Critique Please !

[jlindblo]

You guys are too polite. In order for me to improve I need help in pointing out what I need to improve on and it doesn't hurt my feelings to be blunt. Otherwise I keep making the same mistakes. No praise please ... just pointers. I had 148 hits but no comments so I know I need work somewhere! 

 

This is a re-edit of my last verrrrrrry loooong video and I know that being too long is a big mistake.  So I shortened it by 9 minutes and added music.  Maybe I needed more cockpit shots for realism or maybe my dated scenery is too boring ... or the scenes too long??  Description too flamboyant?  In general and specific what improvements would help capture a viewers attention?  

 

If you have time I thank you ... if not I understand .... it IS the Christmas Season and time is limited. So here is the redo if time permits.

 

>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImICEUfXDdc&feature=youtu.be

 

 

[Doug Sawatzky]

The only thing I can critique is the piloting...you need to start the engines after pushback from the gate and taxi too the runway, not start the engines on runway threshold...and of course landing on the runway would have been cool.

 

Cheers

 

Doug

[jlindblo]

Good points Doug ....  and I don't think starting at a Gate would add that much time to the total time and I could just blend in short bursts of the actual taxiing and not spend too much time on that portion. Great, and that definitely would add to some realism.  And the poor landing was an obvious flub that I should have cleaned up ...  and that definitely would be a failed Checkride.    Thanks for watching the full clip.  I appreciate the pointers.

 

Jim

[FSRobert]

I had a video God tell me a video over three minutes unless it's a epic video happening you will lose your viewer.

Always good to have a fun and catchy theme to a video, keeps my interest anyway.

[jlindblo]

Thanks FSRobert and I think your video god revelation and your comment about the catchy title is right on!  My son pointed out that YouTube has a feature called "Analytics" that averages out the watching time per individual per video which pretty much nails what you said. 2-3 minutes on most ...  maybe 4-5 minutes on the best.  This is just a hobby and people have busy lives and to keep people engaged longer than 3 minutes is pretty challenging! I think part of the answer in creating these videos and making them successful is knowing what to edit out of your "creation" and still make it interesting. Sometimes it feels like amputating .... so perhaps coming back in a couple of weeks and revisiting would make editing out a little less traumatic. Good points .... and thanks for pointing them out.

 

Jim   

[Benny]

To be honest I'm at home on an expensive satellite INTERNET connection so 13 minutes is money, ha ha ha. I will have a look later at work.

But all I can tell you is to put 3-5 minutes in your head for a start... and trust me it's hard because we the creator feel that we are not showing enough but we are wrong. Long scene need to be breathtaking and interesting if not, people will hit the back button as fast as they came in.

Once you have limited your time to that your scene will be shorter, by being shorter you will take the ultimate best out of it.

 

Look at Shipdriver one, he as taking a very different approach by commenting his video, this way he keep us interested.

 

It's really hard doing video and like other have mention, to keep your audience it need to be breathtaking if more then 3-4 minutes.

 

I spent the equivalent of a day on : This is for you Jarald

 

I did, I think one of my best one yesterday on Norway... again and I had my girlfriend look at it, If I can keep her attention (she his NO SIMMER!) it's a good start.   The choice of scenery, angle, movement (EZDOC is your friend) is a must.

 

Some hate music in a video some like it but the choice of this one is critical. On top, the edition need to be in sinc with the music and that take a lot of time and precision.

 

Lately I use EPIC style music design for film and game instead of my personal taste. They are in general grandiose music whit high peak and this is WHEN you need to insert THE SCENE that make us want to fly.

 

And I get your frustration of having no feedback, or worse, negative hit on Youtube. I few negative hit and we feel not doing so again.

 

I will have a look later.

 

Ben

[jlindblo]

Oh Wow Ben .......  thank you for taking the time to respond.  3 to 5 minutes seems to be right on ....  I had disregarded that before and it was a huge mistake!  Ezdok, yes .... I'm learning more about it on each new video and it has capabilities I have not yet tried.  Epic I will have to Google up ... it seems to be a music service?   I have used music that comes from Youtube sources and it appears to be useable as "Public Domain" stuff but I'm not really sure.  No one has pointed out to me not to do that ... yet.  I had Hughes Satellite Internet in the past so I understand both the cost and time limitations.  (Also I could never get consistent speed with mine).  

