Why do video posts get fewer responses?

Dreadylocks said:
Also, you've got members posting videos with just a handful of posts to their name (I'll admit to having been guilty of this when I first joined). I know for me, if I'm going to have a 'screening room day,' I'm certainly not going to watch and critique a total stranger's video before watching a friend's.
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That is probably the single most disheartening thing about this forum. Sure, a lot of newb's post bad videos. I have. But sometimes, just sometimes, those bad videos really need some critiqueing. If the person who submitted the video is offended by constructive criticism then they really didn't want feedback, they wanted an atta boy/girl.

It's just frustrating for me (a self proclaimed noob) to sign on looking for advice and feedback only to have a post fall flat while somebody else gets dubious amounts of attention over the most vague and trivial questions possible.

I'm done whining.
 
Lowxposure said:
That is probably the single most disheartening thing about this forum. Sure, a lot of newb's post bad videos. I have. But sometimes, just sometimes, those bad videos really need some critiqueing. If the person who submitted the video is offended by constructive criticism then they really didn't want feedback, they wanted an atta boy/girl.

It's just frustrating for me (a self proclaimed noob) to sign on looking for advice and feedback only to have a post fall flat while somebody else gets dubious amounts of attention over the most vague and trivial questions possible.

I'm done whining.
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But I think, on the whole, that very few threads posted by 'newbs' do actually fall totally flat.

What Dready is saying is that a lot of people come on here and post work for feedback, straight away and without so much as introducing themselves. We've all only got a finite amount of time in our days to spend watching these shorts, so it's nice if people introduce themselves, get involved in discussion...etc before posting their videos. It doesn't matter one bit if they don't, but it makes it easier to commit to about 20 minutes of watching/writing about their film.

I agree about the vague and trivial questions though. What you've got to understand is that if there is, to choose a random example, a member who now has over 1000 posts and constantly posts vague and trivial questions- people aren't answering them because he's an established member of the community. If you were to look back through this *hypothetical* member's 1000 posts you'd see that practically none of them have been made outside of his own threads.
 
I know, like Dready speaks about, I have my "screening days" where I will just sit and do nothing but watch and comment on videos (should do another one soon)

Also, agree with Nick, there's just so many times and so many hours in a day, there are variable posters here-some post daily, some post every couple of days, some (like me) will hang around awhile and disappear only to reappear again.

Part of it too, depends on when you post: I've had times where I've posted stuff that got a lot of reaction, and other times where there were barely any views-I didn't hold it against anyone, that's just the way it seems to roll.

And yes, part of it has to do with whether people will take constructive feedback or not. When people hang around on the forums awhile, we get to know them, and work out what their "critic" level is. It's unfortunate that I've seen people post their film, and it is worth of suggestions, but some people outright ticked, how DARE someone say something bad about their film! What do the guys girls on here know about film anyway??? :P (Quite a bit actually, if they hang around!)

And finally, something that Directorik said to me once that makes all the sense in the world : "We all want people to watch our films, but we don't want to watch anyone elses" (speaking generally of course :) ).

It's why I try to take time when I can to have my screening days, and give back as people have given to me :)
 
I understand that not everyone has the time to watch or read every item submitted for feedback, and I don't every viewer to reply either, but on YT I have 97 views and only 2 replies on IT. Something went wrong. Either the video wasn't good and people couldn't find anything positive to say, or possibly they enjoyed it and don't want to change anything (unlikely). Either way, if somebody takes the time to watch a vid a quick one liner couldn't hurt too bad.
 
I guess I'm saying in this thread that that the community should pay attention to good videos, but the other half of it is for posters to make videos that inspire people to watch.

Look at the amount of work that went into these, and the number of views they got got, and you'll have an idea of what it takes to make a youtube video even mildly successful. This isn't bragging, nothing to brag about here, but it does show the work to view (and comment) ratio.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odeed-diCE8&feature=relmfu
(this one has gotten about 80k hits total, I just posted the link to the HD version on youtube, which has only 800)

This was part of a 3 hour miniseries I made
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tq-uHaCCbMY&feature=watch_response

This video has 30,000 youtube views
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgtDXfNhBFU
 
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NickClapper said:
I agree about the vague and trivial questions though. What you've got to understand is that if there is, to choose a random example, a member who now has over 1000 posts and constantly posts vague and trivial questions- people aren't answering them because he's an established member of the community. If you were to look back through this *hypothetical* member's 1000 posts you'd see that practically none of them have been made outside of his own threads.
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Oh, I'm sure they don't mean any harm....
 
I think another consideration is that videos/shorts/trailers/what have you are most often just "lumped" here, by established members or not, and that's it.
"Here's my material".

Um... Okay.
??
What do you want us to look for, exactly?

The point is is that the obvious stuff is obvious (DUH!), but we're often (to be polite) not given any indication as to what direction any improvements are POSSIBLE to be made.
How many are re-shot or even re-edited based upon any recommendations?
Practically none, so what's the point?

If the sound sucks - well... sh!t. You don't need me to tell you that.
If the camera work is spiffy great but the dialog or acting sucks WTH are you gonna do about it NOW?
Too many tripod shots.
Not enough tripod shots.
Your shakey cam looks like epileptic cam. Learn to hold your GD camera right.
Your editing sucks because the cuts are too many or too short or too long or or or.
Your audio sucks. What did you think recording in a 8x8 apartment bedroom was gonna sound like?
Your audio sucks because you recorded your subjects twelve feet away with your POS camcorder mic.
WhyTH is your ripped-off soundtrack blaring at the same volume as your mumbly-a$$ dialog, such that it is, with sucky actors delivering your suck-a$$ dialog?
The story sucks donkey balls. Here, let me either A: invest an hour+ of my life to teach you, or B: magically impart in a few sentences how to construct a story. Pick one.

