climactic wrote:Hi all,
I'm new to the site, and like many of you, I am delighted by the Cock Hero series and the game-like format that the videos provide, although to be honest, I've only had the chance to watch about five of the many videos that are now available.
I myself love to fiddle around with video and audio editing, and will hopefully be contributing to the genre as soon as possible.
Currently, what I'm looking to do is get a little input from CH fans before I start working on a video, so that I can better understand what exactly people are interested in, and what they could do without.
Firstly climactic, welcome to Milovana!
It's great to have a new video tease contributor and hopefully, my feedback from my video tease creating experience will be of benefit to you here.
With that said, going to breakdown each of your points here:
climactic wrote:After reading through several threads I've come up with the following:
- The on-screen stroke meter: Is not having it a deal breaker? I ask because after reading through the instructional thread I realize that adding it will mean acquiring and using a second piece of software. Without it I could simply do the whole thing on Sony Vegas, saving time and focus.
The "stroke meter" isn't a deal breaker - it just depends on what you want to achieve.
Personally, I like the stroke meter when it's used fully - with it, you can do much more complex and varying stroke beat rhythms with the most precision. And if you're playing with 'Cock Hero" rules, missing a beat has a penalty/perk attached to it - having the stroke meter really helps in keeping with the rules.
Now, the downside of the Stroke Meter for me is that I often focus too much on the Stroke Meter that I miss out the sexy action that's going on. I'm also not alone on this point; from the feedback I've received from my Stroker Ace video tease, many people commented how they enjoyed actually "watching" the hot girls in sexy action rather than focusing too much on watching the "stroke meter".
Overall, adding a Stroke Meter is nice if you plan on doing some complex stroke beats that require precise stroking, but it's definitely not a deal breaker.
climactic wrote:[*]It seems to me that everyone is in agreement that variance in rhythm speed is preferable to adding odd patterns to the beat. I believe the reasons for this are, 1) the odd patterns don't have the same effect on the "player" as increased, steady rhythm, and 2) it causes a distraction as the "player's" attention is drawn to the bottom of the screen instead of viewing the content in its entirety. Would you say that this is a correct assessment?
When you say "odd patterns to the beat", I'm guessing you mean beats that aren't aligned with the music being played? I think odd patterns can be done as long as there is a "pattern"; otherwise, I would agree that if you added odd stroke beats at random beats, that might cause most viewers to be keeping their eyes too much on the stroke meter rather than on the sexy ladies.
climactic wrote:[*]On screen tease text, good or bad? I have read a couple of comments requesting that the number of teasing comments (the pink ones) be reduced, which to me is a little confusing, as I believe they are another tool to enhance the quality of the tease; another source of stimulation besides the video itself. Is the reason there have been requests to reduce them because they are distracting from the video, or is it possible that I am I reading too much into a couple of comments? I ask because my idea is to choose a model to serve as the hostess for my videos, integrating her into various parts of the tease with pictures and video, and I planned on being pretty heavy on this teasing text.
Sometimes the on screen text can be a bit annoying but to me, it's never bad so long as it's done for a purpose (i.e. upcoming beat changes) or for a theme (i.e. pink vs blue).
The idea you're planning on introducing sounds pretty cool and it somewhat similar to what utopia did for his "Mr. Edger" video tease series and for the most part, it works quite well in his video series. Now, if you plan on adding a picture of the hostess
during the actual video action, that might be a tad bit distracting, especially if there's text to go with it. One thing I suggest doing - which I did when testing ideas - is to do up a "sample" of your teaser, incorporating the ideas and format you plan on using in the final version just to test it out.
I did this before my final video tease and it really helped getting feedback to avoid some of my "bad" ideas.
climactic wrote:[*]Breaks: I feel like most people are asking for shorter breaks and less of them, and I concur with this request. Is that the general consensus? Should there be on-screen content during the breaks? Should the teasing continue in the form of text comments asking the viewer to continue stimulation, or should it just be a break?
Well, the idea of having breaks in-between sessions is to give viewers a chance to "recovery" so they can continue a pleasurable stroking experience. The challenge here is trying to find a good balance of time that isn't too long (so that they don't lose their arousal) or isn't too short (so they can recovery enough without climaxing too soon). Personally, I think the balance is between 30-60 seconds - I think if you plan on making the breaks 60 seconds or longer, it might help to have "stimulating" footage of images during these breaks.
climactic wrote:[*]Length and "Level" of videos: Honestly, I think this type of video has now been released often enough that the "lower difficulty levels" are no longer necessary, meaning that most current releases are going to be longer with more chapters or individual levels within one video. Am I right in assuming that fans would prefer the longer videos, or might some of you prefer multiple shorter videos instead? I ask because I intend for my first release to be 9-12 chapters or levels in length.
