Can't Judge a Cigar By The Color of the Wrapper
ScotchnSmoke
Posts: 134 ✭
in Cigar 101
Gentlemen, I have no doubt this will take a year of two off my life posting this here after our history together. However, I don't know where to get more honest and informed feedback. I started my own YouTube channel and this is my first video. I think I'm ready for the smoker, but I'm not sure, you guys can be pretty brutal 
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Comments
@VegasFrank
Of course you went with a Perdomo
@ScotchnSmoke
I actually enjoyed it my guy. Other then the cheap Sony receiver Fvcking up the awesome decor it looked good my man. I do see a bunch of reviews for very mainstream, everyday cigars coming our way tho. 😜
The wrapper of a cigar is responsible for around 90-95% of the cigar’s overall flavor.
Maduro isn’t a type of tobacco leaf that stays on the stalk longer. What makes it maduro is the fermentation process and it is done to many different types of tobacco leaves.
He's right you know.
@ScotchnSmoke remember that options are your feelings towards something that can't be refuted by facts. If you put something out there as fact, that can be cross checked, and you are indeed wrong.... you will absolutely lose people. This is why I personally believe that bullshit flavors like "musty walnut" and "barn dust" are thrown out there.... this is because it's just their opinion that no one could actually disprove.... even tho it's totally bullshit
Thanks man. I'm still working on the backdrop, it's a work in progress. I have a fridgador and a wine cooler I will be adding in.
Let me know which cigars to review and I will.
https://youtube.com/c/RepublicofDebauchery
This was actually the 4th take. I filmed the first one with the Avo 30th that Frank sent me and one with the Acid 20th, but there were either technical issues or I just sucked at delivery. By the time it came to the 4th take I was running low on Connecticut cigars.
https://youtube.com/c/RepublicofDebauchery
I just read that the wrapper makes up between 30% and 60% of the flavor in The Ultimate Cigar Book 5th Edition.
But yeah, I also learned in that book how wrong I was about maduros. I will have to redo this video for sure and correct that.
https://youtube.com/c/RepublicofDebauchery
I feel you. It's nerve wracking trying to do these videos as an unknown in the industry. Steve Saka tour me a new one for not doing my research when I interviewed him at TPE, I need to do better for sure.
https://youtube.com/c/RepublicofDebauchery
Just Kidding, but stay away from the Acid.
The suit, boots, cheezy background and fancy scotch glass would make me not come back. If you want the average cigar smoker who actually watches YouTube reviews, loosen up. If you want the Dbag smokers who buy cigars for their price and don't care about YouTube reviews, buy more expensive cigars and good luck
IMO, you should make the video with an unlit cigar, the light it at the end. You lose momentum when you stop for a few seconds to draw on the cigar. Then you can make multiple takes with the same cigar and we won't wonder how you smoked an inch of cigar in 6 minutes.
Other than that, good presentation. Maybe a little quicker on the camera changes.
I know, You're a big dog and I'm on the list.
Let's eat, GrandMa. / Let's eat GrandMa. -- Punctuation saves lives
It'll be fine once the swelling goes down.
That's a party file without the Morgan Freeman image...
Thank you for the insightful feedback, this definitely helps. I have been off and on about the cigar being lit and not. I have found that it really helps with cuts between scenes. By smoking the cigar I can blend two takes together without most people noticing, but when I do it without the cigar I have to make my gaze is very close to what it was 5 takes before. I am sure these are the kinds of things that will come with time and experience. Some content creators lean into the cut and make it obvious like Jeremy Siers. I'm not sure how I feel about that.
The camera changes have been controversial. Finding the right cadence is very subjective. I need to up my game on graphics as well to make it more interesting. I finished this one around 6am and was completely spent by then and half **** it.
https://youtube.com/c/RepublicofDebauchery
I am targeting new smokers, definitely not the seasoned guys like most of you here. I plan on releasing cigar reviews on Fridays and more in depth content on Tuesdays like informative videos (but more accurate than this one), lounge reviews, interviews and accessory comparisons.
https://youtube.com/c/RepublicofDebauchery
If you ever need 10+ year old cigars hit me up and we'll work something out 😉
That would be awesome!!!!
https://youtube.com/c/RepublicofDebauchery
Okay I only have 30 minutes to dictate this before my kids come home. And I'd like to point out that you are interrupting my smoke, a very pleasant and tongue numbing araposa negra. So now I'm grouchy.
