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Muttra

Mon Feb 27, 2017 1:24 am

Trying my hand at making travel videos using mostly still shots.

Oman is a very beautiful country to visit.

Muttrah is one of the places we had a chance to go to. This is a compilation of the the photos and clips we took. Proshow is a very good tool to keep the photos organized. I hope to be able to turn this hobby into a productive endeavor.

The video runs for less than 5 minutes. Nothing objectionable in the content.

Please do critique, love to learn from your input.

Thank you!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pt6maxkAW4Y

Re: Muttra

Wed Mar 01, 2017 5:08 am

Good combo of photos and videos.

At about 30 sec you used a "page transition". You never used it again. Doesn't flow right to me. I think you should always use transitions in the same "Family"!

Re: Muttra

Wed Mar 01, 2017 7:59 am

Hi,

I've decided to watch your show because I like travel shows, and Oman is a country I'm not likely to visit in the foreseeable future. Though... one never knows in our region... :D

Your pictures are lovely, but the show itself, is a bit unbalanced, for a travel show.
You have to decide what is the purpose of your show: Is it to educate the viewer about the history of a place ? If so, you should allow much more time for the viewer to be able to read the captions.
In your case, having slides of 2-3 seconds each, makes this an impossible task. Nobody can read that fast, certainly not 3 lines captions, and also to watch the pictures themselves at the same time.

If, by contrast, you want a fast paced show, then there is no point in inserting captions at all.

I also didn't quite understand why you chose to have a scrambling effect on your show's main title. Do you want us to read the title or not? Because as it is, it's not possible to read it at all.

Having historical pictures in such a show is always a nice addition. However, accompanying such pictures with sound, as you did with those horses, is a bit cheesy, and awkward.

And more about captions. You should pay more attention where you wish to place certain captions. It's rather funny to have captions that provide historical background next to a portrait of yourself.

Also, why are your captions in caps? Caps should be reserved to main titles only. Using caps makes it even more difficult to read.

Regarding the transitions used. It's not so much that you should use transitions from the same family, as JBD wrote above, but rather that you should use them with a purpose.
Transitions can create a certain feeling in your show, or make separate sections, or simply move you from slide to slide. It is up to you to decide what you wish to show.
There is not much point in creating an old movie film effect at the beginning of the show, if immediately afterwards you switch to turn page transitions. What is it that you want to show? An old movie or a book on which you turn the pages?

For short, decide what is the focus of your show, and then stick to this task. If you want effects, then there is no point in trying to "educate" and in providing any historical background.
If by contrast you want to remember the places that you visited, and you wish your viewers to accompany you in your travels, then, too many effects are tiresome.

Sorry for being so critical, but you did say you are interested in our critique :D

Re: Muttra

Thu Mar 02, 2017 4:41 am

Thank you so much JBD and Mona W. for taking the time to comment and critique. Really appreciated.

I have carefully noted every point and will certainly make necessary changes in the future.

Just to explain a few points. You may be right, I might have gotten the viewer confused with the transitions. Like the page effect for example, the intention was to make the viewer think that for a moment they were browsing a guide/catalog while in the car approaching the souk. It was not repeated as there were no multiple pages succeeding and the galloping horses, as well as the old Omani ships were for effect, but unfortunately didn't match.

Guilty of rushing the show. I have to work on that. My intention really was for the viewer not to dwell so much on the pictures (especially the portraits) but just to get the feel or catch the story. It was deliberate but you are right, too fast and photos need to be still at least for some time for the viewer to really appreciate them.

Re captions and why some are in the same frame as myself. I am still not comfortable with doing voice over the photos so again the intention was to give the impression I was relating them myself and for the viewer to focus on what's being said than on my face/portrait.

I guess I picked the wrong font, 'Copperplate Gothic' because it looks like they were all caps but actually they're not.

The scrambling effect was again for effect or drama if you will and I thought it suited the first music/track. Also I wanted to get the definition of the souk and corniche out of the way as some viewers may already know the meaning of. Poor choice.

It might have been too ambitious on my part. I patterned the show on the travel videos I have watched which are generally fast paced and injected narratives as I deemed fit.

Once again, thank you for the comments. I will definitely keep them in mind.

Marilou
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