In this forum I would like Marina to answer questions regarding the producing of her videos. Here is an overview of some of the interests that might be discussed.
1. Organization of research in terms of creating a video. (3x5 cards, epaper, etc?)
2. Methodologies of production. (structured, ad libbing, etc)
3. Philosophy of production and how it may differ from others. (TV, movies, etc)
4. Production timeline questions.
5. After-Effects production notes.
6. Percentage of time of preparation vs production vs post-production.
HotForWords Forums » YouTube » YouTube - General
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pedanticKarl
MemberPosted 11 months ago # -
pedanticKarl
MemberThanks for starting the thread PK. I knew I could count on you.
Marina, do you write out a script on paper or epaper?
Do you memorize the script, since your delivery is impeccable? Very natural.
How long does it take to write the script and memorize it?
How many takes can it take?
How do you handle difficult to remember words and pronunciations?
Do you use cue cards or a tel-prompter?Posted 11 months ago # -
HotForWords
Key Masterpedantic,
To give you an idea of my work flow, first thing in the morning, before I am completely awake, I grab my laptop and start scanning comments on my website and YouTube and then I look at emails I have gotten. I then glance around YouTube to see what is going on.. then I try to answer some comments on the site and on YouTube.When I see an interesting request on my website for a word or phrase, or a video request (which I prefer, by the way, as I think it makes for a more interesting video) I do a cursory glance in the Oxford English Dictionary, and a couple other quick online resources to see if the word (or phrase) might make for an interesting story, and then I add it to a list of words to do.
When I ready to do one of the words, I then grab all my books and start researching the heck out of the word. I find that as much as a quarter of my books and the online resources get the word origins incorrect.. so I then have to weigh certain stories over others, by seeing which ones are repeated more often and where they are repeated. I give the OED (Oxford English Dictionary) more weight than any of my other resources.
I then have to come up with an interesting story.. and I start to write it out on my computer.
Prior to writing I have to search my website to find all the requests for the same word or phrase.. which I am finding to be hard right now, as a word like Christmas may be used in sentences, with people wishing each other a Merry Christmas.. so I might have to figure out a better way to take requests while continuing to have the dialog in the comments area. Perhaps go back to the "Word Request: xxx" process?
Once I have all the names, I then write my script. This can take up to a couple hours before I am happy with it.
I then write it on physical paper, as I find that that is the easiest way to memorize.
Like, telling someone how all the special effects are made in a movie PRIOR to seeing the movie.. I don't want to ruin my videos as well for you.
But.. I memorize as much as I can, record the bit, cut, then record more. I ad-lib quite a lot, since I I often think of things while recording that I didn't think of while writing. Plus Gorby ads an element of surprise to each video.. he REALLY DOES MAKE SURE THAT HE IS IN CAMERA every time I shoot! He really is a camera hog!
This recording the bits can take some time.. but once done, I then bring it into the computer and start to edit. The editing can take 3 or 4 hours easily.
So the overall time needed to make one of my videos, from start to finish is about 4-6 hours.
Now when you consider how many videos I do a day (1 a day) you start to realize why I am working, what seems like, every waking hour of every single day!
As for handling word pronunciations, there are lots of online dictionaries that pronounce the words for you. They don't exist as often for the foreign words, which is why I have difficulty with them the most.
If you ask me percentage of prep time vs. production vs. post.. you have to take into account the amount of time needed to read comments, answer comments, put out fires, keep the website and YouTube running smoothly, compress the video (which can take an hour now that I do HD!).. so it may appear to be 1-2 hours to research and write script, 1 hour to record, and 3-4 hours to edit.. but then you have to add in the time I spend online keeping everything together... which takes up the remaining time.
Posted 11 months ago # -
bsomebody
MemberM, I am always trying to improve my note-taking skills during research. In your third paragraph, you seem to be saying that you gather and process your notes in a word processor. I have always had to physically write out any notes, because it is easier for me to rearrange the notes, look at several notes at the same time, consolodate notes into groups, etc. if each note is on a seperate paper (note cards, sticky notes, etc.) Eventually, I would love to hear more details of your note-taking procedure; it definately seems to work for you, and I think I might be able to learn something from them.
Posted 11 months ago # -
Che Rambler
MemberThanks for the "day in the life of Marina" I'm exhausted just reading what you do. I identify completely, people who work for themselves work harder. I hope you always love what you do & your little dogie too.
Posted 11 months ago # -
thoughtonfire
MemberThat was pretty awesome of an explanation Marina. Maybe you could write out an official "The Making of HotForWords" Article, on hotforwords.com or a documentary someday.?
Posted 11 months ago # -
HotForWords
Key Masterbsomebody, I am trying to apply this GTD methodology.. but I only seem to use bits and pieces of the process.
I use a program on my Mac called OmniFocus which is basically a to do list broken down by what you are doing at the time.. ie: talking on the phone, shopping, emailing, etc.
I created a category called word requests and simply put them all into that.
I understand that the GTD methodology works GREAT with note cards... that's why they have this thing called the Hipster PDA which is bad ass!
Posted 11 months ago # -
buzzword
Memberyeah, hipster pda rules. i just added a highlighter app. to mine. they are so cheap i have a hPDA for every class and one in my kitchen!
