Advice for beginning videographer

Well here you have it, my first totally self produced video of an activation: BX2ABT - activation of BV/TP-002

Still a lot of small things that I’m not happy about, but the overall result is something I can live with. This time I decided to totally focus on the imagery, so I didn’t record sound or me babbling in the camera, which means the music has been lifted from the YT music library. Software used for editing was Shotcut running on Manjaro Linux and apart from some quirks works a charm.

Now over to you for the (hopefully positive) criticism.

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Thanks Hans for a great activation video … :+1:

cheers to you :beers:

Geoff vk3sq

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Nice video. Looks like a beautiful part of the world.

Here’s my comments (I don’t particularly like the word criticism, at least not in this context) which will hopefully come across as positive!

Everyone has their own style. I tend to do quite a bit of talking in my videos. You’ve gone more for the imagery, which is absolutely spot on.

If you watch Fraser’s videos @MM0EFI, I would say that his videos probably fall somewhere between yours & mine (in terms of the amount of talking & imagery).

The point is that we’ve all got our own style & it’s good to be a little different from other channels on YouTube. It helps you stand out from other channels…especially if they are larger & already have an established following for you to compete with for viewer time.

So many people on YouTube just copy what they have seen other people do, instead of finding their own niche & putting their own unique style/twist on it.

I like the fact that you have done something slightly different to what other people are doing. Given that there aren’t many radio amateurs in Taiwan (at least none that I have seen who are doing SOTA videos on YouTube) I think you may have found a nice little niche which you could do quite well out of if you want to grow your channel.

Looking forward to the next one.

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Until recently I lectured in Photojournalism and Video production at a UK University, so I will add a few tips, that I hope help. A really useful tool is YouTube Studio, this will give you loads of information about how people are viewing your content. A key here is how long people watch for… don’t be put off, but on YouTube average viewing time for a 7 minute video is somewhere around 2 minutes! People, especially younger audiences are looking for instant gratification. You will loose 10% of your audience in the first 10 seconds, so you need something to engage your audience and keep them watching. So it is important to start on something interesting. In the past we used to teach, build up to a big finale. For contemporary audiences we teach use your strong/good stuff early to grab your audiences attention and keep them.
Another tip is don’t underestimate the power of sound. Sound is 60% of a video. Audiences prefer good audio with mediocre imagery compared to good images and bad sound… it is a psychological/evolutionary thing. A cheap wired lavalier (tie clip) mic is a good start
As others have mentioned a tripod will help a lot. Get something lightweight and sturdy, there are some low price good value options available. There are loads of phone tripod adapters available, again get something sturdy.
Last tip is spend some time creating a good thumbnail. Remember thumbnails are viewed with other thumbnails, so need to grab peoples attention and are very small on the screen. Use bold fonts and as few words as possible. They are also displayed next to your title, so you do not need to repeat yourself. In the Ham world Callum from DX Commander is a good example of how to do this.


I hope this helps, let me know if I can help further.
Martin

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@M0GQC Thanks for the compliment and mentioning style. I don’t think I have my own style yet, only a motivation or reason which acts as my guide, and that is sharing and showing what is happening in my part of the world. SOTA in Taiwan is really different from the rest of the world and after watching many activation videos from you and Fraser, K6ARK, and some Japanese friends I felt the urge to show what is happening here. So I think I will always try to cover at least some of the beauty of the hike or scenery and then add some interesting radio stuff to please multiple audiences. There will be some talking, but I’m not sure how much I want to. Nowadays it is difficult to be very original or to have that special twist, so I don’t think I will even try. Same as my blog: I mainly document for my own sake, but if you enjoy following what I do then I’m all the happier for it. And yes, my niche right now is that I’m the only ham in Taiwan making SOTA videos, but that is also because there aren’t many active SOTA hams to begin with.

@2E0BIA Thank you for a really helpful comment. I just checked the statistics for my first video and you are spot on: the average viewing time is 2 minutes. But it does make you think about how to make a more appealing opening and how to put the most interesting stuff in the first few minutes.

From a former student, who is a graphic designer, I also got some good tips about the thumbnail and you are absolutely right that DX Commander has a good grasp of how to make a catching one. I don’t want to copy his style, so I have to put my creativity to work. About half the thumbnails I see have a person in it, some only show equipment, very few scenery. I wonder how much the human factor plays a significant role or not. In other words, will people click sooner on a thumbnail with a person in it or not?

I already got the sound covered, so adding some high quality bits will be easy. Cheers, Martin.

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Well, that escalated quickly. On one of my activations recently my three year old Xiaomi A1’s camera stopped working, then the calculator couldn’t remember numbers, so it was kind of imperative that I had to buy a new phone before it imploded completely. I bought one with the best cameras in the mid-tier price bracket, which was the Samsung A53. Better images, better video quality, wide angle lenses and better stabilization, so a win-win…except for the lack of a TRRS port, so USB-C only. I made this video with it and if you hear a slight whine in the second half of the clip, that was caused by the USB-C adapter. I’m on it to see how to improve the audio quality. Still, as a second attempt I’m happy with it. Enjoy.

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Thanks Hans, a great video. You did a good with your new phone. I have an A51 and haven’t used the video in it yet. You made it look easy . Well done. :+1:

cheers to you :beers:

Geoff vk3sq

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I can tell you it was far from easy, but enough footage this time to make a video. This new phone does inspire me, though, because the camera and build in software are really superb compared to my old Xiaomi (2018 model), so what a huge progress in four years.

Thanks for the comment and glad you liked my report. 73 de Hans

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Thanks for the video Hans. Nicely done.

I use a DJI Osmo pocket although I’m not one to jump in front of the lens. It’s about the size of a mars bar and takes stabilised HD video.

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Hans,
Thanks for the nice video and S2S QSO.
I was here on JA/AT-002 (1454m).
These are the pictures on the same day. You see snow remains here,what a difference ! :slightly_smiling_face:






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See you next time !
73 Atsu

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Hello Atsu,

Thank you too for the QSO. You were the first, and I forgot to hit the record button on my recorder, so I don’t have our QSO recorded. I didn’t know you were also on a SOTA summit as I didn’t hear any “S2S” but good to know now and I’ll change my log accordingly. We’ll catch each other again.

73 de Hans
BX2ABT

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Hans,
Oh yes, you did it right.
My call was recorded and seen on your BV/TP-002 video.
Thanks a lot !
Atsu

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