video: Visiting friends on s/v Bubbly, part 1

[drakeParagon]

video: Visiting friends on s/v Bubbly, part 1

Renee and Lynette have sailed over 30,000 nautical miles aboard their 27 foot steel sailboat "Tekaihau" since pushing off from New Zealand. They recently pulled into Dutch Sint Maarten in the Caribbean and sold Tekaihau. Then they bought a much larger sailboat, a 1968 Moody Halberdier 36. They renamed her "Bubbly" and are now refitting her to continue on their circumnavigation back to New Zealand.

We visited Renee and Lynette at Bobby's Marina/boatyard on the Dutch side of Saint Martin and made a little video for your enjoyment.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xUxP...0&feature=plcp

I always really appreciate hearing what anyone thinks of these videos to help me improve on future ones..

Thanks!

Happy sailing,

Drake

[AuzzeeDave]

Hi Drake,
I love the concept of your videos and offer the requested critique from the perspective of an industry professional of 40 years standing. First, it is important not to polarise your audience. It is better if they all 'quite like' what you are doing, rather than 'loving' or 'hating', your work. With that in mind, please try to limit your use of superlatives such as 'Wow', and edit out the high pitched giggling.

Let the 'talent', tell the story. When you interrupt a thread started by the talent, or take it over, you remove the focus from the target, and shift it to yourself. The development of the story depends on the interest generated by the talent and it is hampered when you step in.

There is nothing wrong with you being the focus. But if that is your intention for any part of the presentation, be obvious, remove the talent and address the audience directly. This can be done either on camera or by voice over. It is better to drop the VO in, in studio from a script. This avoids the continual repetition of that which the talent has just said. And, it speaks directly to an industry standard: 'If you have nothing worthwhile to say, say nothing'. Remember it is TV, not radio and pictures are king! When setting up your shot, pay as much attention the the background as you do the talent. The background should enhance the foreground and should be as neutral as possible while still adding to the ambience of the piece.

After completing the interview, spend time taking lots of good, well lit footage to overlay at the edit. If the talent talks about something, make sure you have footage to drop in over her audio. Also make sure you have plenty of ambient sound recorded to use when you chop out nasties such as aeroplanes and other non related and annoying audio bits.

Spare overlay footage allows for the seamless editing of the interview therefore gives added credibility to the talent. As the talent is important, the more credibility you can impart in that direction, the better.

Finally, edit out questions and try to avoid making noises when the talent offers answers. 'Uh-hum', 'yep', 'really' etc are superfluous and detract from the whole. When the object of the video is anything other than controversial, the only questions you need to include are those which take the interview off along a different route. These can be polished up and dropped in during the edit. Again, the talent looks far more credible when not having to be continually prompted by questions and the end result is always made better by a higher degree of credibility.

You are the artist, and I suspect you are quite a good one. The talent is the clay. No one needs to see you fashioning the clay into an artifact, to be able to appreciate the finished art. Let the talent shine...and massage all the way.

A classic quote from years ago is always worth remembering and understanding.."You just sit there and talk Mr Gable, we'll make you look and sound good".

I offer this critique purely because you asked and because I think you have the talent to produce good, watchable and interesting programmes.
Very best wishes.
AuzzeeDave.

[drakeParagon]

Hi Drake,
I love the concept of your videos and offer the requested critique from the perspective of an industry professional of 40 years standing...
AuzzeeDave.

AuzzeeDave, I can't thank you enough for your invaluable advice. I absolutely agree with all of it and am working to improve. I'm going to list your advice on a piece of paper and keep it in my camera bag. I feel like I should re-read it every time before I start filming. Thank you so much!

Drake

[drakeParagon]

In Part 2, Monique and Drake have coffee with Lynette and Drake gives a small
cabin tour of s/v Bubbly..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8S8em...0&feature=plcp

[AuzzeeDave]

Thanks Drake, I was a little worried I may have appeared a little harsh. If you get the chance, please post some links on ( http://www.cruiserlog.com/forums/ ) . It is a relatively small but active international community of serious cruising types who, I am confident, will enjoy your work. Best wishes, Dave.