How to Make a Terrible, Boring Video

Posted: June 16th, 2010 | Author: psychomelody | Filed under: Updates, Youtube, ranting | Tags: Psychomelody, rants, Updates, Video, Youtube | 2 Comments »

So it’s been awhile. But it’s not like I haven’t been working on videos. I’ve made a few, mostly for other people. But there was one that kinda had me stop and rethink my whole plan for new videos.

The problem is me. But I’m also going to blame this chocolate.

That’s the Pleasure & Pain dark chocolate bar infused with naga jolokia chili. I ordered it from Handy Candy in the UK. When I first saw this bar on the website about a year ago, I was dying to try it. I love crazy spicy things. I checked around, and there were really no videos of people trying this. I was excited to make a tasting and reaction video.

Hoping that the chocolate itself would incite an interesting reaction I didn’t really make a plan. I’ve had plenty of spicy food before but I don’t think I’ve ever had anything with naga jolokia in it. I was hoping for something extreme. I even bought some milk for the occasion. The actual chocolate bar itself had a warning on it. I had seen videos of people trying naga jolokia stuff and even just habanero peppers and freaking out. Well I’ve had raw habaneros before and they made me sweat and I felt a bit of pain, but nothing I couldn’t keep a straight face for. I guess I should haven’t expected too much because of this.. but it’s the naga jolokia… the hottest pepper in existence.

So I gave a bit of an introduction and tried some. I then sat there for 2 minutes waiting for something to happen. I’ve had the Lindt red chili pepper dark chocolate before (which I highly recommend) and it was a bit similar, it just felt like much thicker chocolate when melted. The spiciness was completely different, though. It’s kinda hard to explain. Like… super spicy melted mexican cheese. I didn’t even really sweat. I had two pieces and didn’t even have to go for the milk.

How boring.

I guess my tolerance for spicy stuff is a lot higher than I thought. I have yet to have anything here in Japan that’s really been too much for me. I’ve had the spiciest reimen (a type of cold ramen that is famous around here) and those crazy habanero chips that I saw on the net years ago. I know it’s me and not the chocolate, as when I brought the rest to share with my coworkers they reacted hilariously. There is nothing like this in Japan and they all tried it out of curiosity. Some of them can’t handle any spiciness whatsoever. Maybe I should have had the camera on them…

As for the video I did… It’s terrible. It’s just me rambling and then talking about how it wasn’t that spicy at all. I tried to edit it down and salvage it, but it just isn’t possible. So this video will never see the light of day.

It made me rethink about my videos and all the videos I had planned. I think the biggest problem is, well, me. Even though I have been working on it, I’m terrible in front of the camera. I’m much better behind the camera. I think it’s because I’m a perfectionist, and yet I know I’m in no way perfect myself. I’m a good judge of my own talent. In fact, I see myself as a good judge of talent in general. I have a hard time making videos because I feel I don’t have the talent, my self or others, to reach the quality I want and need. The worst part is, when I just DO something, something that isn’t totally great or didn’t take that much skill… people love it. For example, the above is how to make a bad video. Well, here is how you make a GOOD video:

And not only that, it teaches you how to put a Nintendo into a toaster. I did the music, or shall I say… I pressed a few keys in Garageband and music happened somehow. I’ve known Richard for over 10 years now. Even his first videos had something in them that was good… he had a talent for this kind of stuff. I could see it. I still can. He has no training in video whatsoever. In fact, 10 years ago he inspired me to go to film school myself with something he made in high school.

And yes, I know that you can make videos without people. That’s hard too, but I’m working on some ideas using such. I could do more environment shots with my camera, those seem to do well. But that’s not all I want to do. I guess my real problem is that I do too much.

I’m going to try again. I’m going to see what I can do with myself. I’m going to collab with a few of my friends and then try to get a few ideas I’ve had written down actually done. That’s another thing, I have to find a way to get all of my long standing ideas done before somebody like MysteryGuitarMan does them, like he has many times already. Oh well, it’s my fault. It’s what happens when you wait.

I’ll try and write here more. I’m just worried that I’ll end up writing long winded posts like this all the time because I don’t know when to shut the hell up.

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