Video Rant

[r.j. squirrel]

Not really a rant, but that seems to attract more viewers
What do you find a problem with commercial videos? I'm interested not in content but presentation. My particular complaints; based on watching >50 martial arts/fighting instructional videos:
Lack of contrast. If you're filming in your yard, don't wear camo or OD fatigues.
If two guys are locking up in trapping range, please don't have both of them wearing black sweatshirts and dungarees - I can't tell one from the other; sometimes I don't know an arm from a leg. Try a shirt/pants with a stripe down the outside so I can quickly tell if it's the outside or inside.
Paint the "knife" a different color than anything else on the set including your shirt. Wrap some day-glo tape on the blade so it can be followed when you're going at speed. Mark the cutting edge.
Don't wear a shirt with a complicated pattern on it; your hand/blade will disappear.
Tell us something about your assistant/dummy so I have a reference point: is he a beginner? Any other experience? An instructor? I like to watch the skill level of the #2 guy; even if he's simply feeding strikes to the boss-man.
Don't loop the same cheesy music over and over for the whole darn tape !!!
Try letting your assistant/dummy "win" once in a while

 

[Rugger]

Good points.

 

[Sierra912]

1. Echoes

2. Videos filmed in gyms

3. Bad music

4. Demonstration of techniques that move so fast I can't follow them

5. Street fighting videos filmed on mats with people wearing gi's

6. Military H2H videos filmed in empty offices on mats with people wearing military uniforms but no boots or socks

7. Videos that I suddenly remember seeing the same stuff on from other videos I already have

8. Videos with instructors trying to look like Mike Echanis

9. Gun fighting videos where the instructor can't shoot

10. Knife fighting videos where there is no sparring sequences to demonstrate if the technique actually works under speed and pressure

11. Videos where you hear someone using the bathroom in the background

12. Videos where roughly 1/3rd of the way through you say outloud "this sucks"

13. Videos where I can't understand the person speaking...at all

14. Videos where the assistant always falls down or taps out before the technique is applied

15. Videos where it's clear there was no plan to begin with...

16. Videos where the instructor screams "Turn it off!" because his assistant just kicked his ass

17. Videos where the instructor gives credit to people you know he despises

18. Videos that conclude by offering there a Part II you have to buy in order to learn the real secrets...

19. Videos that don't work when I get them

20. Videos whose covers are better than their content

21. Videos where you immediately realize the home office accidently sent you their copy of their honeymoon night...and they're both damned ugly

 

[SM24]

re: bad music

I happen to produce techno music in my home studio, and if anyone out there happens to be making instructional videos and would like (free) original music to be used in their productions, let me know. I'd just like to contribute to the process. email me at eew297@yahoo.com
This is the type of stuff commonly played on car commercials. It is energetic, lyricless, and beat-driven, so it goes well in situations where people speak or are moving physically.

Hope this post doesn't cross any product-pitching lines, but I don't want money. Just to alleviate your concerns about bad music.

 

[Parker]

Guys, I really dig on the cheeseball 80's hair-metal that is prevelant in so many of the "made in my garage" tapes out there. Especially the ear-wrenching guitar solo climaxing with the name of the tape after the tape series. I need a smoke after those intros, how 'bout you?

Production values equal to those of a high school rendition of an MTV video (bad fades, sudden chops, star wipes, camera motion like a drunk NYPD Blue shoot) are always best too.

Good video and music would merely f()ck up a perfectly good entertaining video session in which we learn that training is organized chaos to prepare us for real chaos, right? Nothing better than a Sat night with the boys and a few cocktails to loosen us up, followed by laughing at an MA video and meatball sandwiches spilled all over the couch.

 

[Crayola]

I've seen an Eskrima video where the instructor would say "And now they're going to do such and such a drill." Whereupon the two guys do the drill at a moderate speed for guys workign out, which si WAY too fast for guys watching to learn. Basically, I watched 2 guys work out for 60 minutes and picked up little.