 

Loved your Norway video .... and thanks for the feedback.

[Benny]

Hi again, first that:

http://www.wideview.it/noredtext.htm

 

And always hide the menu bar.

 

What editing software are you using? Get Cyberlink Power Director 13 if you can. Cheap, very good and easy to learn.

 

Your transition are not coordinated with your music, and with this kind of music you should use smooth transition (fade in-out), when using direct transition it need to be done with a big BANG!!! POW

 

Like I said, the choice of music is relative to each of us. But take a real movie and see what they are using.

 

Lately Youtube will want you to acknowledge that you are using someone else Music, you click I understand and a link will appear to buy that song on your video page. Often on Itune??? That I don't get. There is plenty of GOOD Royalty free music out there, I will come back to you with a link later.

 

With EZDOC you have to learn to move around the plane and outside very smoothly. Pause your flight and have a photographic mind, look around.

This is how the V key (Screenshot) guy are doing it. Set your outside mouse movement VERY SLOW. I use all my hands, elbow and even my foot sometime to make it all happen. Example, at 8:28 you go from rear to front view of the Lockeed in .5 seconde. It's not.... how can I say that, realistic film wise.

 

It's hard but you have to set your Keyboard and/or Joystick/mouse to be able to create camera angle and movement that look like a real movie. Don't make your airplane the centre of attention to block half of the scenery view.

 

Do you have Active Sky Next or Opus? They make drastic change to the environment.

 

Your video: IMHO. To long at start, too much of engine starting, to much take off and to much landing gear stuff. I don't say none I say to much.

 

You have some beautiful sequence later at about half and the mix of those different airplane is very interesting.

 

You could easily put all your best sequence in less then 4 minutes.

 

Don't take anything I say seriously, we here to have fun. And I'm glad your asking because we need more guys in this section of the forum.

 

I say, just for fun, take what you think are the best of the video above and make it in 3 minute or so, just for fun???

 

I'll follow your thread.

 

Have a look at some great FSX movie on youtube, they may inspire you. But the main thing now it to play and play with EZDOC.

 

I'm uploading another Norway (sorry) video now. It's more dramatic then the others. It's my longest one ever at close to 10 minutes.

 

No hard transition, no amateur special effect, just use the fade in and out.

 

Anyway, you ask and I hope what I said made sense??

 

Cheers, Ben

[Breeze]

With EZDOC you have to learn to move around the plane and outside very smoothly

 

Any tips on how to do this Ben?  Which view and which keys do you use?  I've had a hard time mastering this.

[Benny]

Any tips on how to do this Ben?  Which view and which keys do you use?  I've had a hard time mastering this.

 

Hi, I have a Saitek X52 Pro:

 

The button with the 4 green dot is assigned to move the cam left and right and close and far. 

 

Up and down in on the

 

 

Various EZCA right button.

 

So yes, wile moving the cam around I use a mix of the button (first image or like describe on the second) and the mouse and control the plane with my trim wheel and my right elbow

 

The problem lately is I don't use replay and I should... so I need to fly at the same time that I move the cam.

 

Plenty of that on my last uploaded vid.

 

Ben

[MarkH]

I need help in pointing out what I need to improve on and it doesn't hurt my feelings to be blunt

 

Jim,

 

this is how I see it.

 

You have to start from the premise that a movie is a narrative form - it exists to tell a story. The story comes first and everything else follows. Your video is ahead of many in that it has a story:

 

- A bunch of planes take off from somewhere and fly to somewhere else for no obvious reason.

- There are lots of different planes and they fly around each other, again for no clear reason.

 

It's a weak story, hence it would be too long at one minute. Even with a strong narrative, good sound (music is sound) and good editing, in my experience a minute is a good practical limit for an FSX movie. A one-minute movie with great visuals, great sound and great editing but no story is dull and I will likely not see the end.

