Videos I refuse to watch, and recommend you do the same.

They say you can’t judge a book by its cover. Which is partly true, although trashy romance novels beg to differ. One look at the cover of one of those and you can tell right away that you’d be better off avoiding it altogether because the chance of it containing anything remotely new or interesting or just plain not downright irritating is not worth the effort it takes to find out.

Yoyo videos over the years have changed a lot. So much so, in fact, that they’ve even evolved their own yoyo version of the trashy romance novel. I used to watch every video if I could, but as time has gone on I’ve had to figure out ways to safely trim out the ones that tend to waste my time. I’ve discovered that there are some common characteristics by which you too can judge yoyo videos by their covers, or at least the first few pages.

• Any video whose name is simply the name of the yoyoer and the time it was posted. For instance, Elephark 2011 or Elephark, March 2011.
• Any video whose name represents a period of time since the yoyoer began throwing. For instance, Elephark’s 68 month video.
• Any video whose name is simply the name of the yoyo, or something similar. For instance, Kickside or Testing out my new Kickside.
• Any video whose name includes the word featuring. For instance, Weighting Game, featuring the Kickside or Weighting Game feat. Elephark.
• Any video whose name includes the words new camera or camera test. For instance, Elephark camera test March 2011 feat. Kickside.
• Any video whose name includes the words preview or teaser. For instance, Weighting Game teaser, get ready for the drop next week!
• Any video whose name includes the words new trick(s) or particularly the term concept(s). For instance, Weighting Game feat. new concept—power freegen or Elephark 2011: New Tricks.
• Any video whose name is the name of the song used in the video. For instance, Keep a Peak.
• Any video whose creator insists that you watch it in HD. Make the video right and it’ll be plenty visible even at 240p.
• Any video in which the scenery is more important/prominent than the yoyoing.
• Any video in which the credits are more interesting or last longer than the yoyoing.
• Any video in which the music has been previously used in a prominent video. Same goes, more or less, for freestyles.
• Any video in which the music significantly detracts from the yoyoing. You might think hyper extreme chainsaw bloodbath metal is funny or ghettofab gangsta rap with 120 proof profanity is meaningful, but it’s irritating to most people. What it tells me is that the creator wasn’t keeping the audience in mind as he chose the music.
• Any video in which the yoyoer wears clothing that hinders the visibility of the yoyoing. White shirts are stupid. Stupid. You have to be stupid to use a white shirt in a video. Stupid. Stupid. Same goes for freestyles.

3 Likes

well put elephark :slight_smile:

A lot of these requirements mean you’ve already watched the video. But I do agree.

I’d just like to announce my upcoming video!

(Camera text) Q 2011 New Concepts featuring the BassBost and CaseyD (at 3 months) be sure to watch in HD!

[quote=“funkyman50,post:3,topic:24984”]
Many of those can be spotted within even a few seconds of the video starting, and the video can be stopped. I’ll close the window right away almost every single time if I can’t see the string clearly because of poor lighting or color choices.

I totally agree. Ehh. I agree with what he says about the titles.

I’ve been guilty of using the “X Months” title, but that was because I saw a lot of titles like that, and thus the vicious cycle continues.

I hate when the title says “featuring”, “feat.”, or “ft.” like it’s a freaking music video.

Whats so bad about white shirts? Unless the string is white, i don’t see a problem with it :stuck_out_tongue:

I search for videos for the YoYoSkills “After the Jump” semi weekly feature, and run into so many videos that need more light, better background, or just a better angle.
I also don’t like a black sheet background unless you are making a tutorial. Contrary to Elepharks list, I LIKE nice backgrounds and settings. but some of what you said is spot on with how I feel. Specifically, I don’t like the “Headless YoYoer”

I herd that!

I like to watch videos of peoples 3, 6, 10, 87 month videos. They can be inspiring sometimes. I think you may be judging the yoyo (video) community too harshly. One of the reasons yoyo videos have changed so much is because there are many new yoyoers. Thous yoyoers post videos of there progress and I see no problem with that. And thous yoyoers will also bring more people into the sport of yoyoing and if there is more videos to watch there will be more motivation to keep yoyoing and in a way competing to be better than the next person Ex: He/she is better than me at 4 months, I need to step my game up a little… IMO

Nevertheless I do agree with some of your statement. Thank you for taking the time to write this, twas good reading material.

[quote=“Ley,post:7,topic:24984”]
Light string over dark background gives better, clearer, more reliable results than dark string over light background, especially in a video. It’s more obvious the more you experiment with it. There’s no reason to use a white shirt if you have a dark shirt. And it takes like 30 seconds to change shirts. Considering that if you’re at all like me, you’ll be spending several minutes at the very least to film a single trick and several hours to film a full-on video, you might as well put on a shirt that won’t sabotage your efforts.

DIS AGREEEEEEEEE:
Awesome Vid And The title is the name of the yoyo

Awesome Vid And The title is the name of the song

2 Awesome Vids And The title is how many years he have been yoyoin


Awesome Vid And The Preview Is In The Title

Awesome Vid And The title…2010

My 2 Cents

Not bad videos, just bad titles.

this is true up to a point:

this is a great video with “concept” in the title

but I must admitt in most cases you are right.

“Videos I Refuse To Watch, and recommend you to do the same” :slight_smile:

Sorry, Elephark, you are missing out on some great clips. For shame…

1 Like

Lmfao :smiley:

Generalizations don’t work for the very reasons posted above.

I personally think titles have nothing to do with the quality of the yoyoing in the videos.

I disagree strongly with nearly everything on that list. When I click on a video, and begin to watch it, only after I’ve watched a fair bit of it do I decide if I want to continue. No matter what the title is, you can’t decide what it is like until you’ve watched some. Or more. If the quality is so bad and blurry that you can’t even see anything, I wouldn’t really even do that. I have to admit, though, that I lost you as soon as you referenced “trashy romance novels.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwjvGen3qI0

look at the title. looks like he didnt take your tips  :smiley: :smiley: :smiley: :smiley:

Not defending him, I’m presenting my point of view.