I have never been shy about giving you my opinion, brother, and I'm going to give it to you now. You are good at making videos. But you are too new of a smoker to be making expert smoker videos. That's really not a criticism, but you got a lot of stuff wrong or potentially wrong, and when people are checking you out and they hear something contrary to what everybody else is saying, they're just going to turn you off.
Go watch that **** ass clown the digital herf guy in Buffalo who once amazed his tens of viewers with tails of an AJ fuente smoke that he was puffing on and with an expose on how cbid was counterfeiting $4 Dominican cohibas.
Look brother, your mistakes weren't that bad. Totally forgivable, and you know way more than the average beginnerish smoker. But I expect people who put out how to videos to be experts. If I'm trying to change my trunk gasket because it hits me in the head when I'm taking my golf clubs out of the car, I don't want some guy who just got his driver's license last week trying to tell me how to do it. Get it? Your series of misinformation, although slight, is unforgivable in this instance. Just being honest brother.
Personally I think it would have been much more interesting had you smoked the connecticut, and then taking the wrapper off of the Maduro and re-wrap it onto a 2nd Connecticut to see how much stronger or not stronger it actually made the cigar. Everything else inside of it is theoretically exactly the same. That would have been something that nobody else has done before.
A novice cigar smoker looking for videos on cigars is only a novice for so long, or they give up cigars completely. Either way, they're not going to be subscribed to your channel for very long. It's a self cannibalizing topic and you should focus on a different one, even if it's in cigars.
The one performance based recommendation I have for you is write a script, practice, rewrite the script, re-practice, repractice and then shoot. You were incredibly smooth there, so maybe you did have a script, just practice it a little more. That'll polish it to a high level. I speak from quasi experience. I have a multimedia work center in my squadron and this is how we operate. Again that is my supercritical point of view. You are 9.7 out of 10 in polish.
The thing that you're good at, and that you've always been good at, is the cinematography aspect and the production quality. Those are great when you're not faking doing them 😛. The one minor suggestion if I was going to nitpick is that I understand the multiple camera angle technique and I generally like it, but you started off with the secondary camera and it was very strange. I was thinking to myself why the **** isn't he looking at the camera? Then when you went to the primary camera angle looking straight on, I got it. Then when you ended up going back to that secondary camera angle where you're looking away from the camera, it stayed on that shot for a hair too long each time. The post-production was excellent as well.
You're very videogenic and have a good personality. But God damn it with the suits and Boots. Real cigar smokers aren't all leather and mahogany and tag Heuer and Maserati. Real cigar smokers are you and me. I have to wear a suit three or four days in a row every 6 months, and then again when my friends came to town to get married and other friends oversleep it. And all of those times I've worn a suit, which has been maybe 11 days in the last 365, i've smoked a cigar and it's exactly zero times, but I've smoked about 1,200 cigars in that time frame. I sure as hell don't get dressed up to go to the cigar shop, and I'd sure as hell stand out if I went there in my zoot suit.
By the way I think you look really comfortable in the suit. I think it suits you very well, pun intended. I just think it's a little contrived for the subject matter, but that's a personal opinion.
While it is true that some novices will feel more comfortable with a cigar guy in leather and mahogany, it's just as true that once they figure out cigars, the leather and mahogany will probably turn them off.
I also think you had very nice charisma in the video, but you didn't give the full natural response to the the funny little quips that you wrote into your script. You would make a nice little joke, and then sitting that awkward area between total deadpan Steven wright and super animated Kevin hart. Either way I got a little sense of unnatural there. Maybe I miss reading it, and it's very very nitpicky on my part. But you wanted a critique.
Don't look up your information in books. That cigar book is very pretty, but the author is somewhat of a standoffish **** who thinks he knows every single thing in the world. He's wrong. I know another author like that but way cooler. Be like that guy. More importantly than that, I can look **** up if I want to also. Don't just look stuff up and regurgitate it. Talk about your experience with it. Of course, you don't have a super lot of experience with it, which is why how to's don't work for novices in the first place.
