Hey wolves! I throw myself to you!

[Stephon]

I was thinking today, "Y'know, I've been feeling too good about myself lately," so I thought I'd ask for feedback on one of my promo videos--Cheeky Monkey Sideshow

Thanks for looking.

[gav]

I liked the music. The player controls seemed to be overlapping the actual video, not sure if that's intentional or just my browser.
Does anyone talk in that show ? I would have liked to have got a feeling for the characters a bit better, but seeing as it's just a short online video I guess that wasn't your main objective.
Seems to show enough of the show to get an idea of what's happeing.
I'd also like to see someone dressed as a monkey for 1 routine just to tie in with the name.

You could do with some matrix like effects.

[Stephon]

Originally posted by gav
The player controls seemed to be overlapping the actual video, not sure if that's intentional or just my browser.

That's just the Flash controls--if you move your cursor off the controls after you push "play", the control bar disappears.

[gav]

I see
Shouldn't they make it fade away after a few seconds of inactivity for idiots like me ?
After al ther is lot idots like me.

[Doctor Eric]

Alright, it looks like every other promo video for every other "sideshow" act. Happy now?

It doesn't tell me anything about the troop, other than that you do all the sideshow stuff. If this is for corporate, or just hype to people that have either never seen this stuff, or just want the same ol' same ol', then it's fine. It's not poorly put together, really, it's just a music video.

[Doctor Eric]

And the video player doesn't have to look like that, this is the prototype video player I made for rachel. WORK IN PROGRESS

[Stephon]

That's a very cool player. Did you create it in Flash?

I'm relatively familiar with Dreamweaver, but know very little about Flash; that was the best player I could find in DW.

[Doctor Eric]

Yeah, I wrote that one.

The one you have is just the stock video player for flash movies, but flash comes with 8 different options

[Frisbee]

nice

Nice player design Eric...

Where have you been playing? Since the Green Room closed I have not seen you anywhere.


-Frisbee

[Isabella]

Promo video

I think it's too small to watch properly on your site, and it is distracting to have the controls over the picture.

It's a nice overview, and it's clear what you do and who you are. It looks like it probably represents the show well.

As your friend and colleague, I wish it looked more expensive and that you had flashier costumes and props, which are less hassle and expense than flashier sets and lights. Or conversely, a much more edgy or otherwise defined "look".

Right now, it looks like everyone is wearing the stuff they have in their closet at home - the show doesn't have a unified look, and more importantly, if you're going for oldtime - or newtime - sideshow, it doesn't look like that, more like a variety show.

The name is so cool - maybe it's worth brainstorming with the other performers about a unified look that fulfills the name? Right now, your turban is the strongest visual in the show.

Allison

[scot]

your site looks like you can click on an image to find out more about a performer. mystery meat links = bad

long video with continuous pacing and repetive music = bad

the first shot of the blockhead = good

you should get footage that's upclose for 90 percent of your video. the blockhead shot also has the best color and contrast in the video.

i agree with a lot of the comments.

make it take up more screen size. If you're making the video that big on the screen, you could probably change each and every shot to crop to closeup.

there's no concept, branding, image of the show -- just to repeat everyone.

you could use a video player that doesn't look like it's selling me a cell phone.

the video is boring at the middle, and rightly so, it has nothing new to show me except that you have more footage to show me.

think of a booker's dreams and fears and cover them all. right now, the blood pressure level is still high because so many questions are unanswered.

Take promo photos with a camera, not a blackberry.

[em]

orange

Hi, wolfess here,
My post is about the compilation of the page itself, (not the video) seeing as its the first thing i see.

It feels like the video player needs framing, to pick it out as the focus? to make it special? or to intice us to look at it?
And i assume that the main image is of a stage with side show banners on it?

I'm struggling with the different versions of orange, for me what is beautiful about the old/antique/circus freak show banners were the swathes of colours and primitive design....but they were always paintings and not photographic..i may be barking up the wrong tree here though, and changing it may make it look really chaotic...

i guess its about focus, we are not sure quite where the eye is meant to go, if something is intriguing/beautiful/cheeky then it doesn't matter that we browse into corners....but each component should invite us or be an addition to the design...

On Eric's site for Rachel we know exactly what the 'goal' of the page is, and it leads us straight to it, the eye likes that. Unless the point of the design is for meandering...check out this site www.turak-theatre.com .....a french puppet company. When the page loads run your mouse over everything!

But there's my vague thoughts....

x

[Doctor Eric]

let's not get in to critiquing the website.

"you could use a video player that doesn't look like it's selling me a cell phone."

Ha!

[Chris Griffith]

tag at the end

not necessary. .. the logo is right above it and the small vids are too small to be seen. . .

I love that triplets of bellvue soundtrack, though. ...

[Stephon]

Big thanks to everyone who has responded so far. You've given me a lot to work with and think about when I redo the video.

(I'll work on the player controls--they were the best of what I had to choose from.)


The site design comments were actually helpful too.

scot--I wasn't sure what you meant by "your site looks like you can click on an image to find out more about a performer". You can click on a banner to learn different information about the show, although not each performer per banner. And I'm not sure what you were refering to as "promo photos".

em--yeah, there is a lot of orange. Traditionally, sideshow banner pictures are framed in orange, and I wanted to keep with that tradition; however, since we don't present the show as an "olde time" carnival sideshow, I thought using photographs that had been Photoshopped to (hopefully) look like they may have been painted would give the right effect. Maybe I was wrong. (Are those the photos you were talking about, scot?)

Anyway, thanks again, and if anyone has any other thoughts, please share!

~Stephon