I love making videos with my iPod but the hardest part for me is not the tricks or the editing (well I’m not good at it mainly because I don’t have a good computer and I have to do it with apps)
the part that is most difficult to me is picking out the right song (I’m going to start competing pretty soon so I’m going to need a heads up on songs)
In my first REAL video (that I used music) I chose “Stronger” by Kanyé West. I like it, but its kinda inappropriate nervous chuckle and I really couldn’t smile like I normally do due to the fact it’s very well,… you know what I mean
Please recommend some songs and artists (I’d prefer ones with no lyrics to be on the safe side but if you have some with lyrics please recommend those too) I really don’t like heavy metal so lets keep away from those shall we
Please check out my video I’m not that good but I’d really like some feed back. Like and subscribe?
If your doing 2a do Party Rock LMAFO ( Like Shu Takada) 1a do something electric don’t go word songs, and if your fast enough fast electric is good. =D check out other performances and see their songs and style. :")
If there’s a genre of music you like, there’s a yoyoing, and editing, style that can match it. There’s language-free rap, and instrumental hip-hop; they’re both things that /exist/.
The main thing is after you’ve chosen something that goes good with your style as far as type of genre and temp, is concern yourself with lyrical content. You want to avoid disqualifications at contests due to language issues, and for videos, you want them to also be “family friendly”.
ALSO, I’ve found people who are doing audio drops for language content issues, that is just freakin’ annoying from a playback perspective and for the audience. It’s a major distraction for the audience, and the more drops, the bigger the distraction. From a playback perspective, I start questioning my gear and checking for errors, only do discover it’s the way it’s been edited with drops. I swear(no pun intended), choose the radio-edit or the “Clean version”, it ain’t that hard! OK, I know sometimes that ain’t an option. But, perhaps if you bought CD’s, it wouldn’t be such an issue.
This is why in part many throwers use a lot of electronic and dubstep due to the lack of lyrical content.
Well due to the fact I have an iPod and a poor cheap computer I have to buy the songs on iTunes and I like listening to the “Explicit” versions (I have no idea on spelling) so I can’t be buying both versions to much money.
I’ve been seeing a lot of Yyf videos and I see that they use this specific artist “Mr Bear” I’ve checked out a few of his songs and now I’ve grown to like them no lyrics nice beat I think I’ve found the right artist
I’ll be sure to check out the songs you guys recommended thanks guys
I prefer the “explicit” versions as well, but if you are going to use stuff for videos and competition, accept the reality of your audience and adapt.
I ain’t even going to go into how much MP3’s such and how amazing now virtually NO money is going into artist’s pockets thanks to digital distribution(it’s a joke and a scam). But, as I say(and will be self-censoring here): excuses are like *$$4#!35. Sorry, I come from a time, place and industry where talent and hard work used to take you to the top. Now, none of that is even necessary anymore, and look at how far that industry has fallen.
Now, back on topic:
If you’re competing:
Find a 1 minute edit you want to use for your preliminaries. You’ll need it.
Then, find a 2 minute or 3 minute version(s) of whatever you want to use for your finals freestyle, assuming you get that far. ALWAYS plan ahead. Worse case is that if you can’t do a 2 or 3 minute edit, the sound person will cut off your music. This happens a lot, don’t worry about it. If you need to know what time version you need, check the contest rules. It seems national and world contests do 3 minutes, everything else is 2.
For videos:
Length is irrelevant. Shorter is sometimes better, but sometimes not. You are in full control, edit how you see fit. Most people do find anything over 2 minutes to be too long if not a tutorial, and even then, when a tutorial goes that long, that usually means the trick is often overly complicated for one video. In such instances, see if the trick can be broken down into logical breaking points. Get the user to Point A in 1, Point B in 2, and finish in video 3 for example. Music choices should be similar to something suitable for contest use. Also, since you’re video’ing yourself, use this opportunity to also criticize your skills so you can find ways to improve. Heck, you’re doing half the work anyways, might as well utilize it best you can. ALSO, be open to critique and commentary, especially negative commentary. Many users here cannot handle any negative commentary.
For example, I suck and I know it. I don’t need someone to do the obvious. But I also don’t kid myself and think I’m good, because I’m not. I just choose to not make videos since I don’t need to prove to the world via YouTube I am in fact as bad as I say I am. Just take my word for it, it’s easier that way. I took a big chance earlier posting a unboxing concept video I made. Seems people are digging it.
Don’t be hard on yourself, you say you suck someone watches one of your videos and thinks “dang, I wish I could be as good as this” I think I suck but I used to teach my 18 year old cousin how to yoyo (1A,5A he teaches me right now 4A,3A. Right now I teach him Möbius)
he would always tell me “dude I wish I were as good as you” and with hard work now me and him are neck and neck in 1A he’s doing one of the hardest styles of yoyoing (3A) he’s teaching me 4A (I’m pretty good at it thanks to him and Ben Condé) and now he mops the floor with me on 5A the only styles I’m better than him are 2A and Möbius (Most of the times on 1A)
The point is don’t beat yourself up, like you said be open to negative critiques, if your not going to try, that says a lot about you plus it doesn’t hurt to try
It’s just me, but I seriously don’t like the whole ‘family friendly’ nature of song choices. I know parents want to keep their children as innocent as possible, but those children will learn those not-so-family-friendly language sooner or later.
Makes song choice really hard…and there are some songs that I really wanna use but they don’t have clean versions of it. I’ve always wanted to freestyle to Lil’ B and Odd Future [judge me all you want. I’m for the beats, not the crazy antics] but their explicit languages forces me to steer away from them. Frustrates me.