 

So you need a story. Once you have one you tell it by creating a sequence of scenes. Scenes are built from sequences of shots. Outstanding shots require a photographer's eye. There are implicit and explicit rules about how you sequence shots, often referred to as the 'grammar' of editing.

 

As I said, that's how I see it.

[jlindblo]

Oooo .... Thanks Ben.  I printed out that sheet on removing the text in the screen corners right away.  Some I knew and because I was making so many changes to the Ezdok settings on new airplanes that I did not clear because I needed to see the Zoom Factor ....  so many things to remember .... well, just like doing the checklist I guess in real time!  But how to do other settings I did not know.

 

Whoaaa .... now those are joysticks to die for ... all I have is the Logitech Extreme3DPro ...  (for now that is :*))

 

I have been using a combination of Freemake Video Converter and Wondershare Video Editor, but I'll check out Power Director 1.3.   Freemake lets me chop out segments of mp4 (from Shadowplay) and will also convert avi (from Fraps) and then I can reconnect all the useable parts.  Wondershare lets me add music and adjust the volume levels.  Multiple rendering with Freemake or Wondershare does not seem to degrade the quality .... or I'm just not seeing it.  I can clip portions with Freemake but not with Wondershare (unless I haven't figured it out yet)

 

So basically some outside views are better with an "instant" snapping transition motion rather than rolling transition (ie, my Lockheed at 8:28),  and inside views  (like head movement) would be better like in real life ..  that is, slower but smooth motion from one view to the next?  You say to set your mouse motion to slow .... is that an Ezdok setting or a MS setting?  I am assuming this would be for when you have the ML (Mouse Look) enabled?

 

I have Active Sky Advanced which I will have to experiment with.  I have been setting the scenery to weather that might best display the terrain ...  

 

I can see easily how I could shorten the take off..  I will have to delve into the Fade In and Fade Out more ..... Or pay more attention to the clips that I cut.  Good point.

 

I appreciate your taking the time to respond Ben ... yes .... definitely makes sense.  And you're right ...  it's a place to have fun and use your imagination. And I do, and I will. Thanks again.  

 

Jim

[jlindblo]

MarkH

  Ooooo ...... you just made me aware of something.     This last re-edited video had a story but I failed to transfer the story part from the 1st post to my repost.  When I uploaded and saw the story correctly on YouTube it slipped my mind that there is NO story in the forum.  Dohhhh   I think this is the point you mean .... That the flight in this post has no story??   If so ... this was the story (below, and I don't think I can edit my initial post to reinsert the "Story Line"?   If there is then I have yet to understand how to do it.  

 

____________________________________________________________

 

Mothball flight to McCall, Idaho edited with music

 

   On it's final voyage I was hired to fly a Lockheed Constellation L-747 from Boise, the capitol city of Idaho, (meaning city of trees), to it's new museum location at the resort town of McCall, Idaho 80 miles to the north.  Departing KBOI, R10 (2,840' elevation) and crossing the Boise River, I'll turn north and soon overfly the town of Horseshoe Bend, famous for it's “sliding†highways.  There, we'll see the whitewater rafting Payette River, catch a glimpse of Garden Valley to the east, and continue to climb over the pine covered mountains topping Sage Hen Reservoir and soon drop over Indian Mountain and skirt the summer resort towns of Cascade and Donnelly before lining up for R34 (5,021' Elevation) at KMYL, back country jump off location at the famous resort and ski town of McCall, Idaho.  The well known Lockheed Tri-Tail will be then set up as a tourist attraction for future generations. 

 

  The flight will get publicity and support with a following of Staggerwings using a Spartan Executive as a photo chase plane who will follow and record the final flight to it's destination.

 

  Ok …. it's make believe …. FSX.  :^))))

_________________________________________

 

Thanks MarkH for responding ... that's the only way I can make corrections.  I appreciate.

[MarkH]

story

 

Well, that makes a lot more sense, BUT. We need to be able to get all that from just watching the video. For Dilbert fans, it's a bit like this.

