My New Video: The Time I Made Madonna Laugh

[mibby]

9 hours ago, Reid Rosefelt said:

Does anybody have any comments about technical issues with the MOSQUITO COAST video?   I tried to address issues like: 1) sound mainly coming out of right channel; 2) me not looking at the camera; 3) reflections of computer monitors on glasses.    Even if you don't feel like watching the whole video, can anybody give me some notes about improvements? 

I tried to lessen the overall reflections on the glasses.  I don't think I'll be able to get rid of the two lights, but I can get better at it by not moving so much.  But I did get rid of the computer monitor reflections by covering them with black foil. 

Other things I did was to cut to photos, so I could edit more and tighten it up.  I did use a bit of music, something I'll do more of in the future. 

Everything you guys say is helpful.

Thanks!

Working on Francis Ford Coppola now and will do another Madonna video after that. 

Another enjoyable video and more refined in a good way.  It feels like you're one of those friends you can go to a bar with and listen to the stories all night long. No pretense and very conversational and relaxing.  GOod stuff!  I liked the addition of pictures to give context and as you said, to allow yourself some edits if needed. The only thing that "stuck out" to me was that the music seemed loud. I get what you were going for and it pretty much worked, but maybe it was a little loud is all.

Otherwise, you've got great stories and are very listenable, plus you're a nice break from all the mixing tutorials!  ?

[Reid Rosefelt]

On 2/24/2022 at 9:26 PM, mibby said:

The only thing that "stuck out" to me was that the music seemed loud. I get what you were going for and it pretty much worked, but maybe it was a little loud is all.

Otherwise, you've got great stories and are very listenable, plus you're a nice break from all the mixing tutorials!  ?

Yes, the music was an experiment, but at the moment, I don't think I'll continue it for the "memoir" videos.  If I'm just telling stories I should try to make it as relaxed as possible, and not look too prepared. 

The only thing I do in advance is to write down a series of topics.  And then I do it three times.  So far I've never done any editing from one take to another.  These first two have been edited from one take. 

Going to try to do Francis Coppola today, and I'll tape another Madonna one later in the week.

[Reid Rosefelt]

Here's the latest.   The end of the video has a story that is actually a little painful for me to tell.  I don't want all my videos to be all happy stuff because that wouldn't be honest.

I'm pretty happy with the format now, except now the reflections on the glasses really bothers me.   I'm going to focus on alleviating this with the next one.  I don't think I'll be able to really fix it unless I take off my glasses.  I don't want to do that, but I may have to.   The way the thing is set up now, I can't see the monitor anyway. 

 

[simon]

totally excellent 

the best production yet. ?

My immediate thoughts -

the personal photos you included are brilliant, puts YOU in the action.

agree about the glasses reflection - I'm assuming that carefully positioning/angling the light can fix that.  You should keep the glasses on - adds gravitas  and authority - better to have the glasses WITH reflection than losing the glasses.

The sound is getting a bit 'roomy' - are you able to deaden it down a little or think about closer micing - maybe a hypercardiod just out of shot ?

all in all - first rate, I think you are on to a winner (whatever that means) - and I think there are lots of things you can do to keep this format moving forward but I won't distract you with more ideas just yet...

[Reid Rosefelt]

17 minutes ago, simon said:

totally excellent 

the best production yet. ?

My immediate thoughts -

the personal photos you included are brilliant, puts YOU in the action.

agree about the glasses reflection - I'm assuming that carefully positioning/angling the light can fix that.  You should keep the glasses on - adds gravitas  and authority - better to have the glasses WITH reflection than losing the glasses.

The sound is getting a bit 'roomy' - are you able to deaden it down a little or think about closer micing - maybe a hypercardiod just out of shot ?

all in all - first rate, I think you are on to a winner (whatever that means) - and I think there are lots of things you can do to keep this format moving forward but I won't distract you with more ideas just yet...

Thanks, Simon.   I'm trying to get a little better each time.  I won't always have a lot of pictures, but I think if somebody watches a few of them, they'll trust that I really was there.  I just don't have photos of every single experience I've had.  I was really lucky to get the photo of Jim Jarmusch and Sara Driver.  Sara helped me.  I'm starting to not care so much anyway... just pray that fair use will save me, and at the worse I can take the videos down and remove the photos if somebody complains. 

Today I will try it without glasses.  I don't care about gravitas.  I will care if it makes me look like Mr. Magoo.