Posted 11 months ago # -
pedanticKarl
MemberOhhhh my gawd, Marina! You wrote a book. I can't believe you took the time to answer. Ohhh my gosh. Thank you so kindly. Wow!!! you are amazing. Thank you for your notes. I am truly touched and humbled.
Marina, you have the knack and the skills of a great communicator which shows keen insights, and lucid and analytical thinking. Touches my heart. I have a few more questions, later. Gotta catch up on certain special project and I'll give you a breather to relax. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Posted 11 months ago # -
Captain Jack
MemberWow
she did write a book. I think this is a first? You took the time from you busy schedule to write this. Wow again! Thanks Marina. :mrgreen:That was a good description of what your day is like. I think it would be a good idea to have a link from the FAQ to your post to let the students know how busy you really are. I keep getting emails from students that think you only spend 2 to 3 minutes everyday to make a lesson. They don't understand the amount of work you do behind the scenes of that 3 minute lesson. If they did they might not be so hard on you for not doing their word request in a day or two. It would definitely put the student body in ease and encourage patients. I use a hPDA. It's a spiral ringed note book that fits in my pocket very easily. I have other legal pads (large and small ones) that I use to put notes on. If I need a page I tear it out and tap it up in my yacht. I also use post it notes. Its just easier to jot down notes quickly on a pad that never runs out of battery power or freeze up.
I have a palm pilot PDA (with a 4 gig HD and WiFi) which I used to use quite a bit but i
found it to be difficult to sync with my mac in a way that was an exact duplication of what I seen on the PDA. I hope the iPhone will bridge that issue I have with my palm pilot. btw I spent over $1,000 on my palm pilot. I bought keyboard, customer case, battery extenders, water proof case, etc. iPhone didn't exist yet or I would have bought a iphone. Had I waited 8 months I would have an iPhone. 
Posted 11 months ago # -
Fianchetto
Member@PKARL:
In true HFW style! She knocked my socks off with {this reply} to a question I really didn't ask or expect a reply from her!, just didn't understand! She's absolutely AWESOME in my book, too!
Posted 11 months ago # -
pedanticKarl
MemberMarina, as you said in one of your videos, you are a one girl show, doing it all. Considering all of the phases of making a video, (research, scripting, lighting, sound, performing in front of the camera, editing, etc) Which part of production do you relish the most? The least?
One of my associate friends is a professional director and film maker, but he does not work in the field professionally. He has been self funded and has produced six full length feature films about his native country of Cambodia.
Here is a quick site that his brother put up for my friend.
His name is Romanz (pronounced like, the Romans)When we grab a cup of coffee, the two of us are in a different world fantasizing and romanticizing about making an awesome movie. He tells me all kinds of stories about how he has done guerrilla movie making. (no scripting, no props, create the story and act as you go)
This is one of his full length features, but it is in Cambodian. The YT channel is not his. Someone ripped a DVD and placed it on YT. There are eight 10 min videos.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lHvZBxPnfcHave you ever heard of the rap group Inland Empire? Romanz directed this music video which was performed in Devore off of the 15 Fwy and 215 in S.B. This was shot with a hand held camera and doing about 15 long takes all day long. If I remember, his camera is a professional Panasonic. Don't remember the model. The rappers loved the result.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbSazYVudy8With your diverse talents, do you ever dream of something big and unusual in terms of movie making? I'm sure you do, perhaps you might not want to share that?
Keep dreaming big and reach for the stars
Posted 11 months ago # -
pedanticKarl
MemberHello Marina,
This link displays my marked up chart of the "Daily Views on YT". (tubemogul)
http://i36.tinypic.com/30agncp.jpgThe Spiegel interview produced a huge spike in video views. I think it was the largest spike so far and also produced the largest number of views. The previous spike was on Aug 23, 2008. I didn't document that occasion as I was not home, and I can't correlate it with a previous O'Reilly show.
The O'Reilly show on Dec 10 produced only a small spike in comparison to the Spiegel Interview. I would have expected the reverse. Do you have any insight into this? I'm fascinated by these stats.
Speculating, I would think that even though the foreign magazine gave you many times more views, the local US show, even though having produced fewer views, may have greater long term benefits?
Posted 11 months ago # -
Me Lika Do The Cha Cha
MemberNice one. Karl
Marina responds well to your questions.Ask her about the ipod Watch - heh heh
(I bet they come in pink!)[url=http://selectroclash.wordpress.com/2007/01/13/wrist-watch-ipod-competitor-from-iriver/]
Technology is the new pornography.Posted 11 months ago # -
Captain Jack
MemberMarina,
I have a question that I haven't received a truthful answer for. It's about what people are making from YT partnership. Im hearing people that are not that popular making thousands of dollars a month and others that very popular are just making a few hundred or so. When I heard that Micheal Buckley was making 6 figures I was shocked.
Not from the amount he makes, but from his view counts vs Phillip D. vs You vs etc. Micheal doesn't even have google adsense! From reading blogs, Im hearing a lot of BS and I was wondering if you knew what people are really making. Thanks...
Posted 11 months ago #
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