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I'm thinking of starting to make some with a small group. The idea is to make it a bit more like a sportscast, with edited footage of the battle overdubbed with a podcast-like commentary. I'm going to concentrate on the models and terrain, and a friend who is rather good at video editing will be involved. What do you guys think? What style of video batrep do you prefer?

What I enjoy in video battle reports are:
-Painted Armies.
-Nice terrain
-good sound quality and good lighting

Batreps I watch tend to fall into one of two groups. Long Format batreps or short style batreps. Both can be good, though the longer the video is the more work you'll have to put into to keep my attention. I'm not sure what's in a sportscast style is but it sounds interesting.

If you want to do a long format video batrep (showing dice rolls and movement) you'll want to use editing software to just show the important stuff (speeding up footage when appropriate) and in all likelihood use a post production voice over for smoother easier to follow narrative. This of course requires a lot of work (to make it good). I personally find long format batreps that don't do this as hard to watch.

On the other hand if you want to do a short format. Which generally is just video after each persons turn explaining what just went down. You can get away with not doing to much editing, as it's generally just a continuous shot, and as long as your speaking clearly, a post production voice over is unnecessary (though I find them easier to understand). Also try to keep this format short the whole video shouldn't be more than 15-20 min.

Good luck in making a video batrep. I would love to see more posted here.

 pie zuri wrote:
What I enjoy in video battle reports are:
-Painted Armies.
-Nice terrain
-good sound quality and good lighting

Batreps I watch tend to fall into one of two groups. Long Format batreps or short style batreps. Both can be good, though the longer the video is the more work you'll have to put into to keep my attention. I'm not sure what's in a sportscast style is but it sounds interesting.

If you want to do a long format video batrep (showing dice rolls and movement) you'll want to use editing software to just show the important stuff (speeding up footage when appropriate) and in all likelihood use a post production voice over for smoother easier to follow narrative. This of course requires a lot of work (to make it good). I personally find long format batreps that don't do this as hard to watch.

On the other hand if you want to do a short format. Which generally is just video after each persons turn explaining what just went down. You can get away with not doing to much editing, as it's generally just a continuous shot, and as long as your speaking clearly, a post production voice over is unnecessary (though I find them easier to understand). Also try to keep this format short the whole video shouldn't be more than 15-20 min.

Good luck in making a video batrep. I would love to see more posted here.

Thanks, yeah I think keeping the batrep from 20-30 min is the goal. Jake, the guy editing has experience with that sort of thing and doesn't seem to mind doing that part for now.

I wouldn't describe it as either long or short format... we want to show moves, and combat, but not die rolls (aside from some critical ones) and pretty much take the players out of the actual footage. Mixing in some high-res still shots of different scenes on the battlefield while we talk. The commentary will mostly be us talking about what is happening in the battle but we could mix in tactical discussion, random banter, fluff-related discussion.

what i enjoy -

Quick to the point - over view, minimal talking
Rules banter - summerized to situation and ruling.
Dear scott - put the camera on a tripod - you are not running through a forest.

It drives me insane to no end when the camera is flying about and you have not a single clue as to what is going down.

The art of the 'video batrep' is still pretty low. I don't watch them, because of the following issues:

1) Music.

I don't care what music you like. If I want to listen to god-awful heavy metal music, I'll load up my "Bolt Thrower" channel on Pandora. If you must use music, keep the volume down, please. Which leads to...

2) Production Quality.

Put your entire video through an audio leveling filter. Wide, wacky volume swings means my ears hurt. Use a decent microphone. The one on your video camera is not good. Place a fixed mike somewhere safe, or mike up your participants, and record the audio separate from the video. Put the camera on a tripod, or fixed mount above the table. No one is interested in your take on cinema verite'. Finally, record your batrep in an area where you are less likely to be interrupted by other gamers, etc.

For the love of god, don't fart on camera.

Watch your language. You may think it is cool to swear and smack talk, but you're just looking and acting like a child. And the internet never forgets. Present yourselves as players we want to encounter at our game store, or at a tournament. Cool, fun-loving, good sportsmanship.

3) Post-Production.

