Art is in the mind of the artist, based on many factors... emotions, visual composition and sometimes on what you perceive the viewer wants to see. You put a great deal of your own feelings into this production and it worked very well.
By many people's definition, art creates an emotional response in the viewer. You certainly succeeded with my viewing of this, well done, great music and beautiful flow of the entire video. Looking forward to more.
Dave
By many people's definition, art creates an emotional response in the viewer. You certainly succeeded with my viewing of this, well done, great music and beautiful flow of the entire video. Looking forward to more.
Dave
The first thing that came to my mind was "what a perfect location", followed by the inevitable "I wonder what he had to do to get to that location" ? Then I read all the comments and your description of what you had to do and I understand the relationship of "results equal effort". Great location, great footage, great editing and soundtrack .... one of the best videos I've watched in a long time 
Fantastic capture of mood/feelings on the journey above and through the clouds. Love the artist in you. A definite and probably natural talent. Then there is the issue of VLOS when the drone is in or above the clouds. How did you get authorization to blatantly disregard the drone flight safety rule of maintaining VLOS?
Wow, what a great area to have access to. Great pictures and really nice music. The only thing which I'd change is the lengths of the shots. The were far too many 5 second grabs. A number of shots could have been allowed to run on and let us have a better chance of really seeing the landscape. Perhaps longer takes earlier in the video and getting shorter as the music comes to crescendo.
I spent more than 16 years shooting very little but 10 second grabs which gave the editor time to enter and exit a clip cleanly, this gave him the required 5 seconds or less. But shooting documentaries was a different kettle of fish, length then depended on the shot itself. Some of yours screamed MORE, but sadly it never happened. Also when the music is slow a dissolve or fade is better than stop/start. You can use that toward the end as the pace and volume steps up.
If I had to give a score I'd still be giving a 7 or 8 and compared to many videos on YouTube you did very nicely. If you have longer shots available I'd love to see a re-edit to include them. I hope I haven't upset you, please don't be, you did well, if it was one of first I'd say it was excellent, you certainly have an eye for it. The one big trait needed for this type of footage is a "feel" for it. An ability to have it flow and although it would be hard to do with the subject matter to try to tell a story, such as a journey from one place to another. Unfortunately over those 16 years I rarely had the opportunity although I certainly tried, but the news editor only wanted news, chop, chop, chop and my attempts were lost.
I'd definitely like to see more of your videos and don't forget to experiment. Take the same footage and re-edit it differently. What I used to do was watch the rough footage maybe a dozen times and form a sequence in my head or on paper, then do an edit to suit that idea. Believe me, it takes time to teach yourself when to stop and start whilst shooting, a long time, even longer to be able to edit in camera, but you'll get there, you have a head start. One small tip, try to have someone with you as a spotter. It's amazing what you can miss when you're looking through a viewfinder or have your eyes glued to a phone or tablet. My wife was my spotter and I'd often get a nudge and told something was happening where I wasn't looking. It gave me many unforgettable shots I would have missed if she wasn't there.
If you still have the raw footage and some spare time, I'd love to see another video. Congratulations and well done.
I spent more than 16 years shooting very little but 10 second grabs which gave the editor time to enter and exit a clip cleanly, this gave him the required 5 seconds or less. But shooting documentaries was a different kettle of fish, length then depended on the shot itself. Some of yours screamed MORE, but sadly it never happened. Also when the music is slow a dissolve or fade is better than stop/start. You can use that toward the end as the pace and volume steps up.
If I had to give a score I'd still be giving a 7 or 8 and compared to many videos on YouTube you did very nicely. If you have longer shots available I'd love to see a re-edit to include them. I hope I haven't upset you, please don't be, you did well, if it was one of first I'd say it was excellent, you certainly have an eye for it. The one big trait needed for this type of footage is a "feel" for it. An ability to have it flow and although it would be hard to do with the subject matter to try to tell a story, such as a journey from one place to another. Unfortunately over those 16 years I rarely had the opportunity although I certainly tried, but the news editor only wanted news, chop, chop, chop and my attempts were lost.
I'd definitely like to see more of your videos and don't forget to experiment. Take the same footage and re-edit it differently. What I used to do was watch the rough footage maybe a dozen times and form a sequence in my head or on paper, then do an edit to suit that idea. Believe me, it takes time to teach yourself when to stop and start whilst shooting, a long time, even longer to be able to edit in camera, but you'll get there, you have a head start. One small tip, try to have someone with you as a spotter. It's amazing what you can miss when you're looking through a viewfinder or have your eyes glued to a phone or tablet. My wife was my spotter and I'd often get a nudge and told something was happening where I wasn't looking. It gave me many unforgettable shots I would have missed if she wasn't there.
If you still have the raw footage and some spare time, I'd love to see another video. Congratulations and well done.
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What a great comment, Dave! Thank you so much!
Thank you very much for this nice comment! I'll do my best for the next project.
Thank you my friend!
