Critique our hookah review video

[heydarian]

I run a hookah website (www.hookah.org) and have have been working with one of our members to do hookah reviews. He's been making them for about a year now (here is our YouTube channel) and now we hope to learn a little on how we can improve the quality of them. It would be great if we can get some good feedback from the seasoned video makers from here

[bigass]

Not too bad -- I like the framing with the thing in the front and you in the back.Just a few quick notes:
- get a mic closer to you. If all you have is a handheld, get it on a mic stand as close as you can to your head, just out of the top of frame. It'd be better to hear more you and less room.
- that single light is casting an ugly shadow. get a fill light or at least some diffusion on the single key light.
- the mixed aspect ratio editing is slightly distracting but not make-or-break given that it's a how-to.

[sanlyn]

Not bad. Biggest problem I had is that instead of talking so much about procedures, show it being done. Or at least show the tools used, rather than wait for the viewer to try to imagine what how something is fixed or adjusted. You wouldn't necessarily have to show a hookah being taken apart, but you can show the part of the hookah being discussed and then introduce a tool or even a drawing into the process.

[heydarian]

Thanks guys. I'll get a mic for sure (not using one right now) and I'll see about getting a light.
Whats a good entry level mic and light fixture?