Do you believe there is a sweet spot for vlog length ?

[YBGuy]

Funny, that's where my editing started - showing only the beautiful scenery and the talking parts.

Now that I have a dual cam setup, there will be *somewhat* more non-speaking scenes to break up the speech, since you can make videos more engaging by switching camera angles, right?

-John

Yes, that's true, more angles can be more engaging and help keep the tempo of the video up.

YBG

 

[Drakhen99]

Yes, that's true, more angles can be more engaging and help keep the tempo of the video up.

YBG

That's exactly what a buddy of mine (another moto vlogger) said after he watched my latest video. Also said he'd seen a lot of improvement over my earlier videos

-John

 

[Meifesto]

You can also use a second camera to show a beautiful shot.
But use the audio from the first camera, when you were talking about your subject, from a different moment in time.

If the sound of the engine and the surroundings aren't to far off with what you expect to hear, you can play around and get the best shots, with useful audio.
And thus, keeping your video entertaining, short and engaging.

 

[YBGuy]

You can also use a second camera to show a beautiful shot.
But use the audio from the first camera, when you were talking about your subject, from a different moment in time.

If the sound of the engine and the surroundings aren't to far off with what you expect to hear, you can play around and get the best shots, with useful audio.
And thus, keeping your video entertaining, short and engaging.

Good advice Meifesto!

 

[Drakhen99]

FWIW, my latest video is tanking in the "watch %" metric or whatever YT calls it. Just over 3m of a 19m video... and it's 2 angles and I thought it was fairly engaging, covering a wide-ish array of topics and scenery, with some fun corners mixed in and what I thought was good editing. It has 2 camera angles (1 is helmet cam, 2 is aimed at me) and I switch frequently between the two.

It's my longest vlog by far (most are about 8-10m long), and in the first 30 seconds, viewership drops to 48%, ugh! So much for multiple camera angles keeping people engaged. Turns out you have to be talking about the right things and showing scantily-clad women???

I don't understand any of it, and [rant] I'm really considering filming more controversial motorcycle-related topics while sitting on my porch and drinking bourbon, with my riding footage in the background, maybe even with foul language mixed in, just to see what happens. It's frustrating being a tiny YouTuber who wants to be a big YouTuber![/rant]

Anyway, back on topic, Yeah, the 2nd camera angle can really add excitement or engagement, if you do it right. And I'm no expert, so I could be wrong. If you're using an NLE like Resolve or Premiere, they have built-in multicam sync things to sync up your camera angles so you can REALLY EASILY show footage of you riding, while talking into a second camera and stuff, so the audio track stays the same and the footage continues playing. I know Meifesto was talking about doing a mixed-audio voiceover, I do. When I actually do voice-overs, I just drop the audio from the riding footage 100% and use my voice-over and a music track. My #1 viewed video is 4 mins of me doing just that.

-John

 

[YBGuy]

Sorry to hear your newest video has a fast viewership drop. I think it helps to have a topic going while your riding. I notice my talking videos with major editing gets the best results. I'll take a 60 minute video and edit it down to 6 minutes. When I used to upload 10 plus minute videos with no narration, I notice the viewership drop off is pretty high but with the right content, I'm sure you could get a higher viewer count (topic, narration, voice overs, multi angles, intro outro music?). Just depends what your target audience likes seeing in the end I guess if you are going for views and subscribership.

 

[Drakhen99]

Sorry to hear your newest video has a fast viewership drop. I think it helps to have a topic going while your riding. I notice my talking videos with major editing gets the best results. I'll take a 60 minute video and edit it down to 6 minutes. When I used to upload 10 plus minute videos with no narration, I notice the viewership drop off is pretty high but with the right content, I'm sure you could get a higher viewer count (topic, narration, voice overs, multi angles, intro outro music?). Just depends what your target audience likes seeing in the end I guess if you are going for views and subscribership.

That IS one of my goals - along with just sharing the cool scenery and stuff I see while out riding.

My latest video has several topics in it, it's kind of a potpourri of sorts, but the viewership drops in the first 30 seconds, before I've even really begun! I found it odd, to say the least. I DID add chapters to the YT video so the viewer can go to whatever part interests them. I don't want to break the forum rules, but it's the latest video (as of 26 DEC 2020) on my channel, if you click the link in my signature. 19m in length, which is my longest video. I don't like to waste viewers' time, so I don't put a ton of fluff or blank space in, and I *thought* this video paced out well and was interesting to watch, and I can't say that about all my videos.

If I just pick one topic to talk about per video, my vids would all be 4-7 minutes long, which is why I like to combine a few of them, maybe I'm just wrong. I can't seem to talk about any one thing for 10m or more, unlike some videos I've watched. This kind of stuff makes me wonder if I should keep doing it (I'm at a low point right now for vlogging motivation) - the self-doubt is real, folks! I wonder if I'm not cut out to be a vlogger at all, or maybe I'm just picking the wrong topics to talk about? What's the old saying? A therapist needs a therapist? I guess vloggers need more vloggers, to keep at it!

Also, when you say "talking videos with major editing" - what does "major editing" mean???

-John

 

[YBGuy]

Hi John,

I'll check your video out in just a bit, just a little busy at the moment. There was a post a little while back where some Motovlog users did a vlog and then went back and edited out all the non-talking parts to get the video down to a more edited down version, the funny thing we noticed was the highly edited videos, seemed to hold the attention span of the viewer more. For sure this won't be the case everytime but it was an interesting experiment!