I would be more inclined to watch a video of you talking about how you make videos that I would to hear you talk about how you smoke cigars.
All in all, I think that the video is way nicer than the amount of run it will ultimately get.
Anywho, you do you. Why don't you make a video on you setting up your humidor. What kind of mistakes did you make. What kind of troubles do you still run into. How big of a deal are those really. Don't just regurgitate out of the books or out of this forum or out of whatever forum or whatever Facebook group. Do you!
Overall, I give your video 8 and 1/2 out of 10, taking most of the points off for the information. Very nice job overall!
There. I'm done with my smoke. A whole hour 20 on you bro. I bill my time at 70 bucks an hour. I take paypal.
Selling yourself short @VegasFrank $100/hour easy with a $150 minimum charge
Since we're on the subject, why don't you check out my video and tell me how I did.
https://youtube.com/shorts/cN6p_TUhxVk?feature=share
So handsome 😍 I'll buy anything you say
You look tired Frank. But you are correct…it’s a damn good cigar lol
I think you need to decide your target audience. The wealthy 3 time a month cigar smoker who hasn't kept his humidor up because he is way too busy with work or the guys who don't just smoke cigars but enjoy the hobby and experience of smoking cigars.
I think @VegasFrank needs a cameo in one of @ScotchnSmoke videos.
If you want to bomb me send it to Tony @0patience
If you are a newbie I got Dem nachos....
I think that Lawrence should take the video just as it is, and insert a 2 second cut of me saying, "that's bullshīt."
In fact, maybe I'll download his video and then insert myself into certain parts of it.
Better yet, I'll make a video of me watching his video and reacting to it.
I think we have a winner.
You could also go the other direction and make parody videos of guys in suits talking BS about cigars, like my favorite electrician (electroboom on youtube).
lol
I liked your video overall, but I also am not educated enough on cigars to catch your faux pas concerning maduro wrappers. Personally, I am not a fan of cuts and changes in camera angles. I'd rather the camera simply have a forward shot of you and leave it at that.
Regardless of any of this, I admire your boldness in putting yourself out there to be potentially ridiculed, you've got guts. I look forward to seeing more from you, subscribed!
"Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another." - Proverbs 27:17
@VegasFrank
Okay I only have 30 minutes to dictate this before my kids come home. And I'd like to point out that you are interrupting my smoke, a very pleasant and tongue numbing araposa negra. So now I'm grouchy.
- I really appreciate you taking the time away from your family and your smoke to provide me this feedback. Honestly, this is gold and I really appreciate you not holding back. It is far more than I was hoping for. I am happy to set my ego aside (for the most part) and take all the heat to make the best content possible. Honestly, when you said you were "grouchy" I was expecting much worse.
I have never been shy about giving you my opinion, brother, and I'm going to give it to you now. You are good at making videos. But you are too new of a smoker to be making expert smoker videos. That's really not a criticism, but you got a lot of stuff wrong or potentially wrong, and when people are checking you out and they hear something contrary to what everybody else is saying, they're just going to turn you off.
- That’s very true, I have to get better or else I will not be able to turn this into the potential that it could be.
Go watch that **** ass clown the digital herf guy in Buffalo who once amazed his tens of viewers with tails of an AJ fuente smoke that he was puffing on and with an expose on how cbid was counterfeiting $4 Dominican cohibas.
**- I don’t want people to be referring to my videos as the example of what not to do. Again, I definitely have to get better, and I am hoping the smokers here as well as the past posts will help me with some of that. I will share some of my future scripts here in hopes that you all will shred it to the point that it has no fat left. **
Look brother, your mistakes weren't that bad. Totally forgivable, and you know way more than the average beginnerish smoker. But I expect people who put out how to videos to be experts. If I'm trying to change my trunk gasket because it hits me in the head when I'm taking my golf clubs out of the car, I don't want some guy who just got his driver's license last week trying to tell me how to do it. Get it? Your series of misinformation, although slight, is unforgivable in this instance. Just being honest brother.
