Yes, this is a blatant copy-paste from Zulin’s blog, but I’m tired of seeing all these under-reviews and so on.
Please read, enjoy and learn.
I edited the mat a little and also removed point 12.
Friends. Very often I receive messages like this in my personal messages:
Zulin, I did (I’m going to do \I’ve already done the twentieth) review. Please watch it, rate it, recommend something, thank you!
I receive a lot of such messages and I decided to answer them all at once in one post.
First of all – I am proud and touched that you ask this of me. I am pleased that my opinion is valued, like any other person. But here’s the thing. What does this question sound like if you clear it of verbal noise?? It sounds something like this: “Zulin, let me do reviews”. This is a natural request, in fact, a person is trying to get a boost in confidence that he is doing something well (or not). But where does this come from?
As a rule, we are unable to evaluate our own creation. We see the mistakes, of course we see the mistakes, but we don’t really see the final product. A work is a reflection, it is something that was inside the author, and through his efforts was transformed into something material. The author himself, especially if he does not yet feel the genre, perceives his work obviously differently than the public. And the author at some level always understands this, it seems to me. Therefore, the need for approval. Especially from those who have succeeded in this genre.
But here’s what I’ll say. Let’s treat reviews like any piece of art. Objectively speaking, for example, I can make a memo from several points, correlating my video with which – you can, in principle, get my opinion.
Review must be personalized. The player’s emotions are more important to me than the game itself.
The review should be informative. You still need to tell enough about the game itself, otherwise it will turn out to be an early Maddison.
The review should be funny. That is, while watching it, I must smile at least two or three times (aerobatics – laugh out loud. Almost unreal)
The review should not be too short or too long. The public senses when the author is stalling for time. I’m not sure how, but she feels.
The reviewer must be sincere. I don’t argue, you can sometimes deceive everyone and convince them that you actually like Half-Life 2. But if you don’t like him, that’s a unique position. Don’t be afraid to be misunderstood; the more unexpected the assessment, the more interesting it is to listen to.
The reviewer’s speech must be clear. The speaker must have a pleasant timbre, passable pronunciation and a microphone at least a little better than Revo_Lucius.
There should be no unnecessary pauses in speech. A sense of timing is the key to humor. Watch George Carlin’s speeches and pay attention to the pauses, you’ll notice everything right away.
The review should be interesting. Who the hell knows how you’ll do it. You can tell little-known facts about the game, you can make funny jokes. In general, you need something to keep your brain hooked.
The subject of the review cannot be a game about which every homeless person has already spoken. What new things can I learn about Modern Warfare 2? And about Minecraft? Expect your audience to have minimal knowledge because they usually know more than you do.
Enjoy the process. This is key, we will come back to this.
If your review meets these 10 points, most likely I will approve it. But it turns out that? That these points can be printed out, crumpled up and thrown into the fireplace, because here, as in design, the rules may not work.
Two words. JussieJu. Especially his early. Half of the points fly out immediately, but his videos, in my opinion, are wonderful. Yahtzee generally, for example, does not use footage from the game in videos. There are many options, in short.
So, this leads me to the idea that the only real criterion for my evaluation of anything is “like/dislike”. As I like to say: “I feel the impulse”. Impulse is such a very, very complex piece of shit that it’s unclear how it works, but I think it has something to do with the perception of other people’s emotions. In general, I’ll discuss this topic sometime.
Back to the concept of “permission”. A conditional person made a conditional review. Since this is his first review, it’s most likely a lousy review. Does the author understand this?? From case to case. The quality of the review has nothing to do with it. The most important thing is whether the author liked making it? This is where the moment is difficult, because the first time you may not like it. For example, the first time I was wildly scared of my voice, it seemed to me that I sounded like shit. Due to this, I was afraid of the microphone, even though there was no one in the room except me. And behind this fear I didn’t notice that I liked doing it. I noticed later, much later. Maybe it happens faster for other people, I don’t know.
The point is to enjoy the process. https://betheatcasino.co.uk/bonus/ The point is always to enjoy the process. If I respond to requests to check out the video, I usually answer the following: “If you yourself liked it and are interested, just continue. The technology will come on its own”. And that’s how it is. The main point of this post is that you, an aspiring author, do not need my permission or approval. Neither mine nor anyone else’s. As a last resort, consider that you already have it.