If that doesn't work, I'll have to turn off the Elgato desk lights and rig a soft light high and a reflector.  I'm not sure I have enough room where I'm sitting to have that make a huge difference, but it should help.  The key thing is if I can leave that stuff up  in position all the time without pissing off my wife too much.  (I shoot right next to where we sleep. ) I don't want a long setup.

Finally I'll have to learn to stop moving around so much. But moving is really important to me.  If you watch the videos of people showing how to eliminate reflections, they are very still.   They find the spot and don't budge. This is why taking off my glasses might be the best  solution.  

Re: Sound.  I live in a loft space.  One 1200 square foot room with 15 foot ceilings.  No rooms, aside from the bathroom.  It's boomy. One end faces the Brooklyn Bridge and is noisy.  I've tried many  ways to do sound, including various lav mics and speaking directly into a mic. Recording into different devices.  Spent a lot of money and time.  This is by far the best.  Maybe someday I'll buy a better shotgun.  I think people can understand me.

Maybe somebody has a suggestion for software to make my voice less boomy?  

 

[simon]

49 minutes ago, Reid Rosefelt said:

 

Maybe somebody has a suggestion for software to make my voice less boomy?  

 

fixing at source is the best way - can you arrange some quilts/blankets around/above the filming area ?

edit:

don't get me wrong - it's great as it is - personally I'd just keep doing them and things will naturally get better as you go along.  

Check out the first few videos of some of the popular youtubers - they are usually terrible, much worse than yours.

Edited March 1, 2022 by simon

[mibby]

Looking forward to watching.  re: your lighting - I wonder if indirect "studio" lighting might work?

Something like this? (No idea about this site, it's just the first thing that came up when I googled "studio lighting".)  I'm sure you can get professional grade stuff for more, but it might be worth trying.

https://www.efavormart.com/products/photography-photo-portrait-studio-400w-day-light-white-umbrella-continuous-lighting-kit

Edited March 1, 2022 by mibby

[Reid Rosefelt]

@mibby  Trust me, I have wasted a lot of money on camera gear.

I just shot the second Madonna video.  When I put up the soft light really high, I remembered that it's not all that hard to minimize eyeglass reflections.  The problem is that it causes other lighting issues.  If I was young it would be fine but oh it makes me look like a horror movie villain without reflections in his glasses.  ?

So I put a reflector on the other side of my face and had a bounce card under my neck.  I would say that I look a lot worse than with the Elgato lights, but that's okay because the reflections were distracting and now there are less of them.     There are still reflections, but you'll see... it's a lot better.     I'll keep working on it.

Taking my glasses off didn't help because you can see the two lights reflected in my eyes, which is equally distracting.

[PhonoBrainer]

Hey I'm not trying to be a buzzkill here, and I always appreciate well-crafted videography! Just wondering if the Deals forum is the place.

Or is there a better place on the forum? If not, maybe we could lobby to create one?

thanks,

-Tom

[Pluto Gabo]

6 hours ago, Reid Rosefelt said:

@mibby  Trust me, I have wasted a lot of money on camera gear.

I just shot the second Madonna video.  When I put up the soft light really high, I remembered that it's not all that hard to minimize eyeglass reflections.  The problem is that it causes other lighting issues.  If I was young it would be fine but oh it makes me look like a horror movie villain without reflections in his glasses.  ?

So I put a reflector on the other side of my face and had a bounce card under my neck.  I would say that I look a lot worse than with the Elgato lights, but that's okay because the reflections were distracting and now there are less of them.     There are still reflections, but you'll see... it's a lot better.     I'll keep working on it.

Taking my glasses off didn't help because you can see the two lights reflected in my eyes, which is equally distracting.

Thanks for the inside stories Reid! It's great to hear about recent film history!

Just pointing out (like someone did for the first video) there is a sound imbalance between the right and left channel. Wearing headphones, the sound on the right side is sharper and clearer and sounds louder. The left side is more veiled or recessed, with less treble. It almost sounds like you're using two mics, one going to the right channel and one going to the left channel. I'm not sure whether the issue is panning or a mono track not being bounced to stereo? Maybe someone else can chime in with some advice.

[Zo]

I should have read you comments now all i look at is your glasses lol ain t that crazy how human works ,... some might use that someway

[ZokZTM]

Hi @Reid Rosefelt sorry I missed this tread so far,  did notice it, but it slipped due to the lack of time.

And sorry if any of comments here are dealt with or are out of place, as I didn't have the chance to read through the whole tread (yet).

