Episode idea - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: PetrosA
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 01, 2011, 03:16:39 am
content: Dave, just a thought since it's been a while since the last review. How about doing a "Coming Up Soon" video where you show us what's in line for review (aside from this latest-greatest-back-of-the-envelope thing). Sort of a form of self-advertising that keeps the viewer hooked. I think I've actually forgotten some of the things you have and a reminder would be nice.Cheers!

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: February 01, 2011, 03:39:37 am
content: That raises an interesting point actually.I know I've been dropping of a bit of late in the frequency of videos, because most of the ideas I have involve a fair amount of work for each episode, and it's just so hard to get motivated and find the time to put the work in and get one finished. Even the reviews of the gear I have will take quite a lot of work for each one as well.I kinda like your idea, but I can't help but think it would be a rather frivolous video?I can picture the complaints now - "why waste time doing this - review it!"So possibly more suited to another live show?But I really don't know, would people want to see such "update" videos?Dave.

author: tyblu
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 01, 2011, 04:29:37 am
content: Like unboxing, but without the box!...

author: mikeselectricstuff
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 01, 2011, 11:34:07 am
content: Maybe it woudl be useful to show possible review candidates and have a vote on what people want to see. at least that would help prioritize what to spend time on...or maybe do it as a lightning-speed mass review-off - couple of minutes per product, random opinions on nicest/most annoying features..!

author: JohnS_AZ
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 01, 2011, 03:07:47 pm
content: I think that you're right, people would complain about a "coming attractions" video as being pointless. It would, however, fit nicely into a live video which eventually goes online anyway. Perhaps you could take a cue from the Adafruit "ask an engineer" videos. They spend about 15-20 minutes essentially doing a commercial for their products, then they take questions. Your live show could could start with a few minutes of "housecleaning", that is, stuff you've received and are going to review, projects you're working on, whatever, and then open up for questions.This does bring up a slightly OT question. I was taking with a friend about your (and other) videos, and she made the comment that making one was pretty easy, just sit in front of the camera for an hour. I strongly disagreed, pointing out the research and planning you must have to do beforehand, actually shooting the thing (probably with multiple takes), editing, conversions, etc. I guessed that it probably takes 5 to 6 hours work to produce a 1 hour video.So, just out of curiosity, take your "Select a DC-DC boost Converter" video. It's just a hair over an hour long. How much time does it actually take to produce a video like that?

author: ElektroQuark
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: February 01, 2011, 03:48:25 pm
content: I think the better idea is to put "on air" the issues Dave finds in his day to day work, aside of the equipment reviews of course.Looking for ideas for vblogs could be frustating. Don't worry, Dave, they will show up themselves, just keep maintaining your sharing spirit.

author: Kiriakos-GR
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 01, 2011, 03:59:41 pm
content: Quote from: PetrosA on February 01, 2011, 03:16:39 amWell If I bring in mind what happened with just the announcement of the review about the DMM 100$ range,that the actual review took about two months to show up,I would suggest to not be any "Coming Up Soon" announcements.And I speak positively charged, by just having in mind of all those messages in the forum,that was asking just the same thing . " when the review will be posted ? "

author: mitpatterson
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: February 02, 2011, 12:14:05 am
content: you could also just have a bit at the end of a vid one in a while what you show some of the things your working on for upcoming shows and again, take a cue from "ask an engineer" and make it like a "Its not out yet so don't ask" section, but obviously have your own name

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: February 02, 2011, 12:23:12 am
content: Quote from: mikeselectricstuff on February 01, 2011, 11:34:07 amThe problem with that stems back to how I originally started the blog. It was multiple things per episode and I found that just didn't work in terms of episode title and people having to sit through stuff they didn't want to watch to get to the part they wanted. Also in terms of search engine optimisations, relevance on Youtube searches etc.I quickly learned that only one topic per episode works the best.Kinda broke that with the meter shootouts though.Dave.

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: February 02, 2011, 01:06:15 am
content: Quote from: JohnS_AZ on February 01, 2011, 03:07:47 pmI find this all the time, people just don't realise how much work is involved in even the simplest videos.It's actually hard to know an exact figure for any given episode.It really comes down to 2 aspects:1) How many segments there isand2) How much physical or behind the scenes prep work is involved.The easiest is say a live show or a drive time rant, as these are recorded as a single video file.They require very little prep time, maybe 10minutes to set up gear ready to shoot.Then it's just a matter of popping the video into the edit timeline and trimming the start and end, and add the intro/ending then let it render. Then I have to convert into Youtube and Podcast versions, then upload to Youtube and the server and then post the blog content.So that's a bare minimum effort to produce one video.All up that would take, I'm guessing, at least 1 hour of overhead just to do that stuff, not including filming time or time to watch a preview version. It actually takes longer, but I can do other things while video is rendered and converted (that actually can take hours).That DC-DC video is an example of an almost zero prep-work video (#2 above), but much editing work, because it's not shot as a single video, there would be maybe 50 video segments to edit for that. Each one of those 50 clips I have to edit the start and edit points, and usually watch them all the way through to make sure it's a good take and makes sense and whether or not to include or leave out. That can take many hours. In this case I'd estimate say 3-4 hours editing minimum.Add on the 1 hour minimum overhead, plus extra time for faffing around and your 5-6 hour estimate for that video is pretty close to spot on. And I've got my system pretty much down pat after all this time.The extreme would probably be one of those meter shootout videos. I think one of them almost topped 200 video segments, not to mention the time it takes to actually set up and actually do each experiment. Plus re-takes, and occasionally playing back some footage to make sure I said something correctly (the joys of no script)I wouldn't want to do the math on an episode like that.And if you see me change camera angles during the video, that's actually done in sequence, so I have to move and replace my camera setup for every one of those shots.I've found that shooting in sequence like that might take more time and fussing when shooting, but it saves a ton of time later during editing because all the videos are already in sequence, you don't have to sit down and figure out what needs to go where. That also almost entirely reduces the chance of edit mistakes too.So I hope that gives people some idea of how much work is involved, and why it sometimes takes a lot of enthusiasm for me to get started doing one, because you know up front how much work is involved in that one episode.Then of course comes the countless emails, comments and other misc work that goes into managing the show.Guess how long Jeri spends on her new 5 minute A-Z videos? the answer will shock you!That's why I have great respect for anyone who produces content.Dave.