Airsoft Destruction - A possible new series?

[Stormhall]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BIjOJKLpg-E

 

I would like to hear your opinions on this video and if I should make more like it and if I should start shooting at different things and heck even shooting at comment requests if this ever gets big.

 

[Ian_Gere]

Well Richard, it's like this...

 

...you know how people take media studies @A Level and go on to study film @Uni, right? And you wouldn't expect someone to be able to pick up a guitar and become a rock star first try, would you?

 

As things stand I'd say the next thing you should shoot would be the camera.

[Stormhall]

Well Richard, it's like this...

 

...you know how people take media studies @A Level and go on to study film @Uni, right? And you wouldn't expect someone to be able to pick up a guitar and become a rock star first try, would you?

 

As things stand I'd say the next thing you should shoot would be the camera.

A good camera/phone (considering I was using my potato android phone) is on my list of priorities but I need to acquire a better PC and an airsoft mask to replace the goggles and mesh combo I had lost at the Weekender.

 

But yeah it really sucks and I need something a lot better. Why not send donations? It will definitely make your viewing experience more pleasurable.

[Finius]

I can categorically state that I would not watch this, simply because a) an airsoft gun cannot destroy anything even remotely worth seeing destroyed, because about a million and one people have had the same idea with everything from real guns, right through to blenders and c) because a few months ago at work, I stuck a couple of lit grenades in a fridge and blew it up, which was incredibly entertaining by comparison.

[Ian_Gere]

On second thought I realise that I have been less than my usual helpful self. As a sound engineer I can't help picking up some knowledge of film and the syntax therein, so notwithstanding Finius' comment, here's a few tips:

 

You need to engage the audience's interest immediately. In a much travelled amateur genre like this we need to know from the first few seconds why we should continue watching. Clips of bits to follow which promise something cool are an easy way to do this that require no skill in screenplay writing. Such clips should tease, not deliver.

 

Whether you mean to or not you are competing with a million and one other things a person could be doing other than watching your vid. For whatever reason the audience have clicked play, in doing so they did not sign a contract to watch to the end. This is where a screenplay comes in, because the moment the audience think, "this lad has no idea what he's gonna do next", is the moment they also wonder if they can be bothered to find out. That does not mean that everything should be scripted, although bullet points of what you intend to say on a large sheet of paper behind the camera will help keep it snappy. It does mean that you should think about what shots you want in the finished product and how long each should last.

 

This is going to seem apropos of nothing, but all will make sense anon* - An aircraft simulator is attached to the ground and the hydraulics can only travel so far to simulate the effect of stick movements IRL. So when the trainee 'takes off' the cockpit front tips up and levels out from the rear when the 'plane' reaches cruising altitude. So what happens when he pulls the stick back again? There's not far to go before the machine is at the limits of the hydraulics, right? Well it's all cool because the computer is programmed to imperceptibly bring the cockpit back towards zero the whole time, so there is always some virtual space for the machine to go into.

 

A well written screenplay works in the same way with emotional reaction. It doesn't matter what the emotions are, from mild curiosity to euphoric epiphany, via disgust, anger, sexual arousal, humour, whatever, they can be summed together as 'stimulation'. The reasons are extremely complex and, if you are resistant to this next idea, you will no doubt be able to think of examples which you believe prove it wrong, but trust me we humans have a limit to how much stimulation we can feel, particularly from something which requires "suspension of disbelief".

 

Ah but what is to disbelieve? It's a film of exactly what happened, right? Well, A. that is not how humans experience events IRL, and B. the stimulation is a result of what happens in the film, but in reality what happens is we just watch a screen. It's a bit like seasickness - if there's too much of a disjunct between the degree of an emotion we are stimulated to feel and what we can feel while, say, sat at home in a comfy chair with a nice cuppa, the brain goes "hang on a minute, something isn't right here".

