My intro is "obnoxious". Any advice?

Gamer Bhoy 89

Well this is rather disheartening. The past couple of days I actually got passed the 200-view mark on one of my videos and it's the most I've had in such a short space of time. So I decided to upload more over the weekend.

On a recent review video I posted, I also shared it on Reddit and I got a reply saying to fix my intro because it was obnoxious.



It kind of discouraged me, a bit, as I've never really had criticism on my videos. I don't take offence, but I was just wondering if anyone would have any tips on what kind of intro should I put?

Listening back at it, it does sound rather in-your-face, and I didn't realize that 30+ seconds would be too long either. Should I have an intro song at all? Should I just ease an intro into the review? I'm a bit stuck.

I did plan on changing up my technique and just not bother talking to the camera (it takes too much effort since I'm using a Canon digital camera on AA rechargeable batteries) and just talk on the mic, but that's for another thread if I get stuck again.

If anyone has any advice to give me I'll take whatever I can get. I've never really kept to a single way of doing my videos, I'm always changing something - they're all so inconsistent.

Ye have my regards, anyway.

Thanks in advance.

TheChrisD

Gamer Bhoy 89 wrote: »

It kind of discouraged me, a bit, as I've never really had criticism on my videos. I don't take offence, but I was just wondering if anyone would have any tips on what kind of intro should I put?

Listening back at it, it does sound rather in-your-face, and I didn't realize that 30+ seconds would be too long either. Should I have an intro song at all? Should I just ease an intro into the review? I'm a bit stuck.

The entire first fifteen seconds is superfluous and does nothing to engage your viewer, dump it completely. As for the rest, condense the next sixteen seconds of animated text down to at most 2-3 seconds as the lead-in to what should really be the title card of your intro, the "GB presents Classix Review" shot.

Heavy rock is also probably not the best intro music, but you could make it work by dropping the volume of it by about 10-15dB.

Gamer Bhoy 89

TheChrisD wrote: »

The entire first fifteen seconds is superfluous and does nothing to engage your viewer, dump it completely. As for the rest, condense the next sixteen seconds of animated text down to at most 2-3 seconds as the lead-in to what should really be the title card of your intro, the "GB presents Classix Review" shot.

Heavy rock is also probably not the best intro music, but you could make it work by dropping the volume of it by about 10-15dB.

Thank you!

I'll work on a new intro for the next one when I get a chance. After 7 years I should've had this kind of thing perfected, alas I have a bad habit of ignoring these things. Thanks again!

Duggy747

Already been mentioned but I'd say the same thing, either dump the intro entirely or at least shave it down to just 2-3 seconds so it's nice and quick.

Many people are sick of intros and almost by default either skip 30 seconds into the video or just immediately lose interest and out of it.

Personally, I don't like metal intros (haven't heard yours since on work PC) because I tend to find the riff either dull and generic or waaaay too loud. The Hydraulic Press channel is always blowing my speakers when I open a video because I keep forgetting about that intro :pac:

It kind of discouraged me, a bit, as I've never really had criticism on my videos. I don't take offence, but I was just wondering if anyone would have any tips on what kind of intro should I put?

Criticism is good, as long as it's constructive and not just flat-out mean spirited, as it can really help you to improve things and keep you in check.

Gamer Bhoy 89

Duggy747 wrote: »

Already been mentioned but I'd say the same thing, either dump the intro entirely or at least shave it down to just 2-3 seconds so it's nice and quick.

Many people are sick of intros and almost by default either skip 30 seconds into the video or just immediately lose interest and out of it.

Personally, I don't like metal intros (haven't heard yours since on work PC) because I tend to find the riff either dull and generic or waaaay too loud. The Hydraulic Press channel is always blowing my speakers when I open a video because I keep forgetting about that intro :pac:



Criticism is good, as long as it's constructive and not just flat-out mean spirited, as it can really help you to improve things and keep you in check.