YBG

 

[Drakhen99]

Hi John,

I'll check your video out in just a bit, just a little busy at the moment. There was a post a little while back where some Motovlog users did a vlog and then went back and edited out all the non-talking parts to get the video down to a more edited down version, the funny thing we noticed was the highly edited videos, seemed to hold the attention span of the viewer more. For sure this won't be the case everytime but it was an interesting experiment!

YBG

I think I saw the beginnings of that thread, but lost it in everything else going on... I'll have to go find it and see the results. My edits tend to be more talk than blank space, I'll have to go back to way less blank space and work on better camera angle switches.

Luckily I've got some good projects in the beginning edit stage, which I can now experiment with!

-John

 

[Moto Mengy]

FWIW, my latest video is tanking in the "watch %" metric or whatever YT calls it. Just over 3m of a 19m video... and it's 2 angles and I thought it was fairly engaging, covering a wide-ish array of topics and scenery, with some fun corners mixed in and what I thought was good editing.

I've been doing motovlogs for 9 months now and I don't think I've ever actually looked at any of the analytic stuff on my channel. I browsed through the YouTube Studio pages when I first started doing this just to see what all was there but I've not looked at any of that since.

For 2021 I should probably learn what all that stuff is, maybe I'm missing out on some helpful info or such?

 

[Meifesto]

FWIW, my latest video is tanking in the "watch %" metric or whatever YT calls it. Just over 3m of a 19m video... and it's 2 angles and I thought it was fairly engaging, covering a wide-ish array of topics and scenery, with some fun corners mixed in and what I thought was good editing.

Also worth considering is that you are talking about multiple subjects, you can also cut your 18min video in 2 9 minute videos
That way you might get more engagement, people who clicked away on the first video due to subject reason, might stay and watch the second one, due to a more relatable subject.

 

[HippoDrone]

If discussing multiple topics that people may search for on YT, you will get instant drop off if the first topic isn't the one they were looking for. I'd suggest if you have topics, to keep it on point with just one topic per video. Folk possibly don't want to sit through a 20min video to find you only mention the thing they came for right at the end and then possibly don't even cover the points on that subject they were interested in. As for chapters, that is not something I have tried yet, but I have also not ever skipped to different chapters on other people's videos, if watching full screen, you can't see them, and if watching on a phone or TV it is even harder to see any descriptions etc

 

[YBGuy]

If discussing multiple topics that people may search for on YT, you will get instant drop off if the first topic isn't the one they were looking for. I'd suggest if you have topics, to keep it on point with just one topic per video. Folk possibly don't want to sit through a 20min video to find you only mention the thing they came for right at the end and then possibly don't even cover the points on that subject they were interested in. As for chapters, that is not something I have tried yet, but I have also not ever skipped to different chapters on other people's videos, if watching full screen, you can't see them, and if watching on a phone or TV it is even harder to see any descriptions etc

Nice points Hippodrone.

 

[YBGuy]

Also worth considering is that you are talking about multiple subjects, you can also cut your 18min video in 2 9 minute videos
That way you might get more engagement, people who clicked away on the first video due to subject reason, might stay and watch the second one, due to a more relatable subject.

This is true about the topic splitting into multiple videos. I do this sometimes too, also makes my footage queue last longer if I don't have time to film.

 

[Dewey316]

My edits tend to be more talk than blank space, I'll have to go back to way less blank space and work on better camera angle switches.

I thought the editing was great on your latest video. Goes to show that maybe we aren't the best feedback for what does well with the general population. Or that hitting the subject right away and getting people hooked on the first few seconds is way more important than the quality of editing.

 

[Drakhen99]

I thought the editing was great on your latest video. Goes to show that maybe we aren't the best feedback for what does well with the general population. Or that hitting the subject right away and getting people hooked on the first few seconds is way more important than the quality of editing.

Thanks!!! In the IT world, we say that software programmers are the world's worst testers, for good reason - I guess the same applies here. I agree, editing plays a less important role than the content, even if it drives us nuts as editors and we want smoother transitions.

FWIW though, on anything where I'm off-bike, I try to use Resolve's "smooth cut" transition to see if it um, smooths out the transitions, and sometimes, if my head is in the same place in 2 adjacent clips, it'll actually make it look like 1 take instead of 2, which I find pretty cool.

Y'all, this is the best group of folks, bar none, that I have found for a specific hobby/niche. There is literally 0 in-fighting, 0 negativity, and 100% positivity, and y'all bring up my mood when I check in on here.

-John

 

[YBGuy]

Thanks!!! In the IT world, we say that software programmers are the world's worst testers, for good reason - I guess the same applies here. I agree, editing plays a less important role than the content, even if it drives us nuts as editors and we want smoother transitions.

FWIW though, on anything where I'm off-bike, I try to use Resolve's "smooth cut" transition to see if it um, smooths out the transitions, and sometimes, if my head is in the same place in 2 adjacent clips, it'll actually make it look like 1 take instead of 2, which I find pretty cool.

Y'all, this is the best group of folks, bar none, that I have found for a specific hobby/niche. There is literally 0 in-fighting, 0 negativity, and 100% positivity, and y'all bring up my mood when I check in on here.

-John

Hi John,

I feel the same way about this forum too. Many positive, supportive users here and good advice too.

YBG