 

This is why the most engaging films and/or music have bits where the intensity of stimulation, having been ramped up at the beginning, imperceptibly falls so that it can rise again. There are many ways pros achieve this but with the least understanding amateurs can do it by picking an engaging piece of music for the background and writing the screenplay to follow it, then editing the shots to fit exactly.

 

You can also substitute one type of stimulation for another, to give 'room' for the first to come back later. An easy way to do this is to lower the volume of the music and give the technical details (intellectual vs anticipation/comedy etc), then raise the volume again as you get on with the destruction. Even better would be to do some tech deets, about the gun say, raise the volume briefly for a good bit of tune while you show some tease clips, say holes appearing in paper targets followed by hit empty cans jumping about, then drop the volume again while you tell us the deets about the screen.

 

The major thing you've missed out on though is that a screen is a visual device! Why don't we see it working at least once ffs? But imagine what you could have done by shooting it whilst a film was playing? A bit of thought and you could have had a clip show so you could shoot it and have the characters (or real people) seem to react to being shot.

 

A major thing which amateurs almost never give enough thought to is to plan the project around the limitations of the equipment. For eg, if you can't use an external mic, stop talking before you walk away from the camera and under no circumstances whatsoever should you turn away from the camera whilst talking. Again it's about suspension of disbelief - anything which calls the attention of the audience to the fact that they are watching a vid rather than keeping them focussed on the content is bad. Poor intelligibility due to obvious technical limitations is a major cause of this. If you need to give information while somebody walks away, have somebody else say it close to the camera, or think of a different way of presenting the info. If you don't need to say anything, shut up!

 

I'm getting bored now, so rather than more generalised tips, I'm going to just critique:

 

- you should have realised that we would not be able to see the BB's in flight, or the damage happening from that range, using that camera. Setting the camera much closer to the screen would have helped and you could have done an interesting sequence of zooms and cuts to segueway from showing yourself sighting down the rifle to a close up of the screen.

 

- you should have put some black cloth behind the screen so that we would have been able to see glimpses of the BB's trajectory on their way and bouncing off.

 

- you should have shot the frame to sh!t as well as the screen itself.

 

- you should have shown us the computer you promised to shoot at the end, with some ominous music.

 

- small moments of 'human fallibility' are good for audience engagement, so don't edit your shots to robotically fit your screenplay, find a few, and I mean few, bits where you can keep some fluffed line, gormless expression, or other mistake/uncool moment. You can make this self-consciousness cool by synching three quick repetitions (less than 0.5s each) to the beat of the background music. If your tune is slower than 120bpm, use the half beats (syncopated jazz woo-hoo), or the quarters, leading to the end of a section of the music. You must follow this with a cut to a completely different shot.

 

- you've got far too much um-ing and ah-ing in your speech; at your age a certain amount of it is cute, but too much suggests that the rest of the vid will lack confidence and thus also lack deliberate focus and/or artistic style.

 

- your vid does lack focus. You should have decided what you wanted to show us most - is 'the star' you, your gun, or the damage. Is the point you being cool for having the gun / shooting the gun, your skill at shooting the gun as demonstrated by accuracy at that range, the implicit arrogance in destroying something which cost a not inconsiderable sum of money, making the best of a bad situation (ie it's fucked, yes i'm a dick, but at least it'll be interesting to watch it getting totally fucked), comedy, something else? You see 'the star' of your vid as produced is the sh!t camera.

 

- your vid also lacks artistic style. Basically you've had an idea and put it in front of a camera and let the chips fall where they may. It doesn't communicate anything about your soul.

 

- the fewer the ideas to communicate, the shorter the better.

 

- destruction is a 'sharp' thing, so sharp dialogue, snappy edits, and a punchy style, is the way to go.

 

Finally, an interesting title will get more audience than just a description of what it is.

 

 

*See what I did there? By that writing style, I've drawn your attention to the fact that a person who is different to you, with whom you may well share little in the way of taste, style, or interest, is doing the communicating, rather than engaging your interest in what I'm actually saying. Did I engage your interest in what I was about to say? No. Thus: know your audience and speak to them in language with which they are familiar, which includes the style of video.

