In the Zone with the TH
- Thread starter hardhat068
- Start date
Very nice Hardhat068... the only thing I will caution you on is this... one of the hardest things to do is not fall in love with your own work... it's well done, but too long... personally I'd start at about the 2:50 mark and concentrate on the water shots more. With the vast majority of these videos, attention starts to wander after about 3 minutes... unless you're the videographer. All IMHO of course.
I agree. The second half of the video seems to be much better quality and more interesting. Using lots of 5 second clips for a short video is more interesting. It's the hardest part of editing. You feel like you're cutting off pieces of your body and leaving them on the cutting room floor. But it has to be done for good quality video. Avoid including any pan shots unless they are very slow and are used for revealing a point of interest.
However, I commend you on your work and flying. You have good material to work with here.
However, I commend you on your work and flying. You have good material to work with here.
FlushVision
Premium Pilot
Some people fall into the trap of producing an overly long video. In my early days of flying UAVs I was guilty of this too, though I must say that the longest video I've ever produced was about 10 minute long...Interestingly, due to the nature of the video, there was very little repetition since the source footage was captured over about ten flights.
Indeed, it's that repetition that should be avoided, no matter how long the video is. Obviously, the longer the video, the greater chance of repetition and the greater the chance of your audience becoming bored with it and moving on. Even videos of less than 3 minutes can suffer from this particularly if not much thought has gone into the flights that produced the source video.
An example: I was doing an aerial video in a local country park early Sunday morning (after waiting for some time to get a permission) and the point of interest was such that when I edited the video I found that I could only produce less than 1 minute of video without having repetition. Now, in my book, a video of a minute or less is on the short side of things (I usually look to have something between 2.5 and 3.5 minutes), so I spliced in at the beginning some footage from my helmet cam (I went to the location on my motorbike). This made an otherwise pretty bland and shortish video into something that was more attention grabbing.
Indeed, it's that repetition that should be avoided, no matter how long the video is. Obviously, the longer the video, the greater chance of repetition and the greater the chance of your audience becoming bored with it and moving on. Even videos of less than 3 minutes can suffer from this particularly if not much thought has gone into the flights that produced the source video.
An example: I was doing an aerial video in a local country park early Sunday morning (after waiting for some time to get a permission) and the point of interest was such that when I edited the video I found that I could only produce less than 1 minute of video without having repetition. Now, in my book, a video of a minute or less is on the short side of things (I usually look to have something between 2.5 and 3.5 minutes), so I spliced in at the beginning some footage from my helmet cam (I went to the location on my motorbike). This made an otherwise pretty bland and shortish video into something that was more attention grabbing.
Here, here! All very good advice!
One trick I found very telling and useful, as I started jumping in taking video of actual events rather than just my own flying about...
In one feature, I thought I had clipped as much as I thought I could without completely losing the purpose. It was covering a cold water rescue training exercise. I cut 40+ minutes of video down to about four.
As a test, I showed it to a few friends who had nothing to do with the exercise. The telling moment? One such acquaintance, after about a minute said "I'm done". He put the phone down and resumed his conversation with my lovely bride.
Now, one might think "it wasn't the video, it was the more interesting conversationalist", but I know better. (Just don't tell my wife I said that!)
What it told me is this: I need one version as a promo - quick hitting, highlights only, concise and entertaining. The full length version can be made available for those who have a vested interest or just want to see the full story.
So far, that mindset has worked for follow-up projects.
Jeff
One trick I found very telling and useful, as I started jumping in taking video of actual events rather than just my own flying about...
In one feature, I thought I had clipped as much as I thought I could without completely losing the purpose. It was covering a cold water rescue training exercise. I cut 40+ minutes of video down to about four.
As a test, I showed it to a few friends who had nothing to do with the exercise. The telling moment? One such acquaintance, after about a minute said "I'm done". He put the phone down and resumed his conversation with my lovely bride.
Now, one might think "it wasn't the video, it was the more interesting conversationalist", but I know better. (Just don't tell my wife I said that!)
What it told me is this: I need one version as a promo - quick hitting, highlights only, concise and entertaining. The full length version can be made available for those who have a vested interest or just want to see the full story.
So far, that mindset has worked for follow-up projects.
Jeff
