Amir has been running a blog for quite a while now titled “Mujahideen Ryder” – on it you’ll find some quirky posts, as well as some profound content from himself.
Recently Amir released a video that he himself put together to promot an event taking place in September sponsored by Islamic Relif and United for Change against Malaria.
Amir requested that I give his video a critique, so here goes:
What I liked:
Its HD -
Makes the image quality of the video look real nice mashaAllah.
Made use of Prominence -
Featuring many prominent Muslims on screen from different organizations.
What can be improved:
Eye candy -
Use B-Roll footage instead of simply talking head. Add more pictures.
Tell a story -
I think Imam Zaid’s part should have been in front. It seems the most visually and audibly impact-ful. He’s telling his story as opposed to saying “come to the event” – a call to action which should be in the end.
That’s it for now. Amir, for your next video try applying these two factors with excellence and watch the quality of your video improve massively inshaAllah.
I want to give props to Baba Ali for launching two totally seperate business projects back to back. MashaAllah bro. The focus of this blog post on Ali’s new game Kalimaat.
I had the opportunity to play this game back when Ali was testing it out and getting a feel for how people would respond and react to his newest invention.
My personal experience was that this is an EXCELLENT party game. Certainly will make for a great Eid activity.
Check out some of the videos he’s got up:
I love the Kinetic Typography that the motion artist did in this video.
These are some commercials that were shot a short while back:
Why do more work then needed if someone has done most of the hardwork for you?
This is a shout out to Cassidy Bisher of DropDrop.com for the AWESOME Adobe After Effects templates that he produces as well Andrew Kramer of VideoCopilot.net for the equally awesome After Effects training and tutorials he’s laid out.
One of the stepping stones to developing your skills as a master of your craft is to start by mimicking and learning exactly how the master does it. Once you get a hang of it, mix and match appropriately for your own projects.
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:: Secret #2 – Understand Fundamental Principles & Tools
Learn the the basic functions of Adobe After Effects and learn the basics of design. Master the basics and you’ll learn to manipulate the advanced stuff quickly. Yes, its difficult to make the flashy attractive stuff in these early stages, but its a good stage to start playing with already completed project templates to get you moving along the way.
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:: Secret #3 – Develop a Work Flow Process
Know that processes lead to the development of procedures which lend you and your project the ability to be duplicated so that others can carry forth your work.
The basic process of work flow and tools I’ve used for the trailers is as follows:
Gather Ideas
Develop Concept
Research template options which can house the concept being communicated
Mold the template in Adobe After Effects to carry the message visually
Export to uncompressed AVI
Import to Premiere to assemble the different parts to tell the message visually
Gather and sample audio elements in Sound Forge and export them to AIFF files
Import and assemble them in the Premiere sequences to carry the message in audio
Tweak the audio in Premiere to enhance the visual message
Export the project via Adobe Media Encoder and pass it to key individuals for feedback to make changes towards a final draft.
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:: Secret #4 – Get yourself an appropriate computer to edit on
You may be able to get by on an Intel Core2Duo or slower PC/Mac but you’ll be losing a LOT of time. Speed is the key to timely delivery and profits.
Get yourself a Intel Core i7 system with 6GBs of DDR3 RAM and you’ll be good to go – especially if you want to produce HD content. You can build a system like that for about $1,500 today from NewEgg.com. Here’s a breakdown:
~$130 USD = 850 Watt Corsair Power Supply (via Amazon.com)
~$260 USD = 1 TB Hard Drive + 150 GB HDD Western Digital Raptor
~$100 USD = Video Card
~$160 USD = PC Case + Keyboard + Mouse
~$220 USD = SAMSUNG 2343BWX 23″ monitor
~$80 USD = Pair of good head phones
Total cost = ~$1,500
This is the cost if you were to build it from the ground up or purchase from a vendor like Dell. It prob will cost you only a fraction of that if you just upgrade your existing machine.
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:: Secret #5 – Patience
I guess you can say that’s not much of a secret. Video editing, motion graphics, media production takes TIME. You have to keep at. Many times you may even find yourself staying up three to maybe even four nights back to back so that you can make the deadlines.
If you don’t have a passion for this sort of stuff then you’ll absolutely hate doing it and will be ready to literally pull your hair out or shoot yourself
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:: The Showcase
I can confidently say that the development of these trailers – approximately eight minutes of total content – took 450 hours of work. Every minute of content took 56.25 hrs.