[AK47frizzle]

I personally find these videos rather amusing to see what the power of airsoft can do. I'd say keep on doing it because I know you guys love watching things getting destroyed eh?

 

Fruits

 

glass

 

your dad's favourite mug

 

computers

 

airsoft guns (old plastic ones)

 

expensive watches

 

children's toys (ELMO! AND THOSE STUPID MY LITTLE PONIES!)

[Airsoft-Ed]

On second thought I realise that I have been less than my usual helpful self. As a sound engineer I can't help picking up some knowledge of film and the syntax therein, so notwithstanding Finius' comment, here's a few tips:

 

You need to engage the audience's interest immediately. In a much travelled amateur genre like this we need to know from the first few seconds why we should continue watching. Clips of bits to follow which promise something cool are an easy way to do this that require no skill in screenplay writing. Such clips should tease, not deliver.

 

Whether you mean to or not you are competing with a million and one other things a person could be doing other than watching your vid. For whatever reason the audience have clicked play, in doing so they did not sign a contract to watch to the end. This is where a screenplay comes in, because the moment the audience think, "this lad has no idea what he's gonna do next", is the moment they also wonder if they can be bothered to find out. That does not mean that everything should be scripted, although bullet points of what you intend to say on a large sheet of paper behind the camera will help keep it snappy. It does mean that you should think about what shots you want in the finished product and how long each should last.

 

This is going to seem apropos of nothing, but all will make sense anon* - An aircraft simulator is attached to the ground and the hydraulics can only travel so far to simulate the effect of stick movements IRL. So when the trainee 'takes off' the cockpit front tips up and levels out from the rear when the 'plane' reaches cruising altitude. So what happens when he pulls the stick back again? There's not far to go before the machine is at the limits of the hydraulics, right? Well it's all cool because the computer is programmed to imperceptibly bring the cockpit back towards zero the whole time, so there is always some virtual space for the machine to go into.

 

A well written screenplay works in the same way with emotional reaction. It doesn't matter what the emotions are, from mild curiosity to euphoric epiphany, via disgust, anger, sexual arousal, humour, whatever, they can be summed together as 'stimulation'. The reasons are extremely complex and, if you are resistant to this next idea, you will no doubt be able to think of examples which you believe prove it wrong, but trust me we humans have a limit to how much stimulation we can feel, particularly from something which requires "suspension of disbelief".

 

Ah but what is to disbelieve? It's a film of exactly what happened, right? Well, A. that is not how humans experience events IRL, and B. the stimulation is a result of what happens in the film, but in reality what happens is we just watch a screen. It's a bit like seasickness - if there's too much of a disjunct between the degree of an emotion we are stimulated to feel and what we can feel while, say, sat at home in a comfy chair with a nice cuppa, the brain goes "hang on a minute, something isn't right here".

 

This is why the most engaging films and/or music have bits where the intensity of stimulation, having been ramped up at the beginning, imperceptibly falls so that it can rise again. There are many ways pros achieve this but with the least understanding amateurs can do it by picking an engaging piece of music for the background and writing the screenplay to follow it, then editing the shots to fit exactly.

 

You can also substitute one type of stimulation for another, to give 'room' for the first to come back later. An easy way to do this is to lower the volume of the music and give the technical details (intellectual vs anticipation/comedy etc), then raise the volume again as you get on with the destruction. Even better would be to do some tech deets, about the gun say, raise the volume briefly for a good bit of tune while you show some tease clips, say holes appearing in paper targets followed by hit empty cans jumping about, then drop the volume again while you tell us the deets about the screen.

 

The major thing you've missed out on though is that a screen is a visual device! Why don't we see it working at least once ffs? But imagine what you could have done by shooting it whilst a film was playing? A bit of thought and you could have had a clip show so you could shoot it and have the characters (or real people) seem to react to being shot.

