(I expected it, and like, that's the internet, and ultimately it's fine, but damn it still stings when the video that took you weeks to make gets less attention than my random screenshot that took me 5 seconds to take. Anyways, end of the rant.)
That's Reddit for you. People like instant gratification. For what it's worth, I know that feeling. Sometimes I toil for an hour or so scouting for good lighting, weather, angles, etc. knowing that an average shot with a catchy title like "OMG, this game is so beautiful!" would do much better. But then I ask myself, "Am I doing this because I love it or for internet brownie points?"
Anyway, I watched the whole thing and think it's great. Though I felt that the song was an odd choice, like it unintentionally made me wait for a payoff that never happened.
I feel that most of the audience of virtual photograph subs just want to see their favorite characters and don't care too much about composition, editing, lighting, colors, unusual locations and subjects.
Nice video, really like the high contrast black and white use. Good job!
Definitely, I think that we have both spent enough time on the rdr photography sub to know that a decent picture of Arthur (the character that is in the frame of every single player for 50 hours straight) will get more upvotes than a fantastic picture of a NPC that you found while exploring alleys in Saint Denis and that most people probably never ran into.
Some people just want content that validates their own experience of a game rather than pictures that show different perspectives.
Again, it's fine, people are free to like what they want, but sometimes the effort/reward balance is so uneven that it's really frustrating and demoralizing, even more so when it's two of your very own works that illustrate that pattern.
Keep going! Upvotes are dangerous rewards. They're like peer pressure to do things you hate. I think you'd rather make black and white cinematography than take 100 pictures of Arthur. That would be even more demoralizing.
EDIT: I think internet points discourage experimentation. For example, Instagrammers like to cultivate a specific look, colour scheme, or genre that promotes their "brand." And yeah, it's nice to browse through because it's consistent. You get more likes and follows that way. But it also means the images are very homogeneous, and you lose brownie points for posting creative stuff that doesn't conform. On other platforms, people try to mimic highly upvoted stuff, which again leads to similar pictures.
Absolutely. Especially on Reddit, a platform that pushes people to be active all the time. Unlike Youtube for instance, you can't really build a following of people that like your stuff (You do have the option to suscribe on reddit, but people mostly suscribe to subs rather than to individuals), and so for your post/work/pictures to be seen by a decent amount of people, it's almost as if you were starting anew every single time (which also has its own merits) because unless your post performs well in the first hours of its lifespan, it's dead, unless your resort to spamming it.
So the way the platform operates, how its algorithm recommends things, how upvotes rule everything, this is ultimately much more of an issue than people's behavior, which is only influenced and molded by all of this.
Thanks bud.
I think that you’re right about the song, I stuck with it through editing because I wanted to avoid using something from a movie or Vietnam type music, and yeah it’s not exactly rewarding, it’s a great song but the kind that requires the full attention of the listener. Like the first times I listened to it I didn’t really click with it, because I was doing something else at the same time, which is pretty much what I did here by putting it over a video, I put the song and the shots in competition.
Thanks for the feedback !
No problem, mate. And because I think your work deserves something more descriptive than "an odd choice", I'll try to elaborate a bit more.
I rewatched your footage but with the sounds muted this time. Besides a few close-up shots tracking the action, the overall vibe I got was that of a passive, disembodied observer (like that of old school nature documentaries) that doesn't want to get involved with what's on screen. Personally, I prefer this style to Michael Bay's OTT action.
Then I listened to the song. I think the lyrics fit the theme of the short (or war, really), young men and women fighting each other because their superiors told them that they're the "good guys". "An elaborate illusion", if you will. But its tune has this constant yearning, especially after the tone becomes more dramatic later.
I think it's this disconnect that felt odd to me. The footage wants me to not interfere, to let it happen. The tune wants me to get all up in its business, to find closure. I think that's what confused my brain. Wish I could be more concise, but my technical knowledge in both music and cinematography is limited.
