Author Topic: How to EEVblog  (Read 28307 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline Richard Crowley

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 4317
  • Country: us
  • KJ7YLK
Re: How to EEVblog
« Reply #50 on: November 14, 2016, 09:49:42 pm »
Isn't it best to see something on screen and have a spike in the audio waveform - so you can line the two things up in the editor?  :-//
Remember that you have the separate sound recording AND the sound track from the video camcorder. So typically you can manually (or automatically) sync the separate sound track using just the audio spikes without reference to the video at all.  There are software gadgets like "PluralEyes" which will automatically match up and synch multiple audio and video clips together.

The image is pretty much need only for
  • Cameras without sound. For example traditional cine film cameras.
  • SLATE where the production, scene, take, etc. information identifies the film/video clip.
 

Online Brumby

  • Supporter
  • ****
  • Posts: 12288
  • Country: au
Re: How to EEVblog
« Reply #51 on: November 15, 2016, 04:19:45 am »
If you want to find a place in the video, a dog clicker will put a spike in the audio waveform and it is very easy to see (it has a very sharp spike).

It can be held off screen and it puts a marker in the video that is easy to find by using the audio waveform.

Isn't it best to see something on screen and have a spike in the audio waveform - so you can line the two things up in the editor?  :-//

The clicker isn't being used to synchronise the audio and video ... it's being used to find an edit point.

I can imagine it would be useful for a number of situations - but one example I might suggest is this:  You have your camera rolling on a scene that might be reasonably static (which makes finding a visual cue impossible) and you need to grab a tool or some other item which will take you less than 10 seconds.  To stop the recording and restart it would double the time you would take, plus you now have two clips that need to be joined - and you would need to trim them of the 'dead' time.  By letting the camera run, you can use the clicker to identify the period you will want to cut out during editing.  Using the audio track with a sharp spike clearly visible in the editing software will give you a precise reference point.

I think it is an admirable idea - simple and effective.
 

Offline imidis

  • Frequent Contributor
  • **
  • Posts: 426
  • Country: ca
Re: How to EEVblog
« Reply #52 on: November 16, 2016, 08:17:45 pm »
That does sound like a great way to highlight spots to edit out. :)
Gone for good
 

Offline ez24

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 3082
  • Country: us
  • L.D.A.
Re: How to EEVblog
« Reply #53 on: November 16, 2016, 09:03:54 pm »
That does sound like a great way to highlight spots to edit out. :)
Dave talks fast and long so when he pauses that is his edit point.   

I once edited a video for a company that was suppose to be a funny training video.  I spent a lot of time finding their edit points.  I finally got the director to use the clicker and it made editing so much faster.  So when he said "cut" he also used the clicker.   I could immediately see the edit point on the audio line and did not have watch the video to find the cut points. 

YouTube and Website Electronic Resources ------>  https://www.eevblog.com/forum/other-blog-specific/a/msg1341166/#msg1341166
 

Offline borjam

  • Supporter
  • ****
  • Posts: 908
  • Country: es
  • EA2EKH
Re: How to EEVblog
« Reply #54 on: March 03, 2019, 10:22:41 pm »
I know it's an old thread, but I hope this is helpful.

You can sync audio between a proper, external recorder and a camera using a sync generator. That way both the audio and the video files will be stamped with the same timecode and it's trivial to align them.

A simple product to do that is this:

https://ambient.de/en/product/nanolockit/

This is a usage example:

https://ambient.de/tutorial/nanolockit-sync-tutorial-sound-devices-mixpre-3/

And no, no affiliation with them at all.

 

Offline TheNewLab

  • Frequent Contributor
  • **
  • Posts: 290
  • Country: us
Re: How to EEVblog
« Reply #55 on: April 23, 2019, 06:01:38 am »
humm, seems like a lot of trouble.

 for me, a clapper is easier..in fact, i just use a loud pop or snap. with digital video editors, syncing speech with video is just drag a little left or right. once done.I  lay all of the audio with video. then cut up into clips and edit. Even mixing the audio from multiple sources. A DAW works easily for me. syncing is easy plus I can "massage" the audio to fit in nicely...