The aforementioned audio issues. Edit your video TIGHT. You should be able to whittle it down to 10 minutes per hour of gameplay, 15 minutes tops. Clean it up, there's plenty of free audio and video editing software out there.

4) Engage us.

Get your pre-game interview and army shot. A minute or two for each player to explain their army, what they expect in the battle, and how they intend on handling their opponent. Do this separately, for fairness. Do a post-game interview with each player, what went wrong, what went right. Film the whole thing, but edit each turn, showing key moments. A failed charge. A massive dice whiff. An epic challenge.

Battles with 'new' codexes are going to draw more attention than an Ork-Eldar battle, to be sure, but showing us how the older codexes work in 6th edition may also be cool.

BE UNIQUE. Do cool things, with fully painted armies, on good-looking terrain.

5) Do a test run, first.

Nothing ruins a video batrep like a washed out video because you didn't take into account the sunlight streaming through the window, or the fact that you did your batrep during a YuGiOh tournament. Seriously. Do a couple of dry runs, then do the deed. Get some practice before you produce.



Good luck!

 cormadepanda wrote:
what i enjoy -

Quick to the point - over view, minimal talking
Rules banter - summerized to situation and ruling.
Dear scott - put the camera on a tripod - you are not running through a forest.

It drives me insane to no end when the camera is flying about and you have not a single clue as to what is going down.

lol, yeah the flying camera thing can be disorienting. But it's kind of hard if you have the camera in a single place to show what's going on and make it cinematic. What we've zeroed on for now is having a lot of clear, overhead shots and then fill out the rest with shots of models moving, being taken away, or fighting assaults.

the banter will probably include mostly tactical stuff pertaining to the game, like how a certain unit performs, what strategies the players are using and how well they are working, etc. We will most likely decide on what ruling to use before the game and not argue about rules unless it's particularly interesting.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
thanks briancj... awesome little guide that really helps.

I wonder how many story-driven batreps are out there? The only ones I know of are Templarscrusade01's Great Crusade campaign videos.

babaganoosh wrote:
I wonder how many story-driven batreps are out there? The only ones I know of are Templarscrusade01's Great Crusade campaign videos.

didn't see that one. That also sounds cool as long as the games themselves aren't too far removed from what would be a normal game of 40k, and you don't need to see all the other videos for it to make sense.

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8D757330EE331F9A

That's the playlist for the great crusade games; actually quite a few of them.

A lot of videos lack a sense of continuity from the turn by turn updates. They narrator will tell you which turn it is, which unit did what, and how many things died; but the shaky camera, the attempted pin-pointing of places and units on the board with just a zoomed lens, and the rapid-fire play-by-play of the game mechanics (not pausing to take a breath before moving onto the next unit/event) make it almost impossible to follow or be interested in (I'm talking mainly to the kids who have followed after the poor video production habits of the more adult gamers).

The best narrative batreps are produced by Ailaros.

Here is his latest. His webpage also lists all of his previous efforts. He is AMAZING.

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/492798.page#5045775

Hey there.

Just wanted to throw our two cents in.

We make a lot of Video Battle Reports and we've learned a pretty good amount.

The first thing you should do is make your mind up as to what kind of Bat Reps you want to do. You don't have to pigeon hole yourself or anything, but as you can tell from the feedback here, there is an audience for a lot of different types of formats.

Some folks like the high quality, TV like experience of a story being told, cinematic action, etc. That takes a lot more time and effort, and can be really cool.

Some folks like to just see the data for game purposes. Our battle reports fall into this category usually. We are making ours more for the idea of collection information: what would happen if X list played Y, player X against Y, etc. That appeals to a different audience.

As we are just trying to get a lot of data out there to help players become better at the game, we don't worry so much about the very high production level as that takes a lot of time and we are trying to cover a lot of ground which means we have to do what is fast and easier to produce.

Once you know what you are trying to accomplish, then you can determine how much time, effort and money you want to put into the project to meet your goals.

Good luck with it! It is always fun to see new people getting in on the fun of making video bat reps!

From the poll it looks like people may want to see a fluffy, fully painted series of games. Maybe even story driven? They don't seem to strongly want tactical discussion, but they do want it to look and sound cool.