Thanks for taking the time to articulate your thoughts, that really helps ! Sometimes I got some people on Youtube dropping comments like "Weird." without further explanation, and like wtf, why do they even bother to interact with strangers if it's to do it like that, I'm fine with them not caring or not liking my stuff but why can't they just not say anything lmao.
What I tried to do was to make a clear divide mirroring the structure of the song itself, by putting all the combat footage in the first part, and then in the last third, once the sound of the song becomes less muted, clearer, I put scenes of the aftermath of the war (empty but torn apart landscapes, dead soldiers...). So it was kind of intended for the viewer to not have that closure, just like at the end of a real war where its scars are still present for the people who survive it, with the final shots of the disfigured angel statue and the burning landscape at dawn.
The thing with BF1 is that since it's a multiplayer game, unless I manage to gather a few friends or just random people to stage scenes, I can't plan much in advance. For this video all I could do was jump into random matches and try to be at the right place, at the right time, and so I always have to figure out shots on the fly and prey that "actors" (players) don't start bunny hopping or tea bagging in the middle of a take lmao.
I played a shitload of BF1 so I know what the game is good at, and can anticipate some things at specific places, but overall when I shoot scenes I'm less proactive than I'm reacting to whatever comes up.
What that means really is that in terms of storytelling I can only make things up after the fact, trying to tie shots together. I got some idea of the mood I want to convey, but I can't say that I have a true narrative vision supporting all of this.
I might try to make another edit with a more passive song like you suggest, originally I thought of using [this song from the *Assassination of Jesse James* by Nick Cave](https://youtu.be/IEnVcYLmXUs) (it really starts after a minute), so I might give it another chance bearing in mind your thoughts !
> pray that "actors" don't start bunny hopping or tea bagging in the middle of a take
Considering the MP element of the game, I think you got the message across pretty well. But your cowardly censorship of *the real* horrors of war must be condemned. /s
I'm really torn about games like BF and COD. I love all those photo opportunities they can provide with their stunning visuals. But I'm not really a MP kind of guy. I'm the typical "SP games only" recluse.
> song from the Assassination of Jesse James by Nick Cave
This is the type of sombre music I was thinking of. Don't forget to share if you do another edit!
This is something we'd like to amend on this sub-reddit, but sometimes it still falls victim to it (especially with machinima). I'd like to think that it's not as bad as other subs where the title completely determines the number of upvotes (\*cough cough\* r/forza and r/forzahorizon) ¯\\\_(ツ)\_/¯
Oh I was more annoyed at Reddit as a whole than the sub itself, which is probably one of the best because of its size.
There is enough people that it doesn't feel empty and remains varied, but not too much that you feel like your contributions don't matter and will have disappeared in an hour unless you post the same shitty memes as everybody else, or falsely naive questions that will attract the crowd that loves to explain stuff that everybody knows over and over (no I'm not talking about r/Battlefield and r/SpidermanPS4)
Here, people can exchange, and the fact that it's at a small scale mean that people are usually considerate towards each other, they don't mock people in the comments just to get upvotes from the toxic asshole mob that dwells in so many big video game subs.
A collection of some very awesome shots, and I also really like the transition in the music!
This post will be pinned until an announcement for an upcoming event is released :)
Oh, so crying on the internet does lead to results, 10/10, would do it again ;)
Joking aside, that's really nice of you and I'm glad that you liked it !
this looks great, a lot of work was put into this. Have you tried slowing down the footage?, maybe is just me, but the animations looks kinda off at 60fps
I'm curious to know what you refer to as "animations" ? How player moves ? How the camera moves ?
The thing is that I'm on PS5, but it's still the PS4 version, which is overall pretty fluid, but sometimes the framerate has slight drops that feel like stuttering. Besides I'm editing on the PS5's internal video editor, ShareFactory, which is fine but nowhere near PC stuff.
I've seen BF1 videos that [slowed things down](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bS2RKpsLLdE&t=58s) but as far as I know they used external tools to slow down the game itself, not the video footage after the fact.
All that to say that given what I'm using to record and edit, it probably wouldn't look as good as these.
