Wizard Craps Videos

Although the quality keeps improving in all aspects, I have it on good authority that the Wizard feels pretty beaten up and would like any discussion to be of the non-scathing variety. The fact that Michael has not mentioned the videos being out there speaks volumes. I don't see why it shouldn't be known.

I would say these are the best so far. They acknowledge the intimidation factor for a newbie and take a person by the hand and assume only that the viewer knows a few basics about what wins and loses... and even eventually touch on that.

The lovely Angela returns too, and has gotten her lines down better. Didn't like the black dress too much [geez now that the WoO is off limits this blurts out] ; it didnt seem to fit right around the shoulders. Otherwise she is dazzling again.

http://www.youtube.com/user/TheOddsMustBeCrazy?ob=0&feature=results_main

Discovered these vids just last night.

Nicely done! Tight editing.

Everyone comes across strong on camera.

Dan is well spoken. On several occasions, I had the pleasure of having him as a craps dealer, but I never realized who he was, until seeing this video series.

However, there are a few things that could be done to improve the "production value" of the videos.

The "A" camera needs to be set to manual exposure so it doesn't flicker. There might be a plug-in in the editing software that reduces such flicker in existing footage.

Merely crushing the black values in the video editor would significantly help the overall look.

Judging from the tightness between "A" and "B" camera and from the dramatic difference in contrast and white balance in the shots of the felt, I would guess that this craps video series was a three-camera shoot, with the "C" camera being a different make/model than the other two cameras.

It is a good idea (for visual continuity) to manually white balance all of the cameras side-by-side, before the shoot.

With a small investment in more resources (audio equipment, lights, etc), the footage could really "pop." By the way, the NAB trade show is in Vegas April 16th - 19th, and all of the production equipment manufacturers will be exhibiting (free passes are easy to obtain).

In one of the clips, Michael runs through the center proposition bets all at once, with the shot holding on him. When each bet is mentioned, it would probably be helpful to cut-away for a moment to a shot of the respective area of the felt.

One more thing, there is a more efficient and quicker approach to teaching craps. The entire game can be taught in 10-15 minutes -- 2/3rds of the game can be taught in the first two minutes. With a video, those learning times can be further reduced.

Quote: tupp

However, there are a few things that could be done to improve the "production value" of the videos.

Candid shot of the Wizard. Don't ask me how I got it. Boy has this aged him!

Craps is a tough game to explain and it was definitely the hardest to make videos for. We spent the good part of a day on it. Numerous times we had to do retakes for one reason or another. By the time we got to the prop bets I was pretty sick of the game and wanted to move onto something else. That is a good idea about showing the various bets on the felt, but we didn't think of it at the time.

If I ever redo these I will revisit all the technical suggestions. However, the page views at YouTube have been less than impressive, so I probably won't bother. My video of playing Jackpot Party has more views than most of my gaming videos, for crying out loud. The one with most views is my spin of the Showcase Showdown wheel, but that has been up a lot longer.

Its hard to think everything out in advance. Girls often need wardrobe changes simply to avoid feeling as if they've showed up at an event wearing the same dress. Bra straps and high-heeled shoes begin to pinch after awhile, make-up gets hot, skin gets dry. Attending to these things are NOT relaxing breaks so its often better to relax and shoot far more footage than you could ever use and then edit it down.

You can edit quick cuts to such things as a Dice Chart but sometimes that is annoying and most men don't want to take their eyes off Angela to even look at the layout much less at Dice Charts or animated diagrams of bet locations and chip travel.

Overall, I enjoyed the craps series but do think I came away with the impression that it was a lengthy but informative shoot.

I was so taken with Angela that I sent her a Facebook friend request - and she accepted. Yeah, I'm a stalker. But only of redheads.