Add mine to the pile. Thanks to the reasonable levels, I watched it all the way through and was entertained and informed. You're really on your way and I look forward to what else you can produce. And some of the little easter eggs were cute (Carmen Sandiego and Rocket Ranger for "maps", the "pictures" of you on the "wall" behind you, etc.).
Appreciate the feedback! I did spend some time on that backdrop to make it feel more... well... real? I was actually surprised at how well it jived with the actual footage being greenscreened in front of it.
The humor segments were about 4x longer than they needed to be, but that's my only complaint (they were funny, but they went on way too long). And I especially appreciate you crediting your picture sources.
Yeah, I do agree some segments needed to be trimmed a bit. I was having too much fun with the greenscreen. Not all of it was about humor - the 'PC repair training' was there to break up the monotony of the typical Youtube 'Powerpoint Documentary', with a dash of levity. I think there will be more of that going forward in any documentaries I do. Not just me playing different parts but animations and other effects I can bring to bear to 'recreate' what doesn't exist on film.
Let's take three big vintage tech youtubers and look at how they do things:
[*]LGR: For his bigger videos ("Tech Tales"), he scripts everything, narrates the entire script, then shoots video and b-roll to match his script, then edits them to his recorded narration. For these kinds of formal videos, he doesn't appear on camera.
This is the method I tried with parts of my OSI 300 video. I actually played the narration and motioned along as I spoke. It's tricky though. You've got to know the script fairly well and anticipate things. I wasn't always able to do that and sometimes had to sub in unrelated footage to fill gaps.
[*]Techmoan: Opposite of LGR. He shoots video of himself fiddling with things, edits it together in a way that is pleasing to him, then narrates live while it plays, sometimes going back over and over until he manages to say something without stumbling or running over time. He mentioned he has hundreds of audio takes sometimes. Once his main video chunk is done, he shoots informal bumpers (front and back) for his main content, the front introducing it, and the back giving summary thoughts. He does research, but it's in the form of notes and touchpoints, not a full script.
I am attempting this with a video on unbuilt kit computers. But I am a chronic 'ah' or 'um' person. I'm fiddling with it to see if I can stand it, but I may end up just rerecording the audio as narration. Which will be hard. I'm also wary of changing styles. I've had quite a number of people compliment the 'high production value' on the two videos and I'm afraid to disappoint by going to a more 'conversational' format in the next, especially since I'm not a natural at it.
[*]The 8-Bit Guy: A bit of a hybrid of both approaches. David writes a script for the entire episode, narrates the entire script, then shoots main and b-roll, edits that to the narration, creates diagrams and overlays those... but when he gets to a section of his narration that he doesn't have video for, or doesn't want to shoot video for it, he then puts himself on camera and shoots *himself* for that section. This hybrid approach can feel uneven if the on-camera portions are too frequent or oddly placed, but so far it hasn't been an issue.
I often wondered about David. I watch his 'on camera' segments carefully and only catch the 'edit' transitions in stiched-together video occasionally. I used to think he must have some kind of teleprompter setup, but then I noticed his paper scripts occasionally there on the table in front of him. He must just be really good at speaking off the cuff on a subject without having to consult notes. I definitely am not good at that.
And then there's vwestlife, which is 100% unscripted and live, then later edited together. I won't comment on that, as he is reading this thread so I'll let him comment for himself
It seems to work for him. I know for me I can't sustain more than a minute or two without losing train of thought. I'm impressed by people that can do that.
How you want to proceed depends on your level of production quality and time you want to spend. LGR's approach produces the most polished content but takes the most time. Techmoan's approach seems like it would be the quickest, but the time you save might be eaten up with multiple audio takes and that takes practice. David's approach is a balance between production time and output quality. So whichever you think would work for you, go for it.
Yeah I just don't know on that one. It took me 2.5 months to produce the Computerland video. To get something quality requires time, which I don't always have a ton of. I think I could cut production time somewhat by actually doing *all* the research up front, and fully scripting and planning things out beforehand. Computerland was supposed to be a quick 10 minute tour of the BC88, but the more I got into that story the more I had to expand the documentary. I have to work on discipline.
I think my goal would be to do a video like that every other month, and just do shorter 'machine-specific' 'tour' videos in between to keep things going. But having gotten lots of compliments on the production quality of the last two videos, I'm reluctant to drop the quality.