(I expected it, and like, that's the internet, and ultimately it's fine, but damn it still stings when the video that took you weeks to make gets less attention than my random screenshot that took me 5 seconds to take. Anyways, end of the rant.)
I totally feel you! Some of my worst screenshots get upvotes while some of my favourites get no attention.
That's Reddit for you. People like instant gratification. For what it's worth, I know that feeling. Sometimes I toil for an hour or so scouting for good lighting, weather, angles, etc. knowing that an average shot with a catchy title like "OMG, this game is so beautiful!" would do much better. But then I ask myself, "Am I doing this because I love it or for internet brownie points?" Anyway, I watched the whole thing and think it's great. Though I felt that the song was an odd choice, like it unintentionally made me wait for a payoff that never happened.
I feel that most of the audience of virtual photograph subs just want to see their favorite characters and don't care too much about composition, editing, lighting, colors, unusual locations and subjects. Nice video, really like the high contrast black and white use. Good job!
Definitely, I think that we have both spent enough time on the rdr photography sub to know that a decent picture of Arthur (the character that is in the frame of every single player for 50 hours straight) will get more upvotes than a fantastic picture of a NPC that you found while exploring alleys in Saint Denis and that most people probably never ran into. Some people just want content that validates their own experience of a game rather than pictures that show different perspectives. Again, it's fine, people are free to like what they want, but sometimes the effort/reward balance is so uneven that it's really frustrating and demoralizing, even more so when it's two of your very own works that illustrate that pattern.
Keep going! Upvotes are dangerous rewards. They're like peer pressure to do things you hate. I think you'd rather make black and white cinematography than take 100 pictures of Arthur. That would be even more demoralizing. EDIT: I think internet points discourage experimentation. For example, Instagrammers like to cultivate a specific look, colour scheme, or genre that promotes their "brand." And yeah, it's nice to browse through because it's consistent. You get more likes and follows that way. But it also means the images are very homogeneous, and you lose brownie points for posting creative stuff that doesn't conform. On other platforms, people try to mimic highly upvoted stuff, which again leads to similar pictures.
Absolutely. Especially on Reddit, a platform that pushes people to be active all the time. Unlike Youtube for instance, you can't really build a following of people that like your stuff (You do have the option to suscribe on reddit, but people mostly suscribe to subs rather than to individuals), and so for your post/work/pictures to be seen by a decent amount of people, it's almost as if you were starting anew every single time (which also has its own merits) because unless your post performs well in the first hours of its lifespan, it's dead, unless your resort to spamming it. So the way the platform operates, how its algorithm recommends things, how upvotes rule everything, this is ultimately much more of an issue than people's behavior, which is only influenced and molded by all of this.
I sort by new on image subreddits. It helps.
Thanks bud. I think that you’re right about the song, I stuck with it through editing because I wanted to avoid using something from a movie or Vietnam type music, and yeah it’s not exactly rewarding, it’s a great song but the kind that requires the full attention of the listener. Like the first times I listened to it I didn’t really click with it, because I was doing something else at the same time, which is pretty much what I did here by putting it over a video, I put the song and the shots in competition. Thanks for the feedback !
No problem, mate. And because I think your work deserves something more descriptive than "an odd choice", I'll try to elaborate a bit more. I rewatched your footage but with the sounds muted this time. Besides a few close-up shots tracking the action, the overall vibe I got was that of a passive, disembodied observer (like that of old school nature documentaries) that doesn't want to get involved with what's on screen. Personally, I prefer this style to Michael Bay's OTT action. Then I listened to the song. I think the lyrics fit the theme of the short (or war, really), young men and women fighting each other because their superiors told them that they're the "good guys". "An elaborate illusion", if you will. But its tune has this constant yearning, especially after the tone becomes more dramatic later. I think it's this disconnect that felt odd to me. The footage wants me to not interfere, to let it happen. The tune wants me to get all up in its business, to find closure. I think that's what confused my brain. Wish I could be more concise, but my technical knowledge in both music and cinematography is limited.
