Trends come and go; some become mainstays, some become clichés. Video is certainly no stranger to trendy effects that become overused or outstay their welcome. Here are five such effects to consider before you drop them in your next video.
Of course, effects choices are simply a manifestation of your personal vision and style, and there's nothing inherently wrong with any of them. It's more the fact that by virtue of their frequency of usage or their association with certain things, they'll inadvertently cause your audience to think certain thoughts, have a reaction you didn't intend, or simply prevent you from standing out from the crowd, no matter how technically facile their implementations are, as Justin Odisho points out. The point I most agreed with is that music choices seem to have largely fallen into a few specific genres, so much so that when I hear them in a video, I can feel my brain calling up a set of expectations for what I'm about to watch. If you're looking to stand out a bit, I've written a complete guide to choosing music for your videos. Similarly, many of the effects he mentions are often seen simply for their own sake, which can undermine their effectiveness. You do you, and if it makes you happy, go for it; just be sure to consider how your audience might react given where your work sits amongst the content we all consume on a daily basis.
Yes to all. Especially the zoom transitions. They're not original at all anymore.
They definitely look a little tired to my eyes.
"...the M31 LUT..."
Something even more worn out by Hollywood and TV productions is the cyan/green cast used in every scene where something bad or nasty or supposedly "dark" is or will happen. I'm not sure, but I think that was originated in The Matrix, which was 18 YEARS ago. Get over it guys!
The Casey music! People just showing themselves driving while playing Casey music. 100% true.
Odisho has omitted the most important video faux pas; using it for its own the sake rather than considering whether video is the most suitable medium to deliver his message. In this case, it really isn't. He fails to use the power of the video medium in any compelling way to support his rather subjective issues. Across a whopping 8.25 minutes, he presents an uninteresting, inconsistently lit talking head with poor sound; poorly executed spot edits; few audio examples, few cut-aways, few insert shots. The very point he's preaching, he's failing to apply to his own work: that of careful and considered use of the cliche.
But more worryingly: just who are these myriad self-proclaimed 'experts' who routinely pop up on various media channels espousing their rather basic coffee table, naive observations whilst offering their 'advice'?
At worst, this should have been a written piece - where I could scan the article and determine whether there were any nuggets of interest. Instead, I need to wade through 8.25 tedious minutes of self-promotion.
At best, this wouldn't have been produced at all.
After watching this video, and by that I mean getting 4 minutes in....and then skipping ahead, I could not agree more. When it comes to videos many people fail to think, " is this the correct way to express the point I am trying to make?" I chalk this up to the landscape of the internet currently, where video is becoming more and more prevalent.
In this instance, I agree with some of the things he says. However, one way to make me question your "expertise" is to list your first item and then state, "Well, I needed 5 items and this gets me there." Not to mention, as you've stated it's poorly structured from a content and technical standpoint. These are the kind of videos I hope don't become the norm. Lifeless, passionless, listicles where someone thinks they can half ass production value because they have an "audience."
I have to state this, I do like F Stoppers. I especially like that more and more video articles are being shared. I do think guys like this author and Lee Morris, and Others on here are very good at what they do. Also, I did watch this entire video
However, articles like these seem to come up more and more on F Stoppers.....essentially "WHAT NOT TO DO" I am the type of person that gets extremely in my own head and particularly I have a bad self esteem when it comes to my creativity and my own work. I find articles like this to be bad for budding creatives. This particular one is done in a nice(r) tone, he admits a lot of his own mis givings....but why at all focus on Cliches or "Too Popular" things....really at all? Unless the article is specifically about how to be way more in demand through uniqueness.
I have gotten too caught up in these types of things in the past as I am learning and often found, something I was told "not to do" ended up being the something that the client really wanted. I have also limited myself for the fear that others would think Im cliche......you know what....WE ARE ALL CLICHE! There are VERY few of us especially in the F Stoppers community that are 1000% original in all ways.
ALL OF THAT SAID (this is totally tongue in cheek....but maybe not...)
....Can we take a stand today and just put it out there that we can STOP making Youtube videos that start with "WHATS UP GUYS?!" Casey, McKinnon, Max, DSLRGuide, Daniel Schiffer, FStoppers....its the universal moniker OK.....but aren't we supposed to be CREATIVES? is there no other way to open a video??
Hey, totally appreciate the kind words. I understand where you're coming from, and that's why I put the disclaimer that there's nothing inherently wrong with these. I think the point is less "these are in bad taste" and more that these effects have been used so much by a specific style of videos that if your audience sees them, they might pre-judge your work based on those associations. It's not meant to be discouraging (I hate stuff like that); it's more to contextualize certain ideas in the current climate.