I think fans of these type of videos will definitely appreciate longer videos. With that said, I think it's fine and probably wise to start off with "lower difficulty levels" early all the same as new viewers to the whole 'Cock Hero' type videos will get a chance to get used to what's going on and veterans will get a nice "warm-up" before things get more intense.
One thing I want to impart is how much WORK it's going to take if you're going to be doing more than 6+ scenes. It took me around a month to gather all the videos, select what videos worked best, get the right music and finally edit everything for 9 sessions/chapters. It was a freaking assload of work to do right, so just keep that in mind when things get really tedious (especially when laying out the stroke beats on-top of the music).
climactic wrote:[*]Video content: I've noticed that several of the CH videos use mostly "amateur" style videos, most likely downloaded from some tube site. I myself generally subscribe to one or two paysites at any given time, and I have a decent sized library of more highly produced video that I intend to use. Would this be breaking from some sort of precedent from a purist standpoint?
Also, I feel like the most favorable progression as far as video content is one that would start out with some sort of softcore, stripteasing, and then slowly progress into more hardcore material. Initially, I'd be trying to stick to mainly POV style videos throughout. Does that sound appropriate?
Hmm... Not since the original videos that lalaland originated, I don't think any of the recent creators have been using "mostly" amateur style videos - and they certainly didn't download them from tube sites, as both vindicare and andyp have been making 720p and 1080p resolution versions. So no, I don't think you're breaking any precedent from that standpoint.
I think the video content progression is a standard for most of the creators and a good one - it's nice to warm-up to to girls striping and masturbating as that's a nice way to get things started. However, you don't need to follow this format at all - heck, you can start off with a POV handjob tease sequence and that would work too!
Overall, I think the slight majority of Cock Hero fans like seeing solo girls or lesbian scenes only; that's not to say you shouldn't have any hardcore scenes, but the feedback I've seen in the Cock Hero series and from my video tease is that the preference by the slight majority is for solo/lesbian action only. But like I said, you should do what you feel like works best for the theme - that certainly didn't stop me (and most of the Cock Hero creators) from including hardcore scenes in our video teases.
climactic wrote:[*]Audio content: I'd like to be able to find some good music tracks with dynamic rhythms if anyone can point me in a good direction for that? I am a fan of trance and house style beats and artists, but not certain if I can come up with anything where the beat does not stay at close to the same pace throughout.
Also, I could use some pointers as to how to drop and re-add audio out of certain parts of the piece, or have reduced volume on the music during certain scenes where I would like the audio from the video being used to be heard, in case anyone with experience making these videos is reading this?
Andyp pretty much answered this point completely - I also use youtube to search through tons and tons of music that fits what I wanted in my video tease.
climactic wrote:[*]Rules changes: I'm kicking around the idea of changing some of the rules, but I'm worried about turning off some of the many satisfied followers of the previous series. What I'm considering is having the player accidentally cumming too soon be the only way for them to "lose," and giving xp for completing individual scenes that can then be used later during the same video, instead of making them start over each time they edge off the beat. Would this go too far in changing the format that fans have grown accustomed to?
That really depends on what you want to do, but by no means are you restrained to doing a video tease strictly by the 'Cock Hero' rules. Utopia's 'Mr. Edger' series has modified 'Cock Hero' rules and even adds a couple new wrinkles to make it quite neat. My 'Stroker Ace' video tease uses fewer rules than the traditional 'Cock Hero' series. I would say, if you're going to call it a 'Cock Hero' video in the title, it's best to follow the 'Cock Hero' rules as most fans of the series would expect the rules to be the same.
climactic wrote:[*]If you have input on any or all of these questions, I'd love to hear from you. With your help I'll have a much better shot at creating the next great video tease. :)
I think the most important thing when you're making this video is to be sure that YOU yourself would enjoy the video tease. If you don't enjoy your own end product, then it's hard to imagine other members doing the same, no?
Oh don't worry about re-using content from previous video teases; if you've seen a hot scene from a previous video tease that you feel you could really remix to your own style, you should do it!
Lastly, I stated it earlier but it's worth repeating - you should create a "sample teaser" of what your planing on doing for your video tease, to get additional feedback. It helped me immensely filtering out bad ideas and getting good feedback from the always helpful Milovana members.
So, good luck with your video editing and looking forward to seeing your contribution!