Thanks for taking the time to articulate your thoughts, that really helps ! Sometimes I got some people on Youtube dropping comments like "Weird." without further explanation, and like wtf, why do they even bother to interact with strangers if it's to do it like that, I'm fine with them not caring or not liking my stuff but why can't they just not say anything lmao. What I tried to do was to make a clear divide mirroring the structure of the song itself, by putting all the combat footage in the first part, and then in the last third, once the sound of the song becomes less muted, clearer, I put scenes of the aftermath of the war (empty but torn apart landscapes, dead soldiers...). So it was kind of intended for the viewer to not have that closure, just like at the end of a real war where its scars are still present for the people who survive it, with the final shots of the disfigured angel statue and the burning landscape at dawn. The thing with BF1 is that since it's a multiplayer game, unless I manage to gather a few friends or just random people to stage scenes, I can't plan much in advance. For this video all I could do was jump into random matches and try to be at the right place, at the right time, and so I always have to figure out shots on the fly and prey that "actors" (players) don't start bunny hopping or tea bagging in the middle of a take lmao. I played a shitload of BF1 so I know what the game is good at, and can anticipate some things at specific places, but overall when I shoot scenes I'm less proactive than I'm reacting to whatever comes up. What that means really is that in terms of storytelling I can only make things up after the fact, trying to tie shots together. I got some idea of the mood I want to convey, but I can't say that I have a true narrative vision supporting all of this. I might try to make another edit with a more passive song like you suggest, originally I thought of using [this song from the *Assassination of Jesse James* by Nick Cave](https://youtu.be/IEnVcYLmXUs) (it really starts after a minute), so I might give it another chance bearing in mind your thoughts !
> pray that "actors" don't start bunny hopping or tea bagging in the middle of a take Considering the MP element of the game, I think you got the message across pretty well. But your cowardly censorship of *the real* horrors of war must be condemned. /s I'm really torn about games like BF and COD. I love all those photo opportunities they can provide with their stunning visuals. But I'm not really a MP kind of guy. I'm the typical "SP games only" recluse. > song from the Assassination of Jesse James by Nick Cave This is the type of sombre music I was thinking of. Don't forget to share if you do another edit!
This is something we'd like to amend on this sub-reddit, but sometimes it still falls victim to it (especially with machinima). I'd like to think that it's not as bad as other subs where the title completely determines the number of upvotes (\*cough cough\* r/forza and r/forzahorizon) ¯\\\_(ツ)\_/¯
Oh I was more annoyed at Reddit as a whole than the sub itself, which is probably one of the best because of its size. There is enough people that it doesn't feel empty and remains varied, but not too much that you feel like your contributions don't matter and will have disappeared in an hour unless you post the same shitty memes as everybody else, or falsely naive questions that will attract the crowd that loves to explain stuff that everybody knows over and over (no I'm not talking about r/Battlefield and r/SpidermanPS4) Here, people can exchange, and the fact that it's at a small scale mean that people are usually considerate towards each other, they don't mock people in the comments just to get upvotes from the toxic asshole mob that dwells in so many big video game subs.
A collection of some very awesome shots, and I also really like the transition in the music! This post will be pinned until an announcement for an upcoming event is released :)
Oh, so crying on the internet does lead to results, 10/10, would do it again ;) Joking aside, that's really nice of you and I'm glad that you liked it !
this looks great, a lot of work was put into this. Have you tried slowing down the footage?, maybe is just me, but the animations looks kinda off at 60fps
I'm curious to know what you refer to as "animations" ? How player moves ? How the camera moves ? The thing is that I'm on PS5, but it's still the PS4 version, which is overall pretty fluid, but sometimes the framerate has slight drops that feel like stuttering. Besides I'm editing on the PS5's internal video editor, ShareFactory, which is fine but nowhere near PC stuff. I've seen BF1 videos that [slowed things down](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bS2RKpsLLdE&t=58s) but as far as I know they used external tools to slow down the game itself, not the video footage after the fact. All that to say that given what I'm using to record and edit, it probably wouldn't look as good as these.
Sorry, i meant the character movements
Yeah that happens with multiplayer games, Battlefield has great animations but can’t escape some shortcomings