**- That’s a valid point, no offense taken. **
Personally I think it would have been much more interesting had you smoked the connecticut, and then taking the wrapper off of the Maduro and re-wrap it onto a 2nd Connecticut to see how much stronger or not stronger it actually made the cigar. Everything else inside of it is theoretically exactly the same. That would have been something that nobody else has done before.
**- This right here is brilliant. Do you mind if I steal your idea? **
A novice cigar smoker looking for videos on cigars is only a novice for so long, or they give up cigars completely. Either way, they're not going to be subscribed to your channel for very long. It's a self cannibalizing topic and you should focus on a different one, even if it's in cigars.
**- Two parts to this one. These videos are known as legacy videos as opposed to current events videos. They are the type of videos that people will look up continuously over time and that will only lead them to other content you have produced. With the Perdomo channel, after I parted ways with them, the channel to this day still receives almost 100k views a month despite the fact that the newer videos he is putting out only get about 5-10k views total. Part 2: I am hoping that with this channel, we will be able to grow with the new smoker. As the channel gains notoriety, we will hopefully gain access to farms and factories to create more advance knowledge videos. I think there is definitely potential for this as we are in talks with one of the gorillas in the industry about creating content for them, as well as Bobby Newman has invited us to do a series of video in his factories/museum already. TPE was a great event for us. **
The one performance based recommendation I have for you is write a script, practice, rewrite the script, re-practice, repractice and then shoot. You were incredibly smooth there, so maybe you did have a script, just practice it a little more. That'll polish it to a high level. I speak from quasi experience. I have a multimedia work center in my squadron and this is how we operate. Again that is my supercritical point of view. You are 9.7 out of 10 in polish.
**- This particular video was very polished. Not only did I practice it, I filmed it 4 times and edited it 3 times, received feedback and filmed again, twice in one day even. So by the 4th rendition was the absolute smoothest. The first one was purely robotic and awful. The second was great in my opinion but nobody appreciated the self deprecating jokes. Unfortunately this means that future videos will not be as smooth until I get better at this. I appreciate the high score. Hopefully I can keep it at that level, but I am not sure. Dry runs will definitely help. Solid advice. **
The thing that you're good at, and that you've always been good at, is the cinematography aspect and the production quality. Those are great when you're not faking doing them 😛. The one minor suggestion if I was going to nitpick is that I understand the multiple camera angle technique and I generally like it, but you started off with the secondary camera and it was very strange. I was thinking to myself why the **** isn't he looking at the camera? Then when you went to the primary camera angle looking straight on, I got it. Then when you ended up going back to that secondary camera angle where you're looking away from the camera, it stayed on that shot for a hair too long each time. The post-production was excellent as well.
**- WOW! I can't believe I missed that… Maybe it was because I was editing the video at 4a.m. Monday morning trying to get it out for #TobaccoTuesday, but I didn’t even notice after uploading. I understand how I did it though, it has to do with my editing workflow and the sequence file creation. I won’t let that happen again. Solid critique. **
Too long for forum, to be continued....
https://youtube.com/c/RepublicofDebauchery
....continuation
You're very videogenic and have a good personality. But God damn it with the suits and Boots. Real cigar smokers aren't all leather and mahogany and tag Heuer and Maserati. Real cigar smokers are you and me. I have to wear a suit three or four days in a row every 6 months, and then again when my friends came to town to get married and other friends oversleep it. And all of those times I've worn a suit, which has been maybe 11 days in the last 365, i've smoked a cigar and it's exactly zero times, but I've smoked about 1,200 cigars in that time frame. I sure as hell don't get dressed up to go to the cigar shop, and I'd sure as hell stand out if I went there in my zoot suit.
**- I agree and I think this has to do with working the Perdomo YouTube. A ton of the comments were about how well dressed he was and I guess that subconsciously stuck with me. Another point is that, My suit was $400 and his are about $10,000. We’re not exactly on the same level so I don’t expect to have the same appeal. However, I already have 1 comment about how much someone liked the suit. I guess I was trying to look more authoritative than like the common smoker. Typically I wear a plain black T. **
By the way I think you look really comfortable in the suit. I think it suits you very well, pun intended. I just think it's a little contrived for the subject matter, but that's a personal opinion.
