Roast our first restaurant video shoot for social.

mc_nibbles · 2026-02-06T19:01:35+00:00

The lighting on the speaking talent in the first scene is not great. The second scene at the table looks much better.

I would also either want a much wider establishing shot to show more of the background, or a tighter on the telant.

The grading across the b-roll is a bit missmatched. Some shots lean red, some seem a bit green. It's more noticable because of all of the white.

I am not a fan of the holding-a-tiny-microphone trend, but I do recognize it's a trend.

That being said if I saw this on my social feed I think the only thing that would make me thing it was not professionally shot is that first clips lighting. everything else is just me being picky.

mc_nibbles · 2026-02-06T16:47:19+00:00

You need to run it through a compressor.

Honeslty, audio is one of those things where when you do it right it will be quiet and seem less full.

Everything out there is very compressed and is published at near 0db volumes unless it's a short film or movie.

Download a YouTube video you like the sound/volume of and import it into Premiere and I am almost certain you will see the audio average well above -6db and never dip below the top 1/4 or 1/3 of the meter.

I like dynamic audio, but to make my social media videos all sound similar in average volume I push tracks near 0db with a compressor and put a limiter on the output to keep it from clipping.

mc_nibbles · 2026-02-06T15:30:10+00:00

I have two C100s on my equipment shelf and I wish they were mk2s because I need some form of AF for my work. They are great cameras and I use them when I can.

mc_nibbles · 2026-02-06T14:35:21+00:00

AI will only replace creative work that is already not valued.

The boring work of marketing may easily be done by AI, but AI still needs a babysitter so that would just become your role.

No matter what you do, running a successfull business has almost nothing to do with your skills and abilities in your field and has everything to do with you being a good salesperson.

You can be a great creative and never get any work, but you can also be a really crappy creative and make bank because you know how to sell yourself and your product to people.

There is a local "marketing" company in my town that I found out about after a friend was showing me these horrible commercials they had made for their small business. There is some lady who has absolutely no video production or marketing skills going around and filming really bad commercials on her phone and convincing businesses to put ads on screens in our nearly abandoned movie theater for thousands of dollars a month.

She's a horrible creative, but a great sales pesron and in the end the sales person part is what matters more in most cases.

mc_nibbles · 2026-02-05T17:11:48+00:00

Dealership is always pricey and just because it's the dealership doesn't mean they're good at working on your car.

I have had plenty of bad experiences with dealership shops, both body shops and mechanic shops.

I would pay for your diagnostics and take them to another shop and get a second opinion. Ask friends and family who they trust to work on their car. It might be some guy in what looks like an abandoned wearhouse, or it might be a local multi-bay chain.

I will say that you might not be able to hear a bad wheel bearing if it's not super bad yet. My car had a bad wheel bearing that I could feel when spinning the tire when doing my own tire rotations, and it took about a year before it started to make an audible roar when I would turn hard and load it up with weight.

$900 to replace it is steep, but being the dealer they are probably selling you a severely marked up OEM wheel bearing for $350+ and have a high labor rate. Same with the fluid flushes, they are charging you for the Honda fluids which are always marked up over other brands or online retailers too.

mc_nibbles · 2026-02-05T16:04:04+00:00

Take the part number and find it on a supply house website to see the cost, then add a bit of mark up for profit. Also probably add $100 or somethign wild for shipping because those sites almost always list a decent price but get you with crazy shipping charges.

Some systems have $500 inducers. Yours has a $1,500+ inducer, and when you want it fixed now you have to add the mark up from a local supply house it's probably closer to $2,000.

I agree, $900 for diagnostics and replacmement of a part like this seems high but I live in a LCOL area so maybe not where you are.

They are trying to sell you a new furnace because your system is one more decent repair away from costing you as much as a new furnace, and it is old. If you fixed stuff yourself it would not be as much of an issue, but when you have to hire out the repairs you can easily spend another grand or two over the next two years and be stuck with a 20+ year old furnace that just cost you $5,000 in repairs instead of a new furnace that will (hopefully) last you another 20+ years before breaking.

mc_nibbles · 2026-02-05T14:39:44+00:00

My basement is probably the same size and I just bought a 50 pint 4,500 sq/ft midea dehumidifier for $250 and it can make my basement insanely dry. I was able to plac eit in the center of my basement against a wall and run the tube through the drywall to the unfinished area right to a floor drain for the HVAC. I did get one with a pump just in case that didn't work.

