward while the energy gathers
the energy is gathered extreemly quickly and doesnt appear at the same time the sound does.
most energy sources like these arent compleetly stable and dont have a 100% oppacity at all time, specialy around the edges.
use some more keyframes to make the ball move correctly with your hands, at alot of points it is around the lowerarm
dont let the beam appear that long, make it fade in strenght
the camera moves around so you get this shakey idea, is cool, but to add more drama, use a curve or level editor so you can make it look more like the energy fills up the room
also other filters over your footage might be nice.
uhm
more drama in the pose, dont hold it, make it look like its hard to contain, without acting like a spice girl :P
background doesnt bother me as much since its just a practice,
though its good to see that you watch discovery channel, dirty jobs is awesome
Its all in the details
take a look at andrew kramer, the guy has some really awesome video tutorials on after effects. some are quite easy to do, but have very cool resolds!
http://www.videocopilot.net/