 

A major thing which amateurs almost never give enough thought to is to plan the project around the limitations of the equipment. For eg, if you can't use an external mic, stop talking before you walk away from the camera and under no circumstances whatsoever should you turn away from the camera whilst talking. Again it's about suspension of disbelief - anything which calls the attention of the audience to the fact that they are watching a vid rather than keeping them focussed on the content is bad. Poor intelligibility due to obvious technical limitations is a major cause of this. If you need to give information while somebody walks away, have somebody else say it close to the camera, or think of a different way of presenting the info. If you don't need to say anything, shut up!

 

I'm getting bored now, so rather than more generalised tips, I'm going to just critique:

 

- you should have realised that we would not be able to see the BB's in flight, or the damage happening from that range, using that camera. Setting the camera much closer to the screen would have helped and you could have done an interesting sequence of zooms and cuts to segueway from showing yourself sighting down the rifle to a close up of the screen.

 

- you should have put some black cloth behind the screen so that we would have been able to see glimpses of the BB's trajectory on their way and bouncing off.

 

- you should have shot the frame to sh!t as well as the screen itself.

 

- you should have shown us the computer you promised to shoot at the end, with some ominous music.

 

- small moments of 'human fallibility' are good for audience engagement, so don't edit your shots to robotically fit your screenplay, find a few, and I mean few, bits where you can keep some fluffed line, gormless expression, or other mistake/uncool moment. You can make this self-consciousness cool by synching three quick repetitions (less than 0.5s each) to the beat of the background music. If your tune is slower than 120bpm, use the half beats (syncopated jazz woo-hoo), or the quarters, leading to the end of a section of the music. You must follow this with a cut to a completely different shot.

 

- you've got far too much um-ing and ah-ing in your speech; at your age a certain amount of it is cute, but too much suggests that the rest of the vid will lack confidence and thus also lack deliberate focus and/or artistic style.

 

- your vid does lack focus. You should have decided what you wanted to show us most - is 'the star' you, your gun, or the damage. Is the point you being cool for having the gun / shooting the gun, your skill at shooting the gun as demonstrated by accuracy at that range, the implicit arrogance in destroying something which cost a not inconsiderable sum of money, making the best of a bad situation (ie it's fucked, yes i'm a dick, but at least it'll be interesting to watch it getting totally fucked), comedy, something else? You see 'the star' of your vid as produced is the sh!t camera.

 

- your vid also lacks artistic style. Basically you've had an idea and put it in front of a camera and let the chips fall where they may. It doesn't communicate anything about your soul.

 

- the fewer the ideas to communicate, the shorter the better.

 

- destruction is a 'sharp' thing, so sharp dialogue, snappy edits, and a punchy style, is the way to go.

 

Finally, an interesting title will get more audience than just a description of what it is.

 

 

*See what I did there? By that writing style, I've drawn your attention to the fact that a person who is different to you, with whom you may well share little in the way of taste, style, or interest, is doing the communicating, rather than engaging your interest in what I'm actually saying. Did I engage your interest in what I was about to say? No. Thus: know your audience and speak to them in language with which they are familiar, which includes the style of video.

Y'know what I find annoying about this comment?

 

I try relatively hard to make decent videos for YouTube, but I never get feedback this in-depth, from anyone! (Though, that might be because of the character limit YouTube has... Which you raped to death, by the way.) But this (by everyone's account, we're agreed?) terrible video, gets that monster helpful breakdown lol.

 

Where is the fairness in the world? D=

 

Interestingly, you did give me a few helpful insights for my own videos via that comment, the flight sim analogy was especially good I thought, have you ever editing anything to showcase your pro skillz? It sounds like you'd be rather good at it.

 

Wish I had the money to just pay an editor to make some pro videos for me, but that would defeat the point of me owning the YouTube channel =/

[Ian_Gere]

Actually Ed, it's not fair, it's raining. My dad used to say that to me. What a cnut!