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Thank you for this nice comment! I spent two weeks alone in this mountains and my primary aim was to film landscape and mountain streams. But during this period, there have been very heavy fog and clouds almost every day. I changed my mind and thought that I could consider this situation as an opportunity. I've done more than 80 flights in 30 different spots in 6 totally different locations. In almost all flights my launching spot were either above the fog/cloud level or approximatelly at the same level. In all flights my plan was to fly above or below the clouds but the fog/clouds were moving so fast that it was impossible to guess where they'll be in next 10 seconds. The scene was changing completely, almost in every 30 seconds because of very fast moving clouds. I did my best to avoid flying through the fog/clouds but in some flights I just find mysellf in clouds. In these cases I either flew in the opposite direction, left or right to recover the drone form the clouds. In most of the cases a simple backward fly was enough to regain VLOS. And most of the reveal shots (through the clouds) in this video were recorded while I was trying to recover the drone (from the clouds) and regain VLOS. In one case I had to raise the drone more than 120 meters (limit) to regain VLOS. In conclusion, I did not intentionally flew through the clouds in most of the cases I just find myself in the clouds. Despite this in 99% of the time the drone was in VLOS in these flights. Please take a look at the pictures below which were recorded from my main launching spots.
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What a great comment! I really appreciate it. As I mentioned in my first post I learned alot from your criticis and this one is no exception. I'm just an hobbyist and don't have any experience in photography or filming. Currently, I just film what I love. At the same time trying to learn as much as I can. I have raw footage for all my flights. I'll try to make another video and will do my best to implement all these suggestions and feedbacks. Again, many thanks for this great comment and feedback.
Take home messages from this post:
1) Variable clips durations,
2) Dissolve or fade transition in slow flowing shots,
3) Experiment more and do not be afraid of experimenting,
4) Make another video from this footage
5) Find a spotter----the hardest one for me
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Most importantly learn to be your own guide and don't try to copy others. Nothing wrong with using various methods, but I recall having a guy continually phoning me at all hours holding his phone to one ear whilst operating his camera with the other (one a tripod ) and asking me how I did a certain shot or describing what was going on and asking what to do next. You have a flair for filming, whatever you do don't change it. Include other tricks and expand your repertoire, but never keep your core abilities. You have a head start over hundreds of videos I've watched, I'd love to see you continue and who knows, you could go onto bigger and better things. Whatever you do, don't be your own worse critic.
I'm no Attenborough and only know what I picked up over the years. You have talent, there's no denying that and the more you use your camera the better you'll get. One trick I used to use was carry my camera in my head, sounds weird, but no matter what I was doing I'd be mentally shooting the scene and deciding how to frame my next shot. I learned Morse code in the same way, I'd see those big posters alongside the highway I was driving on and I'd mentally sound out the dots and dashes until I found I was no longer reading the words, just sending myself Morse. You can do that with camera work as long as it doesn't become robotic. Even whilst taking a shot I'd be thinking of the next one. Believe it or not, camera People (I nearly said cameramen) build a virtual fingerprint over time. Our News Editor could walk into a booth when one of our tapes were being played and he could immediately tell who shot the story. Happy shooting.
I'm no Attenborough and only know what I picked up over the years. You have talent, there's no denying that and the more you use your camera the better you'll get. One trick I used to use was carry my camera in my head, sounds weird, but no matter what I was doing I'd be mentally shooting the scene and deciding how to frame my next shot. I learned Morse code in the same way, I'd see those big posters alongside the highway I was driving on and I'd mentally sound out the dots and dashes until I found I was no longer reading the words, just sending myself Morse. You can do that with camera work as long as it doesn't become robotic. Even whilst taking a shot I'd be thinking of the next one. Believe it or not, camera People (I nearly said cameramen) build a virtual fingerprint over time. Our News Editor could walk into a booth when one of our tapes were being played and he could immediately tell who shot the story. Happy shooting.
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Thank you!
Very interesting, I often do the same.
I totally agree!
Thanks! Gods country
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Thanks! I'm not an expert but flying slow solved most of my smilar problems especially when flying close to the ground or an object. If your flight altitude is high you can do whatever you want. But IMO going slow is the key get good quality footage when flying in low altitude.
I use FCPX for editing. My camera settings are as follows:
1) 4K@30 fps
2) D-Cinelike
3) ISO 100
4) Shutter speed 1/60
5) -2/-2/-1 or -1/-1/-1
Hi again 007. Just back at the reserve in South Africa, so am catching up with the forum as it’s 2 degrees Centigrade here today (maximum), so time for a couple of hours indoors after a bit of filming earlier following some overnight snow.
Well done, as always. And you know of my interest in cloud filming, so lovely to see what you captured in that respect.
I’m not usually a fan of speeded-up footage, apart from on rare occasions. If it’s used, I’d restrict it to one section only. Again, KISS.
Any other films from the past few months I should watch?
Becky had a breast tumour (phyllodes) removed at the Royal Marsden a couple of weeks ago. She’s recovered well and fast, now working hard again.
Well done, as always. And you know of my interest in cloud filming, so lovely to see what you captured in that respect.
I’m not usually a fan of speeded-up footage, apart from on rare occasions. If it’s used, I’d restrict it to one section only. Again, KISS.
Any other films from the past few months I should watch?
Becky had a breast tumour (phyllodes) removed at the Royal Marsden a couple of weeks ago. She’s recovered well and fast, now working hard again.
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Hi AW,
Sorry to hear that. This type of tumors tend to grow very quickly. Fortunately, it is mostly a benign tumor. I'm so glad that she is in good health now. Please pass on my best wishes to her.
Thank you for feedback. Actually most of them are timelapse video.
Thank you. I tottaly agree. Less is more.
