15 responses so far ↓

• 1 Johnny // May 1, 2008 at 12:05 pm

  Hey Travis,

  Good video. I just want to point out that the music drowns out some of what you say in the first minute. That said, I thought your video served as a good promo for this site and your book. Good stuff.

• 2 Travis Prinzi // May 1, 2008 at 12:11 pm

  Johnny, yeah, I was short on time, and if I talked any louder, there were crackling sound issues. Strange. I’m sure there’s a way to adjust volume, but like I said…short on time.

• 3 BenS // May 1, 2008 at 4:02 pm

  I agree with Johnny, but I actually thought it was hard to hear the whole thing. The music was definitely to loud. Also, there was a subtle but annoying beeping noise whenever the camera was showing you. It wasn’t making that noise any time else, like in between shots.

  But, it was a good start to your film production career.

• 4 Travis Prinzi // May 1, 2008 at 4:04 pm

  Yeah, I was aware of all those things…probably won’t get a great grade on it. That beeping noise has something to do with the Mac. I had similar issues whenever I used the internal mic for the podcasts also.

  But it’s a start.

• 5 reyhan // May 1, 2008 at 4:49 pm

  Hey Travis,

  Good content. Well expressed. Clear, engaging speaking style. Good voice for this kind of stuff.

  Do not lead off with the butchered hog’s head wallowing in its blood. Will turn off the vegetarians.

  I liked the transitions (with the headers).

  I like the music, but it was a bit too loud, and competed with your voice. Maybe turn it off while you’re speaking. Or keep it lower.

  You might want to find more compelling visuals. Are you allowed to show the cover art from the books for a student project? Or Maybe Michael’s got some more art work. What would be cool is if you married the topic headers to visuals.

  Might want to raise the camera so it doesn’t look like you’re looking down at the viewer. Looks a bit dodgy that way. YouTube’ish.

  Hard work, producing, scriptwriting, directing and narrating a video. Not to mention doing the soundtrack, art direction and costume design. Good job.

• 6 Leanne // May 1, 2008 at 5:01 pm

  I thought it was fun.

• 7 Scott // May 1, 2008 at 8:54 pm

  I liked it overall, but agree with some of the other comments. The music was a bit too loud at times. Are you editing this in iMovie, or something more powerful? You might see if there is a way to drop the level on the music track while you are talking. If all else fails, I think even iMovie will let you split a track at a specific point so you can have basically a separate cut of music that can play at lower volume during your speech.
  I agree that it would be better to raise the camera a bit so you’re not looking down at the audience, but if you are just using the built in camera on your computer you may not be able to do that easily.
  One other thing is try not to be looking all over the place while you are talking to the camera. Makes you look a bit dodgy… hehe.

• 8 Travis Prinzi // May 1, 2008 at 10:52 pm

  Thanks for the comments, everyone! I appreciate it.

  I’m using iMovie ‘06. I’m guessing there is a way to make the music tracks lower. It’s actually really easy in GarageBand, but it wasn’t quite as intuitive in iMovie, and as I said, I was working against a deadline. For any non-video recordings in the future, I’m going to record the audio in GarageBand (like I do for the podcasts), and then import that into iMovie. That’ll clean up sound issues for the non-video parts.

  As for the video: completely agree about the angles. You should have seen me when I was trying to get that recorded. Sophia was just down for a nap. My battery was dying. I was scrambling around the house for a good place to record, well-lit, but straight-on, so as not to be at a bad angle. Several of my outlets are still two-pronged (old house), and I couldn’t find the right combination of a three-pronged outlet, well-lit spot, and no bad angles.

  I think next time I’m going to try recording the video clips during an afternoon in a quiet corner of a local pub.

  reyhan, the book covers! I knew as I was putting this together that there was one idea I had forgotten. Yes, that would be a more compelling visual. And yes, I should definitely get Michael on more artwork.

• 9 Rebekah // May 2, 2008 at 5:26 pm

  Ooh man, the local pub idea is a great one. Esp if you can find a place that’s a bit more um “rough and tumble” but in a safe way A cozy dark pub with a fireplace.

  As for iMovies sound. I have iMovie HD 6.0.3 and once you drag and import a song clip…click on the song file clip wherever you want your song to fade out or down? Click it and then go up to “View”, than select “Show Clip Volume Levels” after you select it that just go ahead and click on your song bar clip near where your mouse marked the spot that you wanted the fade to happen and it’ll do this slopping yellow downhill action..to show the fading length. The beginning of the fade starting can be clicked and dragged to the desired length you want. (It’s the purple square at the head of the yellow hill..the yellow ball at the end is what you grab to either have the sound go out completely or just faintly depending in the level of the ball) can you tell i’m a visual learner Sorry…Anyways you do the same steps to get the sound to fade back in. You gotta mac though… you’ll know what to do It’s instinctual.

  As for this comment from reyhan, “Do not lead off with the butchered hog’s head wallowing in its blood. Will turn off the vegetarians.”, LOL! Though this made me chuckle…when I started the video I was trying to watch it as if I had no idea what this podcast was about and seeing an image of the hogs head sitting bloody on a table threw me off for a sec…esp as it’s zooming in on the head, you’re commentary is informing us “Thats how i start off all the shows”. Just struck me as if we cut off pigs heads each start of a new podcast :/ Maybe that was just me.

• 10 Eric Lee // May 2, 2008 at 5:38 pm

  Technical stuff aside (which you & everybody have mentioned above), you should do more videos for sure!

• 11 revgeorge // May 2, 2008 at 6:08 pm

  Nice video, Travis. Just a few comments which I hope are helpful. First, I agree with the people saying the music overshadows your voice, especially in the intro. Second, perhaps work harder at maintaining eye contact with your audience. I know that’s hard when you’re looking at a video camera as opposed to a live audience, but I think it would help your presentation come off better & more stronger. Third, have your mug filled all the way to the top or mostly full with beer, so that the prof doesn’t think you’ve downed a pint or two beforehand.

  Good work. Definitely do more.

• 12 Travis Prinzi // May 2, 2008 at 6:12 pm

  You all are great, and your helpful suggestions and tech support are really appreciated!

  revgeorge…yeah, the amount of beer left in the glass is evidence of the technical difficulties I had before I finally got half-decent recordings done

• 13 Enoch Jacobus // May 7, 2008 at 12:34 am

  Once you feel you have gained some mastery over the technology, would you consider doing video podcasts?

• 14 Enoch Jacobus // May 7, 2008 at 12:35 am

  . . . on a regular basis, I mean.

• 15 Travis Prinzi // May 7, 2008 at 9:36 am

  Enoch, I was thinking along those lines, yes. Maybe a once-a-month vodcast.

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