It’s a question of goal setting. If your goal is to achieve fame and fans at any cost, it’s better to rethink this goal. As a person who has achieved a certain fame and fans (in fact, I once signed an autograph on the chest of a beautiful girl – where to grow next?) I can tell you for sure. This doesn’t help. I mean – in general. Well, that is, you, of course, have more pleasant moments when people you don’t know write nice things to you, but your problems will remain where they were. But it’s because of your problems that you want fame and fans, I know. But you can catch a mania on this basis, so go for something similar to fame only if you are ready for it, yeah.
If you don’t have a special goal, but you just want to do it, then do it and don’t ask anyone. And it won’t work out the first time, but do it anyway if you want it, because you don’t need anyone’s permission.
Well, since you’ve been inspired by this rambling rant, let me give you fourteen technical tips for performing.
1) Always write a script. Be sure to always write a script. Only if you don’t do let’s play. If you’re doing a let’s play, don’t write a script, it’s stupid. If you do something that is not let’s play, be sure to write a script. How you write it is up to you. I’m writing literally every word that I say in the video, but I’m not describing the setting, atmosphere, or anything like that at all. This is, say, what one of the scenes from the last video looks like: “
Hello, I’m Zulin and I like star wars
-Oh, me too, what do you like?? Movies, comics, games, first three parts, last three parts? Knights of Old Republic, part one or two? *With these words leave the frame* And I was playing online? If you want the key, I’ll give you the key, just return it until the end of the BT, but I was watching cartoons? How do you like Force Unlist?? What comics do you like?? So, I haven’t read it for a long time, but I would like to re-read it, of course, the atmosphere of the film cannot be surpassed, but a lot is not enough, yes? Oh, butterfly *left*
2) Get a general understanding of Sony Vegas or Adobe Premier. There is no point in editing in other programs. I edit in Vegas+After Effects. Vegas is very simple, seriously. The main thing you need to understand about Vegas is how to render and how to remove horizontal stripes in a video. Horizontal stripes can be removed by setting the Blend Fields value for the “Deinterlace method” parameter in the project settings. I usually render in MainConceptAVC/AAC(*.mp4). It’s better to forget about avi forever. You should also figure out what the button I circled does. It will really help a lot.
3) If you shoot live video (of yourself in front of the camera, for example), it is better to do it in such a way that the lighting, if possible, does not change. Since we can only buy studio light after we get our first Emmy (OH IRONY), we can do it at night. Summer and St. Petersburg are a lousy combination for night shooting, but if you live where it’s dark at night, take note. In addition, take ALL the lamps you find to the “studio”. How to set the light CORRECTLY – you’ll figure it out later, I don’t know myself. But home lamps shine weakly and drag in quantity. They say that at least three lamps should shine in the speaker’s face. Left, right and front. Notice how the Nostalgia Critic cap is falling off (or have you already installed a diffuser??) three shadows. Keep an eye on the difference in spectra too. If half of your lamps are hospital white and the other half are sunny yellow, it’s better to choose one or the other.
4) When you write a script, don’t try to squeeze material out of yourself. Local creative crises happen all the time. You feel like you’re not writing? Take a break, go for a walk, save the galaxy in Mass Effect, learn how to make origami. As soon as the brain stops fixating on a task, it paradoxically solves the problem faster.
5) Don’t block the horizon.
6) Do not covet your neighbor’s jokes.
7) Don’t be afraid to experiment. If what you have in mind has never been done before, it’s more good than bad.
8) Don’t overuse memes.
9) Don’t be afraid to copy someone’s style at first (style, you hear? Not “steal other people’s jokes,” but style). Many artists began with manic redrawings of other people’s works. And they did this until their own style appeared. You just went to bed, and in the morning – FIGAX and you already have style.
10) The best solution to a problem is usually the simplest one.
11) Take criticism calmly. If your brilliant idea is crap on the Internet, that’s normal and shouldn’t bother you at all. Someone will ALWAYS dislike something. These are your damn reviews, you do them – you decide what goes on there and what doesn’t.
12) Enjoy the process. Share ideas with friends, take their opinions into account, but don’t replace yours with them.
13) Forget the worries of this world and surrender to Krishna.
That’s all, I hope someone gets something useful out of this. Tumblr has a great “Ask” feature. I will answer specific questions about installation, for example. Or not, but if anything, ask.