The perfect training video

Good question.  Some things I appreciate in training dvd's.

- at least 60 min in CONTENT length... that would be 'actual instruction', not flashy intro slides, slo motion repeates, etc.

- following thr prior point,   you should have LOTS of instruction. The Gracies are great about this. They show the motions repetetively, but you never feel like it is dullsville--- unless you sit down and try to watch the whole DVD through. So, as a truly 'instructional' DVD, I think they nail it.

- Chapterized menu and well organized presentation.  i.e. a script you follw with clearly presented ideas, not random talking or rambling.  Your assitsants should know what they are doing.

a fellow collector and i have an ongoing disagreement about 'one complete take' or not, or whether to use a more 'slide' like format with black screens.  Personally, while I see his point about a 'full' error free take being the more difficult project, I would do both-- i.e. even if you do one take, you should still include well organzied chapter marks that are logically organized and easy to use. 

- Isolated content (instruction), followed by quick demonstration of motion in action, followed by UNREHEARSED live action (if possible).  Sometimes it's not possible to do the latter, so you have a rehearsed fast action (i.e. 'full-speed demonstration', which is different than what I mean by 'live motion application') .  In any case---  something that makes it at least LOOK like whatever your showing 'works' the way you say it will, when you say it will, for the situations you say it will, which should be subject to a 'real' intense attack and not a dead 'feed'.

-  If you include a book(let), that can have expanded content linked to the chapters... i.e. more detail, variations, safety considerations or training tips, the underlying theory, etc.  Regardless, the book should have some basis for being that is independent of teh DVD.  if not, just put the content in teh instructional.

 - Professional presentation.  What I mean here is:  high quality DVD video and audio is possible for even amatuers these days.  So, no grainy seminar footage with faint audio from across the room here.  (I once purchased a FOUR HOUR 'instructional' DVD from a well-known instructor that turned out to be a straight taping of a seminar he had put on with about 30 minutes of real content on it.  The rest was him cracking jokes and footage of people practicing the stuff--- 'Disappointing' to say the least.   You can skip ALL That.  Everybody recognize 'filler' for the filler or simply 'poor editing' it is.

Another small point:  keep profanity to a minimum, or don't use it at all.  I had this conversation with another instructor about this very subject and we agreed that a particular individual who showed pretty good content was someone we just somehow 'automatically' thought less of because every other word out of his mouth was that this was 'how you F---- somebody up'   and etc. etc. etc.  He was obvioulsy trying to sound like a dock worker and It was detracting from his content and made him look like a real amateur we both thought.  And we consume a LOT of MA DVD's between us.

- Finally, a reasonable price point.  (Me, I would say $30-$75 US but  that's my budget)  Again, I think for some MA's it automatically takes you down a peg to appear too commercial (i.e. offering VOL's 1-15 for instance of low-content DVD with 30 min. of instruction per and 30 minutes of filler creates a certain 'perception'), or esp. if you have a high price point and then it is felt that the content is not there even on ONE volume. 

On  the other hand, if I have paid what I feel to be a reasonable price and feel like I've gotten high quality from  a person, I'm more inclned to purchase Vol. 2 :-) ) So, 'professional', not 'commercial'.  One thing I discussed with another instructor once was $1 per minute of REAL instruction  (see above).  30 minute 'lesson', you get $30. 60-minute lesson you get $60.  That's reasonable.

- Some uniqueness, if possible.  i.e.  whay  am I buying YOUR shotokan/ judo/ karate/ silat/ sambo DVD and not somebody who is a demontrated wolrd champion (Unless maybe you are.  :-))  Me, I'm not, and a lot of the instructional DVD's I have are from guys like me... just regular old 'instructor's' out there.    There's nothing WRONG with that, but  you asked as a consumer.  As a  consumer of anything BUT ,artial arts dvd's, I would be looking at uniqueness.  As it is, because I'm borderline obsessive and more of a 'collector' simply for the point of building a reference library, offly enough, I don't consider uniqueness so much with regard to MA dvd's and think I can learn something from ANYBODY (i.e. even learning what NOT to do, or what DOESN'T work still qualifies as learning to me in this category).  But, like anybody with a limited budget, I admit to having a prioritized list of target acquisitions. :-)   Typically, this is based around either hisoric or instcutional uniqueness.

Another thing I would encourage is for you to watch a LOT of other instructional DVD's... maybe even from outside MA.  You'll quickly (I think) get a feel for what is both a) effective and valuable or, b) annoying and obnoxious.  Youtube is also good for snippets of that, but again, I would look not just at MA DVD's, which frequently tend to be self-referential.

My thoughts anyway.  Good luck with your project.
 

One thing you can’t get away from is that cost and quality are linked. Most martial arts DVDs are of a pretty poor quality because they have not been professionally filmed or edited. Whilst the information presented may be great, it often hard to get past the poor sound quality, cheesy graphics, super market style music, etc. I’ve always paid for a full crew including directors, more than one camera man (not just a single camera stuck on a tripod), sound man and professional editors. The result is that most of my DVDs have cost between £2500 to £3000 to film … and then you have the cost of the printing covers, getting the DVDs physically made etc.

The point is that a good DVD should have money spent on its production, and if people are not to go bankrupt in the process, then the DVD needs to at least pay for itself. The price to the customer is also going to be a vital consideration. So, for example, if I were to have subtitles in many languages on my DVDs (a request I get every now and then) the production costs would go up considerably as I now need to pay a team of professional translators and the amount of graphics required also leaps massively. To take a guess, I would say that would add at least £3000 to the production costs. Bearing in mind that martial arts DVDs always sell in small numbers (when compared to Hollywood movies, TV shows, etc) the unit price therefore needs to cover that cost. A DVD that would have cost £25 would now cost £50. If you were to ask all customers do you want to pay £25 extra for subtitles in other languages, the majority will say no. I think things like language dubbing, printed booklets (which will also increase shipping costs) will also fall prey to this.

