Feel a bit of a fraud amongst all the fine creative people here sharing their music, but off I go anyway, promoting my poxy youtube channel.

Discellany is just me in old-school fanzine writer mode, talking about music I like. Nothing snazzy, simple unscripted videos with a podcast vibe, just talking to camera about stuff. I notice a trend on youtube of collectors just showing off their latest/greatest/rarest vinyl and the like, and I wanted to go somewhere different...try and talk in some depth about bands/albums/music/culture and inject a bit of feeling and context into it. My current videos are on the longer side for youtube (mostly 15-30mins), so decent hits are a little harder to come by, particularly from a "standing start". Please check in and have a look around if you have the time.

Currently, I'm running an episodic 90s series (90s Overlooked Underheard) highlighting some favorites of mine...nothing overly obscure or out there, but maybe stuff that doesn't jive with the current 90s music narrative in the wider media. I've also started doing an old NME readthrough feature, dated from the week of upload, but 33 years ago...only one of these videos (NME+33) published so far (I'm kind of crossing my fingers regarding copyright), dated 9th September 1989.

Thanks!

subscribed. If i can offer some superficial feedback, the first impression of your channel (on my phone) is that it's got like 15 videos with the same thumbnail and same title

i'm no youtube expert but if I got something from watching endless plugin review videos it's that being creative with your video titles is p effective

prowler wrote: Sat Sep 10, 2022 6:30 am subscribed. If i can offer some superficial feedback, the first impression of your channel (on my phone) is that it's got like 15 videos with the same thumbnail and same title

i'm no youtube expert but if I got something from watching endless plugin review videos it's that being creative with your video titles is p effective

Thanks so much, and the thumbnail point is a very good one. I was going for some kind of thematic consistency, what with them being part of the same series, but yes, I think that may make them blend together a bit too much. I should probably check out how things look on a phone screen more often, too.

EDIT: So, yeah, I just edited some things and I think it's an improvement. The titles are a little more concise, and the thumbnails now feature album covers where I just had artist names before. The individual thumbnails stand out from each other much better, and where screen space is an issue, the artist names should be more visible at the end of the titles now. Thanks again for the constructive criticism...this is all new to me.

i played the latest episode, very cool! you seem very thoughtful and informed, and made me wanna check out the album. I looked at the list and i think the only ones i've heard are Mercury Rev, Flaming Lips and Band of Susans. So a lot to catch up on, haha. Should be good.

the mise-en-scene (?) seemed a little off balance to me, with you sitting in the middle but facing to one side, with your back to the images, but I'm no expert...

the letter o wrote: Sat Sep 10, 2022 6:51 am
EDIT: So, yeah, I just edited some things and I think it's an improvement. The titles are a little more concise, and the thumbnails now feature album covers where I just had artist names before. The individual thumbnails stand out from each other much better, and where screen space is an issue, the artist names should be more visible at the end of the titles now. Thanks again for the constructive criticism...this is all new to me.

yeah much better! It would be nice if the image of your face was different on each one, but I realise that's quite a bit of extra work..

prowler wrote: Sun Sep 11, 2022 3:41 am i played the latest episode, very cool! you seem very thoughtful and informed, and made me wanna check out the album. I looked at the list and i think the only ones i've heard are Mercury Rev, Flaming Lips and Band of Susans. So a lot to catch up on, haha. Should be good.

the mise-en-scene (?) seemed a little off balance to me, with you sitting in the middle but facing to one side, with your back to the images, but I'm no expert...

Very much appreciate all your feedback, and really glad you're getting something out of the content. I'm very wary of youtubers who just skim wiki details/timelines and repeat them verbatim (often adding very little else), so I'm definitely focusing on a mixture of basic info/background, and lots of my own thoughts, feelings and interpretations.

Space is limited at home for shooting video, and I have to rely a lot on natural light, hence the setup. The images/slideshow element is really just there to add a little extra visual interest...I'm very conscious that it's just my face front-and-centre, a few minutes with the physical media, and very little else, so something to add a little "movement" or variation was the aim.

prowler wrote:

the letter o wrote: Sat Sep 10, 2022 6:51 am
EDIT: So, yeah, I just edited some things and I think it's an improvement. The titles are a little more concise, and the thumbnails now feature album covers where I just had artist names before. The individual thumbnails stand out from each other much better, and where screen space is an issue, the artist names should be more visible at the end of the titles now. Thanks again for the constructive criticism...this is all new to me.

yeah much better! It would be nice if the image of your face was different on each one, but I realise that's quite a bit of extra work..

Yeah, I'm much happier with the thumbnails. Different images of me may be a little more than I can fit in right now, but it's definitely something to consider for a future themed "series".

Still plugging away at this. Managed to leach some clicks/views off the latest Pitchfork '90s season stuff, but would rather just be making videos about cool stuff I like...

...Speaking of which, Mission Of Burma's "Vs" is 40 today, and I made a short video about it. It should be there, yeah, down there, just below these words. Sorry about the face, but I'm kind of stuck with it.



Thanks!

Still going, slow progress, but the very modest milestone of hitting 100 subscribers is within reach. I think my stuff is getting a little snappier in the editing department, which is good, because revisiting my earliest videos is a real eye-opener...far too scared to cut, lots of loooong pregnant silences, textbook retention-killing in practice!

Here's my latest. I did a John Cale primer to tie in with his latest album release, Mercy. Still on the long side, but it's accumulated some OK watch time, and on the whole, I'm pretty happy with it.



Cheers!

yeah great stuff, i was watching this video earlier today. definite improvements in editing, pacing etc

prowler wrote: Sat Jan 21, 2023 8:10 am yeah great stuff, i was watching this video earlier today. definite improvements in editing, pacing etc

Thanks, man! The youtube experts out there claim that you should expect your first 50 videos to be trash, and I passed that point at the tail end of last year. Glad that the improvements aren't just in my head, and are visible to someone other than me!