what did you think of How to set Up Propane Smoker video

[trevor3999]

what did you think of how to set up propane smoker video.
Im the one that made it, im 13. tell me if you think its good. My dad is Wade Bradley the president of bradley smokers and I am Trevor Bradley

[Gizmo]

Very impressive young man.  Very impressive.  I do videos as a hobby or side business (weddings, special birthdays like a Debut, etc) so I like to think I have some skill in being able to give you a few personal suggestions.

Please take these as my personal suggestions only, not a criticism of your work.

The titles with the smoke effect are hard to read on the size of the web screen.  I would lessen the effect or eliminate it for easier reading.

For instructional video, I would prefer to hear a voice giving a little guidance as the why and how.  The music, again my opinion, can get a little repetitive after a few minutes.  For instance:  the water bowl scene could use the following dialog - "Fill the water bowl about 1/2 to 3/4 full of hot water.  This will extinguish the spent wood pucks as they are pushed off the burner.  The water bowl also catches the liquids from the food and prevents it from igniting.  Using hot water will lessen the time to bring the smoking envirionment up to temperature.

Don't know if you did the camera work or someone else did, but there was a close up of the racks with food on it.  I suspect the camera was on auto focus as the wire in the front of the rack was in perfect focus but the food was not.  You could either go to manual focus and focus on the middle of the rack on the food, or back the camera up so more of the rack from front to back will be in focus as your depth of field will change with distance.  If your camera has a manual exposure mode, you could also change the fstop value to increase the depth of field as well.  You would then need to compensate the amount of light and or shutter speed for proper exposure.

I really like the transitions between the sceens and topics.  They were simple and did not take away from the focus of the video (to instruct and not be a music video or special effects video).  I also like the fast motion start to finish toward the end of the video.  It really brings the whole concept together nicely.

What type of program are you using to edit the video?  I have been using Premier for several years but bought a new G5 MAC dual processor and Final Cut Studio but haven't done much on it yet.  Seems like I barely learned enough of the Premier program and now have to learn all over again.  I also use After Effects for some cool special effects with photos turning them into 3D videos.

Too bad you weren't living in San Diego, I'd put you to work on some of my videos while your Dad and I fire up the Smoker.   :D

[Habanero Smoker]

Trever;

I just finished looking at the video. I'm very impressed. I like the concept of having no dialogue. It give the impression that it's so easy to operate and setup, it needs no further explanation.

One question. Who is the artist or group on the first soundtrack?

[Tiny Tim]

Hey Trevor.  Overall, I have to say job very well done.  The only issues I had, I don't see mentioned, so it may have just been on my monitor.  Much of the assembly in the step by step was very dark and hard to see.  The fast edit assembly had plenty of light, as did the final shot that looked like it was in a kitchen.  As I said, could have just been my monitor.

Since your work is featured on the main page, maybe you can give a request to the webmaster.  On the contact page, under e-mail, the links with the addresses seem to have a space in front of them, which makes them unable to be sent.  I tried to edit it in my e-mail message, but my computer wouldn't let me.  I finally just typed it the way it read, and got my message sent.

Once again, good job on the video.  And, if you could forward the second paragraph to the person in charge, I'm sure many owners would appreciate it.

[trevor3999]

Thanks for putting the time into writing your reviews! :)
Much obliged

[Gizmo]

Welcome back.  Good to hear from you again.  How is your video career going?  Hopefully you are getting some more opportunities.   ;)