You did a lot for your first flight and first try at video editing. Bravo. You got a lot of good shots. You asked for some feedback so I'll give you some thoughts:
1) Adding the red. Color grading is a taste thing and no two people will share the same opinion and a color grade also has to do with the mood you are trying to create. To me, one of the beautiful things about snowscapes is the fact that things are blanketed in that pure white. I like to see winter scenes white. If you nail the color balance, you shouldn't have to change the color cast. If you go with pure white, then anything that does have color can really pop, especially if you increase the saturation in post (which I'm sure you did if you shot D-log). Bringing out the blue in the sky as you did is a perfect example of how this works. As a note, if you do have to adjust the color balance, using the scopes (especially the RGB Parade) can help you tremendously and is better than using the naked eye.
2) Your camera movements were generally quite smooth. You don't often see that from someone just starting out.
3) Your edits were smooth as well with one exception - when you cut to the staircase shot. It's always better to cut to a camera movement that has already started. I would've made the in-point to that clip about 2 seconds later after the shot had stabilized.
Hope these help. Great work. I would love to hear what some of the lessons you learned are from your perspective.
Thank you for the feedback!
1. After I edited the video, I realized that there is such a thing as a LUT that adds natural color to correct log footage without color grading. The LUTS felt too strong and I just found out about lowering opacity haha. I also struggled with getting the colors to pop out from log, most of the colors were honestly from vibrance and some from saturation.
I struggled with white balance as some of my shots were pretty bright and the others were during a cloudy day but I didn't change my Mavic WB settings. I always ended up with a few clips tinted bluer. I also started using a slow song and having the blue tints on snow and clouds got me drowsy. You're right though, pure white snow and a cool blue sky would've been pretty cool. Some of my whites felt grainy or dirty when I white balanced without the red tint, I don't know how else to describe it. My other white snow shots seemed glary when I keep staring at it haha. I need to keep practicing coloring.
2. I did a few takes for each clip except the one with the wooden steps. I might have moved it too slowly because I was afraid of jittery motion. I found out, especially with a faster song, that I end up speeding up all my clips to get the content in time. I tried Tripod mode but I don't know how to make it move a bit faster than I'd like.
3. I've moved around the staircase shot so many times haha. I wanted a clip that felt like I was just walking with the drone and then it lifts off, but when I lifted it off automatically, it went sideways while I was pushing it forward. I think it was one of the collision avoidance things, which I should've turned off. It also got blurry and did not focus shortly after it lifted off so I ended up starting earlier.
I learned that my shots from really up high weren't as good as I hoped, especially those with a lot of houses and shapes. Maybe it's the camera or the sensor's limitation at capturing all the details. The Mavic also struggles with low light, and it's battery would last me around 3 locations under the cold weather.
I learned that log footage isn't necessary to white balance and color correct.
I learned to organize adjustment layers a bit more and not make color changes on the fly on different layers.
I need a lot of practice in coloring. I find that my eyes get used to looking at the same scene and it feels flat after staring for a bit, so I end up increasing contrast and exposure lots of times.
I need to plan my shots a bit more and figure out my order of scenes before I shoot. I was more concerned of how my drone would fly at specific locations more than having continuity in scenes.
I played around with the RGB curve and three way color corrector after I exported this video. I need to get out of the usual Lumetri color that I've seen people on Youtube give tutorials on.
There's a lot more but I'm at work haha. Sorry for the wall of text and thanks again for the feedback!