My big mistake was asking an audio engineering friend for what mics I needed for YouTube videos back when...
Bad move, "condenser only" I then went out and spent way too much, and much more complicated than needed. :palm:
 

Offline EEVblog

  • Administrator
  • *****
  • Posts: 37661
  • Country: au
    • EEVblog
Re: How to EEVblog
« Reply #56 on: April 23, 2019, 06:47:18 am »
humm, seems like a lot of trouble.
 for me, a clapper is easier..in fact, i just use a loud pop or snap. with digital video editors, syncing speech with video is just drag a little left or right. once done.I  lay all of the audio with video. then cut up into clips and edit. Even mixing the audio from multiple sources. A DAW works easily for me. syncing is easy plus I can "massage" the audio to fit in nicely...
My big mistake was asking an audio engineering friend for what mics I needed for YouTube videos back when...
Bad move, "condenser only" I then went out and spent way too much, and much more complicated than needed. :palm:

If you have to sync up your audio and video for Youtube video then you are doing it wrong. Arguing over which is the best/easiest way to sync is to miss the entire point of productive youtube video production.
And if you have to process your audio (or video) for your Youtube videos then you are also doing it wrong.

But hey, if that's what you want to do, knock yourself out.
 
The following users thanked this post: Richard Crowley

Offline TheNewLab

  • Frequent Contributor
  • **
  • Posts: 290
  • Country: us
Re: How to EEVblog
« Reply #57 on: June 06, 2019, 08:14:59 am »
If you have to sync up your audio and video for YouTube video then you are doing it wrong. Arguing over which is the best/easiest way to sync is to miss the entire point of productive YouTube video production.
And if you have to process your audio (or video) for your YouTube videos then you are also doing it wrong.

But hey, if that's what you want to do, knock yourself out.
Hmmm..maybe it is not necessary to do so much work for YouTube???
I learned my method from film people..so maybe that is dumb for YouTube uploads :palm:
 

Offline EEVblog

  • Administrator
  • *****
  • Posts: 37661
  • Country: au
    • EEVblog
Re: How to EEVblog
« Reply #58 on: June 06, 2019, 10:36:30 am »
If you have to sync up your audio and video for YouTube video then you are doing it wrong. Arguing over which is the best/easiest way to sync is to miss the entire point of productive YouTube video production.
And if you have to process your audio (or video) for your YouTube videos then you are also doing it wrong.
But hey, if that's what you want to do, knock yourself out.
Hmmm..maybe it is not necessary to do so much work for YouTube???
I learned my method from film people..so maybe that is dumb for YouTube uploads :palm:

Yep.
If you want a classic example of this, look at Karl Von Mollers excellent series State of Electronics:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOepzhfgouq_rPxDx-kCn7Q
Karl is a professional film director, he shots and edits big budget TV commercial for huge clients and various films etc. He's your classic filmmaker, it's an art to him.
But the result of bringing that same technique and methodology to Youtube, whilst it produces fabulous visual results, is just entirely lost on the Youtube audience.
They don't care how much work you put into.
They don't care that you hired actors to recreate scenes to "tell a story".
They don't care that you traveled the country just to shoot location material.
They don't care that you had to buy stock footage and get formal legal rights to every single second of footage.
They don't care that you color graded it and fussed over every visual detail.
They don't care that you had to get all the formal release forms signed before you could air their footage.
etc

Karl spent several years travelling the country interviewing people, huge interviews, many hours long, and I think it was something like 5 years before he actually released anything.
And then he was surprised that people were like "Yeah, that's ok" and that it didn't get many views or much praise. I'm sure he's proud of what he's done, and rightly so, but the sad fact is he could have just dumped the raw interview footage, or did some basic editing in a day like I do to make it slightly more polished and it would have gotten the same views and feedback. Welcome to youtube.

This is why it's just crazy to use film industry techniques on Youtube and think that's it's going to worthwhile, it's almost always a waste of time.
« Last Edit: June 06, 2019, 10:39:27 am by EEVblog »
 

Offline thinkfat

  • Supporter
  • ****
  • Posts: 2150
  • Country: de
  • This is just a hobby I spend too much time on.
    • Matthias' Hackerstübchen
Re: How to EEVblog
« Reply #59 on: June 06, 2019, 11:32:08 am »
Thanks a lot for the pointer. I've watched a couple of episodes now and the content is visually top notch.