Maybe something like a more polished version of TC01's great crusade would be cool to see. Battles that follow or create a story arc, fully supported by painted models and scenery.

 Reecius wrote:
Hey there.

Just wanted to throw our two cents in.

We make a lot of Video Battle Reports and we've learned a pretty good amount.

The first thing you should do is make your mind up as to what kind of Bat Reps you want to do. You don't have to pigeon hole yourself or anything, but as you can tell from the feedback here, there is an audience for a lot of different types of formats.

Some folks like the high quality, TV like experience of a story being told, cinematic action, etc. That takes a lot more time and effort, and can be really cool.

Some folks like to just see the data for game purposes. Our battle reports fall into this category usually. We are making ours more for the idea of collection information: what would happen if X list played Y, player X against Y, etc. That appeals to a different audience.

As we are just trying to get a lot of data out there to help players become better at the game, we don't worry so much about the very high production level as that takes a lot of time and we are trying to cover a lot of ground which means we have to do what is fast and easier to produce.

Once you know what you are trying to accomplish, then you can determine how much time, effort and money you want to put into the project to meet your goals.

Good luck with it! It is always fun to see new people getting in on the fun of making video bat reps!

Thanks for the insight Reecius! I love your battle reports for more insight in the game, I think of your videos as similar to a podcast, something I watch mostly for the casual discussion of tactics and understanding of the rules (and for that, it's better than anything out there in terms of batreps)... much like a podcast it's something I like to have on while I'm hobbying. It's just more easily digested than the written ones... that you have to keep your eyes on and scroll down and click. I rarely ever have the need or time to invest myself in fully reading a written battle report, but that's just me. Please keep on making them!

And you are very right, in fact that was the first question I posed to the group, was what do we want to get out of this. For me, the answer is simple... I want to advertise for my commission painting. So I figure I can be the guy that works on the models and terrain making it look good. Jake loves video editing and has always wanted a youtube channel... babaganoush wants to just make a better battle report, etc, and organizing it all. I think it all adds up to making a more highly produced version of a batrep.

@babaganoush: yeah, people like watching fully painted armies, but who doesn't? It doesn't mean we need to take the tactical discussion out of it at first. I think it just reflects the common denominator of what people want to see... and like Reecius said... people are all over the place with what they want to see. I think people who want to see the latest face-smashing army in action understand that sometimes the painting might suffer... and rightly so, nobody has a crystal ball and it takes massive amounts of time/energy/skill to put a really great looking army together. People want to figure out what works first before they do that.

So probably the best option is to start off doing just normal games of 40k that we can add a bit of story and flavor to, and if its successful and people respond, do more like that which could eventually result in doing campaigns/storylines and apocalypse-sized battles. Would be something cool to have an eye on and start developing though.

Video Batrep: -=[_,=- eague Invitational.

The only battle reports that I've found watchable were mastercraftgamings, so here's what made their videos so good/different.

1. Record commentary after the game. This way you will be able to talk about the strategies both generals are using as they're using them without giving away an advantage. It's often impossible to figure out what a player was trying to accomplish by just watching them play, and games are far more interesting when you know what strategies the players are trying to accomplish. Otherwise it just looking at models and watching people roll dice. This will also eliminated the bg noise or recording in a crowded room.

2. Use 2 cameras. One camera is fixed on a tripod that overlooks the entire board and is used for recording the movement phase (sped up in editing) so that unit movements can be viewed as they happen and in relation to the rest of the battle. The second camera is used for closeups during the shooting and assault phase. Get both the shooter and the shootee in the same frame to make it easy for the viewer to know what is going on, and then remove casualties on camera, from the shootee unit, so that viewers will easily be able to see the damage done. No need to show dice, strategically all that matters is how many models died at the end, though you can comment on lucky/unlucky rolls.

3. As others have said, dont use loud music, or music with lyrics or a overly strong beat. It will distract from the commentary.

Just to throw my 2 cents in, i'm also recording a video battle report series. You can check out the playlists in my signature. The first 2 videos are just thrown together, but the production values get better as the series progresses.