Video with voice over narration

Your voice is pleasing and the script informative. You'll have to wait another year for your Oscar nomination, however

I really prefer the voice over personal feel. I think this technique will set you head and shoulders above the competition.

A little feedback. I would practice the narration a bit. Remove the uhms and really sell the piece. Be strong and firm as to why the darker astrophyllite sparkles more. That you bought this rare mineral directly from a Russian gem dealer, from X location. Rather than saying 'how you move in the light', consider changing it to something like 'owning this piece is like having two pieces of jewelry', that the crystalline nature allows the light to play off the piece differently from daytime to nighttime. How the 3 circles in sterling balance the overall harmony of the piece. Don't comment on the bail failing, but emphasize the lasting quality of high end components. And mention that there are no rough pieces of metal to catch on skin or clothing when you are demonstrating that part of the video. And keep using I when you talk about what you've with the piece.

My husband is the president of a local chapter of Toastmasters an international public speaking group. I am always hearing his audio tutorials about public speaking (usually when I'm captive in the car). So please don't take the above as being too critical. These are things I've picked up along the way. I think you did a fantastic job, especially with it being off the cuff and with just a little bit of polish will be as fabulous as your jewelry!

Toastmasters is a fantastic group! I really appreciate that insight especially coming for that perspective. I am awful at public speaking! I failed dropped it in college and I am NOT a salesman, so none of this comes easy to me. At all. I'm really stepping outside my box. I'm an introverted, shy person, not prone to being braggadocios. I'll thank my mother for that. It was the height of bad taste to brag. LOL! Your tips really make sense to me. I'll see if I can pull any of it off- without reading a script. LOL!

rockjunquie Tela, I really like it.  I think the fact that you are describing it is a great touch.  I noted this video is over one minute long and is longer when compared to some of your other "silent" vids.  However, even though this is longer, this was much more interesting to watch, and I found myself wanting to hear more about the piece.  That doesn't mean you have to come up with a 2-3 minute vid just to get more info in.  I think one minute in this format is just about right.

I totally agree with Ann fantastic5 about trying to work on some of the finer points of doing the presenting.  The nice thing is the more you get under your belt, the easier it becomes.   What will assist you here, if you haven't thought about it already, is to follow the same overall format (script) for each video.  

What do I mean?  Well, in each vid you produce, speak to (maybe) the stone itself (origin, color, highlights, etc) and then the wrap itself (touching on some of the finer points about what you did).  You somewhat did it in this vid, and following something organized will allow you to fill in the details down the road. 

I like your opening and closing pages with your company name and the website.  Exposure time for each was perfect IMHO.  And, the video quality was smooth and not jerky like the one I mentioned before.  I don't know if it was something you did, or if something happened with the other vid on upload, but there is a big difference to me.

Well done.

If you hadn't done anything to the vid, it must have happened on upload. Didn't look like "lack of tripod" type jerky. My original thought is maybe you tried to slow motion the spinning turntable, and your frame rate of the video wasn't recorded high enough to keep things smooth. Nevertheless, your most recent work appears to be pretty spot on.

I think you've already got some fine advice from others. I like the narration better than a music soundtrack. Very informative. Seeing the pendant in hand also gives a better sense of scale than a picture. Hope this is wildly successful for you.

that rock both ways Tela
nice to hearya!

I do voiceover work and narrate audiobooks for librivox.com. I thought you sounded fine. I agreee with what others have said about the length of the video being perfect. While you probably don't need a script from which to read, have a few "talking points"  so you flow smoothly along as you go. These things get better with practice.

If you are recording using a PC microphone, put the mic stand on a piece of foam to help minimize the background hum. If you can, record in a room like a bedroom where there aren't a lot of hard surfaces. This will reduce reflection and background noise, and at the same time it will increase the sound clarity.

Your friendly neighborhood audio nerd.

I like the video idea. You get to see the piece from more angles with the light hitting it differently and it is nice hearing about the stone and properties.

One thing is I would say slow down a bit in your speaking. I have the same problem on video. Sometimes the mind is going faster than the mouth and this leads to hesitations as the mind is already a mile ahead of the mouth. Focusing on slowing down some can help prevent the hesitations as it is easier to think about what you are going to say before saying it.