madnessfreddy
My channel link is: http://www.youtube.com/user/FreddyGameplay/featured
One Random Video - 7/10
Video picked - "
Plugin Showcase - CraftingPlus - Freddygameplay"
Video Quality - 7/10
At the very beginning of the video, we can see your MineCraft window and windows task bar, after a few seconds it goes to fine video quality, with a perfect aspect ratio. Frame rate is good. I'd advise increasing the GUI size, as when not in fullscreen it can be a strain in the eyes to see some of the item names and such. Not sure what the beginning was about but you sorted it out. Both intro and outro are very basic text slap on to screenshots, they're short which is very good, but perhaps add some animation or movement in the background.
Audio Quality - 6/10
Game audio is fine, mic quality is on the low side but is still acceptable with little background noise, I'd very much recommend getting a better mic, but it's not an urgent thing.
Commentary Consistency - 7/10
You're new so you're obviously warming up to having your voice on youtube and it takes a little time to break your voice in and relax. I would guess (without any knowledge) that English isn't your first language. Considering that, your consistency is good, and you seem to know what you want to talk about in the video, there are a few umms around the place, but as I say, it takes a little while to break out of that and truly relax.
Voice Type and Pitch - 7/10
As I say I wasn't sure whether English was your first language, but your accent is interesting and has the potential to pick up viewers really well. As I also say it takes a while to break in your YouTube voice, but at the moment you're a little monotone, try being a bit more lively when recording. Pitch is fine, your voice isn't high or irritating so there aren't any faults there.
Video Content - 5/10
The video seems to be explaining a minecraft mod of an advanced crafting bench, you explain how it's made and what it does. That's absolutely fine, and you understand the mod, however... There are other mods similar to this and this video doesn't seem to be necessary. It's all good and well explaining what a mod does, but unless it's your mod I don't feel you have the need to. For the most part it seems pretty intuitive and the only thing that a new user of the mod would need to know is the recipe, which undoubtedly will be on the mod page. Perhaps reviewing it, explaining why it is better to use then other similar mods and whether you think it needs improving or any extra things you think you could add to it. That way you're helping the mod maker as well with video feedback.
Background - 3/10
Background consists of what I'm guessing to be a free pre made background ready for anyone to use. Meaning you probably shouldn't take any offense to this seeing as you didn't make it.
For the designer:
First Flaw - It's not central, the right side is further away from the page then the left.
Second Flaw - The designer is using stupid space, putting his name right at the top of his channel, designers should realize this makes the design ugly, just stick a small logo and potential name lower down on the page, with a similar theme to the background itself.
Third Flaw - Quality, youtube only allows for 1MB backgrounds, this means that in order to fit larger more detailed backgrounds you have to lower the quality. Not worth it, just sacrifice more detail for better (PNG) quality.
Fourth Flaw - Size, the background is huge, I have a 1440x900 monitor, at 100% zoom (normal), it barely shows any of the background itself. At 75% zoom I can just about see everything, but now I can't see any detail as it's zoomed out.
For you:
YouTube offers a setting to set the colour of your background, if you have the scrolling setting ticked, you will see this colour when the background image is no longer there (when scrolled down), at the moment, you have that setting at white, change it to black, it's more suited for the background.
Thumbnails - 6/10
Congrats for getting custom thumbnails, they are a big part of your creativity and a reason for people to click on your videos. Your thumbnails honestly look like they've been whipped up in paint, which is okay, but it's just very simple to slap some text onto a screenshot. There are black bars on the top and bottom of the thumbnail, not sure if that is intentional, if it is, I'm personally not a big fan. First of all, the font needs a stroke (an outline), the white text is less pleasing to the eyes around the cloud area where two similar colours are mixing. Try to stroke the font (with a black outline) to prevent it from blending and making the text more visible. If I were you, I'd also vary the screenshots in the background, you obviously know how to record, print screen minecraft with the same dimensions and just travel a few extra places for different thumbnails. It's understandable that you don't have the best software for this sort of thing, but even in paint they can still look good.
Metadata - 6/10
Metadata is difficult to pull off, knowing what to put in the title and description is something you learn in time. For a starter, you don't need your YouTube name in the title of the video, everyone can already see it just below. Second of all, always try to include what game you are playing in the title, a simple "MC:" or "(MineCraft)" in the title will allow people to decide whether they are going to the right video. While it may be obvious to anyone that has played MineCraft, it wont be for those that don't that have found you searching for plugins. Other then that, Plugin Showcase, CraftingPlus, that's all fine.
In the description you provide a brief description of what the video is about, as well as a download link and a neat little part at the end. This is absolutely fine, the structure of it is perfect. The nice message at the end of the description is also nice for anyone reading. Good Job. Only thing I will say, which reflects back to my thinking of English not being your first language, is a few grammatical errors here and there. Even those at the top of the English language make them too, so it's not a huge problem, but things like "a advanced" (should be "an advanced") can simply be checked off and changed anyway. Try using a grammar extension for whatever browser you're using, it might do you some good.
Final thoughtsOverall View - 6/10
I was slightly kind, it was on the edge between 5 and 6 out of 10. However, you are just starting out on youtube, and I have to say when I first started my videos were terrible compared to yours, so you have plenty of time and room to improve. I hope you like my review, a bit harsh in some places perhaps but it's good to see that you've been uploading frequently too, I don't suspect it will be too long before you start gaining a few more fans and subs. Good job man, and good luck.