 

Consciousness mate. Mine is so much at the whim of medication these days that it's very difficult to predict where/when the muse will strike. I've got some stuff I've edited lurking somewhere still, I think, but I can't say even which pile of back up data any of it's in, let alone which DVD's and they're under piles of other shite.

 

Your vids are a different beast though. Reportage - you have to be very good to film a story boarded show from unpredictable live events - those people get snapped straight up by news organisations. You can sort of do it retroactively though: you just have to work out what story you want to tell and then cut to maximise that and minimise anything else. The problem arises when the person who shot the footage is doing the cut, because you get attached to bits which may be best left out.

 

I'll have another go over some of Bullet and see if anything springs to mind, but i'm watching Cloth II @mo so you've had it lol!

 

Edit: oh yeah, and I sorta expected that George would've been telling you this kind of stuff amd probably better than I can.

[Airsoft-Ed]

Actually Ed, it's not fair, it's raining. My dad used to say that to me. What a cnut!

 

Consciousness mate. Mine is so much at the whim of medication these days that it's very difficult to predict where/when the muse will strike. I've got some stuff I've edited lurking somewhere still, I think, but I can't say even which pile of back up data any of it's in, let alone which DVD's and they're under piles of other shite.

 

Your vids are a different beast though. Reportage - you have to be very good to film a story boarded show from unpredictable live events - those people get snapped straight up by news organisations. You can sort of do it retroactively though: you just have to work out what story you want to tell and then cut to maximise that and minimise anything else. The problem arises when the person who shot the footage is doing the cut, because you get attached to bits which may be best left out.

 

I'll have another go over some of Bullet and see if anything springs to mind, but i'm watching Cloth II @mo so you've had it lol!

 

Edit: oh yeah, and I sorta expected that George would've been telling you this kind of stuff amd probably better than I can.

I know exactly what you mean about the bits I find good that would be better left out. I realised after a while that if you can't physically see the person I'm shooting at in the video, then there's really not a lot of point using that bit of the footage, it really sucks that the camera can't properly convey what's going on, 'cos I thought the best game I filmed was defending the village last weekend, but it comes across as me just sitting in a hut on my own, peaking the same 4 angles over and over again, rarely actually seeing me get a hit, or understanding who's shooting at me.

 

So I'm either going to have to sod using the footage altogether, which would be a shame, or plan the shit out of the commentary to the point where it's like reading a script, for me to be able to properly explain what's going on.

[jcheeseright]

keep it going ed, the quality of your videos is already well above the average; especially with your commentary over the top which is so much better than the standard linkin park at 96kbps.

 

That said, you need to start travelling further afield, I very rarely look at your vids from skirmish anymore as they're very samey, not your fault of course, the fort is the fort!

[Airsoft-Ed]

keep it going ed, the quality of your videos is already well above the average; especially with your commentary over the top which is so much better than the standard linkin park at 96kbps.

 

That said, you need to start travelling further afield, I very rarely look at your vids from skirmish anymore as they're very samey, not your fault of course, the fort is the fort!

Yeah, I'm hoping that at some point sooner or later my videos will start being more widely recognised, 'cos if the money generated by the channel could be enough to pay for the trips then that'd be that and I'd be able to do a lot more and go to a lot more places. I just can't afford it at the minute, only working part time and using the time I'm not working to edit the videos and trying to get my fat ass into shape so I can consider joining the TA.

[jcheeseright]

Yeah, I'm hoping that at some point sooner or later my videos will start being more widely recognised, 'cos if the money generated by the channel could be enough to pay for the trips then that'd be that and I'd be able to do a lot more and go to a lot more places. I just can't afford it at the minute, only working part time and using the time I'm not working to edit the videos and trying to get my fat ass into shape so I can consider joining the TA.

Run fatboy, run.

 

Off topic now, but if you're looking to make rapid gains in cardio fitness I cannot recommend fartlek training enough, before my op (born a woman in a man's body, long story ) I was doing regular 4 times a week sessions of fartlek and I dropped a minute off my time over a mile in just under a month.