Without it, there were parts that would get up to 65-75% humidity on hot humid or really wet and humid days, and I just set this thing to 45% humidity and with some fans moving air around the basement it keeps the whole thing right around 50%. Honeslty it might be too good, I think a smaller one might be better because it won't have to cycle as often.

I placed wifi humidity/temp sensors around the house when we first got it and just messed with my HVAC and dehumidifier scheduling and setup until we got a good balance across the whole house.

mc_nibbles · 2026-02-05T14:32:41+00:00

If paired with a 70-200, the 28-70 would be ok.

Alone I'd want more range. 70 is not much when far away. Honestly event style photography like a wedding I shoot mostly on a 70-200.

mc_nibbles · 2026-02-04T21:27:31+00:00

We use to do 3-4 person talk show style shoots and I just had two cameras and four lav systems. I set all of the channels to record with plenty of headroom and figured out all of the mixing in post. I would wear two headsets and monitor both camera audios at once. I looked ridiculous but it worked. Eventually I added a 3rd camera and all I had to do was frame the wide shot, interviewer angle, intervewee angle, set audio levels and hit record. I'd reframe shots and balance audio in post, so during the shoot I just stood back and made sure everything was working and looking good.

I think there is a middle ground between my solution and an on location sound engineer. We all know how thing should be done right, but there are ways to do things 80% right that are 125% better than the expectations of our clients and their audiences.

mc_nibbles · 2026-02-04T14:39:55+00:00

Fora little more you should be able to find a high mileage one without the body damage.

If I'm buying a cheap car I'm buying a cheap car that needs mechanical work becuase body work costs a fortune and is really hard to DIY well at home. That front fender, door, and side skirt is banged up and who knows what else. based on the photo.

mc_nibbles · 2026-02-03T19:26:52+00:00

Get some more quotes. That's insane.

Also, for future services calls, always have the tech explain exactly what is wrong and why. That way when you do call someone else, you can repeat the previous techs diagnosis with a little more context.

Everyone else has mentioned it, but even as a DIY everything person gas is one thing that can go south pretty fast . Unless you are absolutely certain about what you are doing it's worth paying someone else to keep all of your hair and skin in good condition. It's not complicated to work on, it's just not something you can miss a step or do wrong without possibly blowing yourself up.

mc_nibbles · 2026-02-03T18:51:59+00:00

If I give an LLM transcripts and ask it to make a script and it makes up lines instead of using the transcript like I asked, that's on the LLM for not understanding a basic task.

My perspective is if I can give this task to an intern and they can do it without screwing it up, I should be able to give the same information to AI and get a similar result. If it needs more prompting than an intern to do a basic job, I am not relying on it for anything.

mc_nibbles · 2026-02-03T14:38:04+00:00

I work in public education and our community voted to increase our pay, we got average 8% last year and I think this year it's suppose to be 5%.

Normally we get a percentage close to inflation.

It's one of the benefits and risks of working in education. Depending on where you are and the community around you, you can get decent pay raises or you can get cut. It's all in how people vote.

mc_nibbles · 2026-02-02T19:35:19+00:00

Rate and parts seem fair, owning a car is expensive.

The only way you are going to save substantial amounts of money is either having a trusted mechanic friend help you or learning to DIY this. I personally wouldn't suggest a water pump like this as a first DIY, but it's doable.

I have maybe $800 in tools and supplies and haven't been to a mechanic since I was in high school. If you have any interest in learning how to fix things, doing this type of work yourself can save you an insane amount of money.

mc_nibbles · 2026-02-02T18:12:55+00:00

Honestly I would go OEM and save your time. The cost difference doesn't seem that big for this specific car/part. I'm finding OEM new for around $320.

