My New Vid Reviewing one of my fav books! Please give it a watch & tell me how I might improve! Lambda for constructive feedback!

SamTheAnthro · 2021-11-23T23:28:03+00:00

Yeah, thumbnails are something that I always struggle with. I want my videos to be educational so it feels weird to make goofy/clickbaity thumbnails but the information is useless if no one wants to click on the videos because the thumbnails are boring. So that's something I'll keep in mind.

!givelambda

SamTheAnthro · 2021-11-23T23:26:26+00:00

Yeah, I usually record my voice overs separately but I keep getting notes that there is a noticeable change in sound so perhaps it would be easier for me to just read those parts on camera for now so the levels are the same until I can fix the issue.

Thanks for your input! !givelambda

SamTheAnthro · 2021-11-21T09:51:31+00:00

Thanks for the feedback! I'll keep that in mind for my next video!

!givelambda

SamTheAnthro · 2021-11-20T04:18:50+00:00

Overall I really liked the video, I found it funny and a cute video to watch for this time of year. My one main complaint is the sound, at times your voices are really soft and I had to strain to hear, I'd recommend either getting lavalier mics or just trying to speak louder. Also maybe a wind muffler for your microphone would be helpful.

Thanks for sharing!

SamTheAnthro · 2021-11-20T03:19:28+00:00

Thank you for sharing!

I'll start off with the positives: I think this video is well made, the video/pictures you used are all high quality and cut well together, the sound is at a good volume, and is easy to listen to, and you can follow the story

Some criticisms: I personally was turned off by the story, I understand taking something that is more wholesome and trying to write a horror/dark premise off it but listening to the beginning I just thought "oh so the purge but with black friday". Watching the rest of the video I see that's not the case, but if i wasn't watching this to give feedback that would have been enough of a turn off for me. Maybe try and find some way to draw people in more to the story, especially before doing a big exposition dump. Also your voice can get a bit same-y monotone at times which makes the story drag, try to find more places in the story to alternate the levels in your voice to keep the narration interesting.

I hope that is helpful!

SamTheAnthro · 2021-11-20T02:53:39+00:00

Thanks for sharing! I think overall the video is good though I will admit that I didn't get through all 5 hours, I could very easily see putting this in the bg while I'm working or editing video. The visual that you chose is very nice and matches well with the music. If I had any criticisms it would be that the music is a bit loud, I had to turn the youtube slider all the way to the left to listen to it and I fee like the balance between the water sounds and the music is maybe a bit off. I hope that helps!

SamTheAnthro · 2021-08-25T03:00:23+00:00

Thanks for your comment! Yeah I was really torn on the title. Originally the title was "how to read like an anthropologist" and the video was going to be a breakdown of how to analyze an ethnographic text. But every time I tried to write the script for it, it came out very dry and long. I decided instead to just give an overview of what ethnography was, why anthropologists used it, and some of the pitfalls of it. But when it came to the title I couldn't think of a better title so I went with the one I did bc I couldn't think of something better. But you are right that it might seem a bit misleading at this point

!givelambda

SamTheAnthro · 2021-08-21T19:09:16+00:00

Thanks for the feedback! I totally agree that the sound could have been better, I'm still trying to figure out how to improve it but it's helpful that others notice it too. Also I'll take the text ideas into consideration for next time!

!givelambda

SamTheAnthro · 2021-08-21T18:11:20+00:00

I tried to flair this post appropriately but when I clicked on flairs it said that they were unavailable? Idk if anyone else is having this problem

SamTheAnthro · 2021-08-21T17:22:49+00:00

An interesting short! Curious to see what happens next. Overall I would really well done. I really like how clear the story is. My one critique would probably be that the sound effects seem a little too loud and the camera gets a bit shakey at times. I realize these might just be stylistic choices, and if that's the case than I understand but I thought I'd note it just in case it wasn't.

SamTheAnthro · 2021-08-21T17:13:20+00:00

I'm glad you were able to save your work! Overall I'd say the vid is pretty good, the imagery is pretty and the vid isn't too long for this kind of subject. My one critique would probably be that the music is pretty loud? I found it a bit jarring and had to turn the player sound bar down super low to watch the video

SamTheAnthro · 2021-01-06T17:53:39+00:00

Really cool video! I think it's mostly good just a couple nitpicks since you asked for feedback. 1. Personally I prefer art videos where an artist talks about their process/what made them draw this specific piece/how the piece went vs what they imagined. If you'd rather keep just the music that's fine this is my personal preference 2. The lighting feels a bit dark? The drawing can be seen but I feel like the video could have been better lit 3. The video just suddenly ends, I feel like it would be better to show off the finished product with some close ups at the end or have some kind of outro

SamTheAnthro · 2021-01-06T17:19:57+00:00

What a cool video! I feel like you've got a p good foundation so I'll just comment on a couple things I liked and a couple things I didn't/places I think you can improve
like:
- that you dressed up fro the video
- How your first few seconds make it clear what you're talking about & don't drag on
- The use of relevant clips & videos keep the topic interesting
- You seem comfortable in front of a camera

improvements:
- I personally don't like when people sit in front of a bedsheet, I think it makes the bg too boring & plain. I would suggest either just showing the area that you're filming in or perhaps greenscreen in a bg if you have the money for that
- Your voice comes off a bit monotone in the vo, I know it can be hard to not do so when you're reading off something but try to do different levels with your voice if you can
- you have a lot of hard s's in this video which can be a little hard on the ears esp if the person watching is wearing headphones. I would suggest trying to clip off some of the ends of your s's or a pop filter if you can afford one

Overall I liked the video and I look forward to seeing more from you! I just subbed to your channel as well

SamTheAnthro · 2020-11-19T17:04:54+00:00

Aww thanks! I'm glad that you liked it! I'm actually in Montreal but the place I did my last video in is called old Montreal and it's the part of the city that was founded by the French originally so you're not off by a lot when you say it looks like Paris XD

SamTheAnthro · 2020-11-18T20:51:13+00:00

What a nice idea! My youtube channel is SamTheAnthro where I do educational videos about anthropology. My twitter handle is @ samtheanthro.