I've done full scripted (PC speaker recording) and full unscripted (Planet X3 coding stories) and I'm still trying to figure out what works for me. I like putting myself onscreen but I'm only happy ad-libbing when I do that, because any attempt I make at memorizing my lines or reading from a teleprompter comes across as stiff and weird. And I'm stiff and weird enough already, don't need to add to that!
Adlibbing is a skill. I just don't have it at the moment, although perhaps with practice I'll get there. I just have to kill my 'uhhhh' habit. It's brutal. You don't seem to have that issue on camera.
That is a really hard question with no easy answer. Posting your videos here on this forum is a start; you may also want to ask this same question in any other vintage computer groups (the classiccmp discord for example) to see if anyone else has ideas. Eventually, after about a year with at least 1-2 videos released per month, youtube will start recommending you to other people looking at similar content and you'll start getting views and subscriptions organically.
I'm kind of reluctant to even post them here - I feel like that's a violation of the forum's purpose.
But, expect that to take a long time. I decided to follow "bastichb 64K" when he had about 100 subscribers and he decided to really push content on youtube; it took him about two years of putting out one or two videos a week before he got to today (3.72K subscribers). I did the same with another person ("It's a pixel thing") at about 100 subscribers and it took him 5 years to get to 9K subscribers. So is that good or bad? My "review" of how they're managing their channels is essentially:
- Pros: Consistent branding, consistent output, family-friendly, clear love and passion for their subject material, good production values
- Cons: Not collaborating with other youtubers, no secondary social media presence (twitter, facebook, instagram -- pick at least one and promote there, you shouldn't do youtube only -- but also don't do all four since that will alienate some people because of the duplicate content), not doubling down on the content that gets the most views (after you have about 10 videos, look at the metrics for the ones that had the most engagement/views/comments and make MORE of those).
Also, in the case of "It's A Pixel Thing" specifically, his content scope is inconsistent which I think is really hurting his channel growth: He makes videos about the 8-bit and 16-bit systems of his youth... but he also loves modern game console rally racing and makes videos about that as well. That is a huge no-no -- the people interested in "top ten amiga exclusive games" or "history of the ZX Spectrum" are **NOT** interested in Dakar 18 or DiRT Rally 2.0 reviews, and vice versa. That not only screws up the youtube recommendation algorithms, but makes him lose subscriptions when the "wrong" content for that audience is uploaded to his channel. So, don't make that mistake if you can avoid it. (Or, if you want to make two completely different audiences of videos -- say, "vintage computers" and "deer hunting" -- make two different channels, one for each scope of content, so as to not confuse your subscribers or youtube. This is what LGR does; he has a second channel where he makes sandwiches (seriously) and a third channel where he puts random crap that isn't good enough to be its own video.)
Yeah I've seen LGR foods. It's interesting! And Blerbs.
I'm still feeling out what I want to do with this. I left the channel name as just 'BradH' as I didn't want to commit specifically to retro tech - I feel like that field is getting far too crowded. But I realize it's not really a good descriptive channel name nor could it be protected if it came to that.
To me having 120 subscribers is a huge compliment, and 1000 views is amazing. I'm in awe of guys like Clint - I have no idea how he finds the energy to crank out as much content as he does. I know right now I don't have that. Even if I had the energy I'm not sure I'd want to be a pro-Youtuber. The pressure to find new content, the work involved. And the money is not that great, unless you're in the very top 3%. You have to work like a dog to even just make a living at it. I've no idea how channels with 50k subs and 20-30k average views are doing it fulltime like they say they are and not burning out or going bankrupt.
I've been doing a lot of research on this - looking at channels of varying success and tracing back to their first videos. It does seem like in the majority of cases, they will spend a few years putting out videos that get relatively few views, and then suddenly they hit the jackpot with an algorithm winner, and then suddenly subs come in and views start picking up across the board.
And then there's guys like this guy:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsIlJ9eYylZQcyfMOPNUz9w/videos?view=0&sort=da&flow=grid
I stumbled on him after watching Tiger King. 3 years and he's at 1M subs. And I don't quite get it. Most of his videos are basically powerpoint slideshows and some adlibbing. And his adlibbing kind of wanders or circles the airport at times. Not really sure how he got to 1M so quickly while high production value stuff like Retro Recipes are still in the teens. Know your SEO I guess.