The thing that ticks me off is, however, the overall presentation: It feels like an hour-long trailer.

What I feel missing is a narrator that gives coherence, that leads through the topic of each episode and helps bring the message across. While I'm writing this, the episode "Hunters & Collectors" in running in the background. What each of the individuals has to say is an important piece of story, but it feels, like, glued together with no red line to follow. It just doesn't feel like a story being told.

The background music is somehow distracting in its repetitiveness.

But maybe that's just me ;)
Everybody likes gadgets. Until they try to make them.
 

Offline orion242

  • Supporter
  • ****
  • Posts: 746
  • Country: us
Re: How to EEVblog
« Reply #60 on: June 06, 2019, 01:33:44 pm »
The background music is somehow distracting in its repetitiveness.

This drives me insane.  If its not a music video or musical, why the in holy hell put music in with people talking?!?  Are the babbling people saying nothing of importance and they feel adding music will somehow retain audience?

Beyond distracting, its annoying as hell and seemly more and more common.
 

Offline rsjsouza

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 5980
  • Country: us
  • Eternally curious
    • Vbe - vídeo blog eletrônico
Vbe - vídeo blog eletrônico http://videos.vbeletronico.com

Oh, the "whys" of the datasheets... The information is there not to be an axiomatic truth, but instead each speck of data must be slowly inhaled while carefully performing a deep search inside oneself to find the true metaphysical sense...
 

Offline EEVblog

  • Administrator
  • *****
  • Posts: 37661
  • Country: au
    • EEVblog
Re: How to EEVblog
« Reply #62 on: June 07, 2019, 07:58:51 am »
The background music is somehow distracting in its repetitiveness.
But maybe that's just me ;)

No, that was a common complaint IIRC.

Regardless of how you think the content turned out, the point I was trying to make is the thinking that went behind it was big director movie oriented, he went in with a story focus instead of just letting each interview fly on it's own, and I think that ultimately stifled the content in many ways.

I remember him coming to my (old) lab and I asked what the direction he wanted to go with the story he was trying to tell, and he wouldn't tell me because it might spoil my responses and he wanted my answer to be spontaneous. Fair enough I thought, but then he fired questions at me and I instantly realised they could have had several answers and direction based on the story, and it was kinda confusing. And I kind of see a bit of that in the final videos. Add to that that he spent several years shooting all this material and your ideas of the story evolve etc, but then you've got all this old footage that was kinda shot a certain way with specific questions and responses etc.
I'm sure that works great if you are directing a film and have the resources and budget to re-shoot and change stuff on the fly etc, but it's an awful lot of effort for a Youtube video or series. But I am in awe of the amount of effort he went into this over years, and I've love to see a dump of the raw footage interviews.

Contrast that with my crude effort with the interviewing one of the same people, I just rocked up with a camera and no real idea what I'd talk about, and I edited it simply into a 5 parts series that was quite well received, all for hardly any effort.
Of course comparing the quality of the two is like chalk and cheese, but if you want to produce content for Youtube and do it effectively and consistently, you have to make "just good enough" content.
About the only creator who I can think of who puts massive work into youtube video production and is able to pull it off would be Captain Disillusion.
Then you have the likes of Tom Scott who travel the world making video, going to all that effort, visiting these fantastic and interesting locations and people, and then produce (albeit good) short videos with only relatively small snippets of info. I always think to myself "wow, if I went all the way there I would have shot the crap of that place, and interviewed them for hours" etc and would dump a whole ton of content. But nope, you get a 5min spiffy summary video  |O

« Last Edit: June 07, 2019, 08:23:56 am by EEVblog »
 