Now that I have imparted wisdom upon thee please come back in a week with the re-written, re-shot, re-acted, re-recorded audio, re-edited story and see if you remembered to use appropriate lighting, too.


Yeah.


Somehow... I don't see this happening too often, and I think I kinda know why.
Maybe.
 
rayw said:
I think another consideration is that videos/shorts/trailers/what have you are most often just "lumped" here, by established members or not, and that's it.
"Here's my material".

Um... Okay.
??
What do you want us to look for, exactly?

The point is is that the obvious stuff is obvious (DUH!), but we're often (to be polite) not given any indication as to what direction any improvements are POSSIBLE to be made.
How many are re-shot or even re-edited based upon any recommendations?
Practically none, so what's the point?

If the sound sucks - well... sh!t. You don't need me to tell you that.
If the camera work is spiffy great but the dialog or acting sucks WTH are you gonna do about it NOW?
Too many tripod shots.
Not enough tripod shots.
Your shakey cam looks like epileptic cam. Learn to hold your GD camera right.
Your editing sucks because the cuts are too many or too short or too long or or or.
Your audio sucks. What did you think recording in a 8x8 apartment bedroom was gonna sound like?
Your audio sucks because you recorded your subjects twelve feet away with your POS camcorder mic.
WhyTH is your ripped-off soundtrack blaring at the same volume as your mumbly-a$$ dialog, such that it is, with sucky actors delivering your suck-a$$ dialog?
The story sucks donkey balls. Here, let me either A: invest an hour+ of my life to teach you, or B: magically impart in a few sentences how to construct a story. Pick one.

Now that I have imparted wisdom upon thee please come back in a week with the re-written, re-shot, re-acted, re-recorded audio, re-edited story and see if you remembered to use appropriate lighting, too.


Yeah.


Somehow... I don't see this happening too often, and I think I kinda know why.
Maybe.
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I think part of this is, how "complete" is the project? I mean, with the projects I've put up as "rough", I actually HAVE done editing/adjustments according to suggestions, and the projects have worked out better-but that's because they were admitted works in progress-I've also taken advice from those projects and applied them to other in future.

I think where it gets tricky, as you say, is when it's a totally finished product and people do the "here it is" and don't say much else-again though, if its someone who's just starting out, then they can take that advice to the next project.


I try to say when I can what I'm looking for advice for-how's the sound/lighting? Does it feel too long/too short, ect. Again because it's work in progress. But I hear what you are saying exactly as they pertain to finished products and the lack of communication sometimes of what people are looking for in their feedback.
 
I used to critique all the time (view my posts circa early 2010 to mid 2010).

But, like Sonnyboo's reply, it usually led to fights and the person posting the film or little video always knew better and didn't accept it sometimes.

So I've kind of laid low recently and left my advice waiting for people who genuinely want it. I hope those older posts of mine can still be of some use to people. The one that comes to mind was that World War 2 film named "The Bridge" or something a while back. I went on a whole roll and wrote my @$$ off giving him advice and he kind of just took it in stride and said he got offered a job in Hollywood. Hope he's not waiting tables somewhere after being 2nd Unit Director for Paris Hilton's reality show...
 
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Perhaps an easier way of offering critiques of videos is to simply watch until the film loses your interest (for whatever reason) and note the stopping point.

In your response to the OP, you can say something like this: I watched your film until the 45 second mark and stopped because . . .

I had enough of the shaky cam.

or

You used the on camera mike.

or

The opening credits was too long.

or

The image is out of focus.

. . .
 
rayw said:
The point is is that the obvious stuff is obvious (DUH!), but we're often (to be polite) not given any indication as to what direction any improvements are POSSIBLE to be made.
How many are re-shot or even re-edited based upon any recommendations?
Practically none, so what's the point?

If the sound sucks - well... sh!t. You don't need me to tell you that.
If the camera work is spiffy great but the dialog or acting sucks WTH are you gonna do about it NOW?
Too many tripod shots.
Not enough tripod shots.
Your shakey cam looks like epileptic cam. Learn to hold your GD camera right.
Your editing sucks because the cuts are too many or too short or too long or or or.
Your audio sucks. What did you think recording in a 8x8 apartment bedroom was gonna sound like?
Your audio sucks because you recorded your subjects twelve feet away with your POS camcorder mic.
WhyTH is your ripped-off soundtrack blaring at the same volume as your mumbly-a$$ dialog, such that it is, with sucky actors delivering your suck-a$$ dialog?
The story sucks donkey balls. Here, let me either A: invest an hour+ of my life to teach you, or B: magically impart in a few sentences how to construct a story. Pick one.

Now that I have imparted wisdom upon thee please come back in a week with the re-written, re-shot, re-acted, re-recorded audio, re-edited story and see if you remembered to use appropriate lighting, too.
Click to expand...

You should just copy/paste this into threads. That's the exact right feedback for so many videos. A real time saver!

:lol:

I'm still kind of wondering if we should be leaving more negative feedback instead of less. They will just keep feeling bad if they never learn to do better. Ultimately the disappointment of long term failure would be worse than having a couple flaws pointed out. You are supposed to be looking for feedback to learn anyway, so disingenuous positive feedback is worse than no feedback at all, which in turn is worse than negative feedback.

Flipside, If someone did something really good, of course you should say so. I saw a film called the octopus here (currently up on the Hall of Fame thread) that was truly brilliant. After all the hard work, time, and thought that guy put in, he deserved tons of positive feedback.
 
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