My point is that productions costs and retail costs are always crucial consideration too.

Kyoshi wrote:

Also, several angles for instance in showing of technique

Vital because of the fact things are in two dimensions and it is sometimes hard to see everything from one angle … but this could also be helped massively if the presenter realised that and taught accordingly.

This is another reason why paying for a director is a good idea, because they will ensure all key information is captured by the camera crew and note what angles etc need to feature in the final edit. It’s also why one camera on a fixed tripod is generally not sufficient.

Kyoshi wrote:

picture in picture or first 1 angle then a different angle

Better presenting and camera work would be better than “technological solutions” which can make for very “jarring” viewing. I don’t like picture in picture (“what am I supposed to be looking at now?!?”). I feel picture in picture is one of those things that seems cleaver but no one really likes in practise.

Kyoshi wrote:

chapters for each technique

I really think this is important in order to find things for future reference.

Kyoshi wrote:

Short booklet accompanying the DVD 20-30 pages with anatomical diagrams, or some of the more heavy stuff (japanese names from stories, lineage stuff or simplified movements, curriculum etc.)

I’d prefer all that information to be part of the presentation on the DVD. If it is important, then it should be part of the main feature. Booklets increase cost to consumer significantly (typesetting costs, printing, increased shipping, etc), so If it’s not that important, then I don’t want to pay for it so leave it out.

One final thought is that, above all else, I want the information well presented. I had some “media training” and found it made a huge difference to the way I come across on camera (compare the DVDs I made in 2000 to the ones I’ve made more recently to see what I mean :-). Most presenters on TV etc are so good at what they do that it seems totally natural; so good martial arts teachers assume it’s easy and teaching classes is the same as teaching on camera … and it’s not! Again, this is where a good director will help and they will demand the information is presented professionally.

Obviously, my experiences and preferences won’t be the same as everyone else’s, but I nevertheless hope that’s of some use.

All the best,

Iain

I think Iain and Mike raise good points.  Obviously if you are going to invest in a crew you need to be sure you are going to sell enough copies to cover the investment.

My recent short youtube instructional videos were done in one take.  Seven minutes of trying to talk without a word fudge or an umm or ahh etc is difficult and my delivery is more stilted than normal as a result.  I'd definitely advise putting together material from multiple short takes!

I don't have many martial arts dvds, but all of the ones I have suffer from the same problem: abysmal menus.  I want to be able to pop a dvd in, select a particular drill or technique from a clear menu and watch that.  I don't want to have to watch lots of other stuff to get to it.  To go further, having picked a technique I'd like to choose between the walk through/talk through, just straight demonstrations, and freeze frame pics.  There are times when I want all of them, but at other times I just want one.

Hope that helps.

Thanks for the reply you guys - i really like the different views you got.

@Mike - How come you preffer instructional videos over 60 min - and what do you mean by instruction value? Talk only or hands on only ?

@Iain - WOW! thats quite an investment! So do you do any of the editing at all or do you export that part ?

I also see you point regarding picture in picture

@JWT - yes you need to also take the cost actions into play.

I thought on making a youtube video 2-3-4 minuts maybe with some of the points you guys came with - and it could be cool to feedback on it here - what do you think about that? Then i will make a version 1.0 2.0 3.0 etc. ? 

Kyoshi wrote:

@Iain - WOW! That’s quite an investment! So do you do any of the editing at all or do you export that part?

It’s actually pretty cheap for the services of a full team. I’m lucky enough that I’ve made connections long the way (ex BBC employees etc) and I ask them to use my projects as low priority “when they’ve nothing else to do” jobs. Professionals charge professional prices, but personally I feel the end result is worth it when people watch the DVD and know I put a bit of effort into it.

I do no editing at all on my DVDs. The reason being that I’m not a video editor and, whist the software is easy enough to navigate, I’m not aware of the subtleties of the craft and hence the DVDs would look amateurish if I did it myself. The thing I’ve found is that good editing looks effortless and is very easy on the eye. Its job is not to be noticed, but the danger is that it’s importance is therefore overlooked.

I do my YouTube clips myself, but when you compare them with the DVDs you can see the difference in professionalism. When I’m asking people to part with their money, I want to be sure I feel I’ve put in enough time and money to make them happy with their purchase.

Interesting thread this!

All the best,

Iain

I can back up Iain's comments about professional services. We have both used the same Producer/supplier for videos and the cost is worth it. The end result is much much more professional and noticeable.

Kyoshi,
To answer your question, I guess a couple of things I was saying were perhaps slightly redundant, or at least could be taken all together as a case 'against filler', which comes in lots of foirms such as:

- footage of a class of people doing something you have instructed them to do, i.e. 'learning it'=  low value filler
- lots of flashy black screen chapter introductions with sound and moving graphics = no value fller.  All you need is the chapter marks (within the context of what I was saying about 'professional' presentation above.  Here I am railing against a bunhc of fancy overlays of edited footage (i.e. not 'independent' content) of you doing either what you have just instructed, or are 'about to instruct' in the current chapter mark.  The one exception I have seen to this is when fast motion applications are repeated ONE time in slow motion after showing the fast motion.

- to the second point of yoru question, some talking is OK, but as this is purportedly an INSTRUCTIONAL video, I would opt more for 'hands on' demo's, or talking (from an organized script) WHILE you demo as the best option whenerver possible.