Offline rsjsouza

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 5980
  • Country: us
  • Eternally curious
    • Vbe - vídeo blog eletrônico
Re: How to EEVblog
« Reply #63 on: June 07, 2019, 09:56:31 am »
If you have to sync up your audio and video for YouTube video then you are doing it wrong. Arguing over which is the best/easiest way to sync is to miss the entire point of productive YouTube video production.
And if you have to process your audio (or video) for your YouTube videos then you are also doing it wrong.
But hey, if that's what you want to do, knock yourself out.
Hmmm..maybe it is not necessary to do so much work for YouTube???
I learned my method from film people..so maybe that is dumb for YouTube uploads :palm:
It's not "youtube" per se, but the type of audience you want to cater and the return you expect. Your original question is specific to re-create a EEVBlog experience, thus you are probably targeting the same crowd (as I do with my own channel) and is talking to the right person. In this particular case, it is a heavy handed approach and any extra editing step has diminishing returns, especially for "one-man bands".

On the other hand, the fact youtube has extremely popular channels with heavy editing, camera angles, etc. is a testament that a broader audience will require a shorter and more appealing video. Also, depending on the expected returns, some employ a relatively large crew, which can help with the editing.

I think examples of a heavily cut and rehearsed are w2aew and ElectroBOOM - although the latter has much more editing, special effects, transitions, changes of camera and scenario, etc.

One example of a popular channel with an entire crew is GreatScott.

Yep.
If you want a classic example of this, look at Karl Von Mollers excellent series State of Electronics:
I recall this dude. I unsubscribed after his first tantrum of frustration when folks here on EEV were providing candid feedback. I had no idea he was still doing videos.

Among the feedback was the "Discovery channel" style of interviews with rapid scene changes and very little room to get a reasonable train of thought from each interviewed person.

But the result of bringing that same technique and methodology to Youtube, whilst it produces fabulous visual results, is just entirely lost on the Youtube audience.
They don't care how much work you put into.
To be fair, most people don't care how much effort is put into the making of any movie anymore (perhaps CGI removed part of the magic of filmmaking, but I digress). This includes big box office ones - I am looking at movies like the Hobbit trilogy, for example. The narrative is important and must be tailored to the audience you want to cater.
Vbe - vídeo blog eletrônico http://videos.vbeletronico.com

Oh, the "whys" of the datasheets... The information is there not to be an axiomatic truth, but instead each speck of data must be slowly inhaled while carefully performing a deep search inside oneself to find the true metaphysical sense...
 
The following users thanked this post: vk3yedotcom

Offline EEVblog

  • Administrator
  • *****
  • Posts: 37661
  • Country: au
    • EEVblog
Re: How to EEVblog
« Reply #64 on: June 07, 2019, 11:25:25 am »
Quote
Hmmm..maybe it is not necessary to do so much work for YouTube???
I learned my method from film people..so maybe that is dumb for YouTube uploads :palm:
It's not "youtube" per se, but the type of audience you want to cater and the return you expect. Your original question is specific to re-create a EEVBlog experience, thus you are probably targeting the same crowd (as I do with my own channel) and is talking to the right person. In this particular case, it is a heavy handed approach and any extra editing step has diminishing returns, especially for "one-man bands".[/quote]

Quite true.

Quote
On the other hand, the fact youtube has extremely popular channels with heavy editing, camera angles, etc. is a testament that a broader audience will require a shorter and more appealing video.

I'd say may require. There was a female blogger that I think was #1 on Youtube for a brief period that shot all her videos on her phone.

[/quote]I think examples of a heavily cut and rehearsed are w2aew [/quote]

All his videos used to be a couple of single takes stitched together like mine. Haven't watched in a while though.

Quote
One example of a popular channel with an entire crew is GreatScott.

GreatScott has a crew?  :o
I thought he was a one man band?

Quote
I recall this dude. I unsubscribed after his first tantrum of frustration when folks here on EEV were providing candid feedback.

That was an unfortunate incident.

Quote
To be fair, most people don't care how much effort is put into the making of any movie anymore (perhaps CGI removed part of the magic of filmmaking, but I digress). This includes big box office ones - I am looking at movies like the Hobbit trilogy, for example. The narrative is important and must be tailored to the audience you want to cater.

Quite true.
 

