Thank you for taking the time to write a review of the film, I greatly appreciate this!
You’re correct about the audio being too loud. I normally check to make sure my levels aren’t clipping, but during this entire project I forgot to open up the window that displays the audio meters (I try to keep as many panels closed while working because I have very little screen real estate so to speak), and was just editing at whatever level my speakers were set to. I actually rented a Rode Videomic for this shoot, as I wanted to capture clear audio instead of just on-camera mic audio (and also because I plan on buying this mic very soon, and just wanted to test it out first). I will certainly remember to check my levels from now on, and will use my headphones to review audio before uploading as well. I like to keep in mind that many of our viewers also only watch the video on their phones or tablets, and may have very poor quality speakers, so some sounds may have to be more pronounced than I would prefer them to be in the final mix. Good suggestion, though!
I was on the fence as to whether I should censor the curse at the end, or leave it was it was. It certainly would be more realistic to bleep it. I think ultimately I just forget to make a decision on it to be honest; the last day of finishing up the video, I ended up working 17 hours straight on it, and a few other things also just got skimmed over for the sake of getting it done. Had the curse been spoken more loudly I most certainly would have placed an audio censor over it.
And I’m glad you liked the outtakes! That was Mary’s suggestion, the blonde girl in the video. She thought it would be a good idea as a way to help connect the audience to us, instead of just watching us as characters in the video. I think it’s something I will add in later videos as well. I’m really interested in finding ways to gain not just views but subscribers, and I think finding ways to establish some sort of connection to us being real people who make videos will be the best way to do that.
I’d like to add that I learned some good lessons from working on this project. Firstly, I learned that if you’re going to use a stand-in object to be replaced later with a 2D or 3D effect, make sure it’s the same size and proportions as the CG replacement! The green iphone mini stand-in was actually a bit thinner than the CG version I had (even though it was still created from a picture of a normal iphone), so that created a lot of additional work in post, due to having to manually mask out footage.
Another good lesson I think is knowing when you’ve over-written something! I don’t mean overwriting a file, I mean trying to cram too much into a video. For this one, I think it’s right on the borderline of being too much. It also means that I had more shots to create. For my next video, I’m going to try to really hone my focus on fewer elements. That is not to say that the video will be any shorter, but rather that what is shown will be more concentrated and refined. This video is a good example of what I mean:
It’s just one character, simple props, and straight forward action, but the use of camera angles and coherent cutting of shots really makes it a great little video I feel. No dialogue even, but you know exactly what’s going on. Well, if you have any idea what Garry’s Mod is you do at least.
Thanks again for the review and the critiques, Harley! As glad as I am to have finished all that work, I’m already begining to forget about it and starting work on the next video, and to use what I’ve learned to make that one even better! I may create a WIP thread for that as well.
By the way, I’ve uploaded the iphone 7 model to Blendswap.com if anyone wants to play with it: http://www.blendswap.com/blends/view/70106