[jlindblo]

Ahhh .... one of my favorite comics!     You got me thinking and....  I'm thinking now that a shortened introduction at the start of the video (Title) would funnel pre-conceptions into what the video is about.

 

Good thought .... thank you.

[Benny]

I don't fully agree that you need a story. What we mostly do here is tried to show ORBX stuff. But a good choice of music (like in any film) may get the folks in a more movie style like video. But again, you will never please everyone.... never. Just go see movie critic... they never agree.

Some like wing only view, some cockpit only, those one look like the more hardcore simmer that nothing outside the plane is real. But, to fully show a scenery the plane is an accessory.   You could NOT show any plane what so ver to show, as an example and Airport. For that you need to set the WORLD view in EZDOC. Save it, close the sim and reload. But again, Like ship driver did and even me lately, a simple landing need nothing.

 

I also use a cheap gamer keyboard:

 

The small one beside the lamp.

 

All my EZDOC views are set there. For each airplane I have 4 outside views, front, rear, left and right wing so I can move the view fast er. After I play, move around the plane with the control button explain above.

 

And trust me it took a wile to get there and I have a long way to go. The last one I uploaded is MY favorite, did it for me and share it with you guys but did it for me.

 

Also, I now have 3 monitors, Plan-G on the right, FSX in the center, and EZDOK pup up menu on the left WITH ASN open.

 

Me I'm mostly stuck in dawn lately, I like the color, the feel. Plan day, clear weather is gone for me.

 

So of course, the more control you have at your finger tip make the... special movement more easy. But again it as nothing to do with a good video.

 

When I saw you filming your 4 engine starts I know that it involve work and time... but people don't care.  This would be fine if you where doing a review of the plane!!!! And it's somewhat what you did someways.

 

Remember, it is ORBX forum, filming a plane from under this one in a blue sky interest person here.

 

It take just one sequence to loose someone in a 10 minutes video.

 

Also, to mix sound and video perfectly you need a good software, the music and sound will be showed as a graph, you can see the peaks and mix your video around the music, never the opposite.

 

I say it again, take the best of this above video and do something in 3 minutes.

 

Best regards, Ben

 

ps.: Yes it's painful sometime to see one image in the Screen Shot section having 15-20 reply. But it's the way it is. People that don't do video don't understand the wok involve.

[shipdriver]

I don't fully agree that you need a story. What we mostly do here is tried to show ORBX stuff.

I'm with you on this one, Ben.

 

But, to fully show a scenery the plane is an accessory. You could NOT show any plane what so ver to show, as an example and Airport. For that you need to set the WORLD view in EZDOC. Save it, close the sim and reload.

Many scenery add-on promotional videos are just this. They usually use camera movement to generate action since the subject is a bunch of static buildings and a runway. Such camera movement is less necessary (and sometimes distracting) when the subject is dynamic (like a moving plane). Out of curiosity, what version of EZDok are you using? 1.17 allows you to create a world camera and use it without restarting FSX. The world camera is something that I miss in P3D. That function in EZDok is broken in P3D, which is one reason why my P3D videos are more pilot focused.

[jlindblo]

Thanks guys ..... I'm learning a lot here.  I think a theme or introduction can get the audience into the right mood at the beginning.  I also think (I my case) I need to create introductions and credits to validate ORBX focus.  I am using the improved scenery that FTXCRM displays and not the default FSX scenery ... so I think it would be helpful to start off a video with credits to CRM.  I live near Boise the capitol, but the only ORBX enhanced airport scenery available for Idaho is Bonner's Ferry ( I think ) which is way north of here ... so in this departure I have to use whatever the default is, and go with that.  Likewise with my destination airport.  But I suspect eventually that will change.  For me, I love the airplanes ... especially the classics so my focus is on the grace and lines of the craft so I will always include some of that.  When I can fund more airports and scenery I will want to integrate more of the landscape and terrain. It seems to me the flight has to be a balance of the scenes showing what aircraft you are using, some of the starting and taxing, take off, actual flying, then landing and through it all attempt to appreciate the scenery. And that's quite a task in under 10 minutes .... or so it seems. 