Offline rsjsouza

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 5980
  • Country: us
  • Eternally curious
    • Vbe - vídeo blog eletrônico
Re: How to EEVblog
« Reply #65 on: June 07, 2019, 01:45:41 pm »

Quote
On the other hand, the fact youtube has extremely popular channels with heavy editing, camera angles, etc. is a testament that a broader audience will require a shorter and more appealing video.

I'd say may require. There was a female blogger that I think was #1 on Youtube for a brief period that shot all her videos on her phone.
Yeah, you are right.

Quote
I think examples of a heavily cut and rehearsed are w2aew
All his videos used to be a couple of single takes stitched together like mine. Haven't watched in a while though.
You may be right about him. It's that his content is so concise and well put together that I thought he put more effort on this.

Quote
One example of a popular channel with an entire crew is GreatScott.
GreatScott has a crew?  :o
I thought he was a one man band?
Maybe I need to review all my concepts... :o At a certain video or two I had the impression someone else (or many) were behind the camera, but I may be totally wrong again.
Vbe - vídeo blog eletrônico http://videos.vbeletronico.com

Oh, the "whys" of the datasheets... The information is there not to be an axiomatic truth, but instead each speck of data must be slowly inhaled while carefully performing a deep search inside oneself to find the true metaphysical sense...
 

Offline rsjsouza

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 5980
  • Country: us
  • Eternally curious
    • Vbe - vídeo blog eletrônico
Re: How to EEVblog
« Reply #66 on: June 07, 2019, 11:39:38 pm »
Quote
One example of a popular channel with an entire crew is GreatScott.
GreatScott has a crew?  :o
I thought he was a one man band?
Maybe I need to review all my concepts... :o At a certain video or two I had the impression someone else (or many) were behind the camera, but I may be totally wrong again.
Nevermind. I was thinking about a different Scott: Tom Scott. :palm:

(and he doesn't seem to have a crew either)
« Last Edit: June 07, 2019, 11:41:49 pm by rsjsouza »
Vbe - vídeo blog eletrônico http://videos.vbeletronico.com

Oh, the "whys" of the datasheets... The information is there not to be an axiomatic truth, but instead each speck of data must be slowly inhaled while carefully performing a deep search inside oneself to find the true metaphysical sense...
 
The following users thanked this post: TheNewLab

Offline EEVblog

  • Administrator
  • *****
  • Posts: 37661
  • Country: au
    • EEVblog
Re: How to EEVblog
« Reply #67 on: June 08, 2019, 01:10:14 am »
Quote
One example of a popular channel with an entire crew is GreatScott.
GreatScott has a crew?  :o
I thought he was a one man band?
Maybe I need to review all my concepts... :o At a certain video or two I had the impression someone else (or many) were behind the camera, but I may be totally wrong again.
Nevermind. I was thinking about a different Scott: Tom Scott. :palm:
(and he doesn't seem to have a crew either)

Tom used to have a sidekick who was often in his 2nd channel videos, I think the sound and camera guy. Not sure if he went on all the trips though. Not sure if still there.
 
The following users thanked this post: rsjsouza

Offline EEVblog

  • Administrator
  • *****
  • Posts: 37661
  • Country: au
    • EEVblog
Re: How to EEVblog
« Reply #68 on: June 08, 2019, 01:14:55 am »
Quote
I think examples of a heavily cut and rehearsed are w2aew
All his videos used to be a couple of single takes stitched together like mine. Haven't watched in a while though.
You may be right about him. It's that his content is so concise and well put together that I thought he put more effort on this.

We had him on the Amp Hour once where he discussed it. IIRC he put work into the handwritten notes and diagrams, and made sure the experiments worked first, but then just pretty much whinged it like I do. But when you are writing those notes are thinking it though anyway.
 

Online Brumby

  • Supporter
  • ****
  • Posts: 12288
  • Country: au
Re: How to EEVblog
« Reply #69 on: June 08, 2019, 06:31:47 am »
... but then just pretty much whinged it like I do.

"whinged it" or "winged it"?

I can only think that the former might be associated with a rant video, whereas the latter sounds more like your style on any video.
 