[Airsoft-Ed]

Is that like a video workout you download, or a program, or what? I've been told to look at some intense fitness videos, they've got a funky name but I've completely forgotten what it is...

[hprentice]

i honestly thought it was a video of a screen at the end of the garden, could not see bb's

[Ian_Gere]

Ed, if you do go with a script, practice reading it a few times before you record it. Obvious I know, but just in case.

 

You could always keep that village footage for a sort of definitive village tactics vid, or some kind of generalised tutorial.

 

Something that might help with the video narrative is to superimpose a reticle onto your targets and have it flash colour changes for hits/misses and you could do something similar with flashing chevrons to indicate the direction from which you are taking fire - some sub zero HUD effect FTW - if it also showed where friendlies were speaking from and the effect of friendly fire it would be uber

 

But yeah, as James says, your vids are way better than most.

 

Nothing wrong with a touch of Linkin Park as a bed mind. The problem arises when what ppl post on yt is a tune which just happens to have a crap vid of airsoft playing at the same time.

 

The best tunes to bed under live action are not necessarily the ones we like most however. Unless you're able to edit audio at least well enough to cut beat perfect, without digital clicks or obvious volume fades, what you need are tunes which chop and change and if they have completely obvious sections with differing 'energy' levels, that gives you a good basis for the flight simulator effect. RATM spring to mind, but you should also consider dubstep, d'n'b, jungle, techno, trance,.. (I can feel you cringing through the aether )

[Airsoft-Ed]

When you said RATM I was fully feeling it.

After that, not so much... The HUD ideas aren't such a bad idea, I'm just not sure how I'd make it look 3D enough to actually give you an idea of where shots are coming from, as well as making it obvious that that's what it is. I can just picture a red flattened C shape on the screen sitting at the "o'clock" position of the incoming fire and people being like, "Dafuq is that?!"

Though it's something to consider... Might experiment with it a bit for the Village Defence video, as otherwise it might get a bit boring.

[Ian_Gere]

I'll see if i can mock up a quick & dirty example of what i mean for a HUD on my lappy.

 

Yeah Rage are so good, but like i said, what we enjoy isn't necessarily best. Especially if it makes us shy with the volume bar. You know, like with footage that "is too good to leave out", "oh this bit is too good to turn down" - nothing can be more important than telling the story you've decided upon.

 

My personal taste is generally way biased towards electronica, but a long time ago i was accused of being brilliant at producing metal - basically because i don't give a microsh!t, i mean literally not one dingleberry, about what the talent think they are about. I know what metal sounds like and that is what we are going to record, even if i have to piss the talent off so much that i get some real temper in their performances. If i can do that by dropping some world music influenced pretentious wank that they haven't the skillz to pull off anyway, two birds with one stone - excellent!

[Ian_Gere]

If you use a better graphics editing package you can do diffuse light effects from the various bits so they leave really faint blurs as the POV moves, but keep the main reticle just flat so the red chevron spins about it - ie the blue reticle is a frame within the frame which allows the brain to be aware of the red chevron's position and wehat that means without having to actually focus on it

 

an extra ring for a green chevron for friendlies talking could do the trick, but also a mini plan view in the top right corner could work - maybe both

 

if you're using your L85, an ammo counter lower left with a column which changes colour as it drops and pulses for the last 3rnds and empty until you reload

 

as you did in the fort, hit count bottom right

 

upper left for game relevant text info

 

centre bottom for subtitles / info about communication

[Stormhall]

I didn't promise that I would shoot my current PC at the end of that video (because for one i'm using it and two i haven't got my new one yet) but I will make a video of me shooting this thing to bits. But I have one problem. When I made that video I had discovered that the bb's were ricocheting off the screen and into the walls of other peoples houses and probably their windows and so I need to find another place to do the videos or have a nice little box type contraption around the target to make sure the bb's don't go flying.

 

But yes I agree with basically everything else you said in your essay, Ian.