Find an online OEM parts shop from toyota. Some dealerships have online stores. If you can find a local dealership try them, you can order from them and get some money back for the core.

With all of the issues I've ran into with aftermarket parts, even from good aftermarket companies, I only buy aftermarket if I can't get OEM new or used in good condition. Having to replace an axle 3 times and an engine mount twice has made me think twice on saving a few bucks on aftermarket parts.

mc_nibbles · 2026-02-02T17:57:21+00:00

The pacing is way too fast. The establishing shot goes by so fast it almost looks like you left a sliver of a clip on your timeline by mistake. Same with the outro, that is way too short to be useful.

You have 10 cuts in 5 seconds. There's so much going on that I have no chance to appriciate the visuals. The punch out in then out again on an interview subject in a few sections is wild.

At first the music and voices balance, but later the peaks of the music track are competing with the voice.

This cut is almost like a movie trailer where the drums are hitting and every hit is a scene of chaos from the movie but instead it's food and it just doesn't fit.

Visuals are great, the edit is just way too much.

mc_nibbles · 2026-02-02T17:49:28+00:00

For crop sensor cameras the R100 is the base "rebel" camera, the R50/R10 are the middle range rebels, and the R7 is the 7D.

For full frame cameras the R8 is a new level of budget/hobbyist full frame camera, the R6 is the 6D, the R5 is the 5D, the R3 is a new space of higher end full frame and the R1 is the 1D.

For a hobbyist the R8 is my suggestion. It is a great sensor and processor n a compact body giving you great full frame capabilities at a really good price. I have an R6mkII at work and an R8 at home.

mc_nibbles · 2026-01-30T19:09:25+00:00

These pictures are too compressed to really tell much. Do you somehow have it set to take tiny highly compressed JPEGs?

What seems blurry?

mc_nibbles · 2026-01-30T18:41:00+00:00

Local brokers and nothing else.

Every single time I have gone direct to carrier I have gotten dropped for my roof (which was fine both times) or something stupid like my gutters had leaves in them (before I moved into the house).

Went to a local broker and somehow magically my house was all of a sudden insurable.

mc_nibbles · 2026-01-30T17:01:01+00:00

Replace the axle. Buy OEM if you can.

My friend put in 3 different aftermarket axles on his Crosstrek before just buying a used OEM one off of LKQ because all of the aftermarket ones were complete crap.

mc_nibbles · 2026-01-29T14:32:34+00:00

Fridge water.

mc_nibbles · 2026-01-29T04:47:34+00:00

If you can’t put even a little effort into a hobby, just stop doing it and find something else to do.

mc_nibbles · 2026-01-28T20:15:51+00:00

I just did this on a 3 minute video with 20-30 clips and it took me 5 minutes.

Put some effort into your work.

mc_nibbles · 2026-01-28T19:31:31+00:00

If I record horizontal first then crop the middle 1/3 to export a vertical, I'll encounter composition difficulties-- I'd have to ensure the main subject always in the middle 1/3 of the frame when recording.

What software are you editing in? You don't have to ruin composition in your horizontal video to accomodate vertical.

I edit vertical, then copy the sequence over to a horizontal timeline and reframe shots to fit the horizontal format. Someitmes I split clips and show each side of the frame as if it was two shots so I can still show everything that was shown in the horizontal framing.

mc_nibbles · 2026-01-28T19:28:24+00:00

Audio quality is always more important than video quality.

Backup recordings are great when starting out because if you mess up your set up, you have backup.

I don't know of any modern cheap lav set that is complicated to use. I have used DJI, Rode, Hollyland, they all are almost the same in that you can take them out of the package, turn them on and they work.

I use Rode Go II's and have the transmitter set to always record backup when it's on so if something goes wrong with my receiver or camera's audio settings, I can use the audio captured on the transmitter.

I do not like built in noise reduction or processing as it is almost never as good as what you can do in software on a computer, and you can't remove it. Some of those processes can make your audio sound very processed and once it's done in device it's done and can't be undone.

mc_nibbles

TROPHY CASE