The following users thanked this post: TheNewLab

Offline EEVblog

  • Administrator
  • *****
  • Posts: 37661
  • Country: au
    • EEVblog
Re: How to EEVblog
« Reply #70 on: June 08, 2019, 06:43:52 am »
... but then just pretty much whinged it like I do.

"whinged it" or "winged it"?

I can only think that the former might be associated with a rant video, whereas the latter sounds more like your style on any video.

 ;D
 

Online Brumby

  • Supporter
  • ****
  • Posts: 12288
  • Country: au
Re: How to EEVblog
« Reply #71 on: June 08, 2019, 08:20:34 am »
As for how "good" a video is, well there are several aspects which come into this discussion.

Technical.  Elements such as lighting and exposure, sound level and clarity, focus, framing and camera shake are the big ones that immediately come to mind.  Get any of these wrong and you'll lose audience - guaranteed.  White balance isn't usually a major factor unless colour is important or it's way off.

Material.  This is going to depend on your target audience - and for some subjects that could be a subset of your wider audience.  This is bound to happen to any blogger unless you keep to a very narrow range of subjects, which is going to limit what you can do. Dave is no exception - and accepts the fact that not every video is going to appeal to every subscriber.

Structure and editing.  A combination of presentation style and the needs of a subject.  No simple comment to distinguish between what is necessary and what is not here.

The story.  This varies in detail, but not the need.  If there is no train of thought to keep the viewer clearly informed all the way, then as soon as they get confused or bored, they are likely to close the window and move on.... and they may think twice about coming back.


Dave covers all these elements in his videos (IMHO).  How adequately will inevitably be subject to individual taste, but considering his following, I think he has a formula that works well enough.
« Last Edit: June 08, 2019, 08:26:20 am by Brumby »
 

Offline EEVblog

  • Administrator
  • *****
  • Posts: 37661
  • Country: au
    • EEVblog
Re: How to EEVblog
« Reply #72 on: June 09, 2019, 12:50:25 pm »
As for how "good" a video is, well there are several aspects which come into this discussion.

Technical.  Elements such as lighting and exposure, sound level and clarity, focus, framing and camera shake are the big ones that immediately come to mind.  Get any of these wrong and you'll lose audience - guaranteed.  White balance isn't usually a major factor unless colour is important or it's way off.

Material.  This is going to depend on your target audience - and for some subjects that could be a subset of your wider audience.  This is bound to happen to any blogger unless you keep to a very narrow range of subjects, which is going to limit what you can do. Dave is no exception - and accepts the fact that not every video is going to appeal to every subscriber.

Structure and editing.  A combination of presentation style and the needs of a subject.  No simple comment to distinguish between what is necessary and what is not here.

The story.  This varies in detail, but not the need.  If there is no train of thought to keep the viewer clearly informed all the way, then as soon as they get confused or bored, they are likely to close the window and move on.... and they may think twice about coming back.

Dave covers all these elements in his videos (IMHO).  How adequately will inevitably be subject to individual taste, but considering his following, I think he has a formula that works well enough.

I think I do audio and lighting and colour balance well enough, and that's all done in-camera.

One thing I think I really do well is framing. I take care in framing stuff and think I choose good shots and angles. I hate those top-down videos for example, I try and do it so what I see, you see. That is why I always shoot my video through what I see on the camcorder LCD, not what my eyes see from another angle. Also, i get depth of field right on subjects that need it, no arty-farty bokeh

I have no real structure or major editing. No scripts, not much thought before hand. Almost all videos are shot in sequence and edited in the sequence shot. So I score low in that.

Material. Yes, the channels with more focused and content content (esp in the tech space) get the most views, appeal to a larger audience, and get a high subscriber click-through rate. e.g. GreatScott gives the exact edited 7min videos every time. Channels like mine with 20 different videos styles do less well, but they get the flexibility to do more varied stuff.
If there is one thing I'd say don't copy me on, it's this, you stand less chance of picking up and maintaining an audience, people like consistency.
« Last Edit: June 09, 2019, 12:52:09 pm by EEVblog »
 


Share me

Digg  Facebook  SlashDot  Delicious  Technorati  Twitter  Google  Yahoo
Smf