Anyway, I personally like throwing old school techno music [what up, Better Off Alone by Alice Deejay?] in contests to give that nostalgia vibe. As for chill sessions, anything that’s playing on Winamp at the moment. Could be Korean Pop music, dubstep, electro, hiphop, anything.
I was just jamming with old school dubstep and it was so chill. Pretty cool.
When doing things for the public, you MUST take your audience into consideration, including generally accepted rules of behavior, standards and “morality”. It’s one of those “What you do on your own time is your own busines, but what you do in public becomes or can become everyone’s problem”.
As a sound production company, all it takes is one guy playing music with an F-bomb in it and despite it not being MY choice of music to play, can cause the whole show to get shut down in an instant if policy enforcement personnel choose to pull rank and enforce maximum regulation with no leeway. It’s not ME saying the F-bomb, I’m merely playing the music. I didn’t choose the music, I’m merely playng what someone requested I play from music they provided.
I got no issue with “course language”. I use it myself. I’m a sound engineer, it’s what we say, it’s what we do.
When it comes to the music I buy, I will choose the stickered version every single time. It’s the artist’s original interpretation, and that’s what I want.
Contact the artist and see if they do offer a “clean” version of it. I know the feeling, but sometimes you need to adjust your choices. It sucks when you gotta adjust your flow because the tune you want to use just ain’t gong to work due to content issues.
Watch my Puffin and Gnarwal Homecoming video. That’s the kind of stuff I’m listening to when I am throwing and if I were to do a routine, it would be to that stuff. Plus, I know the artist and enjoy working with him but that’s a completely different issue. It caters to more slow play, and since I’m not a fast player, it all works out. But I don’t have to worry about contest performances because I won’t ever be competing. I like a lot of metal and industrial stuff too. I like hard music. Key word: music.
Again, when we are on the stage and in the public eye, we need to adjust to the environment. This is the nature of doing things for the public. If you want to get risky, do it with video as there is infinite leeway involved and you can even issue warnings so that way people can either kill the audio or not view it. But, when you’re on stage, you’re imposing upon a crowd, so you MUST “conform” to standards or risk the repercussions. You can do the best freestyle ever known to humanity but if you get disqualified due to lyrical content, it won’t do you any good.
As I won’t be making performance or routine videos, you’ll have to meet me to see how pathetic I am! Yes, you can point and laugh and confirm I’m bad! I can always keep working harder to get better, which is a large part of the fun I’m having.
Dude you can’t say you’re bad, think of the top yoyo players out there, Ben Conde at one point wasn’t good, John Narum at one point wasn’t good, Ann Connolly at one point wasn’t good, Mikey at one point wasn’t good, Tyler Severance at one point wasn’t good. every yoyo player has gone thru what your going thru I have, I remember not being able to do around the world and now here I am, getting paid $20 to do private yoyo lessons for 3 times a week and I’m only 13!!! You really shouldn’t beat yourself up, remember when someone points a finger three point back at them
Being bad doesn’t bother me. Since my goals don’t include competition or exhibition play, it’s easy to just play for fun, personal enjoyment and distraction.
So, I’m not beating myself up. Not in the least. I’ll never be a top player and that’s perfectly acceptable. I will improve over time.
Now, I think tomorrow if time allows, work on boing-e-boing and boomerang, frustrate the crap out of myself and then go work on something else in Advanced 2.
like most people, you do it the wrong way. it’s the other way around that works best.
1st pick the music, you have to pick a music that you enjoy enough so the video scenes start popping in your head
2nd try to draw the scenes on paper (storyboard) or write a quick description (script), ideally
3rd find the filming locations (if it’s in your city, you probably know it well enough to think of them without actually going there)
4th go filming
editing will be much easier and will look much better if you do that
Also, you absolutely need the basics of photography composition (takes about 5 minutes to learn on one of the tutorials websites around)
let the music inspire you the images, if you go the other way around you will have tons of lost footage and the edit will not be as dynamic as it could be.
pre-production work is what makes the sense out of your videos, it’s a crucial part if you want to produce quality videos.
Studio -> you should do videos for yourself, because they give you an external point of view on your tricks and how you do them. more often than not, I find a move that “feels” good and I “think” it looks good, but once I film it, I figure out it doesn’t, and then it helps me do the small adjustments to make it look better and actually work.
for that reason alone, every yoyo player should film himself at least once a month.
While I agree absolutely with every point you just made, I’m not going to be doing this.
I don’t really care about what every top player once thought. I’m not them and I don’t want to get inside their heads.
I’m 40, almost 41(will be 41 in about a month). My goals don’t involve competition. It’s just a personal journey for me. At contests, I’m perfectly content and in my natural environment running sound. My goals are having fun. If I can help others, then fantastic. At the same time, I don’t need to just be satisfied with where I am either. I’ve worked and busted my tail for 30+ years being one of the best live sound engineers. Despite thousands of events, I still push to improve, experiment and use each opportunity as a way of learning something new. Walking away at the end of the night with a fist full of cash is nice, but if I haven’t actually taken away some knowledge with me, it’s not satisfying. The same holds true for yoyo. I haven’t learned a new trick in over a month, so I’m just refining what I do know and trying to get better at stuff I have gone over but are still struggling with. The time isn’t right for me to learn something new.
I don’t need to be satisfied with my skill level, but I also know the reality of the situation as well. We should always strive to improve. That is my journey.
It seems that the players competing are having loads of fun up on stage have you seen how Ann smiles, how determined Takeshi is, how energetic Ben Condé is, you don’t have to compete but it doesn’t hurt to post a video
to much money.
thanks guys 
