What makes a web video great?

[stevepole]

There are a lot of factors that go into making any kind of video/film great, but some, often times go unnoticed until you have a reason to think about them, like good sound quality vs a video's image quality which is judged almost immediately upon hitting play.

 

My question for you guys is what video quality is more important to you when you're watching a web series or just a random video online? Do you care more about the sound, or is the image quality more important then good audio? If you want, you can post an example.

 

You can comment on other factors that make up a great video too like story, or solid editing, but my main focus is on sound quality vs image quality.

[decebal]

Image. I find that too many videos online have absolutely horrible editing: either too edited to the point that it becomes seizure-inducing, or under-edited, when it looks like something a kid would make in elementary school.

 

That being said, I find content and cohesiveness more important, with sound just behind image. I find that sound pulls me towards a video and then "completes it", however it won't do jack without the factors I mentioned earlier.

 

By the way, what's the occasion for this thread :P ?

[TTanT]

I'd say image in general, but there're of course exceptions. If it's a music video with terrible audio and awesome visuals it'll still be unwatchable.

[Giordano]

This is a pretty vague question, both are damn important.

 

Only certain examples could an answer be made (sound for music video, image for tutorials/demostrations). But for general story-telling films I cannot say one or the other.

[stevepole]

The vagueness was on purpose to spark discussion, and to force you guys to truly think about your answers.

 

By the way, what's the occasion for this thread ?

 

I'm investing in some new film equipment soon, so I've been doing a lot of research into the best camera/sound setup within a reasonable budget, and the biggest question I keep asking myself is, what's more important the sound or the image?

 

Experience tells me sound, you can have the best looking film, but if your audio is shit, your video's going to be shit. When you're watching a video and especially a web video. 99.9% of the time the sound quality will never cross your mind because it's one of those things that if it's good and done right, you shouldn't notice it. Where as image quality is important, it's not as important as we really think it is.

 

One of my favorite YouTube filmmakers is Casey Neistat, and one of his older videos is a great example of sound quality over image quality. If it wasn't for the excellent sound quality (and story) I don't believe I would have ever watched the entire 6mins of the film. Granted you can put the video into 720p mode, but I always watch web videos in the standard-def 360p.

 

[Giordano]

The vagueness was on purpose to spark discussion, and to force you guys to truly think about your answers.

Well it worked. Your post reinforced what I was thinking about and yeah, I would say sound to be fundamentally more important than video.

 

What made me come to this conclusion was old machinima I used to watch. What machinima is is creating story-driven films using elements from video games: it saves a lot of time not having to learn 3D modeling or animation. So a lot of these machinimas are, obviously fan-made and not professional.

 

And what really made certain machinimas good, was the sound: good recording of voice acting and actual good voice acting. Consider this: would you ever watch a RuneScape movie? Pretty hard to take it seriously, right? Well with good voice acting it was watchable and enjoyable.

 

Evening using my own experience in filmmaking, my earlier works had static-y voice reels that really distracted the viewer from the film. With good sound that's one LESS thing to be distract your viewer. Then you got to worry about visuals and story. :wink:

[Ginger_Warrior]

I would say sound. An example I would use is a presentation. You can have the best looking slides in the world, but if you present it badly and you don't know how to project your voice to the audience, or how to emphasise key points using your voice, then the presentation falls flat. Likewise, when you're at school. You'd always prefer a teacher who's animated and clearly broadcasts how passionate he/she is about the subject, rather than someone who presents in a very didactic, monotonous style. What's in the textbook and or what's on the board, I find is more of a distraction than anything else.

 

I think our ears are more sensitive to those subtle differences.

[stevepole]

Another though, has technology gotten to the point where it's almost harder to produce a video of bad quality because of how cheap and accessible HD cameras have become that the standard for video quality vs sound quality is much higher because of the accessibility of an HD camera?

[RpgGamer]

You look pretty as you want, but if you sound annoying I'm not watching.