Taking a Stab at Layout Videos

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Regular poster 225 posts Chuck Geiger Regular poster 225 posts

Chuck Geiger

I commend all the video hosts and producers of model railraod videos and YOU TUBE programming. I am taking a stab at it.

ATSF/BNSF San Jacinto District

Chuck Geiger

Las Piedras Railroad

You Tube Page

https://www.facebook.com/laspiedrasrailroad

Reply 0

joef MRH Founder 17,449 posts

joef

Couple things …

Thanks for the heads up on the videos. I hope you’re okay with some constructive critique … I watched your first one and the images were great. The music was a bit loud, you might turn down the volume a tad. I think the best way to use music when there’s no narration or dialog is to come in with the music normal -10db volume, then after about 20 seconds to drop the volume to -20db (soft), and in the last 30 seconds bring the volume back up to -10. That gives the video a sense of beginning and ending and dropping the music volume down in the middle help avoid it from becoming annoying or overpowering the video. But you didn’t leave your explanatory text on screen near long enough. As soon as I realized there was text to read, it was gone. Text you can’t read because it vanishes too soon makes a video rather annoying instead of fun to watch. When you put explanatory text up, you need to: 1. Keep it brief, less than 10 words if possible. 2. Read it aloud TWICE at a normal conversational pace without rushing. That’s how long to keep it up. You need to leave the text up that long because it gives people a chance to first realize “hey there’s some explanatory text here” and then to read it — and then to comprehend it before being hit with the next piece of text. Even the slow readers can read it if you leave it up for the time it takes you to read it at a normal conversational pace times two. One other note — don't squander the video medium. Video is to show motion — making a glorified slide show of stills is squandering the abilities of the video medium — it could just as well be posted as a PDF. Try to incorporate motion, even with stills ala Ken Burns. Makes a video of stills more engaging when you do that.

Joe Fugate
Publisher, Model Railroad Hobbyist magazine

Read my blog

Reply 0

Neil Erickson NeilEr Moderator 5,783 posts

Neil Erickson NeilEr

Good modeling!

I liked the videos. Short and sweet. Turning down the sound was no big deal and I look forward to seeing more progress.

Neil Erickson, Hawai’i

My Blogs

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Chuck Geiger Regular poster 225 posts

Chuck Geiger

Thank you for the comments -

Thank you for the comments - Longer script (revised).

Chuck Geiger

Las Piedras Railroad

You Tube Page

https://www.facebook.com/laspiedrasrailroad

Reply 0

Chuck Geiger Regular poster 225 posts

Chuck Geiger

I just learned on my editor where to expand script. Also video is coming.

Chuck Geiger

Las Piedras Railroad

You Tube Page

https://www.facebook.com/laspiedrasrailroad

Reply 0

David Husman dave1905 MRH Author 9,827 posts

David Husman dave1905

Video

I've had pretty good luck with VSDC free video editor and APowersoft free audio recorder.

Dave Husman

Visit my website : https://wnbranch.com/

Blog index: Dave Husman Blog Index

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Chuck Geiger Regular poster 225 posts

Chuck Geiger

Thanks for the tip

Dave thanks, I am using Video Editor in Windows and will need to branch out when I take on the video and audio part of the projects. Joe gave me some great tips and worked on that in this slide show. (Video this weekend with some work).