Hiya! Avdi here with a quick question.
Lately we’ve been hosting a lot of guest chefs in the RubyTapas kitchen. So far, each guest episode has begun with a voice-over introduction from yours truly. I’ve been thinking about whether I want to keep doing these video introductions for future videos, or whether to have the videos go straight to the guest chef. Either way, I’d continue to include a text version of my introduction in the episode post.
- On the one hand, the video introductions give me a chance to tell you a little about the guest, why they are on the show, and give you some context for their chosen topic.
- On the other hand, in a show that prizes brevity, the intros add as much as an extra 60 seconds to a video that’s only 5 minutes long. You have to wait through the intro to get to the “meat” of the episode.
An additional consideration from a production standpoint is this: the intros impose an extra bottleneck in the video creation workflow. My video editor has to wait on me to record the intro before he can proceed with a rough cut. Which in the worst cases delays delivery of the episode.
So what do you think? Here’s a poll where you can let me know what you prefer.
…why should your video editor wait for you? Can he record the introduction himself? I mean, the introduction is nice and I think you should keep it… but it does not have to be your voice…
mmmm I meant “Can he or she record the introduction himself?” sorry about that
I like the intros but not if it causes more work and bottlenecks. I mean, it’s nice but I don’t mind being pragmatic.
A lot of people do seem to like them! That’s good to know, I wasn’t sure if they were adding value.
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For me the introductions are too long compared to the overall video length.
I’m also thinking about keeping them but making them shorter.
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Why leave your intro until the end and create a bottleneck? When you come to terms with a guest chef, record you intro – you have all the info you need at that point, and presumably your intro will take less time than the guest chef will take to record the episode.
I can see how it might seem like I could do the intro right after booking a guest. In fact, I normally can’t write or record the intro until after our script review, at which point I have a good understanding of what they’ll be talking about.
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On the one hand I really like the intro because it tends to make me excited to hear from this person (you do an excellent job of communicating both why I should care about their topic and why I should care to listen to this person specifically!). On the other hand, I think a write-up could serve the same purpose.
I voted to cut the intro because I figure this is the smoothest path for you in terms of creative process. The fewer bottlenecks, the easier I imagine the process would be on all involved.
That said, if you could magically pull the intro out of thin air and have it exist without holding anyone up or complicating your workflow, I would prefer to keep it.
Thanks for this feedback! It’s very helpful.
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