Shaking things up
For a good few years now I’ve been trying to source a Buttkicker wireless kit at a sensible price, available to the UK. I’m happy to say that I finally managed to get hold of one on ebay so I’ve made a video about it.
There’s quite a lot of talking to camera in this video as I needed to describe the experience and as it's a feeling it's not really something that can be demonstrated...hopefully this doesn't make it boring.
The (not so funny) muppet outro is, as usual, based on previous experience. The last time I sat on the couch talking to the camera I got dozens of comments about the colour of the upholstery. On that video I'd spent weeks and well over a thousand pounds putting everything together and the thing that attracted the most comments was the colour of the furniture. In reality it's a very dark magenta, but the bright studio lights make it show a lot brighter. So as I often do, I've used the puppets to vocalise the most predictable vacuous comments as a way to pre-emptively nullify them.
There’s early access to this video on Patreon, it should be going live to the world on Friday.
You may have spotted that I reached the $2000 goal, this is something I never really thought possible when I started on Patreon, so I have to thank you immensely. I promised that if I hit this target I’d do a behind the scenes video showing the full process of making a video.. so as soon as I find a suitable project I’ll get to work on this. It might be a while before I get to start on this as there’s always quite a bit of run-up to each video..so there’s a number of half finished episodes I’ll have to complete first.
Thanks again for your continued support and I hope you enjoy the video.
Oh one more thing. Youtube are discontinuing annotations soon - those are the things I overlay at the end of the video when it says - Click Here to subscribe. So now I'll have to change my run-out video. YT have a new feature called End-Screens, which I don't understand, but I think I'll have to create one soon. I'm just mentioning this as you'll be seeing some changes soon, and now you know why.
Comments (32)
After reading the comments above: Definitely keep the puppets (and the great music that goes with them, it's pitch-perfect!), really like the "multi-intro" approach, never really wanted one of these devices until I watched your excellent video, and I agree with Mr. Konacki's comment, you are a talented and gifted producer.
I want one of these, but much more ridiculous. I have an OFM reclining office chair on casters for the computer (not a huge living room recliner). I want a ButtKicker Concert on the chair base, FULLY wireless so I don't have the dangly power cord, so need a battery under the chair and mount the amp under the chair too. Really, it's not too bad with a straight 12 volt car subwoofer amp and a wireless audio receiver. But I also want a wireless gaming headset... and now the nightmare begins. Buttkicker amp will have to use an analog wireless receiver, but all wireless headsets are either USB-wifi or Bluetooth digital. How to get these two incompatible audio outputs from the computer to both work together? I can't enable both Digital out to headset AND analog out to computer analog output at the same time with Windows. Or do I need some external analog-digital converter for the headset? Maybe a 2nd computer to drive the wireless USB headset? It seems unnecessarily overcomplicated to get two digital and analog audio output devices working together.
Yep...you've got me there, I wouldn't know how to do this.
butt :D fnar fnar
So I thought this was an absurd idea, but... yeah. Now I want one.
I'm curious if you tried any other methods to visually demonstrate how much vibration it was putting into the couch. Glass of water sitting on a book on the couch? Or take a cushion off and put the glass of water on the frame? I also must commend you for your (near) 3.5 min Long Take summary. Quite a bit of info to convey without fluffing a line!
I wish I'd have thought of your glass of water idea. Those long improvised takes get more and more stressful as they go on, because the more I say before I stumble over a word, the more I'll have to re-say in the next take. The things I say change every time, so as I'm talking I'm also working on a good point to get out..and this time it took a bit longer than usual.
Congrats on the patreon goal. I actually raised my donation after I realized I supported less creators on Patreon than expected. I like your commentary about comments: it's amusing, and I learn all kinds of new words (which I probably forget within the hour...). I actually never heard about this kind of devices. Thanks for yet another interesting video.
Thank you so much.
Interesting, but for some reason SWMBO isn't sharing my enthusiasm. I like the way you colour coordinated your hanky😉.
If I am not mistaken LGR already uses end screens. Maybe Clint can tell you how he does it, haha
I'll have to take a look...at this point I don't even know what one would look like.
Oh, so *that's* why you've been doing a second intro!
Yep...on the videos where I've been doing an intro to camera without something to break it up, the next shot would involve a change from a lapel mic to my voiceover mic..and a jump cut that Kubrick would be proud of...using the logo animation is a way to do a less abrupt transition.
Case in point, I edited my message above twice to fix typos.
Without annotations I won't be able correct mistakes I make and only notice after the video is live. So the editing process is more difficult, but I'd look more professional so swings and roundabouts.
I found that no one ever read the annotations that I added onto videos to correct them, most of the comments would be about something that had already been corrected in an annotation and the comments and in the video description. With so many people turning them off and all the people on mobile devices not being able to see them, I can see why they have been discontinued.
Oooh, I see someone picked up a switch!
I'm lucky that I could hide a wire to the Sinuslive Bass-Pump transducer speakers that I fitted inside my old couch. Unfortunately the GF bought a new couch a few months ago and I'm not allowed to remove the staples underneath so I can screw the speakers inside. I don't know what was wrong with the old couch to be honest but that's women for you, grumble grumble.
It's interesting to see how many people here have something similar...if it's a niche product then it looks like we're the niche.
IMPORTANT - How well does it work with porn?
Congratulations on $2k. I for one would like to see a video about the puppets, in a similar way you do tech reviews.
I can't really show anything behind the scenes with the puppets, it would just kill the whole thing stone dead if you saw a middle aged man rolling about on the floor making silly voices.
If you need anything else that ships US only, let me know, I'll happily drop ship it to you
Thanks for offering to do that, although on this occasion this kit appears to be impossible to find in the US as well now.
Wouldn't something like a Fischer Amps Bass Shaker with a power amp and a wireless audio transmitter be a cheaper way to manage this? I installed one in my home studio a while ago, works fine.
I don't know...how much did it cost?
Looking forward to your "making of" video. I do video production for a living, and i'm always super interested to see how people choose to make their videos - especially since you've said that you use iMovie, which as a 25 year veteran of video editing I have found baffling more often than not. :) The End-Screens isn't too bad, you'll be fine with it. I'll miss annotations tho - it was nice to be able to go back and add some on-screen text even once the video was uploaded to YouTube. Great way to catzch those last-minute omissions. And PLEASE keep it up with the puppets. Honestly... who complains about puppets? :)
I make my videos in completely the wrong way which is something that will come across when I show the process...it's completely illogical and long winded. Oh, loads of people hate the puppets...mostly people who don't understand how to press the stop button at the end of a video...but yet somehow have figured out how to comment on one (which if anything seems like the more complicated procedure of the two)
Congrats on 2k! I've had a wired butt kick for years and it's a gimmick if anything. That being said it's a good gimmick, I can't imagine a viewing experience without it. It struggles with certain genres of music though.
Honestly, as a user... OH thank gods, they're getting rid of annotations. I keep them off because way to many are just plain irritating and cover the video.I think it will be nice to be able to keep those off but not have to rely on them to be able to click through to another video that looks interesting on the outro.
I hate annotations as well and always turn them off. But the real problem with them, like anything in this world, is how they are used by the content creator, which more often than not is annoying.