Monday, July 18, 2005
Charlie And The Chocolate Factory
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2 comments:
Hahaha! Wow, you really took what I said to heart, that's great. Listen, it's sounding a lot better. I love the clips and I feel like your pacing is on the mark now. Some things to think about:
Cut length of clips slightly - some clips, like the ones in your Island and Wonka reviews go on a couple seconds too long. For example, there's one in the Island with a couple lines of dialogue from the trailer that relates to what you just said, and then it cuts to the next scene of the trailer, which doesn't really help. I'd say the clips should be no longer than five seconds at most and include only one scene, unless you're specifically setting aside time to play back a longer bit (i.e. "for example, listen to this scene from...").
Fade in and out: The clips start and stop abruptly, and it's ugly. I'm pretty sure Audacity has a crossfade plugin/option/tool/thing that you can use to smoothly switch between clips. Just set it to like a second or two transition and it will be great. Play with it and find what sounds right.
Even out audio levels: Some of your review recordings have higher or lower levels than others, some clips from trailers have different levels compared to yours, etc. Again, I'm fairly Audacity has the facilities to even out the levels automatically, so you should look into this. It would be easier on the ears and more professional. Same thing goes for the buzz that I hear on some of the recordings. Try to use the same recording environment every time (i.e. same mic, same placement, etc.) so you can get a consistent recording. And if you hear a buzz when you play it back, fix it, even if it means re-recording it. As I've said before, you can redo parts or all of your recording as much as you want, especially now that you're inserting clips in between, so you can just record your review text in short segments.
Get it right: I heard word slip-ups! Several times! Re-record the section if you get it wrong...
Offer both transcript and podcast? I noticed you've got a place to host files now; that's terrific! Keep in mind, though, that some people like to read rather than listen and some people like to do both. Since you have transcripts anyway, why not post them to cover everyone? Oh, also, remember that your ASU account has some web space you can use, if you're ever looking for more.
It's getting better and better, keep playing with the audio editor, work some more on your tone (maybe tweak the writing a little bit to make it more casual? I dunno), and keep it up!
Hey, thanks again Mike. I am going to try to quickly respond to each of your concerns in the order that you mentioned them. I know what you mean about the clip lengths, but I have my reasons for them being that long. Unfortunately, working off of just trailers, I have a very limited choice of clips. I have to use what is available to me and I also don’t want my reviews to be like those quick things. Mine are fast but complete. I don’t know how to explain it, but… lol. I will try to use fade in and out because I do know that they are abrupt. But being the trailers again, I don’t want to get the narrator’s voice in there and I want everyone to hear everything. But I will try it. I’ve since noticed the audio levels and with the last review or two, I evened it out. The ones that are not even I just tried to fix the whole mp3 and that didn’t work. I have to do it with each individual clip and then the review and then it is even. I do use the same environment each time, too. You’ll have to forgive my slip-ups for now. I am quite busy this summer and try my best to fit in enough time to write and then record and finally post. By the way, a new baby guinea hatched yesterday!!! I was considering the transcripts. My reason for not doing them was that I wanted people to listen to the reviews. But, I have decided to offer both and, as you can see, I’ve now posted the transcripts, hosted on the podcast server in a simple format. Thanks for the asu webspace tip! Finally, the casual writing will happen in time I suppose. Even my high school teachers told me my style was too “reportive.” Thanks for your comments and I really appreciate your help!
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