I will try to help. First the video and the glasses reflection.

• Angling your glasses downwards a bit
• Positioning your soft light as high as possible and to the side (even ceiling mounting and quite close to the subject is ok)
• Lifting camera a bit higher and to the opposite side than light
• Possibly still additionally use circular polariser filters for the lens and for the lights (sometimes it helps and sometimes not - depends on the angle of lens to the glasses)

 

I searched for you further and found this:

The simple solution is to pose your subject so that the reflection from the glasses lies outside the family of angles with respect to the camera

https://strobist.blogspot.com/2006/04/lighting-101-lighting-for-glasses.html

 

Now for the sound part:

No matter what acoustic place you have at hand, use hyper-cardioid or shotgun mics and then as close as you can to the subject. My preferable distance 30 -60 cm (would that be 1 to 2 feet?)

Those mics are designed for dialog captures in any kind of environment, and by watching your video, my guess is - you will be fine!

My suggestion is buy once cry once: Audio Technica AT 4053B

If possible don't record in to the cameras mic-pre / line in. Use your best mic pre and DAW to capture the VO recordings. Use simple 'on camera' clap to sync in post audibly and visually. Camera's built in microphone as a scratch audio track only!

Remember,  dialog (or VO for that matter) is like a solo instrument. Spend some time and give your love to it, you'll be awarded back in multiples ?

And as the dialog is the most important part of any movie, doc or commercial, so it is in YT video. It must be in a centre channel.

 

So one will need to do some post production to the project and one should be more than happy to do so, because once you put your materials to the YouTube, they are there to stay... They are your Business card - your ID ?

One can make shorter and faster videos but I still think if you love what you do you own it to yourself to do it ''good''. It is your product at the end and you should care otherwise you might just do something else. That is my MOTO at least. There's no shortcut to success, just a lot of hard work in the process, with uncertain outcome (smells like  music business itself  ?).

 

Also at some point in the future, when things get going, you can consider a big TV for the screen background (82 inches and above). In that way you could always change the background picture that would be appropriate to the topic presented. You might have few reflection problems there as well, but with some care and pretty much the same principal as per above it could work extremely well and give an additional value to your production (which I think it deserves!)

I'm super happy to advice you further if you need, just contact me via my web page www.finspire.art ... or send me a PM here.

And btw in this video that was kindly posted here by @Zo it took 3 hours of preparation, 4-5 hours of recording session and two weeks of editing and post-production (different type of material but still - it is always worth it in the end!).

 

Love from Finlandia!

Edited March 2, 2022 by ZokZTM

[PavlovsCat]

This new video is excellent, Reid. You definitely have found your footing on this. You're incredibly more relaxed,  bright and cheerful and the pace is a lot quicker, which makes it much more compelling video. Great job! This is a giant leap forward. I really enjoyed the video and I  wish you success. (I'm Peter D. that left a comment on this and your previous video, BTW) . 

For my fellow forum members, don't forget to give Reid's YouTube video a thumbs up.  Support one of our own! 

Edited March 2, 2022 by PavlovsCat

[Fleer]

We Are All Subscribers

[PavlovsCat]

Just now, Fleer said:

We Are All Subscribers

But the video only had two thumbs ups when  I  watched this morning,  so we need to step up our thumbs up game.

[ZokZTM]

Just now, PavlovsCat said:

But the video only had two thumbs ups when  I  watched this morning,  so we need to step up our thumbs up game.

I'm doing it as I write this!

[ZokZTM]

20 hours ago, simon said:

You should keep the glasses on - adds gravitas

I agree with @simon... definitely keep the glasses!

[fret_man]

Thank you for doing these, Reid. Maybe it's my slow brain, but the photos and movie titles flash by too quickly for me.

[ZokZTM]

4 minutes ago, fret_man said:

Thank you for doing these, Reid. Maybe it's my slow brain, but the photos and movie titles flash by too quickly for me.

I agree with this statement I would suggest a minimum 5 sec slide (pict) or title length in a fast paced narrative. In this case probably even 7 sec (or perhaps even more, with a slow zoom in/out) would be a good compromise especially as the narrative is a talking head :-). It would engage the audience more into the story told.
 

[Grem]

On 2/18/2022 at 6:16 PM, James Foxall said:

I thought for a moment that you might be reading as well due to where your eyes stay fixed

Exactly. 

Great story about Madonna and Roseanne.

Also the same about the audio right side being dominate.