RopeDrink wrote: »

As above - any intro exceeding 5'ish seconds, especially if high in volume and repeating your name excessively as it does, will be deemed as obnoxious. Your tag will be all over your channel, in-video, and in social media (assuming you actually bother with channel art, thumbnails, G+, video sharing, and other sites), so having 30 seconds of pre-video footage on top of that saying the same thing is too much.

If you haven't already, get your logo or idea of branding all over that channel and its respective G+ account, connect them to G+/Twit, create a nice, catchy 'channel advert' (think of it like a dedicated video for newcomers to get a taste of what you're providing -- if you haven't done this already, it's all explained on YouTube/Features and will likely be in your 'to do' suggestions tab) and swap your current video intro to something very, very short and sweet (and preferably pleasant on the ears // neutral music) and you'll be all set.

Me, I make extremely simplistic (and purely video/content related) intros and only for specific videos - I don't feel the need to tell people my (user)name or make the viewer wait to get to what they actually want to see -- but you can't go wrong by having an 'OUTRO' to give the whole 'like/subscribe' spiel. Don't be one of those who do it at the start - it's a turn off - but as an end-video reminder, definitely a plus. Alternatively, you can go the mixed route by making video overlays that have your name, SoMe links and the whole 'LIKE/SUB' stuff included with annotations, though that involves a bit of work.

All advice taken into account, lads. I have a template for a new intro made now. I'm also going to veer away from talking to the camera introducing myself all the time, and just have my name come up on a watermark for 3 seconds. Having an outro for like/subscribe never came into mind as I didn't want to come across as begging people to do that. The only time I recommend a subscription is on the channel intro I have for non-subscribers.

Having said that it would be nice to get a bump in likes/subscriptions every now and then. I try not to be too in-your-face but I guess the intro did that for me. I'll scrap that intro altogether.

Thanks again

P.S. the genre of music that's on the 30-second intro is Aggrotech (Electro-Industrial) :P :P :P Not to everyone's taste, I understand :pac:

Doctor DooM

Gamer Bhoy 89 wrote: »

Having said that it would be nice to get a bump in likes/subscriptions every now and then. I try not to be too in-your-face but I guess the intro did that for me. I'll scrap that intro altogether.

Thanks again

<humblebrag> When I was in google's head office </humblebrag> When people were asking questions about "like, comment and subscribe" sections they had the following suggestions:

1) If you're going to use them, that's ok, but at the end of the video, the start costs you views.

2) Make them different every time so there's content for viewers to ingest or else they will end the video.

3) They won't anyway unless there's actually something to like or comment on: focus on being funny, interesting, or having viable commentary or tutorials based on knowledge (which are the actual reasons people watch youtube videos).

iLikeWaffles

Intro is a little bit long. FYI I always skip long intro's. I listened to all the intro and the part I liked of it and that got my attention was from the second phrase of the guitar riff from 3.5 - 8 secs. Short and sweet expected to hear the video start then. I would rather listen to silence though if you put the Classix Review animation in. The riff is not obnoxious but it might be hard for some ears to digest.

Its personnel preference but I just don't see the point of long YouTube intro's. If its a review or a video that may hold useful info I would be more or less viewing it from a research stand point so because I want to get as much info as possible in a short time I don't need to be hearing long intro's but if its a short intro psychologically speaking later on when I would least expect it the intro might be still in my head along with the filtered information I sought after. Can't put in a more succinct way.

JustShay

Agreed, shorten it!

Gamer Bhoy 89

Oh I have long fixed that problem now.

Here is my new intro.

iLikeWaffles

Gamer Bhoy 89 wrote: »

Oh I have long fixed that problem now.

Here is my new intro.

Really? Well your welcome so... Best of luck with your new intro!

JustShay

iLikeWaffles wrote: »

Really? Well your welcome so... Best of luck with your new intro!

Very professional! Good job! Your commentary is very good, and context is very informative, even though I haven't played some of those games! The GTA one is unreal, I never knew they used a mistake to programme the Police Cars!

I spent many nights of my childhood playing GTA 1!

Gamer Bhoy 89

Thank you very much