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The best decks I collected in 2015.

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The best decks I collected in 2015.
« on: January 10, 2016, 09:59:45 AM »
 

William Klok

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Hello dear forum members,

As I recently joined this forum, I am amazed with how many more people seem to be (very) interested in 'cards'.
Just like you, I have an opinion on which decks I like, and don't like.
I made a video that reflects this. It contains the 10 decks that I like the most.
These are from a selection of roughly 95 decks I collected over the past year.

I would love to hear your opinions about this, but keep in mind that this is a top 10 from the decks that I own, not all decks.
A list of the decks that were eligible of 'winning' is in the video description. I will not post that here due to the limited length of this post :).

Anyhow. I would love to hear your opinion, on the top 10 as well as on the video itself. Feedback will be very useful for future video's!

I do not want to promote myself or my channel, therefor this might just be the only video I am going to post here.

Link to the video:

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

Once again, thanks for having me here!
« Last Edit: January 10, 2016, 10:00:03 AM by William Klok »
 

Re: The best decks I collected in 2015.
« Reply #1 on: January 11, 2016, 02:47:05 AM »
 

Don Boyer

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I love the general concept of using a video to display a segment of your collection like this, but it's a bit too much, especially at over seven minutes.

When thinking of creating a video, consider this: can the same, exact information be conveyed as a series of still images, like a slide show?  The answer in this case is yes, they can, in which case, you're taking the "motion" out of motion pictures entirely!  It's like buying the best quadrophonic (four channels of sound) or Dolby Digital (seven channels plus subwoofer) stereo system imaginable for the purpose of playing old monophonic (single-channel) recordings, or going to a 3-D movie with an eyepatch over one eye, negating the three-dimensional effect completely - it's wasted bandwidth!  There's the zoom in/zoom out thing and the dramatic music, but it's not enough in this case - they don't effectively convey motion, negating the benefit of a moving-image medium.  The music is a little overblown for a series of still images, too reminiscent of low-end royalty-free tracks.  If you turned down the volume, it feels like a PowerPoint presentation without any narrative.  To sum it up, you're spending over seven minutes presenting something that, if I was reading subtitles and viewing still images, I'd be able to complete in about two minutes, tops.  Zooming aside, there wasn't any motion shots, so using video is not as effective as it could be.  It's barely more interesting than watching a video of a still life scene for seven minutes - thousands and thousands of frames when just one would be perfectly effective!

Please don't think this is a harsh judgment - I love that you're enthusiastic about your collection and want to show it off.  I just think that if you went with a series of still images with subtitles/captions, you'd convey the same exact information in a fraction of the time, making it easier for yourself from a production standpoint and for the viewer from the standpoint of how long it would take to absorb all the information you're presenting.  They set the pace, fast or slow, rather than having the pace imposed upon them by the medium being used - well, short of using a fast-forward button...  Better still, you can go beyond the limits of video resolution, presenting HUGE, highly-detailed images that you just can't have in a video stream, all lovingly photographed by a collector proud of his collection.

Alternately, if you want to get into the whole video thing, then REALLY GET INTO IT!  Make action shots, have conversation and sound effects, present something that fully takes advantage of the medium of video and could never be done as a series of stills.  Your audience will thank you for it.

Again, and I can't emphasize this enough - it's not a personal attack or a mean-spirited judgment of your work or your collection.  I want to see you revel in your collection, but in a way that's at least as exciting for the viewer as it is for the presenter.  Do that and you'll inspire others to want to collect cards as well!
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Re: The best decks I collected in 2015.
« Reply #2 on: January 11, 2016, 03:20:55 AM »
 

William Klok

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I love...

...as well!

Hey Don,

I asked for feedback, and that is what you are giving. There's nothing wrong with that ;)

I think I understand what you mean. It's too much. And as for a certain extend, that is true. The thing is that I want to be able to show why a deck is in the regarding list. For this reason, it is necessary to show at least the deck's components that make it special. But, I agree that in some cases, I show sides of the deck that are not contributing to it's beauty, and can therefor be omitted. The thing is that It makes me feel a little like a commercial you tuber when I show a lot of aspects from one deck, and only a few from one other. But due to the fact that links to the full displays are in the video description, this is something I might just need to get over with ;).

As for the movement, I think it's somewhat personal preferences. I think that if there were less images to be shown, it would be a lot less 'annoying'  to watch. Also, it might have been better to have a fixed movement speed that is really (really) low, even on the cards where I zoomed in a little more (even though you will then not get to see the full card).

From what I understand, you rather see the comments as more of a subtitle, instead of a hard-core title in the video. The problem with this is that just the size of the cards. As for now, they fill up from top to bottom (height) entirely, whilst not even taking up half of the width. This leaves a lot of open space, which I chose to use as the fitting spot to use for the commenting on the decks. I frankly have not tried to have it as a subtitle, since it would overlap the cards.

As for the music: I wanted to use one song, which resulted in not very much choice since there are not that many easy-to-find 7-minute songs. I still quite like this one. Guess that is in fact a personal opinion.

I hope I understand you correctly, and I understood you correctly.

Once again, this is my first video that is not just a deck display, so feedback is really welcome, even when it is a lot. So once again, thank you!

William.
« Last Edit: January 11, 2016, 03:22:39 AM by William Klok »