 

Rob .... using 1.17 on Ezdok.  But I am going to have to go back to school to learn World camera because when I attempted to use it before I always lost control of all my camera views and almost went crazy.     But I love the power of Ezdok ....  in many ways it's like actually being there.

 

Nice setup Ben .....  you mentioned that Ezdok and ASN are on the left side ??  I kept looking ... must be behind the lamp shade?

 

I will try the 3 minute challenge sometime after a knee replacement in Jan (not mine but I have to be there).  I may not get to the 3 minutes ...  but I know some areas to cut down. It will be another learning experience.

 

Jim 

[shipdriver]

It seems to me the flight has to be a balance of the scenes showing what aircraft you are using, some of the starting and taxing, take off, actual flying, then landing and through it all attempt to appreciate the scenery. And that's quite a task in under 10 minutes .... or so it seems.

Don't feel that you have to show all aspects of the flight. If you do, then you can forget about limiting yourself to 3 minutes. I tend to spend more time on just approaches and landings because 1) you are going slower and thus the scenery doesn't go by too quickly (which will tend to make stutters worse) and 2) it demonstrates some aviating (even if it is showing my own learning curve).

Don't feel that you have to use the payware airports. Showing off FTX regions is great too!

Don't equate views with the value of your personal expression.

BREAK

One thing to bear in mind (and this is always very difficult for me!) is that with most video rendering methods, the graphics settings and eye candy that you use should be lower than what you normally fly with. This is because no rendering method is a 100% re-creation of your normal flight sim experience.

FRAPS/Bandicam, etc. are CPU-based and will degrade your flight experience, frame rates, etc. inducing stutters, etc. if you don't lower settings.

Shadowplay and graphics card-based solutions will not affect your fps and smoothness, but visual issues still tend to get exaggerated (i.e. micro-stutters become macro-stutters).

The alpha FS-Recorder video renderer (which is not available in P3D) is a non-real time video renderer which will give you super smooth video with all sliders to the right, but no sound. If you see a video that is super smooth but has no game sound, but instead has music only or radio/passenger chatter added in, it is probably done with the FS-Recorder video renderer (many high-end scenery promotional videos use this). I have made many videos with this in the past, but stopped because I got sick of commenters asking how I got such smooth graphics. Videos made with this are in no way a representation of what any user would actually experience in-sim (and it seemed vaguely dishonest to me).

If you use the CPU-based renderers, you should definitely lower your settings/sliders to get smoothness on the video output. If you use a GPU-based rednerer, lowering settings is helpful although if you have really smooth graphics in-sim, you might get away without adjustments. Overal, I believe that Shadowplay comes closest to what one actually sees in-sim, but choice of rendering methods (as is editing software) software is personal.

I will re-iterate that this is hard pill for me to swallow because I always want to push the boundaries of what I can get away with in terms of eye candy. It wasn't until very recent system upgrades (as in only my last two videos), that I can get eye candy AND smoothness to my satisfaction.

[jlindblo]

Shipdriver .... you are so right.  You could spend 3 minutes just getting the plane started.  It's kinda like dieting ..... you have to decide ahead of time what you are going to eat or you get bloated really quick!  

 

I'll have to have a second look at my graphics to see if I have micro-stutters but I've been so focused on the plane and views I may have bypassed them.  I do know that distant fog in the small valleys stutter from a distance.  But my last graphics card seemed to conquer most all the problems that I had before.  However I think with Shadowplay I cannot have a second monitor open and show ... say GPS or PlanG if I am running full screen and Shadowplay, but with FRAPS I can ... this seems weird.  But I prefer Shadowplay. I'll have to revisit that to be sure ... but there is some hangup I know.

 

I did not know that FSRecorder mutes the sound.  If I run the last FSRecording in Play mode and Shadowplay to clone the last flight I do get the sound at least from the plane I am flying. Interesting.

 

You do indeed have eye candy and smoothness and I am working in that direction.  More flying, more lessons.  I am glad it's winter.

 

Thanks for responding ...

