Zcash Introduction Video [Zcash Foundation Awarded Grant]

this is awesome, much needed as well! … cant wait @public_image … looking forward to hearing more. good luck and thank you for the hard work.

1 Like

Hi everyone,

Here is a soundcloud link to the voice over auditions. We narrowed it down to 8 from 50 auditions.

The auditions are all on that one audio file, each separated by a few seconds of space. Feel free to comment which one you like 1-8, on the soundcloud page directly, but please officially let us know here which you like best.

I personally like the 3rd one. Although he pronounces “Zcash” wrong, I can coach him on the correct pronunciation - so pay no mind to how he is mentioning “Zcash”.

Also, v/o #6 you can’t miss. It has the ridiculous murder rap/trap beat behind it. We’ve used her for past video projects - shes one of the few we personally reached out to for an audition since she is a pleasure to work with i.e. will do endless takes to make sure the lines are said the way we like it, and turns around projects super fast. -not that we’d use a track like that for zcash but it makes me smile every time I hear her auditions, they’re always with a crazy hiphop beat lol

Let us know your thoughts.

A

4 Likes

I can’t find the track on the soundcloud page to give some direct comments…

I’ll share my thought here:

  1. Voice is magnificent. 9/10.
  2. Personally don’t get a good vibe, don’t feel enthusiasm or direct intress in what’s being said. Overall voice is very professional → 7/10
  3. Great enthusiasm and strong unique accent. 8/10
  4. Audio is badly recorded (lot of white noise), he seemed in a hurry and not passionate. 7/10
  5. This seems to me the voice I would imagine somebody has that invests in cryptocurrencies. Seems young (late 20’s early 30’s), smart and has a great enthusiasm presenting zcash. 9/10
  6. Very bold and talented, I’m not a big hiphop fan but I must admit that this “mix” is crazy nuts good: those 2 octaves with only sub drum and then regular kicks coming along really gives a powerful and delightful impact. 9.5/10
  7. Good professional voice but I get a strong monotone feeling. 7/10
  8. Too much emphasis. 7/10

Overall, if anyone of these voice actors gets picked for final product I’d be veeeery satisfied. No one of these gave me a horrible feeling or felt “completly wrong”, all are very talented and would fit.

If I’d had to pick only 1 I would pick #1.
If I was the director of the clip #5 for the first two thirds (2/3), then voice actor #1 for the last third, and the last phrase said together.

2 Likes

Well I like nr 6 would pick her

These are fantastic @public_image ! I’m going to build a Poll to make it easier forums users to vote on their favorites.

Please pick your top voice-overs. You can choose up to 3 favorites, all votes are public. If you don’t have 3 just pick your favorite one or two.

  • #1 Voice Actor
  • #2 Voice Actor
  • #3 Voice Actor
  • #4 Voice Actor
  • #5 Voice Actor
  • #6 Voice Actor
  • #7 Voice Actor
  • #8 Voice Actor

0 voters

This poll is just for reference, Public Image who is producing the video will have final decision.

(NOTE: If you want me to change anything about the format of this poll just let me know)

2 Likes

1st seems little bit oldest

#6 is really good. I also liked #3, but I may just be biased toward British accents :slight_smile: #2 and #7 were very clear.

Didn’t like #1 (accent too distracting) or #8 (very rushed).

1 Like

I’ve always wanted a zk-SNARK explanation using this voice actor:

:rofl: I’ll write the script if you can find someone that sounds like this!

2 Likes

@ebfull @public_image said they are working on a second video that will be a more detailed zkSNARKS explainer I’m sure they could use expert help with the script :wink:

1 Like

Hi everyone,

We went ahead and hired voice over talent #6. We’ll have her final audio track in by Monday/Tuesday.

We’ll post the first draft of the video with voice over on Wednesday.

3 Likes

Cool! Looking forward to seeing it @public_image :zcash: :heart:

I have closed the poll, thanks to everyone who voted

2 Likes

Hey everyone, sorry for the long pause, but i’m back with something to show!

First a bit about this video:

Initially we built a few (a ton) skeleton compositions … those had some ideas about how the video was going to flow - connecting from a to b and so forth - keeping organic motion in mind, how information would be visualized.

Some things came to light after creating a series of these. We realized too much graphic written information would hard to read and comprehend, we want viewers to listen to the voiceover more than have to read - having to both listen and read a lot could be too overwhelming. We needed to find the right balance, making sure we highlighted key text from the script.

Then we really started to find our direction. There are various graphic animation styles we worked on, essentially each one being a different video all together. It became a little more clear which look fit better keeping in mind the current zcash website.

We have seen videos that don’t match the brand of the company its representing, whether the site was better looking than the video or vice versa, its awkward when the branding does not match. We tried to pull a few subtle details from z.cash and I think it worked out nicely.

Currently, we’re missing about 12 seconds that’s being rendered now and will be included. But I figured since its the 1st of June, i’d post what we have now. There are a few minor adjustments - spacing issues that will be fixed, however, i’m quite pleased with how the compositions fold into one another, seamlessly.

Also, we have been working on the zk-snarks video simultaneously, that video will come out a lot faster since most of the elements are built. What we need now is a script that does the job of explaining zk-snarks that makes sense to wall street jack and isn’t offensive to developers. What we have currently as a script is more like notes and technical jargon that is in desperate need of some metaphor/analogy work to help smooth it out. Any thoughts there would be appreciated.

So without further ado … here is the link (its a private vimeo link - please do not share it):

Thanks!

13 Likes

I am over the moon with this video! Well done, brief, to the point and succinct. It perfectly covers the privacy advantage of ZCash in a way even Suzie Soccer Mom can understand. Bravo!

@zooko - now it’s your turn to plaster this everywhere beginning with your Twitter page!

RELEASE THIS IMMEDIATELY!

After that, translate it into Spanish, Russian, Arabic, Japanese, Korean and Chinese for the rest of the world.

1 Like

Awesome work @public_image !!

How long until we can publish/tweet it to the world?

4 Likes

nice work! 20 charac

1 Like

Thanks! We really appreciate it. We do have a few adjustments to make, we’ll have “final” ready Sunday/Monday - to be safe. Just have to add in one last little composition, make it fit, correct a few spacing issues and viola. Also want to wait for a few more forum blessings here!

Thanks again!

High quality and I see some great work, but, personally: I don’t like it.
Animations are not in sync with voice, many low res images, shielded transaction part (00:35) has very confusing graphic that is only half used, “Engineers Scientists Advisors Developers” feels so empty and the zk snarks part feels pointless, over all I think there is way too much text.

Kudos in any case, I know it’s not the final product!

Can you set the privacy settings on that video to something that isn’t blocked in the EU, please?

Edit: oh, apparently it was some problem with Firefox rather than the location; worked in Chrome (or else my privacy settings are different in Chrome).

1 Like

I agree with you, personally, I think some parts of the voice and animation should be slower,
that way rookies could get it too!

@public_image How are we looking for the final release?

It would be nice to have it to show at Zcon0 next week as an example of the Zcash Foundation Grant program.