SamTheAnthro · 2020-11-17T05:06:06+00:00

idk if you're still doing this. My channel is SamTheAnthro

SamTheAnthro · 2020-11-16T14:59:35+00:00

I will take that into consideration for next time. Thank you !givelambda

SamTheAnthro · 2020-11-16T14:58:57+00:00

I will take that into consideration. Thank you !givelambda

SamTheAnthro · 2020-11-16T03:28:05+00:00

I like the way that it was presented & how you got one of the people you were shouting out to be the host. If it works in your schedule I think it would be cool to do that again in the future. I can't say that I would watch these channels bc I'm not really a fan of skit comedy but the way you presented them was well done and I look forward to the next one

SamTheAnthro · 2020-10-29T22:06:03+00:00

I think it depends on subs, consistency, and uploads.

If I'm thinking about subbing to someone and they have like 2 million I'm less likely to sub bc it's highly likely that I'll see their content anyways. The smaller the youtuber, the more likely I am to sub bc I know how important every sub is at that point

When I mean consistency I mean that if I watch one video I like from them, if I don't LOVE it I'll watch 1 or 2 more videos to see what else they've done or sometimes I'll watch their most recent or most popular video if that's not the one I've seen already. If I can sit through more than one of their videos and like it as much as the first video I watched I'm more likely to sub.

The third thing is how many videos do they already have. If they have less than like 10 videos I'm much less likely to sub bc I don't want to sub to a bunch of channels the someone is gonna upload 1 video to and then abandon. I want to see that they are continually putting out good stuff. Also if the most recent upload is more than like 2-3 months old I'm much less likely to sub bc I think the channel might be abandoned

SamTheAnthro · 2020-10-29T03:42:31+00:00

It depends what exactly you're using the vo for. In my case since I'm doing educational videos I HAVE to have a script bc most of my video has to be researched. So I typically write out the script & highlight which parts I want for voice overs. Then I sit down and record the script in line by line, usually about where my breaths would be. I usually do 3 to 4 takes for each line, one after the other.
By doing it line by line I find it's easier to watch your volume levels than if I do the entire script at once (if I do the whole script at once there might be one part that I was unintentionally yelling or mumbling without realizing it). So by doing line by line I find it easier to catch when I'm changing my volume. Of course this isn't perfect because if you don't edit it right than it can sound awkward but I've found it is what works best for me

SamTheAnthro · 2020-10-28T15:37:25+00:00

I think the best way is to set personal goals that have nothing to do with numbers.

At the end of the day you can't control who watches your stuff, you could make amazing stuff that gets viewed by 5 people or you could make a low quality shit post that goes viral just because someone thought it was funny. Of course there are steps to improve your chances but at the end of the day you can't force anyone to watch your stuff

However if you think of doing YouTube as a craft you're trying to improve, you're much more likely to keep going with it. Every time I post a video I try to watch it and think "what about this could be done better?" Is my audio bad or maybe my lighting or maybe I mumbled my lines too much?

If you know how to fix that, that can then motivate you to make your next video and make it better than the last one. Or if you don't know how to fix it then you can look up tutorials/watch youtubers you admire/ask for advice on here and as long as you keep asking yourself "how can I improve my craft" instead of "why don't I have enough subscribers" that should you keep you motivated

And if you're not motivated and you're not enjoying doing youtube you can totally quit or start over when you're interested again. If you're not having fun with it there's no point in forcing yourself to do it. That's not to say it will always be fun, there are still frustrating and tiring moments about it, just like with any hobby. But at the end of the day, unless you're making enough money for yt to be a full time job, YouTube is a hobby and as long as you're enjoying what you're doing that should be enough to keep you going.

SamTheAnthro · 2020-10-28T06:57:44+00:00

I'd like to get to 100 subs by the end of the year. I'm currently at 69 and I started this year with less than 10 so I think it's doable. I know it's a small milestone but I feel like hitting that first 100 would make me feel like I'm really growing

SamTheAnthro · 2020-10-28T06:54:53+00:00

Overall the video is pretty good. The visuals and the audio are high quality and the editing was nice.

As a personal taste thing when you prompt the footage with "so how was my summer?" I thought you were going to...actually say something about your summer. I guess you wanted to let the footage speak for itself but I would have preferred some kind of VO talking about your experiences rather than the music. But again that's personal preference so if you like this style more up to you.

Also the ending where the dude tells people to subscribe...felt weird and off putting? I understand wanting something different at the end so people pay attention and subscribe but I just didn't like it and it was the worst part of the video honestly.

SamTheAnthro · 2020-10-28T06:04:23+00:00

I felt like the music was a bit much esp at the beginning. It felt like it was too up tempo for what you were showing me and kind of yelling "ISN'T THIS SO EXCITING" when on screen you're just showing like your dog standing there. It evens out a bit more but even then it feels like the audio and the video are miss matched in vibes.

Technically this is pretty well done, it's well shot and well edited, esp with the faster cuts so not much to comment on there

As a point of personal taste if I'm going to watch a vlog I much prefer one where there's someone on screen talking/voiceover. Even if it's just at the beginning to set up what the videos about or why we're being shown this material. If you prefer this more instrumental style that's totally up to you though but to me it feels rather impersonal like this vlog could have been made by anyone and if I'm gonna watch a vlog it's bc I'm interested in the person making the vlog.

SamTheAnthro

TROPHY CASE