**
**- Well damn, I appreciate that coming from you.
While it is true that some novices will feel more comfortable with a cigar guy in leather and mahogany, it's just as true that once they figure out cigars, the leather and mahogany will probably turn them off.
**- Also a valid point. I am still trying to figure out the all around feel for the channel. By month 6 with Perdomo, we had changed up almost everything, and I am sure that same process will come in to play with this channel as well. **
I also think you had very nice charisma in the video, but you didn't give the full natural response to the the funny little quips that you wrote into your script. You would make a nice little joke, and then sitting that awkward area between total deadpan Steven wright and super animated Kevin hart. Either way I got a little sense of unnatural there. Maybe I miss reading it, and it's very very nitpicky on my part. But you wanted a critique.
- You’re not misreading it. I did a version of this video that I loved that was 50% joking around and 50% content. Most people I showed it to thought it was a little off putting for someone trying teach a subject. To me, I felt like it made the video more approachable but I let them win out and took it more serious for the 3rd and 4th take.
Don't look up your information in books. That cigar book is very pretty, but the author is somewhat of a standoffish **** who thinks he knows every single thing in the world. He's wrong. I know another author like that but way cooler. Be like that guy. More importantly than that, I can look **** up if I want to also. Don't just look stuff up and regurgitate it. Talk about your experience with it. Of course, you don't have a super lot of experience with it, which is why how to's don't work for novices in the first place.
**- Touche. I will bounce more of the info I have off of this group (or those who would like to help) and some of the others in this industry that I can call up. I don’t want to stray away from doing factual videos because that is was interests me most as a viewer. Again, I have to get better with my facts and I know that. **
I would be more inclined to watch a video of you talking about how you make videos that I would to hear you talk about how you smoke cigars.
**- I actually weighed this over the past 18 months. It came down to two things. There are way more people teaching how to make videos at way higher levels than anyone doing cigar videos. And there are around 50k registered professional videographers in this country vs around 10 million cigar smokers (and growing). Weighing my options, I found cigar stuff to be the easy choice. Plus as a newer smoker, I have many questions myself that intrigue me so I can relate to my target market. As a seasoned videographer, I forgot most of the questions that many new videographers would have. **
All in all, I think that the video is way nicer than the amount of run it will ultimately get.
Anywho, you do you. Why don't you make a video on you setting up your humidor. What kind of mistakes did you make. What kind of troubles do you still run into. How big of a deal are those really. Don't just regurgitate out of the books or out of this forum or out of whatever forum or whatever Facebook group. Do you!
**- That’s on my list of content ideas. I also have Testing cutters, testing lighters, why cigar size matters, why you can’t trust cigar reviews, cigar reviews (ironic, I know), profiles of cigar lounges, interviews with industry leaders, and more. That’s just off the top of my head. We have a word file with about 20 more topics for newer smokers. **
Overall, I give your video 8 and 1/2 out of 10, taking most of the points off for the information. Very nice job overall!
**- That is honestly far higher than I thought it would be. But I am still going to strive for that 10/10. I appreciate everyone here not getting offended that I am posting my videos in hopes of solid feedback like this. **
There. I'm done with my smoke. A whole hour 20 on you bro. I bill my time at 70 bucks an hour. I take paypal.
**- Ha ha ha! This advice is probably worth far more than that. I will send you a fiver of Perdomos. XD **
https://youtube.com/c/RepublicofDebauchery
Positives: The subject is direct and to the point. No room for error. Clean audio is a big bonus.
Critiques: Angle is bottom up, this is how larger than life figures are presented, however, when you go to extreme angles, it's usually done to make the audience uncomfortable and anxious. If that is what you were going for, you nailed it.
Lighting is flat and your background should be darker than the main subject so it makes it easier on the audience to focus on the speaker. A rim light might help separate you from the background, but with as bright as the lighting is, it might not even be noticeable. Window light is a great natural way to light a subject. Sit close to the window facing at a 45 degree angle to achieve the Rembrandt lighting effect.
https://youtube.com/c/RepublicofDebauchery