[AK47frizzle]

I didn't promise that I would shoot my current PC at the end of that video (because for one i'm using it and two i haven't got my new one yet) but I will make a video of me shooting this thing to bits. But I have one problem. When I made that video I had discovered that the bb's were ricocheting off the screen and into the walls of other peoples houses and probably their windows and so I need to find another place to do the videos or have a nice little box type contraption around the target to make sure the bb's don't go flying.

 

But yes I agree with basically everything else you said in your essay, Ian.

Well, for your next video, just remember to use a camera, not a toaster or a potato.

[Airsoft-Ed]

If you use a better graphics editing package you can do diffuse light effects from the various bits so they leave really faint blurs as the POV moves, but keep the main reticle just flat so the red chevron spins about it - ie the blue reticle is a frame within the frame which allows the brain to be aware of the red chevron's position and wehat that means without having to actually focus on it

 

an extra ring for a green chevron for friendlies talking could do the trick, but also a mini plan view in the top right corner could work - maybe both

 

if you're using your L85, an ammo counter lower left with a column which changes colour as it drops and pulses for the last 3rnds and empty until you reload

 

as you did in the fort, hit count bottom right

 

upper left for game relevant text info

 

centre bottom for subtitles / info about communication

 

What do you reckon to this, Ian?

I took this image from Google:

 

Then edited the exposure and opacity to make it fit the exact colours of the situation in the video, and also extended the black square it's sat inside to extend towards the back of the icon, meaning I can centre it and pivot it around the middle of the camera's shot.

 

Put into practice I get this:

 

It's going to take a lot of added editing to get this done throughout the whole video, but hopefully the end result ought to pay off and help add that bit more fluidity and understanding of what's going on.

 

I'll also rotate the indicator with the camera in real time, so it's not just sat in the same spot for the whole time I'm taking fire, and I'm going to use the precision editor to make it flash for every shot coming in at me as well.

 

Only two issues are it might interfere with my zoom cam for long range shots, should I ever fire at anyone whilst taking fire, and on future videos when I'm not in a wooden hut, it might be a lot harder to know when and where I'm being shot at from to add the indicators in.

[Ian_Gere]

I think it looks proper uber, Ed! Yeah, editing in CGI is a real pain, but the results can take broadcast quality footage into a broadcastable video. I think that you'll know what to do if it all gets too much: just remember that you're telling a story; if the graphics get confusing for a section, cut them. You could do something like skew the layer with the graphics on and add SFX for 0.5s so it looks like a tech failure... then similar to bring them back later.

[Airsoft-Ed]

It took me a long time to get all the hit markers added, but the effect is good, I realised that double layering them can brighten them as well, so they flash on and off for every shot, as well as getting brighter and dimmer, and flickering around. The only issue I have now is that it takes so much out of my laptop to run the video with them all in that I'm probably going to have to render out the video just to be able to watch it back in full frames in order to add the commentary and the kill count and stuff lol.

 

Video lag, are bad.

[Ian_Gere]

Looking forward to seeing this, mate.

[two_zero]

tl;dr, might repeat what someone already said.

 

dont use semi or short bursts, empty a midcap, on full auto.. or better yet, get an electric hicap.

 

ridiculous rpm would also help. maybe have the item on a stand, that it can fall off.

 

 

pose with the gun in the beginning of the film, using a tripod or improvised stand to film, then either film with the camera (again on a stand) near the item or using zoom. make sure to protect the lens. oh and use a video editing software (or even the one built into youtube) to cut in between.

 

Also try to get rid of the blueness.. I don't know a lot about filming, so how, is for you to find out.

 

 

 

as can be seen quite clearly in the video, you will have a bit of a problem since legal UK (well, English anyway.. dunno what rules are in rest of UK) power output for full auto is so ridiculously low that it wont do a lot of damage. I don't have any suggestion on how to fix this.

 

Also, be prepared for a lot of very negative feedback, as destruction videos tend to get just that.