Clan-made ArmA 3 Videos

[PhoenixKsE]

[PhoenixKsE]

Did anyone see it? Did anyone like it?

[backtothefight64]

I've seen it and 'liked' it.

Although not the most informative ArmA 3 video I've ever seen

[mcguirk2]

My dog sometimes does that on the carpet.

[PhoenixKsE]

There we go!

Also... for anyone who is interested (and I suppose I could put this into another thread as well), I would love some help with editing content for my channel. I can supply the recorded video, and I was also thinking that we could set up an actual SWF youtube channel, that way anyone who wanted to record could supply content, then we would have our editor (or a very small team of editors) get said content 'YouTube-ready', and get it uploaded to our clan channel. I'm more than willing to get the channel up and running, as well as moderate it, as well as do some editing (I'm just not all that great at it yet -- I've seen a tutorial!).

If anyone is interested, lets get discussion going.

Also, Scriv, if you'd like to move this post to a new thread (perhaps one that has been properly named), that would be awesome as well.

[PhoenixKsE]

Bump for vision... really need a response on my last post.

[mcguirk2]

If this interests you, I would start small and edit a short video together with the footage you have and the editing software you have available. Trading large video files back and forth can be an obstacle but
we can cross that bridge when you get to it. As you progress, myself and others would be more than happy to pitch in with help and advice.

[Lambourne]

I have no editing skills or software but would be willing to help in other ways. Also like McGuirk said start small and build once success and confidence set in.

[sfscriv]

I've seen it and 'liked' it.

Moved the thread.

Here are my thoughts on video editing:
- Good Cover Slide. When folks are browsing, the thumbnail image catches their attention.
- Accurate title and written description of the video
- Nice short Intro to the series
- Edited.
- Two to seven minutes in duration is preferable
- Good in-game dialogue and narration
... Appealing voice sound, confident, witty


Depends on the type of video (This is for combat action. Comedy would be handled differently):
- The viewer deserves to be oriented to what has recently occurred, what is happening at the start of the video, and some hints as to what to expect.
- Narrative visual table of contents of events to come
- Map orientation of the player's location and next move
- No rap or pac-man music or 13 year old heard in the in-game squad
- Balance of audio feeds: narration, in-game sound, in-game VoIP, and music
- Interesting in-game action
- Highlight significant objects with overlays
- Consider freezing the video to highlight a concealed enemy.
- Consider slow motion or a slow motion replay for a death or vehicle crash.
- Some editors fast forward (viewable) to get through a long uneventful run to the next interesting piece of footage

The YouTube Channel/personal YouTube webpage:
- Organized YouTube page with clearly defined channels
- Custom header
- Good eye-catching titles
- A good campaign to increase views, subscriptions, and name recognition

Here are two examples of successful broadcasters: (There are many others who have greater subscriber numbers)





If we were to do a clan YouTube channel:
- There should be a clear and concise list of =SWF= affiliated YouTube broadcasters

- Each YouTube broadcaster should be encouraged to recommend/link other =SWF= broadcasters to their YouTube page
- There should be a strong standard beginning clip and ending clip for each video
- The end of the video should encourage a "Like," a "Subscribe," and =SWF=. If you have a YouTube affiliated Facebook and Twitter accounts, those should be featured at the end of each video.
- There should be a "how to" thread with step by step instructions on how to spice up your videos

This is a touchy one as people could get offended...

... I think the videos should be critiqued by other Spartan participants. How could the existing video be improved?

... Maybe, some post-published videos could be brought back to the editing room for an overhaul.

... I have heard some videos where the voice volume on their microphone, their actual voice, or the post-production audio track volumes were too low.

Watching a video where the player looks at the grass for 1 minute and 30 seconds is painful and there should be some editing. Not =SWF=, but I watched a video recently where the guy took about 8 minutes of video time to get on the server. He already had a viewer count of 15,000. That is piss poor production to have 15,000 people wait 8 minutes for the guy to enter a server.

[sfscriv]

I purchased a hardware video capture device and video editing software while I was deployed. Creating videos for YouTube is something I have been interested in for a long while, but I also recognize it is very time intense work. I am not promising an avalanche of scriv videos. Most of the time, I would rather be gaming.

[PhoenixKsE]

I feel the same way Scriv, I do enjoy just gaming and having fun. If I had a way to basically constantly record my gaming times, I would have more than enough content to edit and post interesting videos. I've looked over your tips and I really appreciate the time you took to put that together. I will certainly get some practice and make a valiant attempt at following those guidelines. We may not start out with the =SWF= channel, but it can certainly be a goal for us to work towards.

Over the coming weeks I'll be spending some time gathering content and working on editing ideas for that content. Once I feel I have a decent amount of content and a good idea of what to put into some videos to upload, I will put my ideas together and present them to the clan. Then we can go over them and get everyone's input on how to make the videos better (and I will do my best to remember that it is only constructive criticism, and is not personal), and once all of that has been done, I suppose I will get to editing.

Should things go well after all of that, we can revisit the idea of working together more closely and finding a way to cross the file sharing bridge McGuirk was talking about. I'm sorry if I seemed pushy, sometimes I don't realize how my actions and statements appear to others. I'll certainly work harder to recognize these things and change them accordingly.

Thank you guys for the tips, hopefully I'll see you all in-game soon, and before you know it we will have some fun times to share with others should they choose to watch them.


Edit: For the purposes of recording content to be edited later, I have cleared up 500 GB of space on my primary hard drive. So far I have recorded at least an hour of BF3 footage, which is what I will start with while practicing my editing and trying to get a solid viewer base. Any time we have a chance to play some Arma or DayZ (once standalone is out), I will record our experiences there as well. With plenty of room on my hard drive, gathering content shouldn't be an issue at all. I can't wait to finally get serious about all of this... I've talked about it and played around with the idea for over a year, but I feel like I'm actually taking steps towards my goal now, and that is an amazing feeling! Thank you again for all your tips, I will definitely keep them in mind in the weeks to come.

[PhoenixKsE]

Sorry for the double post, but I've run into a little snag.

Dxtory is able to record multiple audio streams into a single video which plays back perfectly fine in Windows Media Player. The issue is that when I import the video into Adobe Premiere, the second audio file doesn't seem to get imported with the video. It shows up in the properties of the clip, but it says that the size of the second audio file is 0 bytes.

I'm not really sure what to do. On a thread I found on google, someone mentioned extracting the second audio file as a WAV from the original video, then uploading it separately into Premiere, but I'm not quite sure of the best way to go about that.

Anyone have experience in doing anything like this?

[sfscriv]

Sorry, Phoenix, I am not able to assist.

[PhoenixKsE]

I'm starting to think that I need to just go back to Fraps. Dxtory runs better, records better video, and has more options and information available, but Fraps actually made the video come out with both audio tracks already mixed into one. This allowed Premiere to import the file correctly and allowed for easier editing.

If I can't find a way to extract the second audio track from the original file, I'll be unable to record any of my own voice live. This presents a problem when trying to show off our tactics in-game, as well as any funny conversation that I might want to highlight. This issue ultimately prevents my ability to put out the style of videos that I want.

I'll do some research on this issue and come back to it in a day or two with a fresh mind.


Edit: I may have found a solution that allows me to not only keep (and use) the recordings I already have, but also to keep using Dxtory. I'll be tinkering around with it for today, then if it works well, the editing will begin tomorrow.