[shipdriver]

FS-Recorder itself doesn't mute the sound. If you render a video using the 2.17 or 2.18 alpha builds of FS-Recorder, it will output a .wmv file, which has no sound but buttery smooth video. This is very different from the regular recorded flight available in all versions. Here is the post at FS-Recorder.net which explains it: http://www.fs-recorder.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=564

[Mickey]

Hello Jim,

 

i just watched your vid. First like to say what i liked the idea of formation flying, the time of the day and the weather theme was good as well. It looked to me like a nice hang out of a bunch of friends having fun flying around so the music could have been a bit more chill out style.

 

The guys above already gave the best tips on tools and story line. But i want to stay a bit longer at your video. I would have divided the video in 3- max 4 chapters (take off, cruise, showing off the planes from different angles and finally the angle) each chapter about max. 1 minute long. That would give me the max time of the vid. Each chapter would have 10-max 20 seconds long scenes. Scenes that are longer than 20 seconds could get a bit boring.

 

Talking about music. That is at least for me the most difficult part. You have to consider a few things when selecting a specific song. Is it license free, does the composer allow one to use it in youtube vids and of course where to get them and what is the best song for the vid. Sometimes it could be better to just hear the roaring engine sound

 

So if you´ve selected the perfect soundtrack for your clip you can even adjust the scenes according to transitions within the song. This technique can enhance the dramaturgy of your video.

 

But the last but most important thing is that you enjoy the flying the editing and the final take Keep your work goin and am lookin forward to see your next movie.

 

Merry x mas

[jlindblo]

Shipdriver ...... Hmmmm .....  found that I have FS Recorder 2.1.   I will read the article so I understand it better ....  thank you for supplying the url.

 

Mickey ..... thank you for your comments and encouragement.  I indeed do enjoy putting it all together and what a learning experience it is.  And having all the feedback is really helpful.  Ben is certainly right ....  it takes enormous focus and perseverance to bring it all together and those who have not done it don't have a clue.  Hours and hours of time to publish a 5 minute video. ...  I have hunted since childhood and have always been a map studier so when I fly in FSX and can peer out the windows and study the scenery and often recognize much that I've hunted in, or flown over in real life  ... That's when I'm in Heaven.  So the challenge of putting one of these together is somewhat life-like for me ...  that's my motivator.  

 

When you say put into chapters ... I am assuming that would mean inserting a Text Frame explaining the next chapter at the appropriate point?  I hadn't thought of that ...  good point. And of course ... more classroom.  

 

I have been doing some videos with the 1st one without music and a second with music to see if I really have a preference.  If it's short enough I prefer the engine sounds ... especially on take off and landing. I  like hearing the flaps, the gear coming up, the reduction in power, etc.  In the flight section if it tends towards monotony then music sets me in a better mood.  I have to play about a half dozen songs before I find one that fits (for me) the mood. I don't think YouTube notifies you anymore ... rather they just put an add up for the song that you've used.  Or so I've seen in the past. 

 

Merry Christmas to you both .... and all the responders who took time out of their day to respond. Those are my Christmas gifts.

[MarkH]

I don't fully agree that you need a story. What we mostly do here is tried to show ORBX stuff

 

If you think these are mutually exclusive you just need to look at the advertising industry. Here's a thing - I almost never watch anything in the videos forum but I'll always click on John Dow's videos. To put it another way, John Dow is much more likely than most to sell me a bit of Orbx software I wasn't looking for. (A few others too, but John comes to mind.)

[Mickey]

 

 

When you say put into chapters ... I am assuming that would mean inserting a Text Frame explaining the next chapter at the appropriate point?  I hadn't thought of that ...  good point. And of course ... more classroom.  

 

 

Actually it the chapters and scenes are only for video length planning. Fine tuning comes with the music. Another thing is before you start with a video it should be clear in what you want to show in the video. Is it scenery or is it a plane you like or is it a combination of both.

 

What i forgot in my first post was the piloting. Its a pain if you have collected great footage but in the end you have a messed up take off or landing or AI traffic hitting you and so on. So that should always be a consideration when recording.

 

...last but not least every one of us like the Shipdriver, FSRobert, ftp2leta, to name a few we all do have different styles in make our movies so find your own personal style